How to draw fur & white whiskers in black ink (speed + realtime drawing)

How to draw fur & white whiskers in black ink (speed + realtime drawing)

by | Aug 5, 2025 | Pen and Ink

Hello friends! If you’ve received this in your email – please know this is the last post going out via RSS here. I’m moving my blogging to Substack – so you can either go subscribe over there, or if you receive my Creativity In Your Inbox newsletter, just keep up with me via that email every Saturday!

Thanks for being a subscriber here for so long…can’t wait to engage with you in a FREE LIVESTREAM on Substack this coming weekend!

Is this ink good for drawing?

Is this ink good for drawing?

by | Jun 17, 2025 | Pen and Ink

Sometimes there’s a thing you know, and you know you know it, but then for a time, you forget you knew it. Like, that you should really take the 30 seconds to find your umbrella in the closet, because you’ll regret it when the rain starts. Or you forget whether to put the eggs in before the water boils or after it’s rolling to make the perfect peelable egg. (I gotta google that EVERY time, even at my age!)

I re-learned something that I’ve told people before – years ago. I told them that because others I trust told it to me; but this time I might remember it because *I learned it myself.* 

Tutorial: Is this ink good for drawing?

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!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Inks

  1. Platinum Carbon Black Fountain Pen Ink
  2. Speedball Super black india ink BLICK  AMZ  JACKSONS 

To clean India Ink from a pen:

  1. Ph Martins Bombay Pen Cleaner BLICK  AMZ 
  2. Or Artisto cleaner at JACKSONS 

Fountain pen

  1. TWSBI Eco fountain pen EF
  2.  TWSBI Eco fountain pen F 
  3. TWSBI Eco fountain pen M  (the one I use most)

Paper

  1. Arches Bright White CP 22×30 sheet BLICK  JACKSONS

Color

  1. Daniel Smith Watercolors

Sheep

The sheep reference shows the sheep from slightly below him – looking up, perhaps at the top of a little hill.

Border Collie

The Border Collie reference has the black dog against a black background, so we have to look closely to work out the body shape and hidden foot.

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My hopes

I’d like to create a bunch of sketches this summer in this loose style for my friend to take with her to the sheep dog trials and see how they sell – and eventually to get brave enough to take wash and ink to my life drawing group. I usually work in pencil or charcoal so I can change the lines and make the head the right size or shorten that leg….drawing people is so intimidating but I keep working at it!

Perspective class coming soon for urban sketchers

The last “long” visit I had with my Mom, about a year before she died, was a special one. I was thinking about teaching the class I’m working on next….perspective for urban sketchers. I spent time with Mom driving around her old town to see the neighborhoods she knew; I was looking for doorways, windows, porches, stairs, etc. She’d sit in the car while I jumped out to take photos and shoot a little footage for the eventual class.

As she became more ill, I was less interested in creating that class, because it just made me so wistful. Once she passed, I couldn’t even look through the footage without crying. But I’ve been looking at it recently, and it’s bringing me back to the trip and the special time I had with her. So it’s underway, hopefully to launch in July.

If you want some other wash and ink classes – there are some fun ones on this page! A few examples: Powellswood Sketches for beginners wanting to do nature sketches with lovely footage from a garden near me; Wash and Ink to learn how to splooge some color then add the ink lines; and for those ready for an architectural deepdive, Market Street Sketches which is based on buildings in my Mom’s town.

Patch hatching, a tiny studio visitor, and a DISASTER (Pen and ink technique series #3)

Patch hatching, a tiny studio visitor, and a DISASTER (Pen and ink technique series #3)

by | May 13, 2025 | Pen and Ink, Watercolor

You might remember this drawing that I posted back on Easter weekend….I was so tickled with it, and wanted to find time to work on the rest of it. Well, I’ve been hard at it! Probably about 30 hours worth. My problem was….I forgot what I had planned to do with it, and started winging it. Things did not go well.

Tutorial: Patch hatching, a tiny studio visitor, and a DISASTER (Pen and ink technique series #2)

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!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Paper

  1. Crescent Hot press illustration board 

Dip Pen

  1. J Herbin Belle Epoque pen set 
  2. Nikko G nibs 
  3. Bombay Pen Cleaner: BLICK  AMZ 
  4. UK: Artisto Pen Cleaner 

Ink

  1. Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen Ink   AMZ

The problem

That border! Ugh. It began by not planning a border that would fit the character of the subject. I’m not certain I had a style in mind back at Eastertime – but I definitely don’t remember it now! I do know I had planned on using another inking technique, but that didn’t really happen – I was just doodling swirlies…with a totally different pen width, and that made the border significantly darker than the main image. And then I also had made the vertical borders on the sides a different value than the horizontals on top and bottom. Watercolor couldn’t fix that – and once I had tried, it was clear the border was NOT working. I had to get out an xacto knife and just remove it all!

