Fountain pens

7 Fountain pen sketching tips for beginners

19 Dec

7 Fountain pen sketching tips for beginners

Fountain pens are unique instruments. A confluence of science and art, making a fountain pen is an intensive process. It may have been the choice of writing for generations; it can be an excellent tool for quick sketches! Here are a few tips on how fountain pens can be used for sketching!

  1. Choose the right paper.

Choosing the right paper is the first and foremost requirement when starting. While most gel pens and jotters can be used in almost any paper, fountain pens require fountain pen friendly paper. These are usually extremely resistant to problems like feathering and ghosting. Choose a paper that will allow you to use it without any headache of feathering and ghosting. The paper should be thick enough for you to hatch on the paper several times and not have ink visible at the back of the paper. Ayush paper has several FP friendly papers, which can be great for sketching with fountain pens. 

Ayush Paper

2. Choose the right pen.

Choosing the right pen is also an extremely important part. Ideally, three pens- medium nib, fine nib, and extra-fine nib would be great to have. However, your medium nib can act as a fine nib too. We will get to that later in this article. Finding the right pen for you can be a task. It will help if you are looking for a pen that is not too heavy and can sketch for longer hours. The pen needs to be a perfect fit for your hands and should not be too small, too thick, or too heavy. A good starting pen would be a Lamy Vista or even a Parker Vector. If this is your first fountain pen, a trial before a purchase is an excellent way to get the correct fit. 

Ayush paper

3. Choose the right ink.

Choosing the right ink is another important aspect that is often overlooked. Many inks react differently on different papers. It is best to buy ink and paper from the same website. Most stationary manufacturers, like Ayush Paper, sell ink that works best with their papers. Krishna is an Indian brand that can be blindly trusted for starters in sketching. A simple black or blue-black ink is the best starter ink.

Ayush paper

4. Sampling different hatches

When you buy the sketching book, try to first go to the last page. This is your sampling page. If you own different inks and different pens, before using a particular combination, try to use it to make rough hatches on the sample paper. Touch the nib on the paper for a few seconds to see if the ink bleeds or spreads. This will help you not spoil a sketch mid-way and is generally a good practice.

Ayush paper
Ayush paper
Ayush paper

5. Use a pencil for the first draft.

Use a pencil for the first draft. Fountain pen ink stains are for life. So to sketch, make a rough outline with a pencil. Good quality paper will allow you to make changes with a pencil several times till you get it right. Don’t worry, and you can still use your eraser to remove pencil marks once you are done with your final sketch! 

6. Using reverse nib 

As mentioned earlier, if you have just bought your first fountain pen, a medium nib, you can get results quite close to a fine nib pen from that same pen too! Turn your pen around (Nib facing down, feet facing up) and check on your sampling page to see how it writes. It should give you finer lines while sketching, which will help different hatching variations in your sketches. 

Ayush paper

7. Separate background from foreground

Another important part of fountain pen sketching, especially when sketching portraits, is to separate the foreground-background. You can draw shapes, lines, or write at the back using geometric shapes or bold fonts. This will provide depth in your image and allow you to separate the portrait from the background, giving it a sort of 3D effect and not look too flat. 

Ayush paper

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One thought on “7 Fountain pen sketching tips for beginners”

  1. jasmineroy says:
    March 7, 2022 at 4:46 PM

    Thanks for sharing information blog! It is also an attempt to teach us how to become better human beings. During this journey, which takes years, we are also taught to read and write. Pens are a part of the process in which are separated from those who do not get to become comparatively more civilized. Pens are powerful tools.

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