Buttnekkiddoodles

Monday, May 30th, I got up at 5:30 AM so that I could be downtown at the Palette & Chisel by 7 AM to partake in the Annual 12 hour life drawing marathon. The P & C holds 3 such events a year, Labor Day, New Year’s Day, and Memorial Day. I made it wire to wire and turned out 24 pages. Except for the far right drawing at the top, most of the drawings were done in 15-25 minutes.  I’ll spare you most of the quick warm-ups.

The last drawing is a relaxed portrait of the events’ organizer and longtime member of the P&C, Historian, Musicologist, Bloggerista, itinerant social commentator, keeper of the feral mane upon his head, and bon vivant…..Chris Miller. You can read transcription of his spontaneous ululations and bons mots on his blog, This Old Palette. A link to which is provided on my landing page.

The drawings were executed in a Utrecht toned sketchbook and a Veterinarian’s Ledger from 1959 with the same line up of tools that I’ve been hauling around with me for a spell. Pitt Artist Brush Pens, various fountain pens, and the ink for those pens, Platinum Carbon, and Iroshizuku.

The day yielded mixed results. I started off promising, foundered a bit and concluded with a few drawings I liked. I sure lost focus there on a number of poses. For certain, it wasn’t my day for likenesses. And true to form I went AWOL on the legs. I was trying to pay more attention to boxing the pelvic area and had a great view of the reclining pose, middle column fourth row down, but went ham handed and lost the grace and supple power of the model.

After drawing in the larger ledger books I feel a bit cramped at times in books under 8 1/2″ x 11 but I have enjoyed this weird bird of a book, a Veterinarian’s Daily Record. The blue pages have their own set of peculiarities and the pages in general don’t really register the addition of a white grease pencil but I like the way it takes the FC Pitt Pens and the 2 fountain pen inks I’m making the most use of lately. Those inks, Noodler’s Kingfisher Blue and Platinum Carbon have great character on this stock. The Quo Vadis I just finished drawing in had a warm and beautiful ivory color and a creamier surface. The Vet’s ledger has more of an oatmeal tint and is coarser in texture but both ledgers prevent bled-thru nicely and the rougher tooth of the Vet. Daily Rec. gives a nice grainy effect when the ink is dragged across the page.

Went to Phoenix last week, the city where I was born in 1954, for a National Art Materials Trade Association show. I left Phoenix at the age of 2 and returned having been away for 54 years.

Getting caught up on posting drawings from the last 4 months. Most of these were drawn at the Palette & Chisel in Chicago, however, the drawings on toned paper of Amanda were drawn at Trapeze studios in Seattle. All drawn with the usual suspects, India ink, Pitt Artist Brush Pens, fountain pens, China Marker for the white highlights. The pink drawing of Jessie is done in Iroshizuku Yama Budo fountain ink. The toned paper is from a recycled, acid free sketch book by Utrecht. And the drawings in the date book are Clairefontain paper in a Quo Vadis planner.

I renewed an interest in fountain pens perhaps a year and a half ago and have been drawing with them about 50% of the time. My first flirtation with them some 25 years ago was discouraging because I didn’t understand their mechanics, and improper care, combined with the wrong ink, bollocksed up a few pens. After trashing a semi-expensive Pelikan I moved on. But I always thought they had an elegance to them and had seen fountain pen script that produced an interesting line. Capable of lines both thicker and thinner than ballpoint, they also produced a wetter, thinner flow that could vary in tonal density from the start to the finish of a line or flourish. There was a noticeable “pooling” of pigment when the speed of the pen stroke slowed significantly or as the nib would come to a full stop. And while they seldom had the flexibility of the tines in a dip pen such as a Copperplate nib, some of the stub nibs had directional variance in line width and by virtue of an ink reservoir called a cartridge or a converter, the fountain pen had the distinct advantage of not being tethered to a bottle of ink. As you may have gathered at this website, I like to draw on buses.

Since it is also evident that I like to draw in previously used ledger books, I was always encountering numbers and script done in various medium. After looking at what was evidently fountain pen ink, I decided to give it another go. One frequent visitor to BND, who had been complimentary in past viewings expressed unvarnished disdain for my use of the fountain pen. Apparently tormented as a youth in school by the required tool, they had no love for the boring line produced by this writing instrument. I’ll note here that I got similar responses 35 years ago when I traded in my pencils and charcoal for a ballpoint. And having tried all the beasts on the shelves in art & craft & writing stores I often found myself struggling with an instrument I hadn’t mastered or by it’s very nature was ill suited to sketchbooks and ledger books. Often, that was the point. To see what would come of a new tool and to take some of the control and predictable flourish away from my hand. So just as I contend there are no bad poses, I don’t like blame coming to exclusive rest with the materials. Attributes can be found in unsuspecting places if you’re alert, no? A ballpoint that bled like a stuck pig and would most likely find itself in a waste basket, gave me a wide and juicy line as distinct from the brittle line produced by the well behaved accountants’ Bic fine point.

The very watery nature that is integral with fountain ink allows me to dab it while still wet and stamp ambient marks and smear the ink to get swaths and hazes that expand the vocabulary of the tool’s signature.

Hey, sorry I haven’t been posting as much new work lately, been under loads of work and deadlines. I even missed the 12 hour Labor Day life drawing marathon at the Palette & Chisel. But, I am working on loads of fun projects, a 9 color lithograph at Anchor Graphics for the current exhibit at Columbia College Book & Paper Center called La Loteria which opens September the 9th.  And, I’m also working on a sketchbook project I hope to have  published in a year. More on that later.You’ll notice I’m using fountain pens since my trip to Portland. I’m reinvestigating them after many, many years during which I had given up on the tool, in part because the inks were not waterproof and in part because I had ruined a couple due to improper care. Well, I got the bug, and how. Some new inks are on the market now and I’m rethinking the pen and it’s merits. The top left drawing was done with Platinum Carbon Ink as was the drawing directly below it. I was turned on to it by Portland artist Bill Sharp. I had been looking for a fountain pen ink that was waterproof and wouldn’t clog a fountain pen. I had been making extensive use of rollerballs and gel inks but as of late I’m quite enamoured with the fountain pen. I’ll go over my discoveries in a later post. Cheers.