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)

Daily Report: No “artistas” here

One of my Snow Wolf doll proxies, used to check
lighting and clothing when drawing

Editing has been going gang-busters for me this week, with six chapters edited so far. I’m not quite sure how I managed to pull off the editing I did this morning. I was not in the right mood to edit when I got up, but wanted to try and push ahead before leaving for a Seattle appointment this afternoon. My old illustration professor used to say that professionals can’t be “artistas,” waiting until they feel in the "right mood” to work. Even though I’ve always embraced this philosophy, being able to pull out another chapter's worth of edits this morning was still a real surprise to me. Though the chapter will still need another re-read before bed tonight, I think it's in pretty good shape now, including the more complete description of an interior of a soviet-style apartment which I neglected in earlier drafts. 

Inking is proceeding well on the next book illustration. I’ve just gotten out one of my Barbie doll clothing proxies to check the lighting for the clothing in the drawing. (I may have to dig into my doll stores in the garage to find the girl in the shiny leather coat, though. I hope she’s easy to find.) 

So, all proceeds here as the hail comes down outside.

PS. Still groovin' with the Noodler's Konrad flex pen. I'm finding that its wider nib creates a nice line width for the heavier ink lines in the drawings. 

Ink pens I'm using in my illustrations
Micron (initial lines over pencil)

Namiki Falcon EF

Noodler's nib creaper flex

Noodler's Konrad flex

Fountain pen ink of choice

Noodler's Black

The Konrad Flex Pen and “Rome Burning” Ink – A Preliminary Review

Noodler's "Rome Burning" ink and Konrad Flex pen

As mentioned in my last blog entry, I recently won a brand new ink and pen as prizes in the Noodler’s Ink 2011-2012 International Art Contest.

As I unwrapped the package and looked over my prizes I thought, “hmmm, I wonder how the pen will write?” The ink was less of a question for me. “Rome Burning” is a brown ink with a couple of tricks to it. I LOVE the theme behind the ink – as Noodler’s CEO Nathan Tardiff describes it – “ ‘Rome Burning’ has a bulletproof patrician core color of Caesar’s purple with the colors of the inferno that wash away from it with excess liquidity.” So it’s a brassy-brown with a golden-yellow halo (similar to the halos seen in “Swan in English Roses” which is red, or in “Blue Nose Bear” which is blue) which when washed turns into a bulletproof purple color. Very cool! Since the purple part of the ink is bulletproof it would be superior to use as a writing ink for secure documents like checks. (I currently use Noodler’s Bulletproof Black or Kung Te-Cheng for check writing.) But as I always evaluate my inks for drawing first and writing second, “Rome Burring” doesn’t really do it for me.

Golden Browns are not my favorite browns to draw with, I much prefer reddish-browns like Diamime Sepia (see The Search for the Perfect Brown.)  The fact that the initial color washes out to another color is interesting but not as valuable for my uses. Despite that, “Rome Burning” is a welcome addition to my ink collection and will most likely be relegated to the category of writing (and not drawing) inks. No shame there.

Meanwhile, what about the Konrad Flex pen? The one I received as prize is the “Red Mesa” color which is a lovely red tortoise-shell.

First impressions –

The Konrad is a lovely feeling pen. The weight and balance are very good. It also looks very professional and sharp. It certainly looks like it costs more than its $20-$24.00 price. The Konrad has a lovely feature of a safety cap that screws on the back of the pen which prevents you from accidently twisting the barrel and letting out ink when you don’t intend to. When filling the pen you remove that little screw-on cap and can then twist the barrel to fill the pen. The filling mechanism is a slide piston fill converter that works very easily. 

Writing (ahem, Drawing…) -

This is a very smooth writing pen. One of the things I loved about the Ahab was the nib, which has a wonderful feel to it. It’s springy and well-constructed and makes a line with what I think of as “character.” The Konrad nib has a similar feel to it, but with the added bonus of being packaged in a medium-sized body. One of the things I like least about the Ahab is the size, which is really too big and heavy for my hands, especially posted. The Konrad is still a bit heavy for me posted but when unposted is a bit short.

Konrad pen tests

My biggest problem with the Konrad is the width of the nib. I much prefer a fine/medium width nib for drawing. My Konrad is most definitely a medium width nib. Although I prefer a medium nib for writing I find it a bit thick for drawing. Interestingly, the Ahab has a good nib width for me for drawing, as it runs thinner than my Konrad’s nib. I say “my Konrad” as I have no certainty yet that all the Konrads have exactly the same width nib. It’s quite possible that there is some variation in the nib width between pens. If there is, there could be a fine/medium width Konrad nib out there that I would find just perfect.

The nib flexes wonderfully and will produce a fine line with a very light touch. Perhaps that was my problem with the line width, I was applying too much baseline pressure. I suppose time and more experimentation will tell.

Summing up –

So what do I think of the new Konrad Flex pen? Overall, I like it. It’s a lovely, smooth writing pen with a wonderful nib. It seems quite well-made and is very attractive. It’s a good starter even after a few days off. The line, though a bit thick for my tastes, might be made thinner with a lighter touch.

