bloowabbit: PITT artist pens

Saturday, 10 December 2016

ABADID 10...ARTWORK and comic club...

I'm not the best at going to new venues and meeting new people but when a friend (thanks, Catherine) sent me a link to a Girly Comic Club I thought 'oooo, that sounds good'. Tea was promised. I had been invited to a comic club before but it was in a pub which, although I occasionally have a bevy, is not my current scene.

So, after attending the preview of ADF's December group exhibition GIFT 2, I hopped in a taxi to go meet new drawing buddies. I was armed with buns and biscuits. I didn't even feel nervous stepping out of the taxi and knocking on the door with the hand-drawn sign 'Girly Comic Club'.

It was really nice, got a cuppa, chatted, listened, drew and thought I might just be back here. I am a lot older which is inevitable when you're pushing 60. But as my pal Susie says we all need younger people in our lives because they keep us young. And I hope they'll get something back from me too.

So the doodle I started at the club is about sock rabbits. One of the comic club women had made a wonderfully dark fairisle version and I wondered how the usual stripey sock rabbits might get along with it. The current political climates of racism and all.

So there's the doodle - now coloured and finished. As the drawing's in my sketchbook I didn't use alcohol markers in case of bleed through - there's an image on the other side of the page. Used AquaMarkers, PITT artist pens and W&N watercolour markers. White gel pen differs from brand to brand - I am finding that Uniball Signo works much better than others on top of dry watercolour.

And here's my own sockwabbit just for fun.

Bloowabbit facebook page

bloowabbit Instagram page

All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.

Wednesday, 27 July 2016

Indian Ink brush pens

I had wanted to try out a few different products from my local art shop and saw these Faber-Castell PITT artist pens which are available in a choice of 2 barrel sizes and different nib sizes - I chose the small barrel size with broad nibs. Their colours are bright and vibrant as they are Indian ink based. They don't blend but they can be layered on top of one another to create rich vivid tones and are waterproof.

Using the wooden model I manipulated the figure into the pose I had in my mind's eye. I then drew it in pencil. This would be the basis of the finished figure.

After taking photographs of my own hands in these positions I sketched more detail.

please feel free to download

this ink drawing to colour

Inked up with a UniPin fineliner and erased the pencil lines. It was at this point I thought having used a coloured pencil to 'ink' might have been better, as the colour would merge better into the FC colours. Emanating from the figure's arms and hands were moths and across the back of the figure was a broad band of flowers, drawn from photographs online.

Copics in Light Hydrangea and Phthalo Blue coloured the figure and some of the flowers. I added Promarker in Amethyst and Letraset flex marker in Sorbet. For the heart-shaped moths I laid down PITT pens in Crimson and Carmine and found that I could move the ink around somewhat with an overlay of copic if I worked quickly enough. Wings were feathered in all three Indian ink colours including Ultramarine.

The mottled background was done with Letraset flex markers in Sorbet, Pale Pink and Dolphin Blue. I bought about 20+ of these markers at £1 each from my local art shop as they're getting rid of their stock. I've been told that Windsor and Newton, who've taken over Letraset, still do a Brushmarker but some artists feel the ink is not the same quality as the Letraset range was.

'Moth Guardian'

I outlined the figure in the Ultramarine PITT pen, the flowers in Crimson and the tiny moth hearts in Carmine. I omitted creating shadows as I liked the glowing effect the 2 Copics gave the figure. A final outlining and highlights of white gel pen finished the piece.

This was intended to be another in the 'Mother of' series but the figure looks more amorphous than feminine. The PITT pens were unusual to use and I'd like to try a wider range of colours. There is a good range of colours including neons and a gold but there isn't an Indian ink soluble blender available (I don't know if such a thing is possible). The method of using the pens is very different from using Copics or other alcohol markers.

Links:

Faber-Castell website

Bloowabbit facebook page

bloowabbit Instagram page

bloowabbit newgrounds page

bloowabbit DeviantArt page