Showing posts with label toothpicks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toothpicks. Show all posts

Sunday, March 7, 2010

playing with sharp objects


I find that ink brushes just don't work for some subjects. If I want to draw something with fine lines or details, a quill pen carved from bamboo or dried reed segment often does the trick. These are commercially available. But I can also make do with items lying around the house. I drew the attached etegami of white clover with a toothpick. All I did was rough up the pointy end of a toothpick a bit and dip it in a shallow dish of sumi. It doesn't hold on to much ink, so I had to dip it frequently between making brief strokes on the card. But for this particular subject, it seemed to work well. You can also use a branch or other stiff, somewhat porous object as your drawing utensil. What do you see in your home or outdoors that might work? Test it and decide if you like the effect. Let me know how your experiments turn out.