Chinese illustrator Li Yong Hong works in scratchboard, a medium that is almost the inverse of pen and ink.
Instead of drawing in ink directly on a white surface, scratchboard is done on a white board that is coated with clay and then coated with a layer of black ink. The black surface is scratched away with needle-like styli, creating white lines by revealing the clay beneath.
The only presence I’ve found on the web for Li Yong Hong’s work is his portfolio on IllustrationX.
Imaginary View of Padua, Bernardo Bellotto; pen, black ink and gray wash drawing; roughly 13 x 17 inches (32 x 43 cm). Original is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
18th century Italian artist Bernardo Bellotto had a very effective pen and wash technique for rendering architectural subjects that is similar to the wonderful drawings of his uncle and mentor, Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto.
Imaginary View of Padua, Met Museum
A bend in the River Amstel near Kostverloren House, Rembrandt van Rijn; pen and brown ink with brown and grey washes, heightened with white bodycolour on oatmeal paper; roughly 5 x 10″ (14 x 25 cm). Original is in the collection of the Chatsworth Estate.
It would be easy to glance at a drawing like this — a sketch really — take it in briefly, and pass on by, on the the next, more colorful artwork. But to me, these pen and brown ink landscape drawings by Rembrandt are among my favorite works in the entire history of art.
Many of them, on more devoted looking, reveal themselves to me as transcendent and poetic.
Perhaps it’s because I can project myself into them — even better than with a more “realistic” painted view — and picture myself sitting there on the bank in the shade with my own sketchbook and pens, immersed in the day, the smell of the river, the sounds of water lapping at the boats, the gentle clop of the horses passing by, perhaps a gentle breeze waving through the sun-topped line of trees.
Just as easily, I can picture Rembrandt sitting there — a sheaf of paper in his lap, reed pen and brush in his hands with perhaps two bottles of iron gall ink at his side, one full strength, one diluted for washes — immersed in the scene and his drawing while his troubles (of which he certainly had his share) recede into the distance.
As far as can be determined, these pen, brown ink and wash drawings were created simply for Rembrant’s own benefit, either as practice, or (I think) simply for pleasure. There is no known connection identifying them as preliminary for paintings or even for any of his similarly handled etchings.
Many of these, and other Rembrandt drawings in brown ink and wash, are listed as drawings in bistre ink (made from wood-burning soot), but chemical analysis indicates that a high percentage of them may have been drawn with darker iron gall ink, usually made from oak galls, iron salts and tannic acid. I’m guessing that may be the case here.
Renbrandt’s notation is breezy, economical and seemingly effortless. Just a few gestural lines — but brilliantly sweeping, lightly touched with tone — produce a solid line of trees, a river and its bank, boats and horsemen. Their sun bathed and shade dappled textures are created almost entirely in our mind’s eye.
Because it has happened to me on occasion, I have the distinct feeling that drawings like this might have felt to Rembrandt like they were flowing directly from nature, into his eyes, and out through his pen onto the paper — while he observed. There is little feeling here of artifice or the construction of a drawing as a work of art.
You’re unlikely to see what I mean from the small image and detail crops I can present here. Go to this link and view the drawing as large in your monitor as you can to get the feeling I’m trying to convey.
Julia Hill is an illustrator based in Devon, England who works primarily in pen and ink, using fine-line markers. Her main subject is animals, both domestic and small wild. She also indulges in whimsical fantasy illustrations with animals in human clothing and situations.
Her website is basically her store, so her primary online gallery appears to be her space on DoodleAddicts.
Some of the entries on the DoodleAddicts site include process step-throughs, and more information about her choice of pens and paper. She works with a lot of fine hatching to create tones and textures.
The DoodleAddicts website also offers a short interview with the artist, in which she also talks about her materials.
Etsy UK
https://www.doodleaddicts.com/juliahillillustrator/
Interview on DoodleAddicts
View of an Italianate park with figures, a villa behind, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, brown wash over brown ink lines and black chalk, roughly 13 x 11″ (33 x 47cm); link is to Sotheby’s past auction, large image here.
In this beautifully sensitive drawing, 18th century French painter, draftsman ad printmaker Jean-Honoré Fragonard, who specialized in such things, gives us an idealized view of an idealized park on an ideal day.
I love how delicately and vaguely some elements are suggested, like people, architecture, stairs and background foliage, and yet how definite and complete the overall drawing appears.
This is one of those drawings in which the vague word “wash” is used to describe the medium, leaving me in question as to whether it is ink wash or watercolor, both of which can be used to similar effect.
Andrew Fisher Brunner was an American artist active in the late 19th century. He is noted for his landcape watercolors and for his drawings, particularly those in pen and ink.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a nice collection of his drawings, visible online in reasonably large images. Many of these are of Venice.
He has a seemingly casual style of ink rendering that belies the solid draftsmanship on which his drawings are based.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington also has a smaller collection of some of his graphite drawings.
