Pen and Ink Drawing

It's been a while since I have worked with pen and ink, it was a surprise to find one of the classroom models that I made for that unit. It is kind of neat to revisit work that has been out of sight and out of mind for a few years; I inspired myself to dig out my dip pens and do a few new pieces.

I had the students look for an old photo, preferably not a portrait, with lots of textural opportunities. The picture I worked from was an old hotel in Yerington, Nevada that intrigued me then and even now (it looks like a place with stories to tell). My guess is that the building is no longer standing, it was pretty run down and the desert is not always very kind to old wooden buildings.

The drawings are on one large sheet of paper (18 x 24) folded in half, "hot dog" style. Three 7" squares across the inside of the fold provided three views of the same place. Each view has to offer something different in method of rendering with ink or feature one full and two details from the photo. My example includes one detail and two ways to use the medium. This gave students a lot of opportunities in their presentation. Besides the sizes of each square, and the variety in approach, I did stipulate that the pen must be a dip pen; they could also use some brush work as well.

Needless to say, we produced some pretty good drawings from this assignment and some new converts to pen and ink drawing! Check the Page menu on the right to see other views from this drawing.