Pen and ink drawings

Besides chalk, my favorite drawing material is pen and ink which I use for quick sketching. I draw freehand without preliminary pencil construction lines; I measure by eye alone. I try to ignore the details and just draw the big shapes. The looser and more relaxed my hand is, the faster I can draw. Leaving the tip of the pen on the paper produces loops and squiggles, but saves crucial time trying to capture life’s ephemeral moments. Moving people, expressions, gestures, postures may only be visible for a few minutes or seconds so I have to work fast.  The absolute black of ink provides maximum contrast with the paper's absolute white, accentuating expressive line. There is no substitute for the immediacy and vitality of drawing from life. You can't get that exuberance and spontaneity any other way. I love to draw people wherever I go, especially in planes, airports, subways and trains.

I like pen and ink for quick drawings because ink marks can’t be erased or changed so you can’t dither around - you have to be deliberate and fearless.  It’s also very expressive and flamboyant; the best thing is to just dive in and draw.  Pen and ink are especially useful for croquis drawings, very quick sketches made in just a couple of minutes.  The idea is to ignore the details and draw the fundamental, underlying shapes.  These loose, rapid drawings are meant to capture the gestures.  I like to sketch people in airports, parks and streets; pen and ink are perfect for that.

For ink drawings, I use either reed pens, or a Schaeffer calligraphy pen.  The reed pens are simple dip pens that are practically indestructible - I've had mine for more than forty years. You can use them with India ink, which is the blackest black on earth.  And you can use them with all kinds of funky inks that would clog most pens.  What the heck!  You can even make your own ink and use it with impunity with a reed pen!  The down side of  reed pens is that  it's not always possible to carry around an opened bottle of ink with you, which feels like walking around with a live grenade.  An open bottle of ink isn't welcome in a lot of places, so for those places, I use a Schaeffer calligraphy pen (with the fine point) loaded with a cartridge of black ink.  The ink isn't permanent, nor as black as India ink, but at least you can draw in black ink on the subway or in a restaurant so you don't miss all those free models. Every now and then I use fine Micron pens, but I dislike the uniformity of the line. I switch to Microns if I'm having technical problems in the middle of a drawing I want to finish before the model disappears.

My masonite drawing boards are three sizes:  9 x 12", 11 x 16" and 13 x 15.5."  For ink drawings, I use cheap white copy paper  (8.5 x 11" and 8.5 x 14") clipped to a drawing board, so if  I’ve made an irrevocable mistake in an ink drawing in the first 60 seconds, I just chuck it and start again.  It’s important not to feel intimidated by your materials.

On the other hand, although it's important for an artist to use permanent materials on acid free surfaces, not every drawing has to be archival grade materials. After all, one session of life drawing can produce fifty drawings.  Doing fifty drawings a week (which is a ridiculously small amount) fifty weeks of the year for the last forty years, I've produced over 100,000 drawings. You can't save everything.  When I come up with some good short drawings, I take digital photos, and ultimately the cheap copy paper will go the way of all flesh.

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