What I Do

[EKE]

Hi friends-

 

I thought I'd give you all a quick look at what I do with fountain pens. Besides journal, note and letter writing, I also use my fountain pens daily to draw. I'm an architect, and I specialize in thoughtful traditional and classical architecture. We do a lot of elaborate residential estates for affluent, interesting people. I absolutely love what I do - can't wait to get into the studio each and every day. I'm a lucky guy.

 

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu188/ErikEvens/photo-14.jpg

 

I discovered a few years back how wonderful it is to draw with a moderately wet fountain pen on tracing paper. The paper architects usually use for quick sketching is often called "sketch paper" or "flimsy". Its a fairly thin, but highly burnished, smooth vellum-like tracing paper that comes on rolls, and we just tear off pieces to draw on. It's everywhere around the office, you are never more than a few feet from a roll of it. It is not very absorbent, so it will take a lot of ink without bleeding, and its so smooth to write on.

 

So I spend most of my day drawing with fountain pens, sketching out floor plan studies, ideas for details for buildings, furniture designs, facade studies. I like to draw mainly with black or sepia inks, and medium nibs. My current standard drawing inks are Noodler's Dark Matter, which on the flimsy looks like a nice dark warm grey - very pleasing to the eye (see photo above) - and Omas Sepia, which looks vintage and makes my drawings look like something from the drawing board of Thomas Jefferson. When I'm working I'm never without one of my pens. If someone tries to hand me a Sharpie or another felt tip, I politely refuse and pull out a proper writing instrument.

 

Here's a few things from my desk this morning:

 

A floor plan study for a Spanish Colonial house. This was a quick pen study for the plan, that was colored using xylene markers for a preliminary presentation to our client. The notes were added in Photoshop.

 

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu188/ErikEvens/MainLevelPlan-1.jpg

 

A facade study for the same house. This was a quick sketch for my own use, drawn simply to work out an idea.

 

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu188/ErikEvens/ElevationStudyP.jpg

 

Studies for garden pavilions:

 

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu188/ErikEvens/photo-17.jpg

 

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu188/ErikEvens/photo-19.jpg

 

Detail of a column capital:

 

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu188/ErikEvens/photo-18.jpg

 

Drawing with a fountain pen is a joy for me. They make me want to draw even more than I do naturally. There is something about laying a bead of wet ink onto good paper that is like letting ideas flow out into the world. It's intoxicating.

Edited November 13, 2012 by EKE

[P.A.R.]

You clearly enjoy what you do, and have great talent.

 

I could probably handle some technical drawing, but artistic drawing is beyond me. Perhaps this is for lack of training or just because I have a function focused engineer's brain.

 

I agree that fountain pens make an art form of writing (even daily, non-calligraphic writing) that otherwise may be considered a mundane task. :clap1:

[Uncle Red]

Yes, you are a lucky man and I think your clients are lucky too.

[ethernautrix]

I LOVE those sketches! I really do! I want to draw like that!

 

I kindv do but in a much, much messier way, ha ha ha, like, TOTALLY messy. :-) And crazy proportions, ha ha ha. At this point, the line controls me; I don't control the line.

 

I hope you will post more sketches.

[Lloyd]

... And crazy proportions, ha ha ha. At this point, the line controls me; I don't control the line.

 

 

Maybe Gaudi had similar sketching issues.

[EKE]

Yes, you are a lucky man and I think your clients are lucky too.

 

Thanks Red!

[EKE]

I LOVE those sketches! I really do! I want to draw like that!

 

I kindv do but in a much, much messier way, ha ha ha, like, TOTALLY messy. :-) And crazy proportions, ha ha ha. At this point, the line controls me; I don't control the line.

 

I hope you will post more sketches.

 

I think that good sketching is about a precarious balance between the controlling the line and letting the line lead you somewhere.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I'd be happy to post more drawings when something comes along that's interesting. In day to day practice, I usually think of my drawings as doodles designed to work out a design problem, or to check or establish a proportion between elements. I don't think of them as pretty things. If from time to time they end up that way, I guess that's icing on the cake.

 

-EKE

[Pentulant]

Oh gosh.

 

I love what you do.

 

I can't wait to see more. And will you tell us where we can get of the paper you use?

[myn]

Love how your drawings look on that tracing paper. Awesome job, great drawings. That's so cool you have a job that let's you do more then dot i's and cross t's with your fountain pens.

Edited November 14, 2012 by myn

[EKE]

Oh gosh.

 

I love what you do.

 

I can't wait to see more. And will you tell us where we can get of the paper you use?

 

Thanks, Petulant!

 

Here is the flimsy we use:

 

Seth Cole Sketch Paper

 

We buy it bulk in large cartons, in 6", 12" and 18" rolls. It's 8 lb. so it's very lightweight, which is important for transparency (we do a lot of tracing). Also, you want to be able to tear it easily. But it is very smooth, and not at all absorbent, so it takes ink nicely and doesn't bleed through, unless you really scrub into the paper over and over. Most architects use flimsy like this. It also comes in an amber yellow color, which some folks prefer. That yellow paper is great for coloring on with PrismaColor pencil, by the way.

[EKE]

Love how your drawings look on that tracing paper. Awesome job, great drawings. That's so cool you have a job that let's you do more then dot i's and cross t's with your fountain pens.

 

As I said, I am blessed to be able to spend every day doing something that I love this much.

 

Thanks for your very kind comments.

[ethernautrix]

... And crazy proportions, ha ha ha. At this point, the line controls me; I don't control the line.

 

 

Maybe Gaudi had similar sketching issues.

 

 

Aw... I think that actually my hand and my eyes are not communicating very well (although it is fun).

 

I'm going to link to Subramaniyam's thread (where I've posted a few "Cathedral Variations") ONLY to show that my lines are cray-cray and the proportion, the perspective... what? How? I don't know! I'm a do thirty of 'em. I have no idea how this is going to turn out.

[ethernautrix]

EKE, I wish you would post more of your drawings, even if you don't consider them as more than doodles. I think I might be able to learn a thing or two by looking at your doodles. Your arches and columns? I think that'll help me draw more than wonky rectangular buildings. :-)

[cavey]

Wow, I love your sketches! I'm just a bit of a noob when it comes to drawing with fp's. I doodle a bit during meetings, but that doesn't really amount to anything extraordinary. Some circles, squares, weird angles to connect, and basically just a big ink splotch on paper.

 

Your sketches, wow, I repeat myself, are wonderful!

[EKE]

Thanks cavey!

 

Sometimes I'm a bit amazed that people actually pay me to do this.

 

circles, squares, weird angles to connect..... Sounds like you are a closet architect to me!

[iamchum]

wooooow, amazing what you can do with an FP. And here I am, just a pleb academic who just writes boring notes with his FPs.

[EKE]

I take a lot of boring notes as well. But using a FP makes it seem less like drudgery, no?

[iamchum]

it's the only reason i still do it an excuse to use my crazy pens. It's a much better experience than the computers the university mandates we use.

Edited November 28, 2012 by iamchum

[cavey]

Hmm, me a closet architect? Well, I do love looking at houseplans, floorplans and sketching my own bits'n'pieces of fantasy architecture. Have a weird fondness of garden designs (Japanese/asian inspired zen gardens). Loving the old japanese layouts, spanish colonial, victorian styles.

 

Finding it funny how the "Dutch houses" architecture is in the states, compared to well, how dutch houses architecture actually is in the netherlands.

 

I think I'm derailing a bit here

[pictogramax]

These are beautiful, EKE!