Thursday, January 18, 2007

A few days later...

These are the same tulips as in the last post, only a bit faded.I love old tulips, they have a very special ragged beauty about them. This stage doesn´t last very long though, soon after this drawing was done I had to throw them out, the petals were falling off.

I actually got reacquainted with an old dip pen and some India ink for this. It´s been a long time since I used steel nibs, I really enjoy drawing with them. The lines are so much more variable than with any other pens, it´s easier to put some feeling and emphasis into the drawing. Only problem is bringing them with me when I go out to draw. It easily gets a bit messy with a loose bottle of ink, I´m always worried it will leak.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Nina! I LOVE it...drawing with Real Ink is great fun, isn't it? And yes, you've captured that stage with the tulips just perfectly...lovely and angular.

I've read that you can put a wad of cotton into your ink bottle to keep it from leaking...FWIW. Apparently you can still dip the nib down into the saturated cotton...??

Nina Johansson said...

Wow, I have to try that. What if it works? That would be great! At least the ink wouldn´t spill out if you happened to make an uncontrolled move...

Margaret McCarthy Hunt said...

Nice job but what can I say ...you did a great job!! But I do like the colored ones best...I am a color kind of girl...even though I do a lot of pen and ink....

Brenda Yarborough said...

This is lovely!! Beautiful lines. I agree, dip pens are just plain FUN.

Bonny said...

Nina, this is a great drawing! I too,am beginning to like dip pens. One thing you might want to try: if you can get an old plastic film canister, you know, the kind rolls of film used to come in. The lids fit really tight on those. The ink wouldn't leak out and the plastic is unbreakable. Try going into a photo shop and ask if they have a couple of old film containers. I found some once in a craft store and they were translucent. Perfect to see your paint or ink colour!

mrana said...

Both this and the painting before it are beautifully done. Confident and sure strokes, can't believe you did these without drawing! Gorgeous.

littlemithi said...

This is absolutely beautiful Nina! I've been drawing tulips too lately as there's a vaseful of them on my kitchen table.

I also like drawing with ink - when I visited family over these last holidays I decanted some ink into those little soy-sauce bottles you get with sushi. I had three mini bottles (different inks), which fit neatly into a little metal altoid (mint) container. No leaking, and even if it had, it would have been contained in the mint tin!

Anonymous said...

I love these tulips. The lines look really nice, must be fun to draw with a "real" pen.

owenswain said...

Lovely, well drafted but still free.

Anonymous said...

Lovely drawings! Drawing with a crow-quill or a Gillotte dipped gives you a line you can't get with a rapidograph, that nice thick and thin quality. Looks like a human hand made it. I favor the dip pens but use a technical pen for travel, although I empty them out before flying. They tend to leak on long flights. Sometimes they empty themselves out- in your luggage :-)

Laureline said...

Nina, I just posted a sketch of elderly tulips, with a mention of, and link back to, this post of yours! And I also added your link to my Arty Blogs list, which I thought I'd one eons ago!
Laur(elines)

Jana Bouc said...

This is great! I love the way the composition focuses on the most interesting tulip on the right. It's a little darker than the others and has a more active gesture. Great job!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful line work in this drawing. I do love tulips too.

andrea joseph's sketchblog said...

Stunning, just stunning.