Some quotations in honor of World Literary Day. All done at 4 pen-widths high with a worn-out metal #3 Mitchell nib. (I have no idea why I hang onto these corroded, disgusting pens. Is it a sort of self-flagellation for the sin of neglecting to clean my pens properly? Scottish parsimony? I don’t know.) All in gouache, except that the black is Moon Palace sumi ink.
The green drove me crazy, glopping off the pen — you can see the unevenness in the close-up view. Since it was only the green that was a problem, I think it was the lemon yellow that was causing it, because the ultramarine and the touch of vermilion were fine in the other mixtures. Or perhaps it was the combination of the lemon yellow and ultramarine — mixing them seems to me something like mixing low-fat milk and Kool-Aid.
I’m not recommending the color scheme! I’m still cleaning out old palettes — more parsimony, perhaps, and the pleasure of exploring color in a serendipitous manner.
I can’t remember what this paper is. It’s something to do with printmaking — very, very smooth and more of an eggshell color than it looks here. Superfine Letterpress, perhaps?
I sympathise so much with your green problem! Cadmium yellow and cerulean blue was my mix – the problem here was that the cerulean was a heavier pigment – separating from the yellow – so I had to keep mixing it before loading the pen. Then when it dried the yellow was left sitting on the top! Ended up using Winsor blue and cad yellow – then had a problem with the paper! Like you I found it worked on a soft printing paper – but I didn’t like writing such a large amount on soft paper. It just didn’t flow. Tried all sorts, but eventually found that Arches Aquarelle worked beautifully. Think I may avoid green in the future!
Lesley
Isn’t it strange how differently all the pigments react to the pen, the paper, and other pigments? It’s a constant source of interest to me. I think I could have made it work with some combination of a newer nib, a steeper board angle, more water, and maybe even a reservoir. Maybe. But I only had another 45 minutes in the day to do something creative, so I was rather short on time 🙂 I agree that phthalo (Winsor) blue works so much better in the pen, though!