Chapter One

The Essence of Drawing

Drawing turns the creative mind to expose its workings. Drawing discloses the heart of visual thought, coalesces spirit and perception, conjures imagination; drawing is an act of meditation, an exorcism of disorder; a courting of artistic ideas; above all it is the lean instrument of visual formation and the vortex of artistic sensibility.

Edward Hill
The Language Of Drawing

Figure 1-1: One of da Vinci’s first known drawings of the Tuscan landscape, dated 1473. The artist was 21 when he made this drawing, entitled “Day of St. Mary of the Snows,” which has been called “the first true landscape drawing in Western art.” (Bramly, 1991, 84 ©EMB-Service, Lucerne, Switzerland)

Why do we draw? We draw because it is the act of seeing and thinking clearly. It is an integral part of the creative process, and the ultimate design tool. Carlo Scarpa, an Italian architect, best summed this up when he said, “I draw so I can see.” By moving from elevation to perspective, from plan to bird’s-eye view, drawing elucidates our three-dimensional world. When I was just starting out, I remember watching my mentor, landscape architect and artist Frank James, pick up a pencil and move it across a sheet of paper; it was like watching an angel fly. Frank’s facility for drawing was incredibly inspiring and a thing to behold. His ability to use drawing as an expressive design tool was marvelous.

Drawing allows a concept to evolve. It resides between freedom and structure: the freedom of ideas versus the physical structure that orders our representations of space. It provides the potential to create realistic images.

Drawing can also be a meditation. It can take you into other worlds, creating a transcendent experience. One of the constant themes of Zen art is the expression of the artist’s own inner state of going nowhere in a timeless dimension.

Definition of Drawing

Figure 1-2: Ink on vellum. Drawing allows thinking in three dimensions.

Artist and teacher Edward Hill stated, “Drawing is the act of making a mark, line, or incision on a surface; and in the larger sense, a participation in the language” (1966, 8). A beautifully drawn, pure line arching across a page is a wonder to behold. It can vary from divine simplicity to dynamic movement. Drawing is a tool of exploration, and a single stroke can express thought. The artist or designer imbues line with personality and thus becomes an inventor. Through drawing, artists are continually redefining themselves and creating a personal image of reality.

The beginning of each drawing is the start of an exciting new trip; when you begin, your line takes off on a journey without a map. Learning to draw can be the beginning of a creative journey that can last a lifetime. From the moment of inception to the creation of the image, every drawing has the potential to express an idea. To begin to draw requires initiative; the act of drawing is directed intuition. Charles Burchfield, one of the greatest painters of the American scene, felt that the best drawing was a spontaneous creation. Spontaneity allows an incredible pictorial and emotional range, providing access to imaginative wanderings. If you can capture this spontaneous quality in your drawings, you can make them come alive.

Figure 1-3: Frank James, Sasaki Associates. Drawing as expression.

The development of your freehand drawing skills will help you to understand and graphically describe the environment. It is a means of investigating nature and a tool for designing entirely new ecosystems. As artist and teacher Hans Hofmann said, “The artist is an agent in whose mind nature is transformed into a new creation” (1967, 70).

Figure 1-4: Charles Burchfield. Old Gnarled Tree in a Field. Pencil on paper. 17" × 22". (Courtesy Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York City)

The beauty of a drawing is that you make it with your own hands; its success or failure rests entirely with you. If you develop a love for drawing, it will be reflected in your work and revealed to others. To achieve this, try to make each line you draw able to stand alone as a beautiful mark. Before beginning, empty your mind of all other thoughts. Think of yourself as an actor about to go onstage and perform. Slow down, breathe deeply, and think carefully about what you are about to do; it is an emotional response. Grasp the essence of your subject and your drawings will become your greatest teacher. You can learn much from them. Learning to relax will facilitate your ability to draw freely. Eventually you may find that drawing itself will become a method of relaxation.

You should work on each of the exercises in this book until you feel comfortable with the results. When you begin to feel pleased with the results of one exercise, go on to the next one. You can also go back and work on several at the same time.

When concentrating, you can become part of the drawing, getting inside it. Concentration is required to avoid getting into a rut, and to push yourself to evolve through experimentation. After developing a successful style, many people just replicate it again and again. Always try to improve your technique; otherwise you’ll just keep repeating your mistakes. When I was in school, I was told that I might have been a good artist once, but I had become lazy and was no longer innovative. That comment lit a fire under me. As Frank James said, when you draw you should always try to “seek the truth, speak the truth, be the truth.”

Figure 1-5: Chip Sullivan. Double Imperative Landscape. Pen and ink on paper. Composing the landscape with extraordinary arrangements.

Learning to draw can be a baffling, frustrating experience. It will make you angry, but don’t give up. Once you begin to produce satisfying drawings it will be an incredible natural high. Everything you put into your drawing will be returned to you. You can learn to draw, but you must first believe that you can. When Frank James was an architecture undergraduate at the University of Washington in 1962, he learned to draw by being inspired by such students as Laurie Olin. According to Frank, “Laurie Olin could draw like Walt Disney on psilocybin on an off day.” Today Laurie is not only an award-winning landscape architect but a master landscape artist. Frank forced himself to learn, and the results are wonderful. Ultimately, to inspire others to draw you will have to draw convincingly and beautifully. In a sense, you are combining ordinary things into extraordinary arrangements. Stop looking and start feeling your environment; strive toward meaning by drawing from within your psyche. Drawing is a bridge between perception and thinking. As Cennino Cennini, fifteenth-century artist and author, stated,

Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worthwhile, and will do you a world of good. (Hill, 1966, 108)

Drawing as Conceptualizing

All great works of art evolve from a concept. Setting ideas into drawn form breathes life into them, allowing you to dip into the vast space of ideas. From the inception of an idea to its final drawn form, drawing plays an integral part in the creative process. Drawing is a conceptual tool that brings quick form to the flow of ideas.

Sometimes a designer will produce hundreds of conceptual drawings until striking the right form for the idea. These forms develop into thumbnail sketches and then into design development drawings. The final idea will then be rendered as a highly finished illustrative drawing.

Drawing as Seeing

Landscape drawing is not the reproduction of nature. It is an expression of the emotions, sensations, and feelings that the landscape impresses on the artist. It is the creation of atmosphere and space.

Drawing a landscape allows you to visualize it in a new way. As opposed to taking a photograph, drawing a landscape enables you to really understand it. There is something unique about the hand-eye relationship as you record a subject through drawing. Drawing links your visual perceptions to your subconscious. The photographed image preserves the visual event, but drawing entails the experience of looking: we stop and become part of the subject and its time. Strive toward eliminating the separation between you and the image.

Figure 1-6: Pen and ink on paper. Conceptual design studies.

You must be persistent to capture the secrets of landscape drawing. Through the excitement of the moving hand you become part of the mystery of creation. But in order to produce excellent drawings you must have something to say. By dedicating yourself to drawing you will inform your imagination. Increasing your awareness will lead to your own form of expression. By combining imagination, visualization, and drawing, you will invent new landscapes.

Figure 1-7: Pen and ink on paper. Discovering new ways to visualize the landscape.

It takes passion to attain this level of awareness. Even though Charles Burchfield had a full-time job, he spent every free moment sketching. He would often have to splash water on his face while drawing in order to stay awake. At work he would gulp down his lunch so he could spend the rest of his break drawing. If the ideas were really flowing, he found that after he got into bed he wouldn’t be able to sleep and would have to keep getting out of bed to sketch out his ideas. When the drawings were going well he would find himself overcome with happiness.

Figure 1-8: Pen and ink on paper. Drawing to enhance the experience of looking.

Figure 1-9: Louis Sullivan. Ornamental Study. 1885. Pencil on paper. (From the Louis Sullivan Collection in the Division of Drawings and Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University in the City of New York)

Freedom and Structure

The realm of drawing is balanced tenuously between freedom and structure. You must first learn the structure and fundamentals, and the ability to control the media, in order to avoid becoming stylized. Build a firm foundation with your hand and do not be seduced by technology.

The key to success is to develop a strong foundation and maintain a balance, then learn when to break all the rules and disrupt that balance. You must discover your natural point of balance between freedom and structure and then challenge it. Explore the struggle between freedom and structure. Do not strive for the perfect center; learn how to control being spontaneous and cautious. Believe in what you draw.

Today it is difficult to get a formal, traditional education in drawing and landscape architecture. Many believe that most schools now teach the “art” of rhetoric rather than the skills of drawing, painting, and sculpting. Picasso, Braque, Matisse, de Kooning, Le Corbusier, Geoffrey Jellicoe, and Garrett Eckbo all had classical educations in the fundamentals of drawing. They could all draw realistically, accurately, and beautifully. Only after they learned the basics could they go on to make the great breakthroughs and unique expressions they did.

The architect Louis Henry Sullivan’s work illustrates the direct correlation between traditional drawing skills and excellent design. He was trained firmly in the Beaux-Arts tradition. Sullivan’s drawings are exceptional works of art. The flowing, vibrant lines of his renderings expose his creative genius.

The inspiration for Sullivan’s architecture originated with his love of botany and organic patterns of growth. He studied nature’s principles of composition and then abstracted these forms into designs. Frank Lloyd Wright described Sullivan’s drawings as “poignantly beautiful rhythms.” He would develop his architectural designs from impulsive freehand sketches. There is an almost mystical quality to his drawings; some critics have even described his lines as clairvoyant. To create works of Sullivan’s caliber, we must first master the art of drawing.

No matter how fine a school you attend or how nurturing your teacher, all education is self-discipline. You must first take responsibility for teaching yourself to draw.

Figure 1-10: Claude Lorrain. Wooded Landscape. Pen, brown wash. 176 × 250 mm. (Israel Museum, Jerusalem)

Figure 1-11: Everyone can improve through sustained practice. Here are examples of student work over a period of little more than a year. If you are discouraged, draw more, not less. No artist expects to create a masterpiece every time. You will improve your skills when you draw enough that you free yourself from believing that each drawing must be precious. Experiment, attack the page; draw what you think you will be able to capture. That is how you will learn. (a) & (b) Lisa Micheli. Ink wash drawings done about a year apart. (c) & (d) This comparison shows the dramatic improvement a student, Allison Yiu, made within the duration of a single semester. (c) The image on the left marks the beginning of the semester, and (d) the one on the right was completed during the final week of class. Through the daily regime of drawing 40 to 80 images per lecture in drawing class, mastery of the quick gesture is inevitable. (Photos: Steven Brooks)

The Universal Traveler, by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnall, is a handy guidebook on inventive thinking and the design process for your creative journey; it can be an excellent source of inspiration and renewal of energy for the beginning and advanced artist. Drawing practice, when combined with the creative tools and problem solving methods outlined in The Universal Traveler, can be extremely beneficial. Additionally, the open-ended approach of the authors can be very helpful, particularly if you get discouraged with your progress. But try not to get discouraged; the creative process takes time and practice. The benefits of a drawing exercise (self-portraits, for instance) become clear only after you’ve repeated the exercise many times. Be assured that if you are working at it, you are progressing, whether or not your progress is visible at the moment.

Figure 1-12: Frank James, Sasaki Associates. Ink on paper.

The Power of Drawing

Drawings can be powerful tools that influence the future. They have the potential to create and change the world. A good example of this can be found in the impact of the seventeenth-century landscape drawings of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. Their style of landscape drawing established the vocabulary for England’s romantic, pastoral style of the eighteenth century. Designs derived from these drawings and paintings shaped large-scale modifications of the English garden and countryside. This influence can be seen today throughout the United States in many built landscapes. By understanding these works we can begin to see the effect that drawing can have on our environment.

The drawings taken by themselves show a wonderful sensitivity in their rendering of the landscape. Many were done of Italian Renaissance gardens and became the basis for larger landscape paintings. Artistic groupings of vegetation were used to create pictorial space. Additionally, each tree was precisely rendered to bring out its individual characteristics. And because these sketches are most often done in pen and ink with sepia washes, you can almost feel the wind rushing through the leaves.

The Spirit of Drawing

In a drawing session of this sort, there must be a warming-up period. The first few drawings may be halting or stilted, not getting into the heart of the subject. All at once, everything begins to click, and one drawing after another may come about as if under its own power. I must confess, I love this kind of drawing in the same way as I did some of my paintings, which also seemed to have originated spontaneously. While I am engaged in producing drawings of this sort, a wonderful sense of well-being and contentment comes over me, the feeling that no other activity could possibly be as fulfilling as my reason for being alive. (Charles Burchfield in Jones, ed. 1968)

Drawing can be an altered state of consciousness, a form of meditation, and a way of evolving to higher levels of awareness—a point in time when your concentration is focused so intently on your work that all distractions disappear. The artist essentially merges with the work. When you draw in this manner you become part of a whole new world, creating your own version of reality. This act of drawing can be a spiritual covenant between yourself and those unidentifiable higher forces. If you become totally involved in the creative act, you are “provoking and being provoked by those images. You get involved in a metaphoric revelation, and witness metaphors emerging from the work” (Flack, 1986, 9).

