Two New Pens

Lot of people fall in love with pens.  People who write.  People who keep sketchbooks or art journals.  All kinds of people and all kinds of pens.  If you ask pen fanatics to talk about their pens, they will do so with great passion.  Pens are one of the art supplies that seem to gather history and meaning as  people use them.  Unlike paints, which disappear, a good pen can be around for a long time and become a reliable sketching companion.

My father loved his pens.  I inherited some of them from him, and mostly kept them in a box.

Until now.

Last week I bought a new pen and then went looking for my dad's pen.  Here I promptly sketched them to add to my "kit" drawings which I am doing for Liz Steel's Sketching Foundations course.

Not sure if you can read my handwriting.  The top pen in the drawing (and the actual pen sitting on the page) is a Hero #812 bent nib pen. It cost less than $10 on ebay.  It has wonderful running horses around the barrel and I have to say I felt pretty pleased at capturing a recognizable horse when I drew the pen!  I look forward to trying the bent nib to see what it can do!

The second pen drawn here is a Platinum #3776 which belonged to my father.  After I inherited several of his fountain pens, I never used the good ones because I was so unsure about what ink I could put in them and not ruin them.  Thanks to many other sketchers, I felt safe giving Platinum Carbon Ink a try.  So far so good!  If you are unsure about what waterproof black ink won't wreck your pen, I can recommend this one.

Now I'm carrying two more pieces of equipment with me in my sketchbook bag.  I look forward to gaining a history with the new one and to adding to the history already associated with my dad's pen.