Three panoramic sketches from my sailing adventures.

Sketched in the sleepy harbour of Karlby, on the island of Kökar in the Åland archipelago.

The view from my boat on the island of Arholma which is situated in the northern Stockholm archipelago. 

Boat house containing a very old livestock transport boat. Cows are moved out to the islands in the archipelago during the the summer months. This was sketched on the island of Arholma in the northern Stockholm archipelago. 

What did we do before Smart-Phones?

Smart-Phone Dreaming

A quick sketch in the summer heat using my Hero 86 and Koi watercolour set.

Lunch Sketch

Bird Feeder Sketch

I was working from home today so I was able to sketch the birds outside the kitchen window during my lunch break.

Illustrated with my Hero 86 calligraphy pen.

Practicing with my Hero

Here are a few sketches I did in the last few days with my new Hero calligraphy pen. The first two sketches are from a book called, "Anatomy for the Artist". The other sketch with watercolour was from the wonderful street photographer, Vivian Maier's website. 
No preparation penciling was used for these drawings, I'm trying to push myself to be free with ink and watercolour, trying to lose the fear of making mistakes.

More Hero

Stockholm Town Hall

I am too busy to find time to sketch outdoors at the moment, I look forward to my summer holidays which are coming soon. I did this sketch of the Stockholm Town Hall from a photo while having lunch in front of my computer screen. I used my new Hero calligraphy pen.

Sketch with my Hero

I did this quick sketch with the Hero calligraphy pen I received in the post from China last week. It's definitely fun to use, hard to use, I think I will have to relearn how to hold a pen in fact! I sketched my Beetle with it.

VW Beetle Sketch

I need a hero!

A Hero calagraphy pen. Photo: Cathy Johnson

After reading Cathy Johnson's article from the Artist's Journal about illustrating with a Hero Calligraphy pen I was literally hooked.
I have been looking for a fountain pen that would encourage me to draw in a loose style. My continual personal fight is to try and forget my graphic training from my years in advertising. I aspire to a free expressive line, not easy to find when you have reached or maybe even passed middle-age. By the way, does anyone know what the official mid-life years are? When do they start and when do they end?

So after reading Cathy's article which was published on the Artist's Journal Workshop website I immediately followed her advice and visited eBay and started hunting for some Hero pens. I found two which I ordered from China, one for 6 dollars and the other for 12, not so expensive and I hope to have a lot of fun with them. The seller of the Hero 86 Calligraphy pen had a very impressive page on eBay, he even had a number of pictures of himself going about his export business with the help of his moped, cute, I wish him the best of luck with his business.  I have been buying a lot of art related things recently; I should probably stop ordering and start drawing instead - but shopping is so much easier than scratching that first uncertain line on a clean, white page!
If you would like to see the work of an excellent pen & ink sketcher who uses a Hero pen, visit Don Low's blog, I discovered him on urbansketchers.com

Hero 86 Calligraphy Pen (12 dollars)

Hero 86 Calligraphy Pen exporter!