Scratching the Surface

Some days I draw just for the joy of mark-making, to pull a mark across paper, to feel the drag, the resistance, the imperfection of the line. Drawing with less familiar tools is a little frustrating: they don’t work like I think they will, they don’t hold ink, they bend and snap… But it also makes me really aware of the marks I make.

This first piece is sketched with a feather on a rough toothed paper. I added a posca marker and colored pencil to the mix, but all the linework is with a feather or with smudgy marks made with my fingers.

And here I substituted the feather with a bamboo pen.

Sketching the redwood trees, I use a twig (see it in the photo?) I find on the ground nearby. It feels more connected to the trees than my plastic pen. Most of the color is added with a small metal palette knife.

Do you use any tools besides pencils and pens? I’d love to hear about them.