No Photos, but Real Quilt Progress
I have no new photos to share of the selvage quilt, but I’ve made a lot of progress since last time. Everything is joined up, and there are only four long seams to press before I can try to take a few flimsy photos.
While I was in joining-up mode, I did a little more work on a quilt project that had been stalled out for months.
…Well, I just checked, and I think the last update for this project was almost exactly a year ago. Back then, I was calling the quilt “September Stars”. It’s green sawtooth stars with crumb-pieced centers and backgrounds in reds, pinks, and oranges—joined together with grey sashing. I’d left it mostly joined up, but still in four quarters. Now it’s down to two pieces that need pressing before I’ll do the final seam.
More photos of all that soon, I hope. (As soon as I clear off a large area to press the long seams!)
More Brown Ink
I felt like trying the “Little Fat Man” pen again, so I doodled some leaves and acorns. It’s okay, but I don’t think I like this pen shape as much as the more traditionally shaped Duke 600. Maybe I need to try again and commit to holding it more in the palm of my hand. It may take some practice to get comfortable with it.
Painting the leaves with autumnal colors was nice and meditative. We’ve enjoyed some slightly cooler mornings and lower humidity, lately, but it’s definitely not feeling like fall yet! It’s too soon to expect that, but we’ll get there, eventually.
I do like how the brown ink looks with those warm autumn colors! I need to try the ink in a different pen, if I can’t get comfortable using the short, stubby one.
Return of the Duke
The Duke 600 fude nib pen, that is.
After the leaves doodle, I wanted to go back to a more normal pen. I do think I prefer the Duke 600 to the new stubby pen.
I want to get better at doodling dogs. It’s not that I’m expecting or even trying to draw realistic dogs, but for someone who loves dogs, I don’t feel very comfortable doodling them, and it’s something I’d like to practice more. The only way to get better is to just do it more often, so I pulled up some illustrations on my phone to serve as references and reminders of different breeds and poses.
Then I just filled the page with silly, whimsical doodles of dogs. A bunch of balls and bones came later to take care of unwanted blank space.
The next day, I went back with light washes of watercolor to bring it to life.
I was surprised that the ink wanted to bleed a bit in a few spots, but then I remembered that this has happened before, with this ink. Sometimes it’s solid and steady, but other times it smudges slightly. I did a little reading online, and that seems to be the way it goes with this particular ink—Noodler’s Bulletproof Black.
In some cases, it’s pretty darn waterproof, but that can vary, depending on the paper used and the thickness of application. From what I gather, it’s probably more likely to smear even after drying when you’re using paper with sizing (such as watercolor paper) or when there’s ink that hasn’t had a chance to react to/bond with the paper. In other words, if there’s a big pile of ink (like with the thicker lines you can make with a fude nib), some of it might not actually make contact with the paper. It may seem dry, but it can be reactivated with water, paint, marker, etc.
Anyway! Because it seems to run only a bit, it’s not a big problem, most of the time—but after I use up what’s currently in this pen, I may switch to another black ink I already own and try the Noodler’s Bulletproof Black in a normal, fine-nibbed pen, where smudging may be less of an issue.
If you’re only using the ink as a last touch/top layer (not applying paint or water on top of it), this isn’t really a problem, and of course it’s also fine to use for writing.
I also used a little white acrylic pen in a few spots on the dog doodle.
With all its imperfections, I still had fun with this, and I’m happy with it. More doggy doodles are planned!
(And this confirmed that I love the Duke 600 pen. I really like the variety of line thickness it allows.)
Doodles: Lamp Edition
One item on my “might be fun to doodle” list was lamps. Starting with what was already on the ceramic palette, I ended up going for a theme of greens and teals, mixing more as needed. I didn’t look up any inspiration images of lamps, though that might be something worth doing another time, to get greater variety.
The next day, I used the Duke 600 to doodle details on top. I had thought I’d add some power cords and plugs to a few of the lamps, but in the end, it felt full enough without them. Maybe next time (if I do this again).
Is it strange to doodle a bunch of the same type of thing on one page, like this? I think it’s kind of fun to do, myself, and it makes as much sense as doodling flowers or faces or animals. One subject is as good as another, and household items are easy, because you don’t have to worry as much about getting proportions right. Who’s to say how a lamp is supposed to look? They can be any shape, size, or proportions you want. (That’s true for anything, really, but it feels easier to assert with manmade objects.)
More Lamps: Inktense Pencils
Ah, this reminds me that I’ve been up to something else since the last blog post—something that I haven’t mentioned yet. I’d been thinking that I’d like to get my color pencils (and water-activated pencils) out of their nice cases and tins and put them into cups on the table. If materials are where I can easily reach for them, I think I’ll be far more likely to actually use them.
With that in mind, I’d been collecting some large cans. Over the last week or so, I covered them with gel prints and other decorative papers I’d made for collage. I covered the top rims of the cans with kraft paper tape, to seal in any rough or sharp spots, and put a few halves of felt sticker dots on the bottoms to protect tables and desktops from scratches. For a final touch, I put a scrap of cotton batting into the bottom of each can, to cushion the pencils—and then I put them all out on the table and filled them with pencils.
They aren’t perfect (didn’t even try to line up the tape uniformly), but I like them, and they’re doing their job, making it easy to see what I have and access it without moving things around, unzipping zippers, searching for the right color pencil, and carefully removing it—not to mention reversing the process when I’m done!
All this to say that when it came time to make my second (facing) sketchbook page on the theme of “lamps”, rather than using ink and fountain pen, I opted for Inktense pencils, which are water-activated color pencils. You can use them like regular color pencils, but you can also treat them like watercolor pencils. They tend to be very vibrant when activated with water.
To create a page that would be at least somewhat harmonious with the previous page, I chose four different greens—blindly, without testing them on scrap paper. (I figured it didn’t matter that much whether or not they matched perfectly.)
I just quickly doodled some lamp shapes, filling them in with loose lines and scribbles. I planned to activate them with water, and I thought the lines might nearly disappear, so I didn’t worry much about the kind of lines I made.
Once the page was filled, I activated the pencil with plain water on a paintbrush. As it turns out, on this paper, the lines didn’t melt away as completely as I’d thought they might. You can make them disappear more by scrubbing at them a little harder (and applying the color differently to begin with), but this is cellulose paper (as opposed to cotton), so I didn’t want to be too rough with it.
Besides, I kind of like the look. The extra texture of those pencil lines adds interest.
This is just my personal opinion, but if you don’t like the “pencil texture”, why use pencils at all? Pan watercolor seems just as easy to use, if you want smooth washes of color.
I had thought I’d probably go over this page with some pen and ink for more detail, but now I’m not so sure. I might just leave it as-is.
While I was doodling away today, I heard the sound of breathing coming from an unusual direction… Luna found a secret spot between the table and the wall, hidden behind crates of yarn. She’s always been fond of tight spots—wedging herself into odd places and squeezing between the couch and the wall. Goofy little girl!
