Pen & ink

Today I'm getting things together to do a demonstration for an Art group in Essex. After a visit to them last week where I demonstrated drawing they requested pen & wash/ink for this week. All things being well we will outside working from the landscape.
It struck me as I gather my things that this is probably the least used medium of them all, yet I find it the most liberating of them all. I've used pen and ink since I was 16 and find it made look more carefully and draw even more carefully. It wasn't until some years later that I realised that my drawing had improved 10 fold just because I couldn't rub my mistakes out, that gave me a great sense of freedom but also made me aware that the more mistakes I made the more creative I had to be to disguise them.
And therein lies the beauty of ink it never looks wrong it always looks expressive and impressive no matter of your style.
Over the past 2 years I have worked extensively in pen/ink on a major commission, at the moment I cant show you any of that as it's under copyright and it's ready for publication yet.
For now here is some of my early stuff......

                                                                                                    

A series from my women warriors series

I've also created a range of bugs/insects from metallic ink tooa small detail of a dragonfly

Have a go yourself and get outside too - forget the pencil, leave it indoors and sketch. Don't worry about the lines the wobbly and un straight they are the more expressive it will be. Treat it as a sketch and don't go out with expectation of getting it right just enjoy it.

There's lot of different marks you can make with ink from dots to lines close together cross-hatching, you can always draw with the end of your paint brush or just a small branch/twig or a piece of bamboo dipped in ink.

Let me know how you get on!!!

That's all for today I'm off to draw a rather impressive iguana - I'll let you know how I get on.

All the best

Kat