The Corner of the Meadow

AS THE SUN DIPS, the three ponies come down to the corner of the field in anticipation of their oats, hay and water.

This is the first time I've drawn with an Ackerman nib pump pen, one that has been sent to me by its inventor, Charles Ackerman of Berkeley, California, who had come across one of my numerous entries about my search for the perfect pen. This the only fountain pen I've come across that takes an ordinary dip pen nib. You can fill it with any kind of ink or even paint. I've filled it with Nan-King Indian Ink which seems to work very well. It dries quickly.

I look forward to experimenting further with this pen, so I hope to put up more drawings in the near future.

Ivy-covered Ash

I drew these ash trees, seen from my studio window, using an edding 1800 profipens. The one on the left was drawn with profipen with a 0.1 mm tip but I feel that the line got lost when I added the watercolour so for my second drawing below I tried the 0.3 mm.

Neither flows as a well as the Ackerman pen and there's something lacking in the quality of the line compared with the drawings of the ponies. Perhaps the fact that I was drawing a moving subject added some life to my drawings of the ponies.

One Potato

I could have drawn the ash trees as Barbara's mum's as I settled down with a coffee and a piece of Christmas cake (rich fruit cake) this morning. Instead I drew this potato with the small sprout at one end of it.