What do you do your art with?

My key starting point for this art journey was in June 2015 when I visited a shop on London, bought myself an A5 pad and two fineliner pens.

So, there you are in 2015 I started with fineliner black pens in two nib widths. I was too nervous to try colour at the time. So my work was pen and ink based sketching. This linked back to my drawing in ink at university (see Who is AndyKnillArt? Post). It also of course linked to drawing diagrams by hand at work for 28 years of teaching. I was never confident with brushes in art at school and my fine decorating skills are just not good.

During 2015 on a sketching trip in London I discovered Cass Art – an expensive discovery over time. In addition sketch trips with the Urban Sketching London group day meet ups. Colour was available in pen format and I bought my first ProMarkers – made at the time by Letraset whose lettering transfer sheets I had used poorly in my Uni cartography course. it was set 1 with black marker- 12 colours and a blender (I didn’t have a clue about that at the time).

The die was set.

My aim with sketching was to unwind, relax, switch off from work. I was not allowed to try for perfection and errors should be included in any piece – pen was great for this as no erasing option and at the time, less to carry.

So since 2015 I have drawn in fineliner pens from a range of manufacturers and a range of nib sizes. Unlike the refillable Rotring pens of Uni days that would leak or block these reduced mess and although not refillable were easy to use from first opening. When I draw in colour I still do my initial drawing in fineliner and then add colour.

So I am an artist that draws.

Have I tried any other types of art method?

Yes, Anne, my wife, and I attended sessions with The Art Workshop in Swanage led by our friend Suzanne Dominy. The aim an introduction to different techniques in art. My acrylic paintings with a brush, you could see what they were I suppose but no great shakes and nothing I would really try to sell. I did enjoy Lino printing and would like to investigate this more going forwards and possibly other types of printing.

I like drawing and I am going to stick with that.I have diversified in that I have drawn on a number of different surfaces including paper, card, wood and items of clothing including hats (ok, pith helmets and fancy dress versions of them), boiler suits and bib and braces.

In future blog posts I will explore techniques with pen and ink drawing and also what techniques can be used with ProMarkers. Since the first lockdown in 2020 I have also been using Uni Posca paint markers on some wooden pieces and hats as they give a brighter, more lightfast finish.

Any readers who use markers I would love to swop ideas on subject matter and techniques.

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