LIQUID MEDIA

Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens.

Media1. pen and ink2. brush and ink

A pen is a long, thin, rounded device used to apply ink to a surface for the purpose of writing or drawing, usually on paper.

There are several different types, including ballpoint, rollerball, fountain, and felt-tip.

Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used.

Ballpoint penRollerball penFountain pen Marker or felt-tip pen

A ballpoint pen has an internal chamber filled with a viscous ink that is dispensed at tip during use by the rolling action of a small metal sphere (0.7 mm to 1.2 mm in diameter) of brass, steel or tungsten carbide.

Retractable ballpoint pen, disassembled and complete

Pentel R.S.V.P. ballpoint pens.

Rollerball pens are writing instruments which use ball point writing mechanisms with water-based liquid or gelled ink, as opposed to the oil-based viscous inks found in ballpoint pens

A gel-based rollerball pen.

A rollerball pen has three main advantages over a ballpoint pen:

Less pressure needs to be applied to the pen to have it write cleanly. This permits holding the pen with less stress on the hand, saving energy and improving comfort.

The inks usually have a greater range of colors due to the wider choice of suitable water-soluble dyes and/or to the use of pigments.

They usually tend to write finer lines and more clearly than ballpoint pens do.

A fountain pen is a nib pen that, unlike its predecessor the dip pen, contains an internal reservoir of water-based liquid ink. From the reservoir, the ink is drawn through a feed to the nib and then to the paper via a combination of gravity and capillary action. As a result, the typical fountain pen requires little or no pressure to write.

These Parker Doufolds from the 1920s used the Lucky Curve feed system and self-filled using a "button filler". They were quite long; nearly 7 inches long when posted.

Fountain pen nib labeled "IRIDIUM POINT GERMANY"

A marker pen, marking pen, felt-tip pen, or marker, is a pen which has its own ink-source, and usually a tip made of a porous material, such as felt or nylon.

A selection of disposable felt tip pens.

Highlighters

Ink brushes are used in Chinese calligraphy. They are also used in Chinese painting and descendant brush painting styles (such as sumi-e).

StalkHairs sourceHairs textureHairs size

Usually normal bamboo, exotic brushes instead may use materials like gold, silver, jade, ivory, red sandalwood or mottled bamboo.

Normally the brush is made from goat, Siberian Weasel, Yellow-rat-wolf), pig, mouse, buffalo, wolf and rabbit hair, while exotic ones can be made from tiger, fowl, deer and even human baby hair (from the first haircut a baby gets, said to bring good fortune while taking the Imperial examinations).

Soft hairs Certain textures are better for

writing certain styles than others are.

Generally classified as either big; most calligraphy is written with a medium-sized brush.

The smallest brushes are used for very small pieces and for fashioning designs for seals.

Medium brushes are the most widely used; wielded by a skilled artist, a medium brush can produce a variety of thicknesses of line, from very thin to fairly thick. The largest brushes are used only for very large pieces.

Ink brushes of various size and material for sale at a Taipei store.

Ink drawings typically use hatching, which consists of groups of parallel lines.

Cross-hatching uses hatching in two or more different directions to create a darker tone. Broken hatching, or lines with intermittent breaks, is used to form lighter tones, and by controlling the density of the breaks a graduation of tone can be achieved.

Stippling, uses dots to produce tone, texture or shade.

Hatching is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing (or painting or scribing) closely spaced parallel lines.

When lines are placed at an angle to one another, it is called cross-hatching.

The main concept is that the quantity, thickness and spacing of the lines will affect the brightness of the overall image, and emphasize forms creating the illusion of volume.

Hatching lines should always follow (i.e. wrap around) the forms. By increasing quantity, thickness and closeness, a darker area will result.

Albrecht Dürer, Veronica, engraving, 1513. Example of hatching (e.g., background) and cross-hatching in many darker areas (visible if viewed at full size).

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatching