Direct drawing...

I was playing with my Parallel Pens again the other day. Although I am in my brush phase I keep coming back to them. They are great for direct 'automatic' drawing. The shapes it can carve are different from the perceived precision of a drawn line. Like a brush the chisel tip introduces 'happy mistakes' or happy mark making into the drawing. From the person drawing point of view, this is what sparks interest and just 'going with it' gets you into a drawing flow. It introduces randomness in to the results. I don't know what the psychology behind it is, but it works.

Pilot Parallel Pen.

Applying colour ink with a waterbrush brush.

I spent a few hours sat in front of pages just drawing what came to me. I drew within cardboard templates and taped off panels to give a structure to the grid. The Parallel Pen gives a directness to the mark making. Mostly drawn with the larger 3.8mm and 6.0mm nibs. The size of the nib means it's easy to fill the area with meaning or black out distracting elements.

Working over the black pen work.

The ink is transparent to mix on the page

White opaque ink for highlights.

I used Winsor & Newton Drawing Inks and an old water brush to colour the drawings. Coloured ink is something I haven't used in a long time and this set has been sitting unopened for 10 years. The inks are saturated in colour more than the watercolour I would usually use and fits with the 'make a mark and move on' ethos.

Bear in mind these are sketchbook pages,  directly drawn, unedited and not really intended for people to look at. The notes are for me as a record of what I was thinking as I was drawing. It does not and will not necessarily make sense. It is very much process over product.

Each panel was drawn without really thinking, perhaps that is the wrong way to describe it. Drawing with relaxation, without struggle or judgement of outcome would be a better description. I want to enjoy the process of drawing so went with what I wanted to draw. Being asked to provide a drawing for a specific project, an illustration for someone else's vision, is different to drawing for yourself. I don't know how others do it, ironic as I've been around artists my whole life. There is a lot of 'just get on with it' and time sorts the details out. I am not proud of these drawings. They don't advance world peace or cure diseases but I like that they exist.

Raw scans of the sketchbook page.

Notes are personal. I think I am reflecting on the sustainability of this technique more than the work.