INK STICK ASSEMBLY

Ink Stick is a new Transparent Drawing Assembly. And the name says it all: you draw with a stick. Or a feather. Or the end of a broken off pencil. Or with a piece of hay. Or the end of a garlic stalk.

Actually, you use your drawing instrument, as suggested above, dipped in ink. You can either draw with the wet end onto dry paper. Or you can draw onto wet paper.

For the drawing at the top, I used the small stick, shown below, which I found in the yard at around 4 in the AM. (Most times, it is at 4 AM when I get these crazy ideas.) Because it was dark and I was stumbling around looking for a stick, this is the first instrument that I happened across in the yard. And I’ve used it ever since. The point being that you don’t need to overthink this. Just grab something, dip it in ink, and draw.

Drawing with a stick is not new. Haven’t we all been tasked, in some drawing class in the distant past, to draw with something that is out of your comfort zone?

What might be new is to draw with this dipped stick into the wet. And of course to do it transparently in the quest for form. The tests below demonstrate a few of the possible effects that you get.

The left test beige watercolor tone was very wet when the stick went to the paper. So if you want a really bold line which diffuses to a tone, then make the segment very wet with standing water. On the right, though, I allowed the tone to dry a few minutes. You know the tone is drying when you start to see the texture of your watercolor paper again. So a slightly drier tone produces a thinner and more controlled line. And, of course, how much ink you have on the tip of your stick will dramatically impact the result. The drawing at the top demonstrates the wet stick / wet tone interface: it is clear where the stick crossed the tone given the expression of the line.

In a few recent pages, I have used the Ink Stick Assembly. These include:
–Rocket Engines
–Knowledge State
–Book Update

There is something Zen about this Assembly. When drawing into the wet, you set the basic parameters with the shape of the initial tones that you put down, and how much water there is, and how much ink is on the stick. Then, as you take your stick across the wet, what happens is simply what is going to happen. You can’t absolutely predict. This in the moment drawing interface gives a useful lever toward form.

Plus, it is really fun. It gets you out of your rut. You can use this assembly as you develop previously unimaginable forms. It becomes very expressive in unexpected yet pleasing ways. You can maintain your transparency while using this assembly. And, as we will see a bit later, the initial tones can then serve as a platform for your conmutation to form via Automatic Form or Drawing At The Boundary Of Form.