Behind the scenes with drawing with ink

Ink runs out eventually. It happens. What to do?

Pens taken apart to show cartridges and ink used

I draw a lot with fountain pens. I know some of my pens really well. I like the way they feel in my hand and how they draw or write. Others are newer for me. They were gifts or I just haven’t used them very much yet. They all need ink somehow though to work. There are disposable ink cartridges that are available for many pens, but I like to get refillable cartridges so I can try out different inks and because it’s more environmentally friendly.

Tonight I spent some time refilling six of my pens with five different inks and five different styles of ink cartridges. Some were easy to fill and made little mess. Others required more care with the addition of a syringe to suck up some ink from the bottle to then inject enough, but not too much into the cartridge and then reassemble. Wash the syringe in order to not contaminate the next jar of ink and repeat with filling the next cartridge.. Wash hands thoroughly at the end. Fortunately soap gets rid of most of the ink stains.

The next step is to take notes of what ink did I use with what pen. I usually do this with a picture and later transfer the details into a notebook. This is also a time to check if the ink is slowly smoothly or not. Sometimes a pen will be stubborn and that will require a full cleaning of all the parts. Most of these from tonight seem like they are working well. I’ll take apart the problem pen another day.

On to drawing.

Noticing and Looking

I love looking at things and spotting patterns and the various bit of beauty and oddness in unusual places. A friend who knows I have this interest suggested I read On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz. What a treat it is!

The author takes 11 walks through neighborhoods, mostly in Manhattan, with 11 different guides who are all experts in their areas. Seeing and hearing what they notice on their walks is so interesting. There are worm tracks through stone, trash cans at the eye level of toddlers, lettering with unfortunate spacing, animal wild life and their tracks in the city, people’s behavior in crowds and while walking, non-verbal communication, scents and sounds and so much more. It is a delight to read and re-read.

Thinking about noticing, I took my dog for a walk today. I left my phone behind so that I too could go out looking. My dog was a great companion in demonstrating how interesting the walk was to her with things I just couldn’t really appreciate. Having so many olfactory nerves or sensors would really change one’s life. I wonder how a perfumer senses the world. Much of my walk was along the lines of, “Hurry up, let’s go!” shifting quickly to, “Ooh! Wait! Let me check this tree out” to “Let me try this grass. Not that grass, this grass.” Munch, munch munch. Then “Hurry up, let’s move on!” and “Oooh! People!!”

It was nice to take some time out and just notice and look. I might take some of what I saw and put it in a drawing, but I also may just file my observations away to add to my next noticing session. Have you noticed anything new around you recently?

Generosity of Artists

Today was a treat in multiple meanings of the word. in late May I sent off a package of chocolate with one of my cards to a friend because her birthday was coming up. I had learned she didn’t have local access to Theo’s chocolate, a Seattle based chocolate company, and we had been talking about their chocolate. She reciprocated in mid-June for my birthday but unfortunately I never got the package. It seemed that it had gotten lost or perhaps was mis-delivered somewhere.

Birthday chocolates and card from an artist friend

Yesterday, I found out that she tried again and once again I hadn’t gotten it. Disappointing, and yet unlikely to have happened twice. We figured out what happened. She had sent the packages to the place I had shipped her package from. I called them this morning and yay! the boxes were there!

So I got two birthday packages to enjoy with chocolate and hand painted cards. My friend is a talented urban sketcher and watercolorist. Look for @lylopa on Instagram. Her work is beautiful. I regularly drool over it on instagram. And now I have two of her sketches to admire and look at.

I also have chocolate to draw!

One of the lovely things that happens with artists is often trading work with one another. One person likes something of another artist and often trades of work happen. It’s a great way to be generous and yet also receive.

Sharing and having more art because of it. What a great thing!

Take a Trip with Me to see Where I Get Ideas to Draw

Today I want to share a bit of how my mind wanders and gets inspiration from the things I come across. I took a mental trip to Asia.

Korean roof tile , 700-800 AD

This morning I was reading in A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor. Normally it’s a bit of a dry read. I’ve been trying to spend 10 minutes a day reading my way through it as it’s been a book that’s been sitting by my bed waiting for years to be read. The object I read about today was a Korean clay roof tile from 700-800 AD. That sounded rather ordinary, but then I turned the page and saw a lovely detailed and ornamental object that would have been stunning to see in multiples on roof tops. What a surprise! See link to the BBC episode. I immediately started thinking about how would I draw that. Lots of stippling - one of my favorite things - came to mind. So that tile from the past is now on my to-draw list.

