"White Ink"

My understanding is that white ink isn't really a true ink, as inks are always transparent and so white ink must have something added to it to make it opaque. Like acrylic binder.

With that out of the way:

I add light values to pen & ink drawings in a number of ways: colored pencil, gouache with a brush, and lately I have been trying some white gel pens.

I want a white I can use with a dip pen and brush, and so have been hunting for something that clicks with me. (Gouache out of a tube won't work well with a dip pen nib.)

The top "clouds" were applied with a No. 2 Robert Simmons Expression synthetic round brush.

The linear marks were made with one of my all-time favorite and most-used nibs, an Esterbrook 988:

Esterbrook 988 in a Koh-I-Noor holder.

My conclusion?

They all felt serviceable with brush and dip pen. I could make do with any of them if I had to. I think the Daler-Rowney flowed the best in the dip pen, And the cloud it produced has the most subtleties.

This drawing shows the effect of a dip pen putting in the light value lines:

 (I think the dark lines were a fine line marker)

Lincoln Park Zoo visit

I went to Lincoln Park Zoo recently to sketch. (Color on some of these was added at home.)

(various combinations of pencil, ink, watercolor and gouache.)

Stork standing over the nest

Kenya Crested Guineafowl

Field Museum outing 2/05/2016

I went back to The Field Museum last week, mostly staying in the bird area and working in a Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook.

marker and gouache

Pheasant-Tailed Jacana and Parasitic Jaeger

colored pencil

Great Black-Backed Gull

marker

White-Tailed Deer

Field Museum outing 1/13/2016

I took advantage of a free day (for Illinois residents) and went to the Field Museum last week, with art supplies in hand. I worked as fast as I could, not stopping for lunch, and got 3 pieces done (or started).

marker in Strathmore toned tan sketchbook with white gouache

I have always marveled at the massive antlers of the Irish Deer skeleton they have on display.

(I added the gouache highlights at home)

watercolor and gouache

I started this in watercolors and struggled as I do not have 3 hands and did not bring any kind of easel, so I took it a good bit farther at home.

pencil in Strathmore toned tan sketchbook

This is either a Blackbock Antelope or an Indian Gazelle

Figure Drawing (at the zoo)

Yesterday I finally did something i've been meaning to do for a while. I went to the zoo and drew animals from life. I have been drawing a lot from photographs, but there's nothing like the challenge of drawing a living, moving creature in front of you (that doesn't know you want it to stay still). The ostrich was the hardest, as I liked one particular head position it went into, and I had to keep waiting until it did it again.

An alpaca that everyone kept identifying as a llama (understandably)