More Pen Brush Play

Playing w ith my brush pens again. I tried some experiments to see what I could do with them. I can see that brush pens can give lines lots of expression. The more I play the more I discover.

The first is the old apple core study...

then I tried my keys...

and then a face.

It still reminds me of comic book drawings. But there is something interesting about the process and the finished product.

Exploring Body Parts

Life, once again, gets in the way. I have had little time to draw of late and what time I had was short. So, if you don’t have time to draw the whole figure, then draw an interesting part of it. I was doodling around and was experimenting with various body parts.

Mostly in graphite but I also experimented with my Pitt Artist Pens – I bought a set of the Gray shades a while back and hadn't really done much with them.

The reference for some of these was Bridgmans Complete Guide to Drawing from Life - hence the muscular appearance.

Ladybug, Ladybug Fly Away Home

I am not a real fan of digital cameras, at least not for serious photographic work. There are serious archival problems with digital that have not been addressed by any of the technologies in place to date. That's not to say that digital cameras are not useful - I do have one that I use a lot for quick reference photos. But for real serious photos I still rely on my film cameras. But, I digress from my intended purpose for this post.

The other day I was waiting for my lovely bride, enjoying the sunny afternoon when a tiny ladybug landed on the knee of my blue jeans. I decided to experiment with the macro mode of my little digital camera. It was touch and go, there, because the sun was quite bright and it was difficult to see the image on the view screen. The macro mode also requires a very steady hand or a tripod – since I didn’t have a tripod handy and if I did it would have been awkward to try and set it up to take a picture of my knee. So, it was to be a hand held operation. Several tries later and coaxing the poor ladybug to stay put I managed to get one sharp image.


For those interested the camera is a Canon PowerShot SD400 5mega pixel model. It has a macro mode and a 3x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom. It is a very small and compact camera – probably the main reason I bought it. I am happy with it for what I use it for.

Playing in the Pitt

The other day I picked up a Pitt Aritst Pen (brush nib) and played with it a little. I also picked up a Pigma Brush as well. I had fun with them both and can see it will take a little practice to get the results I want all the time. The Pigma is a little narower than the Pitt but the flexibility is about the same. The Pigma comes in lots of colors as does the Pitt. I had a hard time finding individual pens - instead of sets - of the Pitt pens in art stores. I finally found the black ones at Office Depot! After you get used to them they really provide a lot of expression in pen and ink line. They remind me of comic book illustrations.