Portraits At The Pub 45: Daisy

Daisy (detail), Portraits At The Pub 46, Technical Pen and wash, A4 Daler Graduate Mixed Media Pad.

Not so sure of the portraits from this session – it’s always difficult to get a good likeness, but then again it’s not always about likeness either – my favourite from this session looks nothing like Daisy – the technical drawing featured – she actually looked more like the fountain pen drawing on the right below.

Daisy, Portraits At The Pub 46, Fountain Pen and wash, A4 Fabriano Mixed Media sketchbook.

Daisy, Portraits At The Pub 46, Fountain Pen and wash, A4 Daler Graduate Mixed Media Pad. — Daisy, Portraits At The Pub 46, Fountain Pen and wash, A4 Fabriano Mixed Media sketchbook.

Rather like the ink brush piece – using my new-ish synthetic mop brush, and I think I used the same ink for the quick technical pen piece. I also gave a go at a free watercolour…happy with the dungarees, less so the face – I made her more angrier than she is!

Also colour is real problem in the pub, they have these constantly shifting disco lights which shift colours, so you really have to paint what might be there rather than what’s in front of you as it’ll will cycle around to something else in a few seconds.

Daisy, Portraits At The Pub 46, Fountain Pen and wash, A4 Fabriano 25% Cotton Watercolour Sketchbook

But my face has to be this loose, quite abstract drawing, even though I am not totally happy with the proportions, I tend to work better quicker. Also this is an older style of mine, used a few times in life drawing but generally I avoid that much lines, it’s closer to my pencil drawing and we all know how that turned out.

But here it works, unlike fountain pen the technical style pen means I can just draw – which has it’s benefits and drawbacks (it’s easy to overdraw, as fountain pens are more considered and slower). I must explore more with this method again, now I feel I have more control with it.

Daisy, Portraits At The Pub 46, Pilot V7 Technical Pen refilled with fountain pen ink and brush wash, A4 Daler Graduate Mixed Media Pad.

The pen is a Pilot V7 Hi-Techpoint Refillable Cartridge pen which you can get pretty cheaply – very cheaply sometimes, check out ASDA, Wilko, WHSmiths/larger stationers or your larger local supermarket if they stock them, I have found these as cheap as £1/2 each with cartridges! Mine is hacked to not only have ink inside the body (an eyedropper mod) but also to use permanent fountain pen ink.

You could probably do this with the standard ones, but it is harder to get those open, whereas the cartridge versions are not only 71% recycled plastic, they are designed to be opened. It works just fine every time, no problems, even if you don’t use it for months.