Sketches

I'm sketching a good bit these days. Maybe one day all that practise will show.

But it's good to carry a little sketchbook and a pen around. You never know when you might be early for an appointment and you have to sit in the car for ten minutes!

One day, I hope to develop this habit to make better drawings and add watercolours like Shari Blaukopf does. She lives in Montreal, and that's the only way you can do outdoors drawing in the winter over there. But for now, quick squiggles will do me.

I got a new fountain pen in Nimble Fingers, a plain Manuscript medium nib pen. My previous one (part of a set) seems to be blocked, no matter how much I rinse it under the tap. I should have kept the packaging so I can find it again when this one gives me trouble. It was quite cheap, and yet it glides easily on the paper and makes a lovely line. And it takes cartridges, so no messing with ink. No messing is important for someone as clumsy as me, believe me.


But then, sometimes, you don't have a pen with you. You just have a biro or a marker. And that's fine too. This sketch on the right was made with a United Office gel pen which I got for work ages ago. The ink is probably not archival quality. But let's face it, I am not Leonardo da Vinci, so it really doesn't matter.

BTW, there is an exhibition of 10 da Vinci drawings at the National Gallery, starting 4 May! Looking forward to it!