The profession of landscape architecture is a calling. Your art should be a friend that will never abandon you. As Robert Henri, teacher and artist, said, “I am not interested in art as a means of making a living, but I am interested in art as a means of living a life” (1923, 158).

When you draw with total concentration, time will appear to stand still, cutting through reality. If you are able to make this connection with your subconscious, it can make you a better designer. Your finished product will project this spirit, because you have transformed your individuality and energy into the work. Since you have imparted to it a life of its own, it will exert enormous power and energy on those who view it.

Figure 1-13: Pen and ink on paper. Drawing your vision.

Drawing is also a form of magic. Your hand generates lines capable of making form come alive, magically producing your own personal vision. Just watch children watching someone who is drawing; look at the smiles and how they are awed.

While drawing, work toward attaining a state of being that is different from your ordinary wakeful state. Your sense of concentration should be trancelike. Robert Henri said of this state that “there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual—become clairvoyant. We reach then into reality. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom” (1923, 45). With this heightened sense of awareness of all the elements in the landscape, the true artist will be able to render it as a living thing.

When all parts of the work start coming together, a renewed excitement is generated and builds until the harmony and balance of what you have been trying to accomplish work. You feel like a conductor bringing the full sound of the orchestra to its grand finale. You have reached the peak experience toward which all artists work. (Flack 1986, 14)

Chapter Two

The Daybook

My habit of keeping a notebook of design began in 1918. Before I had drawn on scraps of paper which I lost. Then I said to myself that it was necessary to keep a notebook. Since I always have a notebook within reach, and I draw no matter what, I preserve everything which passes through my head…There is a great appetite to work, and then my sketchbook serves me as a cookbook when I am hungry.

Georges Braque
Theories of Modern Art

Leonardo da Vinci kept a record of his thoughts and sketches in a notebook, or daybook, he carried everywhere. The daybook is an important accessory in the designer’s repertoire; you will find that many people involved in the creative arts have one at their side constantly. It allows them to continually develop concepts, work out designs, take notes, and sketch.

Figure 2-1: Chip Sullivan. Italy, 1984. Pen-and-ink sketch in daybook.

Da Vinci was the greatest journal keeper of all time. His books show pure genius and are so immensely beautiful, you can almost feel his love of nature as he explored it with unexhausted wonder. The range and diversity of subjects in his daybooks is mind-boggling. They exhibit his sense of composition, his balance of drawing with text, his continuum of invention, and his working back and forth with several ideas at once. Also evident in his text and drawings is a concern for balance, harmony, and proportion.

Ideas are ephemeral. Once an idea is lost it can be gone forever. The artist Robert Irwin stated that “ideas are very potent elements that can radically change your life. Nothing is the same once you accept an idea” (Weschler 1982, 178). One of the great things about a daybook is that when you have an inspirational moment, you can quickly record it before it fades away. Every thought you have is important, and you will want to record each one in your daybook. Throughout his life Charles Burchfield kept his “idea notes,” which were spontaneous ideas for paintings, in portfolios. These drawings were filed away and labeled for each session with subheadings such as mood, wind, terror, and fantasy. Burchfield found these notebooks to be a fruitful source for his paintings. He said he would make “one drawing after another and it does not matter if the results amount to anything. The artist keeps making drawings until he has temporarily exhausted the idea. They are then put away in portfolios to ‘season,’ to be taken out later and savored” (Jones 1968, 7).

In your daybook you will want to record your passions, observations, and discoveries. In it you can reflect on your experiences, emotions, and travel observations. When you draw a place instead of photographing it, you learn to see it in a much deeper way. By drawing, you experience nuances and subtleties and participate in your surroundings through observation and personal experience. The designer has to learn not only to perceive form but also to be able to preserve, analyze, and transmit it.

