Recently I discussed studying the
styles and techniques of artists I admire, and utilizing their techniques to
help develop my own special style. I am currently working on a new piece of
work – this one a pen and ink drawing. I’m trying to increase my repertoire of
Home Portraits and Historical Buildings art by adding pen and ink drawings to
the watercolor and colored pencil paintings. By having more options for clients
to choose from I hope to increase the chances of getting more commissions.
It’s been a long time since I did
pen and ink work and, as with anything I work at, I first do some research on
the subject. In this case it was to look up pen and ink work that I really
liked, to study their styles and to use that as a basis for producing my own
work. In my online search I came across three pen and ink artists that
impressed me with their architectural drawings. I’m sure there are a great many
more but these three provide plenty of inspiration. They are Ron Colgrove, Cliff
Minor and Melissa Tubbs.
Ron Cologrove’s work impressed me
the most and his pen and ink drawings were the ones I looked at the most when I
was preparing mine. Although all the artists have tight styles when it comes to
architectural renderings, Ron’s was a bit looser. He uses a crow quill pen with
a size 102 tip, equivalent to the 3X0 Rapidograph tip made by Koh-I-Noor. Ron
wrote two very fine articles describing his technique and references can be
found for them on his website colgrovefineart.com. The crow quill point is
flexible and allows for a variation in line thickness which I like. His
rendering of the Butler House in Buffalo,
NY was done in a very tight
style. However, two other renderings of his I love are Kelly’s Place and Water
Mill Reflections, and those were done in a looser, more painterly style rather
than a technical style. Both of these drawings are pen and ink and watercolor.
Even with the watercolor added, much of the tonal work seems to be done with
pen and ink.
Cliff Minor (cliffminor.com) is an
architectural renderer from Boone,
NC, who still uses traditional
methods to prepare architectural images – pen and ink and watercolor. Other
architectural illustrators are beginning to use computer generated drawings.
Although beautiful, I personally don’t call them art. I’m still a
traditionalist also, preferring to use my hands and a brush or pen or pencil to
create. Placing a computer between my hand and the paper seems so impersonal.
Cliff’s style is also tight when it comes to buildings but he has, perhaps, the
loosest style with trees and shrubs and landscaping. I like his handling of the
surroundings because they are supporting elements and require less detail work.
They are more “painterly”, as in the free flowing watercolor style. In his
“watercolor added” drawings he seems to depend more on the watercolor to give
tonal variety and shading. Very artistic. Unfortunately I was unable to find
out what instruments of the trade Cliff uses in his line drawings.
The tightest style of the three
goes to Melissa Tubbs (melissabtubbs.blogspot.com). Her handling of pen and ink
yields nearly photographic work. There is a high degree of detail in both her architectural
and landscape elements. Her blog includes the words “ink architecture”. I’m
amazed at the level of detail in her drawings. I keep samples of her work
around just to show me what is possible. Her drawings are all black and white,
no watercolor added. If I was to specialize in pen and ink, she would be at the
top of the list of styles to emulate. Melissa also does pencil drawings, and
portraits, both human and pets. I was also unable to find out what instruments
she uses to produce her drawings.
If you’re interested in improving
your pen and ink work or just want to see some awsome drawings, check out these
three artists.
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