ffyrebird

Meercat

Today a mere scribble of a meercat............

More fish!

Here is a quick watercolor sketch made from a photo taken on one of our trips to the zoo this summer;

Reflexions sketchbook

The Reflexions wirebound sketchbook might be a total failure with pen and ink, but it does work well for pencils and dry media.  This is a quick sketch with a Shorty pencil, 7B lead.

Reflexions wirebound sketchbook

Below are a few more experiments in the Reflexions wire-bound sketchbook.  The top one is my first attempt at using the paper- vintage Conklin Crescent fountain pen, Noodler's ink.  The paper fuzzed and clogged the nib, the wash was unpredictable on the absorbent paper, and the brown ink separated out into odd colors.

The next try was with a Pentel brown brushpen.  Obviously, it avoided the fouled nib problem, but doing a wash on this paper was a failure.

Reflexions trial

I've been trying out a Reflexions wirebound sketchbook lately.  I'm not very pleased with it.  The paper is soft and resembles blotting paper.  The fibers catch on the nib of my fountain pens so I won't be using my fave vintage pens with this book.  A Sailor pen with the Zoom nib is the only fountain pen that doesn't grab the paper fibers.  Adding a wash to pen and ink also is a problem for this book.  The paper is so absorbent that a wash spreads in weird ways along the fibers.  The Noodler's ink I love to use in my fountain pens separated out into odd colors on this paper also- strange greens and blues from the brown ink.  The goose below was a fast test sketch/journal blurb done with the Sailor pen, zoom nib and Noodler's pecan (beaver?) ink.

Comet moon

The other night the moon was full and I was struck by the way the clouds surrounding the moon made it look like a comet.  I tried to paint it from memory.........