TheArtistApril2016__

30 artistApril 2016 http://www.painters-online.co.uk

P

en and ink is a great way to

experience the joy of drawing.

Forget that everything needs to be

perfect – dipping into a permanent ink of

any colour and creating a ‘thinking

process’ drawing is immediately enjoyable

and can lead to very exciting images and

studies, rather than a static, predictable-

looking drawing that lacks energy and

life. Line work should be as expressive as

painted marks, so learning to draw and

paint with brush or pen is important. One

way to develop this is by revealing a

creative thought process with liberated

drawing – using inks.

Drawing pens

Your choice of pen will depend on your

particular style, so experiment to find the

pens and the supports you like to work

with best.

Marker pens have lightfast inks and

come with various shapes of nib

(including brush-style and fibre tips) and

provide lots of options for creating, in

essence, linear ink drawings. Faber-Castell

Pitt Artist’s Pens produce beautiful, crisp

lines and come in a range of nib sizes,

including brush tips, and colours. The

black, grey and sepia brush tips are great

for quick tonal sketches.

Technical pens, such as Rotring, now

have a better construction that gives a

consistent, clog-free ink flow. They work

with ink cartridges, which can get a bit

expensive if you use a lot of ink. However,

they produce a beautiful line of varying

super fine weights, depending on the size

of nib, that is consistent and perfect

where a crisp, precise line is required.

Dip pens are what I prefer to use for

expressive drawings. Some dip pens have

removable split nibs; these nibs are made

in different sizes using metals such as

steel or copper plate, which allow you to

create different types of line. The nib

holders are reasonably priced and I have

one for every size of split nib I own so that

I don’t have to clean the nib or change it

for a different size when I’m working in

the landscape and want to draw quickly.

Bamboo pens are another favourite of

mine. They give a rather broad line and

don’t hold a great deal of ink. They are

great for textural and dryer types of marks

created when the ink has almost gone

from the nib and the pen begins to

DRAWING: 3 OF 3

Ink is a versatile medium that you can use to great effect in your

drawings and paintings, as Robert Duttonexplains

Think 

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