 I'm doing my second major project with Faber-Castell's Pitt Pens, and I'd like to share what I'm learning so far. Lisa Clough of Lachri Fine Art's YouTube channel introduced me to these fabulous markers. According to Lisa, these are the only lightfast markers on the market, meaning they're the only markers that won't fade when exposed to light in "museum conditions." I saw on the package itself that these markers are actually India Ink in pen form. I thought that was a little fun fact. I’m using Strathmore’s 500 series paper with the Plate texture for this. I wasn't sure what I would be getting when I ordered this paper. I was disappointed at first because it's so smooth, I didn't think it would work with the graphite I normally use. I thought it was perfect for pen and ink, though. It soon became clear that when I’m mixing with these markers, the order in which I put down my colors really matters. Orange plus brown plus blue, for example, does not yield the same result as orange plus blue and brown. When I work with these, I keep a piece of sketching paper nearby so I can test out different color combinations.  I struggled with making straight edges. Obviously, if I moved the marker back and forth a lot, the edge looked fuzzy, but if I moved it straight up and down, whatever I was drawing looked obviously outlined. I learned that to make natural-looking straight lines, I needed to move my marker in a vertical motion while making small circles. I was thinking about getting some of these markers in wider tips. It’s a bit frustrating trying to fill in several square inches of paper with a nib an eighth of an inch wide. My search didn’t turn up any truly thick nibs in the line, though. That’s the only con I found with them so far.
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This past spring, I took a class in Sumi-e ink painting with my aunt and uncle and while taking it, I noticed some interesting and significant differences between Western and Eastern style art. Besides the materials, there'sthe type of stroke used. Most strokes in Western-style art are what I can best term static strokes. By that, I mean strokes that are the same from start to finish. In Western art, we draw an object, that is, outline the shape, and then fill it in, using a series of static strokes. On the other hand, the type of stroke used in Eastern-style art is what I’ll call the dynamic stroke. Unlike the static stroke, the dynamic stroke changes from start to finish. It can start thick and get thin or start thin and get thick. It can begin skinny, get wide, and get skinny again. So, in Eastern art, the artist often does not outline and fill in but paints an object, say a leaf, using one dynamic stroke. I learned to paint a petal using the Sumi-e technique. You load up your brush with paint or ink. You lightly press the tip to the paper, and here’s the tricky part: gently roll the brush to one side while keeping the tip as still as possible. If you do this just right, and I haven’t mastered it, you can get a two-tone look by loading your brush with white and then dipping just the tip of it into another color, such as red. As you roll your brush with the tip stationary, the stroke will be red on the small end and white on the fat end, giving you a red-tipped petal. Below are some paintings I made in the class. I'm working on painting a penguin underwater and I want it to be smooth, almost like glass. To create this look, I painted light greenish blue to start. When that was dry, I glazed green even more thinly so the blue would show over that. By letting the blue show through my layer of green, I create the look of light coming through the water.  I used this same technique to paint the seaweed. I painted them green to start, then lightly layered blue over them.  Your bottom layer must be dry before you paint over it. You’ll take it off when you apply your second layer if it isn't. Your second layer needs to be thin enough to let your top layer show, and the color of it really shouldn’t be noticeable. Blend out the edges of your top layer as much as possible. You only want to be able to see the effect it’s giving.
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