Found some inspiring pen nibs!

Drawing, Chambers St. And rambling

I was without a pencil, but I had a new marker. A new marker only in the sense that it was still in the original wrapping it came in. I bought it probably two years ago but never opened it because I had some other things I hadn’t used up yet. It had been drying out. One of the funnest things I can do is hit that sweet spot with a marker when it still has the juice to make marks but it’s on the verge of retirement. This is the magic I held in my hand! I usually give myself some pencil structure before dropping ink. But since I didn’t have a pencil, I dropped ink from line one. My reference on my phone was Molly standing in front of tiles that hadn’t been laid in our kitchen yet. I was in a coffee shop in Hell’s Kitchen.

I love this new sketchpad. Hahnmuehle. It’s a German paper brand. It has a slightly less gritty texture than the original Moleskine sketchpads and just as durable so far. I think it is a 90 lbs weight. According to the tech guy who fixed my printer, Bob Dylan sells all the prints of his art on this brand’s papers and then charges way more than I sell my originals for!

I finished this drawing when I got home. I had stopped at the Kinokuniya Bookstore by Bryant park on 6th Ave mostly for a new mechanical pencil lead holder. But as always happens in that store, my eyes wondered. I found some dip pen nibs that looked like they would be fun to use and a bottle of ink with a little spout on it that looked like it would travel well. The marker really wasn’t up for filling in solid blacks like I wanted so I broke out the new nibs! I had been thinking about them the whole trip home. They went great with the paper and I was making lots of fun marks.

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I have to share. I found myself at the Chambers Street subway stop for the J train later on. Probably one of the most run down looking but functioning stations I’ve come across. I love it. It’s sprawling. It has four tracks but only two seem to be in use. It’s seen better days. Probably the 50’s were when it looked it’s newest, but I also like it now.

I think this reference will find their way into a painting or three in the future.

I feel the need to acknowledge, if only a little, about the outside world that is happening as I write about things that seem totally foreign to the outside world. I don’t only exist in my own little world just like anyone else. Headlines for February 14th… “At least 3 dead after shootings at Michigan State University”, “How many spy balloons have been spotted?”, “Grief and desperation in Idlib as earthquake compounds crises”, and the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl. We had our kitchen floor tiled. I’m starting a new comic book called “Ghost Talk”. And, duh, it’s Valentines Day.