Quill Work
I’ve always written & drawn with black ink pens, varying from Rapidographs in the 1980-90s, to rollerball Pilots in more recent years. But along the way I’ve experimented with quills and chinese brushes, always trying to find a good connection between what I could imagine the lines doing and what came to me in words. A few years ago this interest breached into ink-making when I accidentally discovered that oak galls made a beautiful purple-black ink. I went back to my quills, got better at making the points, and fell in love with the variable shapes of line attuned to touch. It also seemed an excellent way to explore asemic poetry. I spent all my mornings during the pandemic year making small drawings, trying different grips and sharpening. Check out the videos below.
