Ship-shape and Bristol Fashion

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way."

– Ernest Hemingway

Not quite 100 sheets here, but enough to get me started as I begin prepping the 100 portraits this month.

One Hundred Times...Me?

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not the sitter."

– Oscar Wilde

17" x 14", ink on paper, 2005

The above is a painting of my wife, Krista, and for this project, you should expect something along these lines.

Bottle of Ink

"There is something magical in seeing what you can do, what texture and tone and colour you can produce merely with a pen point and a bottle of ink."

– Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

Nearly one litre of ink;
pencil and sharpener for scale.

I bought this large bottle of ink back in 2007 when I was working on my second comic book, Weak Species –which was supposed to be an ongoing series, but never made it past issue #1 (but TONS of sketches, ideas, designs, for several further issues exist). Comics are labour and time intensive and I had other art projects to work on, so this bottle was put in storage; any ink I needed for illustrations in the meantime was found in the several little jars I still had (see previous post).

I just did some tests and, despite being roughly five years old, the ink is still good (thankfully, I'd kept it wrapped in two plastic bags since day one in case of spillage).

Please Stand By...

"Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory."

– William Barclay