Dancheong painted patterns in Korea

I then moved in time to slightly more recent Korea because another thing which is on my want-to-draw list are dancheong. These are decorative colorings in green, yellow, white, blue and red that I’ve seen on older wooden buildings and temples. I love patterns and these are repetitive but not exactly. I don’t know how to sit down and draw one so would like to spend some time with them to figure them out. If I spent long enough on it, I could eventually become a dancheongjang, an artisan who paints dancheong. It’s good to have goals!

My final mental destination today ended up in Japan on the islands of Okinawa. When my son went off to his first year in college this past fall, I came across a subscription service called Bokksu that sends snacks from Japan. Every month he would get a bright orange box filled with snacks designed with some particular theme.

Because of the coronavirus and the pandemic, when he came home early, I had the Bokksu subscription continued but mailed to my house. He was happy to share with me and I have been delighted! I lived in Japan for three years in the 1990’s and have lots of memories from that time. Japanese snacks are so interesting and sometimes so strange to Western tastes. I enjoy both trying them out, but also, and more importantly, I enjoy drawing the snacks and their packaging.

This month’s box was treats from Okinawa. I’ve had an empty package sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks, so that is what won out from my mental world inspirations. I spent about 30 minutes working on the inking of the box and one bag of rice crackers and then another 30 minutes adding some watercolor to it. There are lots more treats to add and taste!

Time outside in the raspberry patch

I spent some time outside today picking raspberries in my over-run overgrown raspberry patch. I love it. I cut back the dead canes every year but other than that do very little with it. It’s a joy that each year they come back so happily and prolifically.

Today’s batch of raspberries picked.

Originally they were only in one section of the garden but they’ve spread now to three different areas. It’s a bit of a forest now, but I have no desire to cut it back.

There’s enough for me to pick and for the birds to have too. When I was reaching in earlier to pick some, I heard the sound of a young bird with an anxious call either to alert others of danger or perhaps letting me know that they didn’t want to share the berries.

I picked berries for about half an hour and having a lovely time enjoying the weather and just being in the moment. I recently finished The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier & More Creative by Florence Williams. It was a very interesting book on the positive effects of being in nature but also a little funny. I’ve never read a book about so many walks and hikes with monitoring equipment done in the name of research.

Fresh air, the sound of birds, picking berries and letting my mind wander. What a great way to take a break in the middle of the day.

How do you take breaks to refresh yourself?

Sourdough Starter

I’ve made bread many times over the years and am very familiar with how that process works and what the steps are needed to make bread. Recently though, I’ve made my first sourdough starter and then sourdough bread. The starter takes one to two weeks from the original mix of flour and water until it has grown enough to be used to cook with. It requires a daily feeding which is a little bit of yesterday’s starter and some flour and water. Then it grows on it own, until the next day. I haven’t named my starter yet but I’ve heard of some people that do!

With time, the dough gets smoother on its own.

The funny thing that I’ve noticed about sourdough starter and bread making, which is different from dry yeast bread making, is how the flour, water and starter just need to be mixed into a shaggy mass or roughly mixed together. There is none of the gradually incorporating the flour by kneading until it all is smooth and elastic. Magically just by waiting, the starter “eats” through the flour and it becomes very smooth, almost silky in texture. It’s an amazing transformation and I enjoy watching it happen each time! I can assure you that’s not the way I left it after mixing it to begin with.

What occurred to me is that this process is much like coming up with new ideas and skills. Yes, practice is involved and effort, but there are times when what’s necessary is just to have all the parts in place and then sit on it for a while. Just wait and let it be. Give the idea some time and then look at it again. Often by magic the idea has grown and changed to become something more polished than the rough stage I started at.

My thoughts on creativity courtesy of sourdough starter.

Starting is Better Than Not

Today marks the end of an amazing workshop that I’ve been part of for the past 150 days, The Creative’s Workshop. Creatives of all types and persuasions, from so many different areas of interest and parts of the world gathered daily to share parts of their process and gave us windows into their worlds. There were poets, writers, podcasters, photographers, film makers, musicians, cartoonists, and visual artists to mention a few broad groups. It was so interesting and inspiring and a bit mentally exhausting - but in a good way.

Progress made on a couple of chocolate bar wrappers

The workshop encouraged us to contribute something, anything, daily for 100 days. Many made it daily to the end. To ship something was better than not. Another way of saying that is to start before you’re ready.

I was inspired at the very end, this morning in fact, to start writing a blog and to add something here daily. I’m hoping that by doing this I will move closer to being me rather than who I think I’m supposed to be.

So here I am, starting before I’m ready. The blog page doesn’t look the way I want. I don’t have a well thought out plan for what I want to do or a specific goal by a specific time. I know, however, that saying things out loud even if no one reads this blog allows me to work off my ideas and be able to then change and edit and nudge new ideas out.

Pressing the “Save & Publish” button now!