Will I use it for drawing? Absolutely! (Although I think I’ll switch back to another ink…maybe good-old Bulletproof black.) Am I happy to have it? Yes! Would I recommend it to other artists? Yes!

I am a complete pen snob when it comes to drawing pens. As a pen & ink artist, I have to be. So I am very picky about my pens. But I would certainly recommend this pen to both artists and writers. I think it might be the best flex pen that Noodler’s has yet produced. If you’re looking for only one affordable flex pen then I would recommend this one, especially if you’re a gal with medium/small-sized hands like me. It seems perfectly made for us!

Cheers everyone and I hope you enjoyed these reviews. :-)

Great News Everyone! I Am Awarded a Top Prize in the 2012 Noodler’s Ink International Art Contest.

As people who read this blog know, I love classical pen & ink drawing. I also am a huge fan of the Noodler’s Ink Company, the company that produces many of my favorite pens and inks.

Last year it was announced that the Noodler’s Ink Company was having a International Art Contest. Each piece submitted needed to be created using a Noodler’s pen and Noodler’s ink.  The contest’s theme was to show the Noodler’s Catfish logo engaged in a winning battle against evil.

What a fun challenge! I just had to enter.

For my piece I created a cartoon showing a giant patriotic catfish valiantly protecting the Concord Bridge against the Redcoats in 1775 Massachusetts. It was a bit ridiculous but I liked the idea. Especially as Noodler’s Ink is a Massachusetts company. The piece was created using a Noodler’s Flex Pen (my favorite clear demonstrator) and Noodler’s Lexington Grey ink. (Lexington and Concord! How could I resist?)

Here is my award-winning entry!

The caption reads: "Concord Massachusetts, 1775. The Redcoats get a nasty surprise while preparing to cross Concord Bridge. Pen and ink drawing created using with Noodler's flex pen and Lexington Grey ink. Original artwork by Sara Light-Waller of Woodinville, WA. (Copyright Sara Light-Waller, 2011) "

My prize was a brand new not-as-yet-for-sale bottle of Noodler’s “Rome is Burning Ink” and a brand new style of flex pen called the “Konrad.” (I will be doing a separate post later on talking about the new ink and pen more specifically.)

Contest prizes - "Rome is Burning" Ink and the Konrad Flex pen

For today though, I'd like to say a big Thank You to Nathan Tardiff, CEO and founder of the Noodler’s Ink Company. This was a great contest, run in a very classy fashion, and with very generous prizes. What a delight to be able to share my drawings with a company I respect so much.

Cheers everyone, and have a great day!

New Brush Pens!

Kinokuniya purchases

Yesterday, on my way to massage a few horses at the racetrack (yes, I do that too!), I stopped at Kinokuniya Bookstore (heaven!) in downtown Seattle and took a good look at their brush pens. I have been doing some tests of the Zebra Disposable Brush Sign Pens and liked them, but of course, there’s always room for a more perfect pen. So…on to Kinokuniya. They had a lovely selection, luckily with testers all arranged neatly as I couldn’t read a word on the labels except for Pentel, Pilot, etc… I tried them all out and picked out three, which I needed to research when I got home to find out what I had bought!

Apparently, I bought a Pilot Pocket Brush – Hard, a Pilot Double-Sided Brush Pen, and an unknown Pentel grey brush pen. It’s funny that I can’t figure out what the third pen is exactly. I have been looking on the web and can find nothing that looks just the same. If any of you know what this one is, please tell me. I am curious!

Brush Pens - (from left to right) Zebra Disposable Brush Pen Fine, Zebra Disposable Brush Pen Superfine,
Pilot Double-Sided Brush Pen, Pilot Pocket Brush - Hard, Pentel unknown grey brush pen.

Here are my pen tests. All of the brush pens seemed quite good. The Pilot Pocket Brush is perhaps the best of them and it pairs nicely with my Noodler’s Flex pen. (I like creating matched pairs of pen and brush. In my next post, when I talk about my new brown inks, I’ll mention this again.) For the test I also added my Pitt Design Pens (Brush and “S”) to round out the field. I’ve been using the Pitt brush pens for some time now, but they may have just had their spot taken by the Pilot Pocket Brush. It’s a darker black and really is quite enjoyable to use.

Brush pen tests

As another interesting note, today I proved to myself that Thelwell MUST HAVE used both pen and brush in his cartoons. Some of the effects he achieved could only have been gotten this way.

Pentel Pocket Brush and Noodler's Flex pen a great combination!

All my ink tests were done in a Bee Pen Sketcher’s pad.

Adventures in Writing Part 3: Getting the Feel of a Falcon

Old Farmhouse Door (5" x 7" pen & ink)
Namiki Falcon pen with Noodler's Black Ink on Stillman & Birn Epsilon paper.

