Sunday, December 5, 2010

Ruling Pen Drawing on Cloth-Day 1

I'm late out of the gate in starting my ruling pen drawing challenge, but I intend to do it, starting today!
Melly Testa started a challenge:  Create a line drawing in 30 minutes, one per day for 30 days, using a ruling pen, (paint, dye, or ink) on a 5.5 inch square piece of cloth.
I wisely decided to wait until I finished teaching my workshop.  I had too many looming deadlines.  I still have deadlines, but some of the pressure is off.  Plus, I had to order a ruling pen.
Now, armed with my shiny new (cheap) ruling pen, squares of cut bleached muslin, and some weirdly thinned acrylic paint (maybe I need to switch to ink, we'll see), I used painter's tape and set to work.

I have not been drawing for the sake of drawing in quite awhile.  This upsets me because I know that drawing opens up so many other things for me.

I have never used a ruling pen before this project.  I had to play with it a bit to figure out how to get marks, especially on cloth.

Using my iphone timer, I set out to draw the first thing I laid eyes on:  a plastic bottle.  Why pick the hardest thing to draw?  I guess I'm a masochist.  I think drawing clear plastic or drawing/painting a clear anything is very difficult.  I wanted to maintain a very small line, one-half inch or less, throughout the drawing.  I allowed myself some very small, almost dot-size lines to create the condensation at the top of the bottle neck.  I don't think this drawing is excellent, but it was a good exercise to open up my brain.

I encourage you to try it and follow along!  Melly is on Day 24 now.  Please stop by her blog and take a look at her progression, which is very inspiring.  Her blog will inspire you in many other ways, too.
watered-down acrylic textile paint, ruling pen, drawing of water bottle (partially crumpled)


8 comments:

  1. Welcome to the group! I like you bottle drawing. I found drawing curves on fabric with the ruling pen a challenge. It has been a very rewarding assignment for me as I run when someone says "draw".;-) Hope you have a great week.

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  2. Yes! Welcome, glad the committee got here first! Great trial run! and well, 15 minutes or less, even easier.

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  3. I'm very happy to get started. I knew it was best to wait until after the workshop. I was right.

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  4. this is very cool. Great exercise to do it for 30 minutes daily, and on fabric! I might have to give it a try.

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  5. You know I'm starting to think I need to get myself one of these ruling pens...

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  6. oooo I want to do the challenge too! I need to sift through some old art supplies -I think I may have one of those pens in an old compass set I have...I didn't know that's what it was for! What a great exercise!

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  7. If you can't find a ruling pen in your "stash" of art supplies, I got one on amazon for just a few bucks. There are degrees of fanciness, but I went basic.

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