Artist pens

Here is a post for members of my sketch club who wanted more info about artist pens.  (I am not covering fountain pens because they are a totally different critter and require their own post.). If I post something without visuals, no one will read the post, so enjoy the sketches. 😂

First rule of thumb, buy a pen that contains permanent ink or your sketch will die a slow fading death…..

Bic pens are awesome to use for sketching but as anyone who has left a post it on the wall knows….Bics can fade, especially if left out in the light. They are great fun to sketch with so I usually use them in my morning pages.

Sharpie “permanent” markers are NOT permanent, so don’t get that baseball autographed with a sharpie, let alone sell a sketch that you used a sharpie to draw a subject.

One of the better inexpensive pens is the Uni-Ball Vision Fine point…the dream pen of Tommy Kane.  I was using the Copic Multiliner SP until I picked up the Uniball.  They are easier to get (no long drives to Dick Blick) and you won’t have a heart attack if you lose them because they don’t cost an arm or a leg.  They hold up to watercolor and Tombows.

There is also acrylic paint markers that is a niche that started small but now Liquitex and Winsor Newton and others have joined in.  They aren’t cheap so keep those coupons handy! Pictured are the Liquitex and Molotow.  The Molotow has been on the market for a while. Molotows are also refillable.  Not a very large selection of colors  but they have a divine neon orange.


Sharpie also makes paint pens.  The waterbased ones don’t give you a headache but the color selection isn’t so great.  The white is handy for adding highlights.

Pitt Pens by Faber Castell come in a large range of colors, sizes and are permanent, lightfast and waterproof.

Copic sketch markers are dual tipped.  Alcohol markers are not usually permanent so be aware of that when using these.

Uniball Signo White pen is awesome for white highlights.

Copic Multiliner SP is permanent and I used to use these all the time.

Gel pen by Jelly Roll. Lots of fun colors!

Tombow – lightfastness is questionable, but for sketches and things to be scanned, smooshing around with a waterbrush, they are fun!  I might have to carry these instead of watercolors!

An itty bitty zombie doll

For this much of this sketchbook, I pulled my daughter’s dolls out of the attic.  (Then I wound up in a project organizing all of it)

Here is the doll that shares the spread with the creepy Sktchy doll: (it’s an American Girl doll, also, note the Teddy Bear she is holding)


Below is what the opened page looks like. There is a “tab” page with the Teesha sketchbooks that you can either tear off or use.  I chose to use it for this sketchbook.  I put a Stephen King quote on it.

Fundraiser Painting

Taking a break from Zombie dolls to do this post….

 I was honored to be asked to paint during the Dia de los Muertos Celebration, a fundraiser for our local historical cemetery.  I frequently sketch and paint at the Lakeview Cemetery, so I was more than happy to donate my time and a painting for a good cause. 

The morning of the event, John and I went out Fire Island so I could take a sunrise photo of the lighthouse.


I took several photos and decided on this one.  The next step was to sketch several thumbnails, cropping the photo to determine the best view to paint. 


After I picked my favorite, I sketched the image on the pastelbord so that once I set up at the event, all I had to do was to start painting.


And here is the painting before it went home to it’s new owner:

Zombie doll from Sktchy

Ok. So by now you are all wondering how this got started.  I wanted to work on a project for Halloween. Last year, I took an internet workshop with Leslie Wood.  I saw her Little Deads in Art Journaling magazine and drooled.  I took the class, and Leslie encouraged us to create our own characters.  I saw a few dolls people posted on Sktchy and decided that spoofing dolls would be the perfect theme.  This was the first doll I finished.  I still have 5 pages to do.

The doll theme has me attic diving for my daughters old dolls.  In the process of doing this, I am reorganizing her doll stuff and giving them some TLC.  In the days to come, some of her dolls are being zombied.

The book is the 16 page Teesha Moore style that I had started several years ago with the intent of trying her collage technique.  Instead, I used it for this project.  I originally used watercolor, then took the book apart and added a little acrylic splashed over it for interest.  The orange and violet (Daniel Smith moonglow) are the background.  Probably some DS indigo, as well.  Leslie’s layering technique has repurposed many of my pages that I thought weren’t working.  I used Leslie’s technique over collage and I did a bunch of portraits in November last year with this technique.  I also use this technique in my regular sketchbooks to pre-prep pages before I go out and sketch.   Then I do sketches over the acrylic. Fun!

Here is today’s zombie doll.  This doll was posted on Sktchy and I used the photo as inspiration.

Here is the link to Sktchy and the doll, you have to swipe my image to see the original:

http://sktchy.com/wVeUUD

Below is a link to Part 1 of Teesha’s You Tube on how to make the journal.  There are two parts so make sure you watch both!

Here is the Little Dead class for the layering technique:

https://coursecraft.net/c/dayoflittledeads/splash

Zombie dolls

What do I do for fun?

Lately, I have been working in this Teesha Moore style sketchbook.  I started with a 22×30 sheet of watercolor paper and I actually painted it several years ago with watercolor on both sides.  I had used Halloween kitchen towels as my inspiration, then cut the sheet up for the Teesha Style journal.  It sat in my drawer for a few years until I thought of doing zombie dolls.  To smoosh the watercolor a bit, I went over the pages with acrylic, then I added my dolls.  As you can see, this is 3 page spread. 

These three zombie dolls are naughty siblings.  They make Pugsley and Wednesday Addams seem like saints.

The orange is cadmium orange watercolor.  It’s really bright, even when photographed.

Inktober Days 24 through 31

Here is the final week of Inktober 2017

For me, Inktober 2017 was not about being “popular” or creating works of art.  I believe that creating art, even in sketchbooks, is about finding myself, my voice, my style, and not following the herd.  I didn’t care if I got a lot of “likes” when I originally posted these on Sktchy.  It was about my own challenge of doing short timed sketches first thing in the morning, experimenting with colored ink instead of using watercolor or another media to add color, using a waterbrush to spread the ink to create values.  It was about practice and finding ways to work quicker when I am out sketching in public.  It was about perfecting and tweaking my ideas of interpreting the prompts and finding ways of manipulating the media.  To not get hung up on being perfect, to create more art and less representation.  

Most of the sketches were done in my morning pages in a box that I draw on the page and reserve for sketches.  This is why some have a color “frame” around them.

Enjoy these final Inktober 2017 sketches.