Gesture Drawing: Bamboo Pen to Watercolor Brush

I’ve been making slight changes in my drawing materials for my gesture drawings to keep myself on my toes. I switched to a very thin watercolor brush instead of the bamboo pen. My control over the line is significantly reduced because of the flimsiness of the brush compared to the bamboo pen. At the same time, the advantages that a brush presents are enormous in that you have increased flexibility and liberty in the kinds of lines you can make. I didn’t stay with the watercolor brush for too long though; the softness of the tool started to bother me and I felt that I lost too much control over the line in the process.

Gesture drawings executed with a watercolor brush.

I went back to the bamboo pen, but this time I switched to a larger bamboo pen which had a slightly different cut to it, making for a line that was a bit more rigid, but that held the ink much longer and in a more consistent manner. For some reason, the rigidity of the bamboo pen lets me be looser with my line whereas with the brush I tended to tighten up and get too precious with each individual mark. This new bamboo pen seems to be a better fit, and I’m planning on continuing it further.