Left: Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Calligraphy pen sketch with Schmincke gouache washes in a 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia journal. Click on the image to view an enlargement.
Here I was warming up before doing more detailed sketches in my face project.
I really enjoy using this pen in the Fabriano Venezia journal, but as the pens run out the line quality changes. There is a moment (well several actually) where a slightly dried out pen creates wonderful lines that almost have a graphite quality about them. They lose the stridency that a full, black ink line has. The pen used here is still transitioning from a dark line into that softer quality. By making these quick sketches I was able to decide whether or not to use it for a larger sketch. I ended up looking for a different pen as this pen hadn't quite reached the softness I wanted to go with yet.