The result

Not everything went badly – fortunately just that border this time. Once I lightened the load, watercoloring the bird was a joy! The background blue is all colored pencil. Want to try it yourself? Here’s the reference photo!

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The takeaways

  1. Stay present with your art. Don’t let deadlines or speed or anything else interrupt the process you’ve honed.
  2. Be willing to part with what’s not working. Letting a random idea (“a few weeks ago I had an idea that I forgot…”) take you off the rails isn’t worth chasing. It’ll come back.
  3. Learn everything you can from every piece of paper. Even if tossing it, use the empty space to practice the techniques you’ll need to repaint/redraw it. You’ll be better prepared!
Stippling has never been this easy. Or fast!

Stippling has never been this easy. Or fast!

by | Apr 29, 2025 | Fine Art & Sketching, Pen and Ink

I’ve always loved stippling! Yes it’s a lot of dots – but sometimes it’s just mesmerizing to create beautiful waves of value changing from darks to lights and back again.

But it takes SO LONG. Is there something to make that process easier?

 You bet! And it’s a surprising thing – the paper!

 

 

Bee Paper makes a stipple texture paper – it’s more bumpy than lots of other papers, and depositing pigment on the peaks can make it look like you’re making dots on it! I’ll show you how it works – and tell you a crazy little story about a fire that made me haul pads of paper all over the country since the 1989s!

Tutorial: Stippling has never been this easy. Or fast!

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!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Paper

  1. Bee Paper, Stipple Texture paper 9×12: BLICK  AMZ 
  2. Bee Paper, Stipple Texture paper 22×30: AMZ  (very expensive, but it’s full sheets!)

Drawing tools

  1. Sakura Micron Pigma Pens BLICK https://bit.ly/3yznw17 AMZ   JACKSONS 
  2. Black Prismacolor Pencil BLICK

Inspired by John Muir Laws

Years ago I’d seen a video about how to draw black and white images by John Muir Laws; my recollection is that people came to parks and he wanted them to go out and draw things, and he collected the drawings to print for something. A great volunteer opportunity!

But I remember he said he needed good black and white images, ones that were accurate as well as with some consistency between artists. And he recommended this paper for just those reasons. I was sold, even though I wasn’t working on his project – the stippling paper sounded fascinating!

My brain didn’t hang onto that very long; the paper arrived and, well, I looked at the it and realized I’d forgotten where I heard about it and what had inspired me to get it. The pad ended up in a box of pads of papers, and until I received the box of new goodies from Bee Paper, I’d just not gotten it out.

Fortunately JML came back to my memory – and a quick search led me to this post. Which led me to today’s little drawing!

Simple Supplies

In addition to the paper, I found out from John Muir Laws’ tutorial that my gut instinct to just use a graphite pencil wasn’t necessarily great. He recommended drawing the outlines of the object in a Micron pen, then a black colored pencil for making the “wash” for the dots.

I hadn’t thought about pens, and when I just scribbled with the graphite, I could see I’d end up with fuzzy edges. That’s because of the deep valleys in the paper pattern – a crisp edge requires a line that goes up and down into the texture. A pen with “wet” ink can travel into the valleys, without moving and blending around. Makes sense! 

I did find a few other tutorials out there with this paper, and they all celebrated the sketchy look without the crisp edges – a look which I’ll definitely try. But finding the JML tutorial reminded me of what I bought the paper for, and that’s making a drawing that’s a bit tighter.

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Value variance

A black colored pencil gives a nice smooth, consistent value with even an imperfect application of the pencil; it even works a little BETTER if it’s not super sharp so the pencil stays on the peaks of the paper! 

But to create value differences, let up on the pressure to let it get to a lighter value, and go over it a time or two in order to darken it. Lots of pressure won’t really help – but basically going over the same area again with the same pressure makes the amount of pigment on the peaks of the paper increase, making the dots appear bigger, therefore darker. While also retaining the texture.

Why might a stippled texture be helpful?

