Friday, October 2, 2015

Using the Right Tool


Canson Art Book, 9" x 12"
Watercolor with a flat brush

Calligraphers use broad edge pens to produce wonderful "thicks and thins" in writing, taking advantage of the fact that the pen makes a broad stroke when moving down, and a thin stroke when moving up.   (Joanne Sharpe, for example, says "let the pen tool do the work for you", in her course "Letter Love".)  Not surprisingly, calligraphers also use flat wash brushes in ingenious ways with watercolor, not only to write in the same way, but also to draw.  

In the meeting last week at the Westcoast Calligraphy Society, a talented artist taught us how to use a flat brush and watercolor to make Christmas cards.  It wasn't the first time that I have learned some of these strokes, but the application to a pine cone struck me as particularly ingenious.  Not too long ago, I spent 1/2 an hour meticulously drawing a pine cone in pen.  These took 5 minutes! 

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