Pic-a-nic Basket

Contrary to the lack of recent posts, I have been drawing a lot lately. My art group has been averaging 2-3 sessions per week which has kept me busy. Pity my poor dog.

I bought a set of Micron Sepia pens. This is marketing speak for "brown." The set consistes of 4 pens in sizes and tips I commonly use: .1, .5, Brush and 1. This first sepia was done entirely with the brush tip, something I normally do not do. I prefer the tight lines and control of the .1 for drawing, relying on everything else for shading and texture.

This one was done in my normal technique only brown instead of the usual black. I think the brown pens would work better on a darker paper. Perhaps I should look in to that.

Another recent purchase was a set of Staedtler colored pens. I have used staedtler pens before and I really liked them. My only complaint is that all the pens in the set are the same tip size and a bit larger than I prefer to draw with. (why should I try new things?)

After a few times with the colored pens, I find I prefer to draw with my normal black pens and use the colored pens to highlight and add texture. I know artists who draw with color, using complimentary colors to form lines and shading but I haven't quite got that down yet.

My apologies to this lovely model who was absolutely gorgeous but I spent too much time on experimenting to get anything truly worthwhile out of the session. (Okay, that second brown drawing is good. Maybe I should finish that.)