Especially if trying to print a drawing, crisp black vs white can make the very best prints; the greys that make beautiful transitions can be pushed darker or lighter by either a scan that interprets them wrongly for various reasons, or the printer that does the same. Some pigment is reflective, complicating how machines can render subtleties, and even your own phone’s camera has troubles interpreting very subtle value changes. 

But a piece of art with clear blacks and whites is a lot easier for machines to interpret!

As I’m working on a book I’ll eventually be producing, I may want to have some drawings that clearly show value transitions, and some of the drawings on this paper could really help in illustrating certain concepts. I’ll be keeping it in mind for which lessons may find this helpful!

If you’re interested in following along with my drawing book process, I’ve been sharing it with Patrons – you can find out more about it here. However for the next few months I’m changing things up to share a children’s book I’ll be illustrating; I can’t share everything but hopefully posting a little peek at something each week will help keep me motivated all summer! Different levels of patronage will get different numbers of posts, just like the drawing book, so you can choose how much of my inner thoughts you want to be bombarded with, lol! 

 

Bible journaling class

 I mentioned a class – and my new Fruit of the Spirit class is the one! It’s been a long while since I had a new one for Bible journalers, and I hope this one’s worth the wait. It’ all in colored pencil, and it’s level 3—but you can trace the images, so it’s not that scary. Lots of cutesie animals are in it! 

Pairing hatching and crosshatching (Pen and ink technique series #2)

Pairing hatching and crosshatching (Pen and ink technique series #2)

by | Apr 19, 2025 | Pen and Ink

How do you pair hatching with crosshatching? Is there a method to the madness? What direction should you go? How many crisscrosses can you use? Oh the questions! In this post I’ll talk about four differences you can achieve by using one technique or the other:

 

  1. Value
  2. Texture
  3. Pen Angle
  4. Line density

A few weeks ago I shared #1 in this Pen and Ink Technique series – that one was all about hatching. The kind without a crosshatch applied. (See When and How To Use Hatching)

Sometimes subject matter will dictate that. Or the texture of objects in the drawing. Or, ….well how you’re feeling that day. In the first in the series, I drew a bird using just hatching (plus outlines) – so I figured I’d do another flying friend and use both hatching and crosshatching together. Since it’s Easter weekend, I picked a bird with a spiritual association, a dove.

 

Difference in value

Above you can see some areas with just one set of lines, others with two sets – and when there’s one set, it’s a lighter “value” – the scale of black to greys to white. Squint at the drawing and you can see some of that difference.

Tutorial: Pairing hatching and crosshatching 

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!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Dip Pen

  1. J Herbin Belle Epoque pen set
  2. Nikko G nibs
  3. Crab pen holder

Maintenance

  1. Bombay Pen Cleaner: BLICK AMZ 
  2. UK: Artisto Pen Cleaner

Difference in texture

The wings have very distinct lines for the rachis (down the center of a feather) and the barb (pointing away from the rachis). Those can create almost graphical shapes as the feathers overlap and create darker shadowed shapes.

The body, though, has smaller, softer feathers, sleekly outlining the body. (Anyone else glad WE don’t have those?) 

So the difference between them can be handled with hatching for the soft feathered body, and crosshatching to create the darker, larger feathers of the wings.

Difference in pen angle

Many pen nibs – dip pens as well as fountain pens – can be used with the tip facing the normal direction or flipped upside down. Some will make the same width of line no matter the angle, but some will make a thinner line upside down. The NikkoG nib performs slightly different each way, so I can use that line weight to my advantage.

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Difference in line density

If lines are close together, you’ll get a darker value – but spread them out and get the appearance of a lighter grey. And if you need to fade it out to white, then slowly increase the distance between lines and watch the fade happen.

In utter silliness…Jet-Puffed jumped the shark?

I saw a news piece about people decorating marshmallows instead of expensive eggs this year…yikes! You can get this kit at Walmart though if the kids or grandkids need to do some art…

Pen and ink technique series #1: When and how to use hatching

Pen and ink technique series #1: When and how to use hatching

by | Apr 1, 2025 | Pen and Ink

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!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Dip Pen

  1. J Herbin Belle Epoque pen set
  2. Cheaper dip Pen
  3. Nikko G nibs 

Fountain pen

  1. TWSBI Eco fountain pen 

Tool

  1. Staedtler Mars Compass with universal adaptor BLICK  AMZ 

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….