Buttnekkiddoodles

 
Stopped into the corporate coffee station at North & Wells wherein pitched battles of chess are in heated swing and sway. The observant among you will notice the gent on the right is playing with the black chess pieces but appears to also be holding a black pawn as if he captured one of his own. The reason being the games were very rapid and would quickly conclude then these two combatants would switch pieces. So as I sketched they were alternating who opened. Anyway, their intense postures didn’t vary much throughout their set.

Fountain pen and Pitt & Artist Pens on a Stillman & Birn sketchbook.

Just got back from LA wherein I seent a gob more than on previous visits. Had the pleasure or runnin’ around with my grand niece Ariel and her beau. Ariel and I hit the Huntington Library in Pasadena on a gorgeous day and took in only part of the eye poppin’ gardens and the truely stellar collection of rare books and first editions of many of the high water marks of Western learning. Also spent Sunday at the Blue Rooster Art Supplies where Ariel and some of her pals from Center Arts School of A & D set up on the sidewalk and drew with the super gracious Nick Gallo and his store manager.

Setting off today to draw from a model with students at Rockford College.

Working in a spiral sketchbook of fairly heavyweight paper, with a plate surface, from the Stillman & Birn epsilon series with some fountain pen inks and gel pens but primarily Pitt Artist Pens. A wee bit of the grease pencil as well. Like the stiff cover and scale for sketching on buses when things got a tad crowded.

Drawn in one of my preferred hanging spots with my dear friend, a red medium nib Visconti Rembrandt, which is currently missing. The black ink is Platinum Carbon. I spilled hot chocolate on the page and while the blue gel ink and Iroshizuku fp ink ran, the PC held it’s ground beautifully.

      

In addition to some of my favorites, I’ve been playing with a couple new inks lately. A Levenger Purple and  Diamine Red that really looks like blood when it first hits the page. I procured a few new pens lately but the two I’m having the most fun with are a see-thru yellow Duo-Highlighter with a BB nib by Pelikan. Plus a second hand, and well used at that, Graf Von Faber-Castell ebony wood Classic that I bought a new B replacement nib for. Both pens are Champs. The Graf Von Faber-Castell is a serious investment but one that delivers the goods. A gorgeous pen that writes and feels like a no bullshit tool. It’s taken me a while to climb past a certain $$ barrier but having done so with the GvFC, a Pelikan M800, and a Sailor Naginata-Togi I can only say the way these pens deliver and how great they feel in my hand has evaporated all symptoms of sticker shock.

                                                       Now that I’ve raved about the battleships of my pen arsenal, I want to talk about the trusty and much worthy pen responsible for the Prussian Blue drawings immediately above. The drawing on the left and the 2 on the right were drawn in large measure with an $11.50 Pelikano Jr. A medium stainless steel nib with a cartridge that I keep refilling with the help of a syringe. The primary drawback to this pen is the plastic used for the cap. It does not stand up to much wear and tear before splitting or cracking. Barring that, the Pelikano Jr. is a swell pen for the money. Comfortable to use, it not only is a great starter fp for youngsters and first time uses of fountain pens, it is a cheap pen that writes wet, that you can use ant of the inks for fps without fretting that you’ll destroy the feed of a costly investment. The dark blue is Noodler’s Bad Blue Heron. The female nude drawing second from left was done with a broad gel pen. The line is bold and flows nice but has a very short life.