Herbert Park in the rain

Two sketches done in Herbert Park with Dublin Sketchers. The weather wasn't great - a steady mizzle, and the seats under the umbrellas were occupied by families. A few of us sat outside against the wall for a bit - there was a good overhang giving us shelter. Until the rain turned and started coming at us.
Thankfully, I was using my little Firmo Diário Gráfico and I could hold it nearly vertically and draw at the same time with a Pentel brush pen, which uses waterproof ink.

What I discovered is that this paper and pen are made for each other. The paper is 160g, so it's not very thick (you can see through the pages a little), but it's got a smoothness to it that works perfectly with the brush pen. I know that if I don't want sketches to show through the pages, I could just draw on one side, but I'm used to a much bigger panorama sketchbook, so it's going to take me a little while to become comfortable with the format. But I think I'm going to use my brush pens a lot more now!

I was planning to leave this sketch in pen only, but it was a little dull, so I added a dash of colour - I mixed green apatite genuine and cobalt teal blue (PG50), and the granulation looks really nice on the page. I don't think this thickness of paper will be able to handle wet washes, but I'm happy with how the pigments settled on the page all the same.