I’ll be working through a series on pen and ink techniques in 2025 – starting today with the simplicity of hatching, and a couple ways to use it. Be sure to let me know which technique you’d like to see employed next (see my older technique video later in this post)
Today’s project is the cover of my Phenology book…with my new little pen holder – just look at crabbie’s strong claws! ha…
Tutorial: When and how to use hatching
Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!
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Dip Pen
Fountain pen
Tool
The big idea
I sketched out the idea loosely – a dark eyed junco sitting in a lilac bush, and in the background is a series of lilac branches showing how it blooms out. It was very complex so I knew I’d need to handle the pen and ink work carefully so it wouldn’t become a confusing cacophony.
Varying value
Two things helped me achieve value changes. One was line weights; using the thin Nikko nib for background/lighter images, contrasting it with the heavier line from the medium fountain pen nib. The second was the hatching techniques themselves, creating darker areas using more lines to fill in the darker portions in the bird and toward the front of the drawing.
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The phenology book
Since I’ll be demonstrating at a show this coming weekend, I wanted to be able to take the March wheel with me since it was created with the markers I’ll be demonstrating. But just carrying a wheel by itself wouldn’t really help explain just WHAT a phenology wheel is – and I’d love to get more people doing them – so I thought completing the book so people could see more examples would help.
The pen and ink drawing techniques video…
This video has been getting more views over the last year than any of my videos at all – I expect it’ll be my most-watched very soon. That’s what’s inspiring this series! If there are techniques seen here that you’d like to see me address in a drawing, let me know which you vote for!
Crabbie is so proud
He looks so heroic, doesn’t he? Or maybe he’s ready to kill the bird, for those who have a darker view of the world….
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