Figure 2-2: Charles Burchfield. White Owl and Black Winter Spirit. 1961. Conté crayon. 11" × 173⁄8". (Private collection. Courtesy Archives of the Burchfield Society)

When the English painter J. M. W. Turner first visited Italy in the autumn of 1819, it had an intense effect on his creativity. Turner was so inspired by the landscape of Rome that during his three-month stay he made 1,500 drawings and watercolors in his sketchbooks. That translates into more than 15 drawings a day, an amazing feat by any standard. When he returned to his studio in England, he produced oil paintings from these impressions and memories.

Figure 2-3: Leonardo da Vinci. Heads of Two Different Types of Rush. c. 1508–1513. Pen and ink over traces of black chalk. 195 × 145 mm. (The Royal Collection © 1993 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

Although the architect Michael Graves has not published his daybooks, you can find wonderful selections from them in Buildings and Projects 1966–1981. These excerpts are studies for buildings, paintings, and furniture. On just an 81⁄2-by-11-inch page you can see how he works through many ideas at once in plan, section, elevation, and mini-perspective. These exquisite little drawings are done with clear, crisp, concise ink lines. They’re arranged in pleasant compositions and clearly express his creative process.

Lawrence Halprin: Notebooks 1959–1971 is a firsthand look into this landscape architect’s process of generating form. You can see in his designs influences from the landforms of the high Sierras and the northern California coast. His landscape studies and other sketches all have expressive, spontaneous lines that result in very exciting drawings. This book continues to be very influential in the landscape architecture profession.

Figure 2-4: R. Crumb. Page from sketchbook. Ink on paper. (Courtesy Fantagraphics)

The underground cartoonist R. Crumb sketches incessantly in his daybooks. People who know him say that he is drawing constantly, even during dinner. His daybooks have recently been published in two editions that contain just a small sample from the many volumes he has filled over the years. In them you can see the development of his characters and story plots, and his visual ramblings. These books are an excellent source for observing a thought process and watching an idea evolve through many stages on a single page.

The daybook is not only a container of experience, but also fertile ground for exploring the potentials of drawing. Your daybook should express a continuum of drawing and eventually become something to which you can refer during the design process and throughout your career. If drawing is difficult for you at first, begin by using written descriptions and slowly evolve into sketch form.

Figure 2-5: Laurie Olin. Sketchbook, Venice, July 1981. Pen and ink.

Figure 2-6: 1964. Pen and ink. Imaginary landscape in high school notebook.

I have kept daybooks since high school and have found them to be incredibly valuable. I refer to them often, though it might take five or six years before I go back and develop one of the ideas. This is why it is important for you to record your thoughts; they are seeds that can grow and mature in your brain until you develop them. When I first started to use the daybook as a medium, most of my entries were written. I eventually learned to develop a visual notation, almost a kind of calligraphy, that I could use to record my ideas as rapidly as possible.

In high school, I tended to use my daybook to develop theoretical science-fiction landscapes. Many of these studies were combined later into paintings of surreal landscapes. I’ve also used it as a travelogue, to record places I’ve visited, and as an analytical tool, by pacing off spaces and recording the dimensions and details of fascinating forms, such as the architecture of the Anasazi Indians of the American Southwest. While at the American Academy in Rome I used it for sketching and studying the passive cooling and heating elements of the Italian Renaissance garden. I’ve also used the daybook as a way of capturing the essence or emotional feeling of space. I continue to use it to develop design ideas for exhibitions and ecological installations, and to study compositions that will eventually become gardens or paintings.

Figure 2-7: Daybook studies of Italian Renaissance gardens, 1984.

Types of Daybooks

There are as many styles of daybooks as there are people who keep them. A journal is a very personal thing, and it is important to select one that will be compatible with your own method of recording.

There are many sizes from which to choose. It will be helpful to try a few different types before settling on one style. You will be referring to your daybook for many months or even years, so a strong binding and a sturdy cover are necessary. It is also a good idea to use a book with acid-free paper so that it will not yellow with age. The standard 81⁄2-by-11-inch black book is very sturdy and will hold up under a lot of wear and tear. Generally I’ve found anything larger to be unwieldy; it is very important that your daybook be easy to use and easily accessible. The more difficult it is to get out of your shoulder bag or backpack, the more reluctant you will be to sit down and open it, so anything 81⁄2 by 11 or smaller is fine. Other standard sizes are 8 by 7, 5 by 81⁄2, and 4 by 6.

