Prickly Pins and Perfect Pens

Dear Sarah - Day 86 of our daily drawing exchange

Dear Sarah -
March 27, 2025

Today I decided to go back to basics with pencil, paper and common objects… Push pins! They are surprisingly complicated little devils with interesting curves and straight pointy bits. Even though they are identical, they are clearly not the same in my drawing! Proportions aren’t quite right and even the slight change in how each is lying threw me for a loop when it came to turning them through space and capturing them on the page.

Each of the specimens has something about it that works, and something that definitely doesn’t. Another good lesson in really looking and trying hard to draw what’s there and not what I think it should look like.

See you tomorrow -

Nikki

Hi Nikki,

My 36-pack of watercolour brush pens arrived today, which is just what I needed on another grey day. I tried out every pen, as you can see, and experimented a bit with using them with a brush. I love the stained glass/Mondrian effect on the grid and can see all sorts of possibilities for future drawings. Also, I found the perfect container for them--a purse of my mom's that we used to call "the creel." Photo attached.

I also signed up for an online drawing class called Drawing Your LIfe. The artist is Toronto-based and it's all delightfully low tech. Filmed in his bedroom, and using only three tools: a Sakura ink pen, a Tombow water brush pen and a small sketchbook. I don't have the water brush pen yet (and had no idea such things existed) but the grid that I used for today's drawing was the first exercise in the class: Drawing straight lines by focusing on where the line is going, and using your elbow and shoulder (rather than just your hand) to keep things loose. We then did circles. I was tempted to just keep going with the course, but decided to pick up where I left off writing this morning.

XO
S