By Whitney Cole
I am by no means an
expert on using pens, or illustration, or painting, or really anything of that
nature. Please take my advice and suggestions with that in mind as I share with
you some of the materials and techniques I enjoy using.
In my developing lettering and illustration practices, I’ve
acquired a tiny collection of different writing tools and tricks.
The easiest and most common pen I use is the Pilot G-2 in .50 and .38. It is the pen I use to write everyday notes as well as my little doodles. It gives a fine point but is inexpensive and easy to handle. You can get these really anywhere. I’ve gotten them at WalMart.
Almost as frequently I use my flex nib fountain pen. The particular pen I use was less than $25 and allows the user to change inks fairly easily.
The great thing about ink samples is that they are really inexpensive, so you can try them out before you might commit to a larger bottle. These can be used for regular writing in addition to the more stylized writing, but they can sometimes be a bit messy and you have to replace the ink when it runs out!
Fairly recently, I’ve been using some blending markers when playing with larger writing or coloring illustrations. I use Tombow dual brush pens, which have a fine tip and brush tip. I use their fine point calligraphy pens as additional lettering practice. These were very inexpensive for two, and I’ve had some good results from them. They are really fun to play with all around, but the color brush pens have been too wide for me to get much great writing success.
The water brush pen is a great addition to my writing/illustration collection. It’s a wonderful match for the flex pen and allows me to utilize all the ink in my sample containers. I received mine as a gift, so I’m not sure of the cheapest place to buy one.
You can use the water brush pens to alter fountain pen writing
or to just use the inks as you would watercolors. I’ve included a few different
things that can be done with the brush pens because I think that they are a
great tool.
Here, I used coffee filters, leftover
ink samples, and my water brush pen to create thin layers, allowing them to
dry, cutting them into small pieces, and then turning them into a very basic
flower. I’ve seen some very impressive things done with similar
techniques which may be worth a try in the future.
I have incorporated the brush pen fairly easily into my
illustration practice. This method doesn’t require the use of the fountain pen,
and could potentially cost lest than $10. I used Q-tips to dip the ink and
smudge onto the paper in the general form of the thing I wanted to make. I then
used the brush pen to blend the layers and more coffee filters to lift excess
pigment, creating something that is essentially a watercolor painting. I then
added a quick line drawing on top to add detail.
I repeated this process with this avocado.
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Whitney Cole is a tiny Southern firecracker from small-town Virginia She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015 with a B.F.A. in Photography. Her work to date has been an investigation of her Southern heritage. Follow her on Instagram for lots of pictures of her dog and trees.
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