Beautiful Cousins - Suddenly it All Comes Together

I don't really like blaming my tools, because I think it's the last refuge of people who don't actually know what they're doing, but I didn't have a good white pastel, and I finally made the long walk to the art store, and got a couple hard pastels (white and dark brown, for details), and a nice white with just a tiny bit of yellow, to get the colour right.  I also got a few paper stumps to get the blending right, and help with the little details. I don't know if it was the new tools, or they just gave me a little more confidence, but on this layer everything just sort of fell into place.  The colour is much better and the portraits considerably more accurate. I'm going to give it a couple of days, then maybe go back in and touch things up.

New Toy!

Finally my new ruling pen arrived! I'm very excited. I ordered it for a project coming up after Tell-Tale Heart is done. (yes, it's far from being done, and I have a couple of books to make before hand as well, but I can't keep myself from dreaming up all kinds of new things to do). I've only used this once, at a calligraphy evening a couple years ago and couldn't find on in Regina so when I finally remembered what it was called I order one from ebay. There will be much practice on some old books I have lying around because I quite like when things are made on top of old pages. I may make some book projects out of the good ones.

Ruling pens are nifty little instruments that can be adjusted with that little knob on the side to make finer or broader lined, and, if I can manage to figure out how, will make one side (the one nearest the tip) of the letter nice and smooth while the other side (the open side) ragged and splattery. It can be used with ink and watercolour, of course, and also works great with masking fluid. I think it should also be great for my gilding size, whenever my gold leaf arrives. So many possibilities!

Stay tunes for results!