5PM Challenge 70-87

The virus hangs like a dark cloud over this set of work from my daily challenge – in fact one of the last pieces I did in the last set of highlights was about COVID-19, just as the first set of lockdowns were coming in, and I was in semi-isolation, avoiding London. Oh how little we knew then! I was going to end the series in March or April, as it was intended as a winter exercise…but it got a reprieve as I needed something to keep me working, and something to do on my ‘exercise breaks’. Indeed as all my life and portrait sessions were cancelled, it along with Inktober52 became my only creative outlet.

So my world became smaller, more local and basically the river and the odd place near me, like Richmond Park or Bushy Park.

So here are some highlights in very dark times….

The Rower (Night Work), 5PM Challenge 72, Sailor Fude pen with Sketchink and Brush with Scabiosa, Diamine Registrar and Koh-I-Noor Blue and Black Document Ink, A5 Bockingford paper.

And I found sometimes the less crowded times were at night – so the night series returned – here are some ink or ink and watercolour pieces done at night or near night (sunset). One day I forgot my watercolour so used it as an exercise in just using fountain pen inks – hence ‘The Rower’ above. I was surprised at the range of colours I could get by mixing them. Just need a brown/yellow one. The experiments with fountain pens and ink continued.

These Days, 5PM Challenge 76, Sailor fude pen with Hero 234 ink and watercolour, A5 Bockingford Pad.

Also there was some windy grey days before the sunshine came to spite us, which resulted in the ‘Benched’ watercolour further down the page, and this angsty ink piece, where I was taking out my anger by just throwing and splashink on the page:

Dark And Lonely Water (Both Panels), 5PM Challenge 73, Fountain pens, Pentel Brush Pen and pump fineliner pen with Diamine Registrar, Hero 234, Liquid Indian, Scabiosa and Koh-I-Nor Inks, A5 pad.

During this my long-awaited Fountain Pen Revolution pen arrived from America. Caught in the midst of the Coronavirus cancelling of flights, it took 6 weeks to get here, the company never answered my emails, I got grief when I mentioned it on the Fountain Pen reddit (got accused of being a sociopath and not caring about the thousands dying just for wondering what was up. Yeah, the ‘New Normal’ of COVID is bad customer service it seems, even when the virus doesn’t eat emails?) AND I got an extra £16 surcharge from Her Majesty’s Customs for the pleasure! It ended up being a REALLY expensive pen.

But actually it is a really good pen despite all the stress – as you can see from many of the drawings on this page. The closest you’ll get to a dip pen in a fountain pen form – I just really hope nothing happens to it or I don’t need any parts, cos not going through all that again. :-/

The drawing of Kingston Market Hall was a new one for me, I usually avoid architectural drawings but I’ve been forcing myself to draw more technically and accurately, and despite the wonkiness, this was a real step forward for me.

My Sailor Fude de Mannen pen also arrived from Japan, which also took 6 weeks but I was expecting that. I was glad of these care packages from past me, actually! I really recommend this Fude pen, the nib is really smooth, I’d get the 55 degrees but it’s a world ahead of the cheap Chinese fude pens. The pen portrait wasn’t completely for the daily challenge but to my mind was linked as it was done shortly after the Flotsam 1 & 2 still life drawings of flowers that someone had left on the decking.

Kaseem Pen portrait, Sailor fude pen with Hero 234 ink, A5 pad

Kingston Market Hall, 5PM Challenge 77, FPR Himalaya V2 Ultraflex Pen and Lotte Sketchink, A4 pad. — Kaseem Pen portrait, Sailor fude pen with Hero 234 ink, A5 pad

As lockdown meant traveling on buses was out I had to work locally, so that meant the river mostly, which was a boon for this project that usually doesn’t get all these watercolours. The A5 Bockingford and Fabriano Classico pads were ideal for the time when I didn’t know if the police would come and attack me for sitting and drawing…in fact I still don’t know if they would – all the work here was done with that in the back of my mind. And isolation – finding places away from people is hard on Queen’s Promenade at the best of times, but in these worst times it’s a matter of safety.

So you will see a lot of work in almost my back yard ‘Strictly Private’ in the car park that used to be the garden of the house I live in, ‘Benched ‘ was painted in a bicycle park next to the Ginger Bees cafe, cos it was set back from the path. ‘Curious Goose’ was at the landing of Raven’s Ait, with very chilled geese eating next to me and again, away from people. And ‘Not One Of The Poplar Gang’ was painted on a 2 metre landing, away from the cyclists who even now insist on risking your life by whizzing by within social distance (see also joggers…you can’t outrun a virus!).

Benched, 5PM Challenge 74, Sailor De Fude Mannen Fountain Pen with Hero 234 ink and watercolour, Bockingford A5 pad.

The Curious Goose 5PM Challenge 82, Watercolour and fountain pen, A5 Fabriano Classico pad. — Benched, 5PM Challenge 74, Sailor De Fude Mannen Fountain Pen with Hero 234 ink and watercolour, Bockingford A5 pad.

And here is the series I am most proud of – it doesn’t really have a name, I guess a subset of the ‘River Man’ series and indeed I posted a few of these before – indeed one of the drawings part of this series isn’t a 5PM Challenge, the one of Kingston Bridge, but there is more in this series I have created since. These were mostly inspired by a new Seawhite A4 sketchbook which I love greatly and the Himalaya pen.

And indeed one I’ve not posted to Instagram yet, ‘Heron (Clattern Bridge)’ which is the featured image of this post.