Working with Rotring Rapidograph pens
As I’ll soon be re-photographing my work for my new online pen and ink drawings gallery, today I’m beginning to touch a few of my drawings up. Just small things that I feel need darkening here and there: some clouds to make heavier, some skies to deepen. So for the first time in a while, out come the pens.
I had a little burst of buying new Rotring Rapidograph pens last year, just to make sure I had some in reserve. So I needed to check what I have, and see what needs cleaning or replacing. Sometimes it seems a nib gets a bit ‘gushy’ (developing a little globule of ink on the end if you pause too long during stippling) and I don’t know what to do other than replace it and keep the ‘gushy’ one in reserve. I also have a couple of nibs that have blocked, and I really need to buy a cleaner unit. In the past I’ve always relied on a lot of shaking and even sucking the end of the pen… but that usually gets you a mouth full of ink if you’re not careful!
Here’s the current collection (above left): ,13 and 0,5 (which I’ve been using most often in the past couple of years), up to 1,0, which I almost never use. Today I ordered some ,25 and ,35 which I used to use more in the past and will be using for the new projects. I’m going to be recording the progress of the new work here in the blog, from first ideas to photography to drawing. So if you would like to keep up to date with my progress, please subscribe and you’ll get regular updates (one email a day on any day that I update the blog)!
So today I’ll be concentrating on sharpening up the detail in this drawing (below), and later in the week I’ll be photographing it ready to upload it into the gallery.
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Can you help me: I would like to know how long one needs to wait so that rotring black ink is dry (in order to rubber pencil on the same page).
Best,
Julien.
Julien
30 Dec 10 at 8:07 pm
Hello Julien. I have found that the the ‘Rotring’ cartridge inks do seem to smudge a lot more now than they used to years ago, even a few days after drawing. I think that the formula is not quite the same as it used to be. I have tried to get round the problem by using a putty rubber and shaping it to a point, so as not to even touch the ink. However, it is very inconvenient to do this. I am sure that years ago I used to just be able to use a rubber fairly freely over the ink.
Christine
21 Jan 11 at 4:49 pm