Category Archives: dip pen

Lockdown #2: people (and birds)

Posted on May 16, 2020 by Ed Mostly

Given social distancing I’m having to be more resourceful to sketch my favourite subject… Here’s a 2m distanced supermarket queue, neighbours sat outside their front doors on VE day, a man doing tai-chi in the park, three Zooming sketchers watching … Continue reading →

Posted in Bath, dip pen, figures, line drawing, park, people watching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged lockdown sketching, sketching in Bath, tai chi sketch, The Clash, urban sketching, Zoom portraits | 5 Comments

To Spain…

Posted on May 4, 2019 by Ed Mostly

A fairly long post with the first of two sets of sketches from a recent trip. This is the Spanish batch, with the French ones to follow… The scene at Bristol airport, drawn from an upper level, the busy crowd … Continue reading →

Posted in airplane, airport, bamboo dip pen, clouds, dip pen, landscape, Spain, urban, urban sketching | Tagged airplane sketches, bamboo dip pen sketches, Big Train, Collsacabra sketches, L'Avenc, landscape sketches, urban sketching | 11 Comments

Some fillums…

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Ed Mostly

Trying out timelapse sketching, using this goose-neck camera mount and this type of GoPro camera (when it was even cheaper!) which has a 170 degree very wide-angle lens. The films are fun to do, and an interesting way to reflect on your … Continue reading →

Posted in bamboo dip pen, Bath, dip pen, from life, people watching, street scene, timelapse, urban, urban sketching, waterbrush | Tagged bamboo dip pen sketches, film of urban sketching, Franken-pen, sketching process, Teenage Fanclub, timelapse of sketching, urban sketching | 10 Comments

Improving a bamboo dip pen

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Ed Mostly

My current favourite mark-maker is a bamboo dip pen. I love the free-flowing lines that can wander around the page, and it’s great for ‘blind drawing’ of foliage, clouds etc. It delivers big juicy lines that can merge into forms if you … Continue reading →

Posted in bamboo dip pen, blind drawing, dip pen, kit, technique, urban, urban sketching | Tagged bamboo dip pen, bamboo dip pen reservoir, bamboo dip pen sketches, improving a bamboo dip pen, urban sketching kit | 21 Comments

Busy busy

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Ed Mostly

Sitting on the lawn in front of the Royal Crescent trying to sketch everyone that passes by during a sunny 20 minutes, sometimes just catching their feet, sometimes seeing them in the distance. It’s a sort of survey/sampling exercise, a bit messy, … Continue reading →

Posted in bamboo dip pen, Bath, dip pen, figures, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged bamboo dip pen, dip-pen sketching, John Barry, royal crescent, sketch of street in rain, sketch sampling movement, sketching in Bath, street scenes, urban sketching | 5 Comments

Island life

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Ed Mostly

Sketches from a recent trip to Grinda Island in the Stockholm archipelago; a couple of attempts to describe the ferry’s energetic wake; the view of nearby islands from our rocky peninsula with my daughter reading on a sunny ledge, drawn in bamboo … Continue reading →

Posted in art abandonment, bamboo dip pen, brush pen, clouds, dip pen, sea, Stockholm, waves | Tagged art abandonment, bamboo dip pen, Grinda Island, Marc Bolan, sketch of clouds, sketches of Stockholm archipelago, sketching waves | 7 Comments

En Route

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Ed Mostly

Two wide-angle train carriage views, one heading North to Manchester for the Symposium, and the other heading home. Both were done in a concertina sketchbook, and stretched across the table while I sketched. I asked the passengers if they were … Continue reading →

Posted in concertina sketchbooks, dip pen, figures, journeys, Manchester Symposium, panorama, trains, travel, urban, urban sketching | Tagged bamboo dip-pen sketch, Manchester Symposium, panoramic sketch, sketch in train carriage, Sketching on a train, sketching passengers, urban sketching | 2 Comments

Feather and tea

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Ed Mostly

A couple of sketches done using found/improvised resources during a trip to Grinda, the Stockholm island where I drew the 38 boats. The first was drawn using a dip-nib cut into the tip of a swan’s feather that I found (a bottle lid with … Continue reading →

Posted in dip pen, from life, holiday, inks, kit, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, pencil, technique | Tagged Band of Horses, cutting a quill nib, dip pen, Ferry views, Grinda, improvised sketching resources, Lexington grey, monochrome sketch, quill nib, sepia sketch, sketching from life, swan feather, tea as wash | 1 Comment

Hyacinth’s decline

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Bamboo dip-pen pen with dilute Lexington grey ink, water-brush with acrylic ink, A4 – two hours This is probably the last drawing there’ll be of the hyacinth that I’ve been documenting since Christmas. Although the leaves have now collapsed under their own weight and … Continue reading →

Posted in botany, death, dip pen, flowers, from life, inks, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome | Tagged bamboo dip pen, Beatles, brown acrylic ink, decline, dying flower, hyacinth, leaf shadows, Lexington grey ink, long leaves | Leave a comment

Hyacinth revisitted

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Bamboo dip-pen pen and water-brush, dilute Lexington grey ink, watercolour, A4 – 20 minutes each Once the hyacinth that I drew a few weeks ago was in full bloom the fragrance/smell became too much, so it went outside. It survived the recent … Continue reading →