There are two things that I have come to appreciate when using pen and ink. The first is that you have to live with every mark you make – there is no going back. This, like most things, is not totally true but it has enough truth to mean that there is little opportunity to correct any mistakes and should you try it may well end in the destruction of the thing you were trying to create in the first place.

The second thing is that Tone is king and how you attempt to introduce tone into the drawing is key to making the drawing a success – this, of course, is true to much figurative work but I feel it is doubly so when you only have two true tones, black and the colour of paper.

To overcome this I have introduced a third element – my trusted Letraset promarkers. Here I am able to use shades of grey to enhance the tones provided by the pen. I think it works quite well.

Sent from my iPad