Comments on: Subjects with Pen and Ink – Flowers

By: Kathryn Hunter

Kathryn Hunter — Sun, 04 May 2025 23:15:54 +0000

Thank you so much for your demonstrations Matt. I love watching you draw and your explanations of what you are doing are excellent – even I can follow. I’ve been watching the lessons at least twice. I don’t attempt to draw until the 2nd watch and this has really helped me . I used to think ” I can’t do that” . Now I think ” I can’t wait to have a go at that!”

By: David Coutts

David Coutts — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 19:39:58 +0000

I worked my way through Series 1 and while I really wasn’t confident that my “Boot” or “Pumpkin” would look like anything, I realized that they came out not bad at all.
Mind you, I don’t have the experience and skill that Matt exhibits, but I am finding that each one of these exercises is helping to build my confidence.
Hatching, especially the direction it should go seems to be my big issue.
There’s no way to gain experience other than by actually doing the work. So, here I am, going through the exercises one by one and feeling less intimidated by each successive drawing.
I am so glad I opted to join the program for a year. The choices of medium and especially the different types of subject to draw along with Matt’s narrative make it a great positive outcome.
So now, on to Series 2 – Flowers.

By: Sandra Gregor

Sandra Gregor — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 10:46:11 +0000

Stippling is a never ending story, right? But it looks amazing.

By: Christine Robinson

Christine Robinson — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 17:17:30 +0000

Hey Matt, after being half way through your pen and ink course for ages I know the techniques. I'm wondering though are there anymore techniques for pen & ink, I'm doing an Elvis portrait I donated as a prize for 'Elvis quiz' I'm a huge fan and we all part of a stream he does once a week. Anyway I don't feel that the techniques will work for the Elvis photo ref I'm doing. I got this large 72 pack of just greys and I didn't.know there was that many variations !!!! I won't use them all but they have the lightest ones and I've already worked out that with other packs of greys by faber castell, Sakura Koi. So I'm doing shading similar to pencil, I think it's going to turn out well I think. The 72 pack are Arteza, I'm starting to really like their brand. They are America and now they have in UK which is great because I do like their stuff. I know I can't put it in the members minute because of copyright (rightly so). It's actually an American Lass who won my drawing and in giving her the original. It's going off to Utah. If I've said this before I apologise because it's this fibro fog ya get with Fibromyalgia !!!! It's good to be back, this year is my 'learning more year !! If it wasn't for my health conditions and constant pain and fatigue, last year there were more chunks of being ill and tired. Anyway I know ya know about what I go through but I love art so much and I honestly didn't think j would get back to it after art teacher was a bit of a pain, she made me paint everything and there was one painting she loved and it was a tiger because I love them and still do. It wasn't enough to get a grade 2, it was a good grade but I needed a grade 1 to get a GCSe, when I was at school many moons ago ha ha lol. Well they had CSE and GCE and they merged it by time my kids got to big school. So it was a CSE, I was glad i got one painting into the school exhibition and people liked it. I should of stuck to it but needed work ya know. So sorry I've babbled again again Fibromyalgia, it's not nice. All the best Matt, your the best tutor!!!!!! xxxxx

By: Margaret Orchard

Margaret Orchard — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 12:13:36 +0000

This is such a lovely delicate way of portraying orchids. It lends itself to the delicacy of the petals. As a matter of interest, what do you think of dot pens? On the slowest setting you have greater control over where the dots are going.
I recently completed a Camelia using this method ( without a dotspen) and can see where I went wrong in that I used a solid line for the outline of the flower not dots as you have used. I love this picture and can’t wait to give it a go.

By: matt

matt — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 13:22:26 +0000

In reply to Åshild Næss.

Hi Ashild,

Typically, you’ll want to use broken lines in areas where you want to define an edge, but perhaps this edge is in light. Here we would see a highlight, but we still need to define the edge simply because we’re working with line. A broken line defines the edge, but does so in a more subtle way.

It’s hard to say why you need to use a thicker pen to create smaller lines. It could have something to do with the pressure that you place on the pen. If you are heavy-handed, then a thinner pen would produce thicker marks. The opposite of this is true as well. A broader pen could produce thinner lines, if you place very light pressure on the pen.

By: Åshild Næss

Åshild Næss — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 12:24:29 +0000

Hi Matt, this was great to try and get me into a more structured approach to drawing again after a couple of months of having my brains scrambled and my focus taken away by Covid lockdown (things are much better here in Norway now, thankfully). A couple of questions though:
I like the effect of the broken lines you use sometimes for the contour lines, but I can’t always figure out how you decide where to break the line. I suspect it’s something to do with where the light falls but for this photo I really couldn’t see it – any hints?
Also, with these ink drawings in general I feel like I have to use a thicker pen than you do to get my lines looking even approximately like yours (so for this I used a 0.2 rather than a 0.1 mm pen, for example). Do you think it’s to do with my technique (pressure? angle? just lack of some magical artists’ touch) or just that I’m probably using different paper than yours? I couldn’t find Bristol paper last time I went to my local art store but could order some online – do you think that would make a difference? At the moment I’m just using some relatively cheap drawing paper I found in a bookstore.
(Also agree with what everyone else is saying about patience, sigh. Bane of my life. But practice is good …)

By: Åshild Næss

Åshild Næss — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 12:24:09 +0000

Hi Matt, this was great to try and get me into a more structured approach to drawing again after a couple of months of having my brains scrambled and my focus taken away by Covid lockdown (things are much better here in Norway now, thankfully). A couple of questions though:
I like the effect of the broken lines you use sometimes for the contour lines, but I can’t always figure out how you decide where to break the line. I suspect it’s something to do with where the light falls but for this photo I really couldn’t see it – any hints?
Also, with these ink drawings in general I feel like I have to use a thicker pen than you do to get my lines looking even approximately like yours (so for this I used a 0.2 rather than a 0.1 pen, for example). Do you think it’s to do with my technique (pressure? angle? just lack of some magical artists’ touch) or just that I’m probably using different paper than yours? I couldn’t find Bristol paper last time I went to my local art store but could order some online – do you think that would make a difference? At the moment I’m just using some relatively cheap drawing paper I found in a bookstore.
(Also agree with what everyone else is saying about patience, sigh. Bane of my life. But practice is good …)

By: Michael E Regan

Michael E Regan — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 13:27:26 +0000

Matt, I feel compelled to say that watching this particular method by your hand was as awesome as anything that I have seen yet on your website. And there is much at this website that is really exceptional. If asked before hand to do something like this, I would have thought that it could only be done digitally with something like Corel Paint. I don’t know what the time lapse video did for the overall time that it took but in any case, the method and skill was a joy to watch over and over. Most of the lessons I do as a dutiful student looking for a voice. This video has me trying to do everything I see as stippling. I hope that I live long enough to get past this but thank you for this video!!!

By: matt

matt — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 12:06:36 +0000

In reply to Eugene Kumeyko. Hi Eugene, Yes, you can use any surface that you wish. I would try to stay with a white paper if possible so that you have the maximum contrast.