New Materials, New Possibilities

I recently had the honor of completing a ink and watercolor commission for a client celebrating their wedding, however it ended up taking twice the amount of work that I had originally planned. Due to some remarkable timing of circumstances and events, the faux-pas became a blessing in disguise that resulted in a drawing that I am more happy to present the client (even pre-botch!) and the discovery of how I can streamline my portrait commission process and still provide the best work for the client.

When I draw, I prefer to use my Pilot Prera fountain pen. It is easily the most intuitive drawing tool I have ever used; it's incredibly light and feels as if the pen is skating across whatever paper you choose to draw upon. However the ink I had was not waterproof, and therefore could not stand up to any additional media being using on top of it. I also couldn't attest to how long the ink will last on paper before fading or succumbing to moisture in the atmosphere. So when I started this commission, out of necessity I went in with pencil, then dip pen in archival ink.  I then erased the pencil lines and started the watercolors overtop.

Now, this is a fine method for drawing and a very tradtional approach to build upon the pencil sketch. I just so happen to have done myself the disservice of almost exclusively using a fountain pen for almost 2 years now and find it hard to adjust back to other drawing utensils. The dip pen always feels so stiff in my hand and resistant against the peper. The pencil, while light causes me to want to draw dark and really heavy handed which is not ideal for erasing later on. So after all that work and careful consideration in navigating these materials, struggling with likenesses in the drawing because of it and finally landing on something I felt decent about, I smear ink on it. I was pretty upset.

The week before I had ordered a bottle of Platinum Carbon Black waterproof fountain pen ink after seeing it being featured on a reel over on Instagram. I cleaned out my pen and replaced the old ink with the new, tested it out, and my spirits were lifted. I can now watercolor over my fountain pen drawings. I quickly went to work in restarting the commission, working ink directly to watercolor paper excited at the new possibilities of now being able to use my favorite tool in more situations. The drawing was complete in a fraction of the time and came out so much better than the original attempt in absolutely every way.

Contact me if you are interested in commissioning a drawing!