Not only do you get the chance to polish your chops with different textures, but you can fudge a little while practicing with the pen. Especially with flower parts, your subject is usually so abstract to most viewers that you can get by with plenty of mistakes and, best of all, experimentation!
Have you ever actually seen grape blossoms? I hadn't, before I researched the imagery for the particular project, pictured below.
Turns out, not only are they incredibly phallic (made even more so by my orientation, to complement the curve of the leaping gazelle, chuckle...), but it's the type of imagery that I wouldn't even have considered in paint. Look at all the tiny details, in the close-up:
This would have been frustrating work with wet (and thereby drying) paint, on a flopsy brush tip. Yet, with ink and a tiny metal tip, the variations in line quality are endless, just like the whim of mother nature. I could make this kind of image with an ink pen on either a couple cups of coffee or a couple glasses of wine. In fact, either is essential, with some good music, to get through the monotony of all those tiny little marks. Gotta keep it exciting, or either the boredom will show in the final image or there will never BE a final image!
The monotony helps an artist learning the craft of pen & ink, as a matter of fact (and experience, sigh). The first try of a shiny, round seed, oozing out of a pomegranate fruit may be a disaster, but after 30 or 40?! By then, it's old hat. Mistakes are unavoidable, yet oddly desirable, since they are so inherent in this kind of work, and lend charm and nostalgia to the medium.
Do my markings really reflect the actual form of the pomegranate blossoms in the following image? How would you know, unless you have them growing in your backyard and gaze at them everyday, or maybe you cultivate pomegranates for your business, or possibly you have drawn them yourself, AND you happen to find my drawing? To any of those folks, I would say, "So nice to meet you, please help me with my next pomegranate drawing." On an ordinary day however, I am the expert!
On the other hand, we all know human faces pretty darn well and have the authority to know, "That's not a shadow, that's a beard!" Yikes.
But, when was the last time you actually saw a sleeping fawn, in real life? Even if you have seen one recently, did you study its fur, and could you disagree with my interpretation of the fur on the fawn, pictured below, that you have never seen yourself, personally? Nope. Or, if you could, I would like to talk with you about something other than fawn fur represented in pen & ink...
What kind of flower blossoms are these above? If I told you they were apple blossoms, could you argue? Would it really matter if you could? The fact is, the image is compelling in its own right, whether I nailed the flower forms of an apple blossom, or not. It's successful, even beautiful, to be debated all day I'm sure. But, I am much better armed for a critical debate on the meaning of beauty than perfecting an apple blossom drawing, so bring it on!
And now, back to human faces and draping cloth. I'm nervous already, but my skills are sharper now!
