Pencil vs. Pen Sketching

This past weekend was another outing of the Urban Sketchers.  Three of us met at Kathryn Albertson park.  Usually when I do sketching, I use a mechanical pencil.  The only thing I don't like about it is that it does smear (I use a 2B lead).  

I know lots of people use pens for sketching.  I like to be able to erase and am not that confident with using a pen.  But I decided to give it a go this time, because I will never get confident if I don't do it.

Here is the first sketch I did, which was started with pencil, and then I went back over with pen later (which some other people do, as well).

I had brought my little watercolor set and my Neocolor II water soluble crayons.  I used the crayons to add some color to this one.  And here is what I was looking at.

As you can see, I took some artistic license with what I was drawing.  Since I decided to draw vertically, instead of horizontally, it got squished in a little.

The next sketch I decided to do with pen.  I just jumped in without doing any pencil drawing at all. I used a Sharpie extra fine point pen.

Here is the view I was looking at.

I added a little bit of color with the crayons to distinguish some of the areas.  What I liked about the pen is that it doesn't smear and will be more permanent.  What I didn't like was the quality of the line which was mostly all even.  With a pencil, I can change the pressure to get different types of line.

In addition, I have to figure out different ways to shade with the pen.  It needs to be either more lines, hatching or cross-hatching.   I can't just put more pressure on it.  There is also much more contrast with the black lines against the paper.

I need to experiment more with the pen and different types of pens to make a determination of what I like better (or maybe it's a combination of pencil and pen).  One of the other gals there that day had some fountain pens which would change the line with some pressure.

If you do any kind of sketching, what tools do you like to use?  Do you have a preference?  And if you use pens, I would love to hear what brand/kind you like.

Sketching

I have been trying to do a little more "plein air" sketching this year.  I think it is good drawing practice and I would like to get a little faster at doing it.  Although I have not been doing it on a regular basis, I have found that I am getting a little bit faster.  Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance has a Urban Sketchers group that goes to different locations once a month to sketch.  I have been to a few of those.  I have also made an effort to go on a few outings with my friend, Mary, to do some sketching.

Recently, I posted a few of my sketches from the last Urban Sketchers outing at the Boise Depot.  I have also posted some of my sketches on my Facebook art page throughout the year.  (I don't always post the same things here and there.)

Last week, Mary and I went back to the Idaho Botanical Gardens to do some more sketching. Usually, I do a couple of sketches and then end up taking a bunch of photographs.

What I have been finding challenging is drawing a bunch of different kind of vegetation quickly.  I have just been using different types of scribbles to indicate different types of plants.

Here are the very quick sketches I did in the gardens.  I would like to get to the point of using some color, but that takes more time.

Here are a few more that I have done throughout the year.

Milkweed pod.

On our hike in the Sawtooths.

 From our trip to Long Island, NY

Also from Long Island, NY

These are sketches, not finished works of art.   Some artists, like Lisa Cheney and Jane La Fazio, do beautiful sketches in their sketchbooks that are like finished works of art.  They are wonderful to look at, but that is not my aim with these.

I think you can tell from looking which ones I drew more quickly than the others.  I hope to get quicker and be able to do more shading quickly as well and then be able to add color, too.