ELEGANT WRITER & STAMPING

 It's been quite a few years since I've used my Elegant Writer Calligraphy Pen, although mine has never been used for calligraphy, only for the amazing water-reactive properties that this pen holds. It can be quite overwhelming on its own on ATCs as they are so small so by using it in conjunction with stamping, you can control how much you put down of the pen and still have a recognisable image by using an open-style stamp. I used almost exclusively my Vintage Photo Distress Ink pad for this technique, as I like the vintage colour of it and feel it blends nicely with the various shades that come out of the Elegant Writer pen. Although you'll see Evergreen Bough and Picked Raspberry have made an appearance on a couple of my sample ATCs and they also work very well with this amazing pen. To get the lighter shades of pinks/blues etc from the Elegant Writer pen, you need to dab off the water while it is still wet and as it lifts, the other beautiful soft colours appear. Such a cool product!

"Float away"

"Be creepy"

"Flowers don't tell"

"Moonlight mayhem"

"Magic"

"Creative process"


Finally, this is a card I made using the same technique as the ATCs.
I mounted the image onto a piece of cork as it seemed to suit the
grungy style of this technique.

NEUROGRAPHIC DRAWING

 Neurographic Drawing was something I've been drawn to as I've noticed it more and more popping up in my feeds on FB and Insta. A description I found on Google says it is described as a technique that comprises drawing freeform lines or 'neuro lines'. These are meant to enable the connection between the conscious and unconscious, gaining access to the inner self by using a specific algorithm or method. I found it extremely addictive and very meditative as you aren't consciously thinking about what you're doing, you are just doing it. You can add colour, or not, doodle within the shapes, or not, add extra lines, ribbons, circles, dots, whatever you choose to do. I used a combination of watercolour paints, watercolour pencils and Pilot G-Tec C4 coloured gel pens to add the colours. The lines were done with Pentel DX 0.28 and Sharpie Super-fine black marker.

This is my cover for Technique Book #31.
The size is 20cm x 15cm (8" x 6") so is a fair
bit larger than the atc's that follow.


"Creativity"

"Disturb"

"Stop overthinking"

"Perspective"

"My path"

"Simplicity"

Finally, a card I made using an Elegant Writer Calligraphy pen. This pen is a black chisel tip felt style pen that bleeds when activated with water into gorgeous shades of grey, blue, mauve and pink. 

ELEGANT WRITER PEN CLASS

Firstly let me state that I am not an artist as the following pictures will attest!  I googled "simple line drawings" to get some ideas and just drew.  So if you're actually an artist, do try this pen as it's watercolouring possibilities are beautiful!

The Elegant Writer Calligraphy pen has the unique quality that it bleeds beautiful greys, pinks and mauve's when wet with water.  As I work on atc's which are small (2.5" x 3.5" or 6.4cm x 8.9cm), it can be quite a challenge to get much detail happening.  If you google Elegant Writer Drawings you'll see some absolutely amazing artwork that people product and they are all bigger than atc's!  So to work so small you need not much detail and more open areas to do the washes using an aqua brush or fine paint brush dipped in water.  

Some of the ones below I have then added colour after using Twinkling H2O's which are great for adding just a wash of colour to complement the grey etc that the Elegant Writer gives with just water.  If you blot almost immediately with a paper towel when you activate the line of the Elegant Writer pen, you'll get more of a colour change, this is when the pink and mauve colours show up.  Also I have heard that as the pen gets older and more used it is not so black to start with so that also alters the colours that it will bleed.  

I've also included down the bottom a drawing that I've done using just the pen with no water added (Dogs speak) and also some with the pen and just water, no other colours to give you an idea of how subtle the other pinks and mauve's are.

"Trees"... (I used Twinkling H2O's in

a pink and a purple to add

extra colour to this one)

"Falling"... (this one also has Twinkling H2O's, blue 

for the sky, a little gold down the bottom, brown on the 

branch and green on the leaves.)

"Dark side"... (Once again Twinkling H2O's 

in red and pearl for this one.)

"Wear my hair"... (No other colours on

this one at all, just the pen and water.  Like I said,

I'm not artist and this started out as a

girl and morphed into a man!)

"Dogs speak"... (This one has the dog and the speech

bubble drawn in the pen but no water added yet, he also needs

his teeth drawn in when the watercolouring bit has

been done.  You can go back and add details with a

permanent pen after it's dry!)

This is one of Tim's birds from the Ranger stamp set and

I wanted to show the girls you could actually stamp using a

pale grey ink pad, I used the Dove

Grey in Stazon but any pale grey waterproof ink pad would

work.  Then draw over the lines with the Elegant Writer

pen and colour in using the water!

This one also is just water.

Water only.

Water again.  This shows the pinks and mauve's well