Pen and Ink (Plus a Franken-Creature Sequence)

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Frank-in-Progress.

I'm smitten with pen and ink. Always have been. Nothing gets me to the state of 

total creative awareness like the zen act of making repetitive lines with pen and ink. 

Time stops, the outside world disappears, and I don't care that my studio is in chaos.

Really, most times the studio is pretty neat, 

but working towards a show deadline has me more 

concerned with production than clutter. Plus, it's not fair that in some 

past posts, the studio has appeared mostly organized.  

This messed up work-space brings me to the real point of this post: Pen and ink!

On the drawing table is this book:

This version, published in 1930, was found it in a used book store a few months ago, and it is stunning! My go-to volume when I want to explore and revitalize my pen-work. I've owned the newer edition of it (titled Rendering in Pen and Ink) since art school, but this old fellow trumps that one with more illustrations and thorough discussion.

Sorry about the phone pics, but I wasn't about to cram this onto my scanner.

Here are the end papers. Yes, admittedly, I am an old-book nerd. 

As a kid, fascinated with line, I studied Tenniel's illustrations for the Alice books, Dore's illustrations--especially those from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and the works of John Leech. Like Franklin Booth, I mistakenly thought those engravings were pen and ink drawings. Unlike Franklin Booth's beautiful renderings, my resulting works are far from elegant and controlled. Random and spontaneous they are, and quickly drawn...

 ...like this detail shows.

Still, revisiting Arthur Guptill's book put me in the mood to explore, so the following 

Frankenstein's Creature-sequence shows a bit more self-control. Not that I like it any better, it's just different.

The extent of my thumbnail output for this one.

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An in-progress detail.

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Same detail with a warm acrylic wash and some highlight-lifting...

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...and some strengthened highlights with white gouache.

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Finally, a bit of acrylic ink for color.

Granted, the ink-line application is only slightly less random and unruly than usual, but it was a blast to do, 

and I learned a lot.

Thanks--as always-- for reading!

Arthur L. Guptill's Books

Good old (available used for now) instruction books:

The book (this one's a reprint) is an overview in a way. Designed I guess for beginners, I still check it out for inspiration. If I'm being lazy about doing study sketches, cracking it open usually gets me in the mood.

Simple and straightforward.

 

There are also a few of these masterful drawings mixed in. Admittedly bearing little relation to a modern studio, it's a great drawing to study nonetheless--just look at it! I like the text, too. Guptill's words have been often quoted or re-mixed without credit. Lots of gems here if you take the time to read.

From Guptill's Rendering in Pen and Ink, still the all-time comprehensive pen and ink guide and overall drawing manual. This book is incredible--if you only owned one of the four listed here--this is the one!

I continue to learn new things from revisiting this book. Pretty much everything an artist needs to know about drawing and rendering (not just pen and ink) is included, from value to perspective to architecture to landscape.

In addition to instruction, there are sections containing pen and ink works by masters. Again, I recommend reading the text as well as looking at the pics--don't miss out.

Guptill manages to do it all for me with this volume--technique and inspiration!

 I also have his book, Rendering in Pencil. Not being much of a graphite renderer, I don't find it as enlightening as the book previously discussed, but that's just my bias. The next book though, is indispensable if you love watercolor:

From Watercolor Painting Step-by-Step by Arthur L. Guptill.

There are a ton of expensive, slick-but-empty "how-to-paint-watercolor" books out there. Do yourself a favor--ignore most of them, find this one, and read it. You'll save some money and you won't find a better overall textbook for learning and re-discovering what watercolor's all about.

Maybe the thing I love best about Guptill is his profound knowledge yet refusal to be absolute. His writing style contains specific instruction without being dismissive of the many approaches an artist can take to make pictures. Only one example; this book allowed me to discover the use of white at a time when all my instructors were condemning that use as "not true watercolor".

I don't think any of these books are still in print, but used copies are still available on the internet. I have trouble not buying more copies of Rendering in Pen and Ink or Watercolor Painting Step-by-Step when I see them in used bookstores--have to talk to myself in order to pass them by.

Hope you found this helpful. Thanks for reading.