Drawing of the Day

“Sculpted Garden,” copyright Sara Light-Waller, 2014
(6” x 8” pen & ink in a Stillman & Birn Epsilon journal)

I don't have too much to say about this piece, only that it was inspired by a garden scene I found interesting. It was drawn with a Noodler's Konrad flex pen and a Pilot Pocket Brush Pen. 

Fairy paintings

“Back, you cur.” 11”x14” pen & ink drawing on Bristol Vellum.

I’ve been thinking about fairy paintings (and drawings) since the Charles Vess workshop a few weeks ago. After some contemplation, I decided to try my hand at a children’s book illustration in my favorite pen & ink style.

The story here involves a pet dog finding a fairy colony in the woods. The resident fairies are not pleased by the intruder and scold the dog for disturbing them. At first, I thought to add an owl to the picture, but truth to tell, I prefer hawks. So I added a kestrel to the tree, instead of an owl.

This is the style of illustration you will see in my novels, very old-fashioned, but to me, also very magical.

Wet Woods

“Wet Woods” © Sara Light-Waller, 2014
9” x 12” pen & ink and watercolor in
a Stillman and Birn Delta sketchbook.

It rains a lot here in Washington state. You’ve probably heard the joke about not letting moss grow under your feet. Here in western Washington, it can happen, quite literally.

Our forests are always dripping — with water, moss, and fantastic tree branches and roots. I have always found woods inspiring but there’s something truly magical about our trees with their dressing of moss.

As I drove through Carnation the other day, I took some pictures of the tress. As it was raining, I brought the photos home and did a small watercolor painting of the feeling I get when standing under those trees.

Wet. Peaceful. Alive.

It's a good life. :-)

The tools of a pen and ink artist

I thought it might be fun to share my go-to pens for pen and ink work and writing. I do have other fountain pens, but these are the pens I keep beside my desk, ready to use at any time. The inks are my favorite drawing inks — Noodler’s Black and Diamine Sepia. Although the Diamine is not waterproof, it is such a perfect sepia color (and I am VERY picky about my brown inks) that I tend to use it more than any other brown ink in my collection.

Pens from left to right — Zebra Disposable Brush Pen, Pilot Custom 74 with medium nib (blue demonstrator), Noodler's Konrad Flex Pen (red), Namiki Falcon SF (black), Noodler's Konrad Ebonite Flex Pen with a Goulet #6 medium two-tone steel nib (mottled brown), Noodler’s Nib Creaper Flex (black), Noodler’s Nib Creaper Flex (clear demonstrator), Pilot Pocket Brush Pen – Hard (blue), Micron pen.

Inks – Noodler’s Black, Diamine Sepia

Pen case - Saki P-661 Roll Pen Case with Traditional Japanese Fabric - Dark Red (from Jet Pens)

Carousel Camels and Other Things

Here a few drawings from the day. Both pen and ink, created in a Banditapple unruled notebook with a Noodler’s Konrad flex pen and Noodler’s black ink, as well as Pitt brush pens for the solid blacks.

"Carousel Camel on the Loose" Copyright, Sara Light-Waller

This first drawing shows a Bactrian camel, decked out in carousel regalia, galloping through the desert. I’ve never drawn a camel before and thought it might be fun to dress him (or her) up for the occasion.

"Horse and Rider collage" Copyright, Sara Light-Waller

The next piece started out as a simple pen and ink drawing of a horse and rider, but after some happy accidents in my photo manipulation program — voila! I now have something much more interesting that looks collaged. I so love happy accidents!

I Got Rhythm

I find "The Russian Dance" from Tchaikovsky’s
Nutcracker ballet to be good music for inking. 

Whenever I take a break from inking, I forget how to do it. Well, that’s not exactly true. I don’t forget how to make marks on paper, I forget my inking rhythm. Tonight, I was inking a final piece for the Book I illustrations. A late addition that I wanted to add as a decoration for one of the title pages. I had already done the rough inks and started on the final inks for the drawing. But then I got a few commissions, and then I got a cold, and then it was Thanksgiving, etc. And so several weeks have passed since I last worked on this piece.

Now that I’m pretty much all better (coughing plays havoc with inking, as you can well imagine) I wanted to finish this drawing. So I inked up my favorite Noodler's flex pen and put on a CD of Tchaikovsky's ballet suites. But, I had forgotten how important music can be for good inking rhythm, especially when you’re a bit rusty as I am right now.

Generally classical music is good choice to ink to, but this was a new CD and I wasn’t familiar with the arrangements. The CD starts with selections from Swan Lake and this turned out to be a terrible choice for my inking tonight. I just couldn’t find my rhythm in the music, at all. When the CD entered into the Nutcracker suite all went better and I suddenly remembered what I was doing. Everything went along smoothly until the CD went into Sleeping Beauty. This last suite was a bit hit and miss for me once again.

As I look at the final piece now, nearly completed and sitting on my easel, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have just put on some Steely Dan to begin with. It’s a winner for me every time.