For drawing, anything smaller than 4 by 6 might be too small. Rectangular sketchbooks that are bound on the short side are good for drawing landscapes and can be held easily. Le Corbusier used to carry this sketchbook on his travels. Many of the Beaux-Arts students would use them because of their flexible horizontal or vertical format, and because they’re small enough to fit into a shirt or hip pocket.

In combination with a larger daybook, it can be helpful to carry a smaller, pocket-sized notepad. These come in a variety of types, but the 3-by-5-inch ruled Boorum memo book is quite handy for writing and for jotting down quick ideas or sketches. It is also quite sturdy and withstands heavy use.

Generally, spiral-bound daybooks are not a good idea, because with a lot of use, the pages will become loose and eventually fall out. Also, the metal spiral will sometimes snag and can interfere with the freedom of your drawing hand. Some sketchbooks come with perforated pages; these will also become loose and fall out. Because the daybook should reflect a continuum of ideas, you want to avoid tearing out the pages. Even if you’re dissatisfied with the drawing, you should keep it. It’s important to keep track even of the ideas you think are awful. Some artists prefer to use three-ring binders, since they allow you to rearrange pages, which can be a handy way to compose and edit work.

As a way of getting over blank-page panic, some artists use bound books that are ruled or gridded, making it easier to get started by not having to stare at a glistening white sheet. Another way to reduce blank-page panic is to prepare your pages with a light watercolor wash. J. M. W. Turner would prepare the pages of his sketchbook this way before going out into the field to paint. When he was at the site he would first sketch in pencil or ink and then use his watercolors. The prepared page is a good way to get directly into the drawing.

Another unique type of bound book is the small telephone/address book; it is ruled and usually has alphabetical tabs neatly along the side. The late Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, the car culture icon and designer of custom cars and monster T-shirts, used a mini telephone book. He carried one with him in his wallet and when he saw something inspirational such as graffiti or a unique car, he pulled out his book and jotted it down. Roth was constantly searching for inspiration for new ideas by studying his surroundings, and was never without his trusty little telephone book.

Figure 2-8: Daybook types. Experiment with a variety of sketchbooks until you find one that is compatible with your style. (Photo: Kathryn Drinkhouse)

Media

An inexpensive fountain pen is probably the best instrument to use in your daybook. A fountain pen gives a sense of immediacy and produces clear, crisp, unerasable lines. By creating permanent lines you will not be tempted to spend a lot of time redoing your drawings, which will affect your spontaneity. Pencil tends to smear and get messy, especially if you use your book often. A ballpoint pen is not recommended because of the inflexibility of the pen point, which limits the kinds of drawings you can do. I also do not recommend felt-tip pens, because they will fade over time and bleed through the paper, making it difficult to use the back of the page. Felt-tip points also become soft and spongy, losing their shape when used over a length of time.

Figure 2-9: Joseph Slusky. Mixed-media drawing from daybook.

Fountain Pens

Fountain pens have made an astounding comeback. When I first started using a fountain pen in the early 1970s, the selection was very limited. Now almost any art supply store will have an abundance of pens from which to choose. Some stores are even devoted entirely to selling fountain pens. There is something unique about the quality and individuality of the line produced by a fountain pen as opposed to a disposable pen. Even the daily ritual of filling the pen can be enjoyable.

Figure 2-10: Annie Amundsen. A Map at Different Scales. Watercolor, charcoal, ink, and found paper collage.

I recommend starting with a medium-priced pen such as the Pelikan MC120. The gold content of the point directly affects the quality of the line. A gold point will be more responsive and allow more flexibility in your line weight, and will eventually conform to your stroke. A gold point evolves with your personal style because it reflects the way your hand moves.

When choosing a pen, go to an art store or pen store with knowledgeable salespeople. Test the pens until you find one you like. Be sure to test different types of points; these can range from fine to italic for calligraphy. Remember that even the same model will vary slightly from pen to pen, so take your time, go back more than once, and try other stores. Never use India ink in your pen; use fountain pen inks only, or it will be ruined. And never carry your pen in your pants pocket because it can fall out too easily. It is best to carry your pen in your shirt pocket or in your shoulder bag.

Mixed Media