I saw Steve Brodner speak, once, and I was surprised to hear him say that his caricatures are not necessarily driven by the subject’s features. Not initially, anyway. He showed a number of examples of, say, George Bush the Younger that started as different shapes tied to Brodner’s concept—triangle, square, rectangle, hourglass—no matter how they started out, they all ended up looking like George Bush in the end. My fellow is no one in particular, he is just an experimental head based upon a wedge instead of the ideal cube. I thought I’d see how much realism I could infuse into such a head. This is another ballpoint doodle, by the way, sketched on a page of my Apica notebook (wonderful things, but more about that in another post).

Lately, I’ve encountered a number of inspiring ballpoint pen doodles on the web. I’ve been so distracted by the anachronism of liquid ink (and the neverending search for interesting paper that can stand up to it) that I’m happy to see such accomplished doodles by other folks with this everyday instrument. It reminds me to not get so hung up on tools. Just draw. I picked up a 5-pack of Pentel R.S.V.P.s the other day at Office Max for something like 4 bucks. This doodle was sketched using one of those pens on a cheap memo pad. I’m pleased with my doodle, save for the rung that inhabits its own perspective.

There are some great comments at Drawn about ballpoint pen techniques in response to DQ, a collaborative sketchbook. On the subject of humble materials, there is also The Pencil Revolution. Of course, it quickly becomes apparent that finicky people (and I include myself in that group) can be finicky about anything. Even a wooden pencil.

Mr. Slakethirst concocted his own Falernum (what’s falernum, you ask?) and desired a custom container for it — something inspired by his collection of vintage glass seltzer bottles with etched labels. To the left (click for a larger image), you see our first and only etched glass attempt using Armor Etch and a Gocco screen (label designed in Illustrator). Considering the lack of a test round (we only had the one bottle), we were pretty satisfied with the result. The distressed appearance was completely intentional, of course.

For Gocco folks interested in the details: (more…)

Sketch inspired by a detail of an early 19th century birth/baptismal certificate in the fraktur style. Sakura Micron .005 and blue pencil.

I used Galen Berry’s marbled paper on the drawers and endpapers of my thesis project, Coincidentally, he held a workshop this weekend which I had the happy opportunity to attend. I have attempted marbling at home with varying results and was eager to get some tips from an expert. In class, I soon realized the many errors of my previous marbling ways — my paper was probably not coated with enough alum, I was using methylcellulose instead of carrageenan, and my paints of choice (golden liquid acrylics) are probably the least useful acrylics for marbling. I had burned out (temporarily) on marbling after my unsuccessful and semi-successful experiments, but the class renewed my confidence. Examples from my own hand (under the instructor’s guidance) are pictured below.

The marbling process makes experimenting with color a simple task, and I had fun with a crazy variety of color combinations. Some were surprisingly successful and others not so. The large one above is probably my favorite with the red peacock taking second place. I was surprised by how well fabric can accept marbling—the last example is on cloth.