As promised, the next test for my new Namiki Falcon fountain pen was to use it to create a piece of art. This exercise is the result. I was debating whether or not to put it up here as, frankly, it is not one of my better pieces. Not better for several reasons that have nothing to do with the pen used to create it. Briefly, and for the sake of critique, I will say that the lack of success of this piece is due to drawing errors made in perspective and the lack of quality reference material used to draw it from. Having cleared that up, I can now move along to the true purpose of this post, which is to describe how the Falcon performed as an art pen.

As an overview, the Namiki Falcon creates a lovely line. It’s consistent and a pleasure to draw with. My pen has an SF (fine) nib. It creates a fine (narrow) width line, as fine or finer than anything else I have to draw with. Its balance is wonderful and it’s a light pen, even posted, and my hand did not get fatigued while drawing. There were a lot of different marks used in this piece and the pen handled them all extremely well. As the Falcon’s nib is only semi-flexible, for some of the darkest marks I decided to use a Noodler’s Flex pen. But those marks were in the vast minority. The vast majority of the marks were made with the Falcon. It was an interesting test to switch back and forth between the Noodler’s Flex and the Falcon. When switching it was easy to notice the difference in quality between the two pens. But that's to be expected as the Namiki Falcon costs 10x the price of a Noodler’s Flex pen.

So what were my lasting impressions? Would I use it again? Was it worth the price? To all of these I would have to say a resounding Yes! I’m not certain that I would use it as my only pen for a pen & ink piece. I like having a few different pens available for creating different textures and tricks. But I would use it alone for a delicate black & white illustration or one that was to be tinted with watercolor later.

So kudos, Namiki Falcon, for your first inking performance and welcome to my pen case!

Adventures in Writing Part 2

Today is Howard Pyle’s birthday. For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, he was an extraordinary “golden age” illustrator who was, among other things, quite masterful with pen & ink. In his honor, I have chosen today to give my new Namiki Falcon fountain pen a test run.

I was most interested in the Falcon as it has a unique nib. It appears to have a “beak” that curves down to the paper. It is also made of 14 karat gold which gives the nib added spring, allowing for some flexibility of line. As this was my first gold-nibbed pen I was curious to see how it differed from the steel nibs in my other pens.

Namiki Falcon nib with its "beaked" shape

Here it is in its box. As both Pilot and Namiki are the same company, the presentation boxes are similar. Although I have never been overly impressed by pens coming in “jewelry boxes,” I have to admit to something of a thrill seeing it presented so nicely when opened.

My new Namiki Falcon

This is a black resin pen with a SF (fine) nib. The resin pen is very light and I really like light-weight pens. I find them much easier to hold for long periods of time. The filling mechanism is similar to my Parker Sonnet and was easy to use. I have filled it with Noodler’s Bulletproof Black, an ink I know very well.

I began with a test page of practice strokes. I found that the pen holds a line very well, perhaps the best of all my pens. It also is light enough to “skip” well, very important for gradations of line in pen & ink. I liked using it posted (with the cap on the back of the pen) as I thought the balance was quite good that way. Without out it being posted, I felt that the pen was too light.

Varying line widths can be achieved with the Falcon by pressing straight down with it and not flexing it at all to the side. Although not as flexible as a true flexible nib pen (Noodler’s Nib Creaper Flex or Ahab for example) it is still flexible enough to create a variable line.

Scribbles and other miscellaneous marks felt good. Then I tried some stippling. Stippling is a mainstay of pen & ink work. Back in the day when I used “regular” pens, as my old illustration teacher used to call them, we would choose a nib like a crow quill, stick it into a nib holder, and stipple away.  I was curious how the Falcon, with its unusual nib shape, would handle stippling. I found it to be quite excellent. I also did comparatives while I was at it with several other of my most popular “working” pens. Of them all the Falcon and the Noodler’s Piston Fill fountain pens performed the best. Bless the little Piston Fill, it really does perform well. :-)

But back to the Falcon. Preliminarily, I have found that it writes quite smoothly and its delicacy and consistency of line makes it a most excellent choice for pen & ink work. The nib in some ways reminds me of a crow quill. The crow quill created really fine lines that led to quite delicate work. The problem with it, as I recall, was that it never held enough ink and would quickly run dry. Not so with the Falcon. With its ink reserve inside it’s likely to produce quite a few marks before needing to be refilled. ;-)

Next test for the Falcon is a real piece of artwork. I’ve got that under way now and will post it here when complete.

P.S. For those of you who might be interested in those sorts of things, for paper I was using a Stillman and Birn Epsilon sketchbook.  

Drawing Contrast

 

Here is the next drawing my in pen and ink practice series. This exercise is primarily one of contrast. Light set next to dark and dark set next to light. Although that’s the basis of many types of art techniques, it’s especially true of pen and ink where contrast and ink marks are all you have to tell your story.

Although this drawing was done in (Noodler’s) black ink on white paper, the contrast difference would have just as easily been seen with another color of ink on white paper. As long as the ink color isn’t too light (sunny yellow on white paper might pose something of a problem) the mind will look for the contrast and interpret the image on the basis of that contrast. I’m planning to do one of my next practice pieces in colored ink to prove that theory. You can see how that goes in the next few days.