Dip pen doodles

Being a fan of ballpoints for drawing I thought I'd try out the "real thing" and got hold of a dip-pen handle and two nibs (they cost next to nothing). I already had some ink that's been sitting in my art box for years. Amazingly it's still 100% perfect. :)

Over the course of the last couple of days I created a couple of doodles. One of them is the picture above. A doodle is indeed all it is - I just picked up the pen and idly started tracing shapes and let the pen decide what they would become. The tree was drawn on a bit of white card.

Media: Dip pen with Hiro Leonardt 6H nib. Windsor & Newton inks and a small brush.

Mugabe ballpoint sketch

I had this great idea for a political cartoon featuring Zimbabwe's infamous leader, Robert Mugabe. Unfortunately, while I was sketching out the idea I got a bit carried away and almost a couple of hours later I had created this.

I'm not going to bother doing a critique on it for two reasons:

1) It was never meant to exist. It was supposed to be a quick ten minute sketch to base a cartoon on and to be honest I actually quite like it (even if the subject is a scumbag).

2) I'm trying to be more positive about my art work in the future. I've realised that my negative attitude to my work has been responsible for my lack of creative output.

2008 Doodle 1 - Army Guy

I suppose this is the first doodle or sketch of 2008. I've not been too productive on the artistic front due to a number of things. I'm hoping to get this under control and be playing with my ballpoint pens more.

I was making a shopping list (so I didn't buy a bunch of stuff I didn't really need) when I got sidetracked and doodled this guy at the bottom of it. Then I finished the list and went shopping.

It's funny when creativity hits you. :)

This was done with a crappy generic ballpoint that I'd picked up somewhere. It wasn't a very nice pen to write with, let alone draw with. Ah well. I didn't really notice when I was doodling.