ACEO-size artwork is a wonderful size to work in.  Always 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, the uniform size can be used to depict either simple designs or complicated drawings.  A very portable size to work in as well.  I have completed oil paintings, watercolors, gouache paintings, and of course pen and ink drawings in this miniature format.

ACEO "A Simple Cherry" Prismacolor colored

In August of 2015, I lost my father.  Since then I have been focused on making Quilts For Veterans in my father's honor.  Until the terror attacks in France.  Even though we still honor our veterans, terror attacks leave no veterans, only victims.  We all need the Protection of Saint Michael. I will be again drawing my icon-style images of Saint Michael.

the art of being an artist is very emotional.  When I was hit by lightning, my emotions became "level" in some ways.  Two days ago I felt that after 6 years, my color perception had returned.  Yesterday my father had a medical emergency and is in ICU as I write this.  His prognosis at this time does not look good, and all the thoughts running around me are of my childhood and Dad.

It's funny how things happen.  I have trouble verbalizing emotions because I am a visual person.  And my acute sense of color, of hearing color instead of seeing it, if "me" is back, then now more than any time I will need to draw in color.

I've done 2 small oil pastels since yesterday.  Art has always been the way I speak.  The oil pastel I just started has a bright red background - are those emotions over my father, or is red the color of the sky I see?

I may have had somewhat of a breakthrough since getting hit by lightning.  While getting ready for a doctor's appointment, I noticed the shampoo bottle top is black, not blue as I have thought it was for months.  It's black.  I may have gotten my color" back" since getting hit by lightning.

When I got hit by lightning, my color perception had gone to gray, and because I had been a colorist, this was a real problem.  Using color hurt my head, hurt my thinking, hurt my eyes.

I have been drawing in brown, until yesterday when I unpacked some paints.  I had tried, maybe a year or so ago, to "push" my perception back, even by starting a go-fund-me page to purchase the best oil pastels for their color range.  It hadn't worked, because color still hurt.

If my shampoo bottle is black, if this morning, I finally saw it the way it is and not as a deep blue, then something may have kicked back in. !!!

Last week my doctor wanted to check my lungs for damage from the lightning strike, 6 years after it happened.  I don't want to lose one thing to gain another, but as an artist who strongly followed Vincent Van Gogh's style, having my color back would be something special.

Look for some oil pastel work in the next few days......

Starting Seeds of

 African Violets, Streptocarpus, or Sinningias

Members of the Gesneriad family of plants

These seeds types are all very, very tiny, resembling dust.  Although very small, and handling has to be done carefully, once sown, they take little care until they germinate.

 

1.  I use a basic soil-less mix to start all my seeds.  You may also purchase a soil-less mix specifically made for seed starting.

 

2. I fill a small pot or seed pan with the soil-less mix and then place it in a bowl or container of water about 1 inch deep.  This is to dampen the mix, and it is left in the water-bowl until the surface of the soil is damp.

 

3. I place the seeds into the palm of my hand, and then hand-place the seeds onto the “soil” mix, but you may find it easier to lightly tap the seeds out of their packaging onto the soil.  The goal is to place them just on the surface without having them all in one spot.

 

4.  They are NOT covered with “soil” but left to sit on the surface.

 

5.  I cover them in a couple of different ways.  The easiest way is to place the pot or pan in a gallon-size zip lock bag, and then place the container in good light.  They should be in bright light, but not direct sun, and it is best if they are in a warm area, 65 to 70 degrees.

 

Another method I have used is to convert a ten-gallon fish tank to a germinating tank.  Using a dry tank, two inches of damp clean sand is placed on the bottom.  The planted seeds, already in their pots as prepared above, are placed on top of the damp sand.  The tank is covered with the typical lighted full cover for the tank when using it for fish- with a fluorescent light.  I keep the light on in the tank for 12 hours a day.  If the dampness of the sand is kept at the right level, no additional watering is needed.  The combination of the light, moisture, and a closed environment, allow almost carefree germination of many seed types.

 

Gesneriads can take from one week to several weeks to germinate, so I make sure I have allowed plenty of time before giving up on a seed batch.  Once they have germinated, when they are about 1/8” to ¼” tall, I either move them to individual one inch pots, or re-pot them into a square, shallow pot to grow on.  I keep them covered at first, and slowly expose them to being uncovered by removing whatever cover I have used for an hour a day over several days.  Soon you will have lots of little plants! :)

A new blossom on one of my Opuntia humifusa plants -

New video: Opuntia humifusa and Copperpoint

I have just uploaded a new video to YouTube - Rapidograph Slow Ink Flow

June 22, 2015 -
I have said that since I was hit by lightning, that I see in gray colors now in my mind.  Shades of gray.  Having gotten to the point of being a colorist just before getting hit by lightning, this has been difficult.  I have been drawing in graphite and in few colors because now, color actually hurts.

I have also realized something else.  After the lightning strike, there have been a couple of times when it appeared as if I had had a stroke.  The first time, about a year after the lightning, left me not being able to speak or form words in my mind.  It was as if my brain had simply stopped working.  I remember walking around the house, trying to say a word, trying to think.  I made it to the neighbor's house and she brought me to the hospital.  Before I was able to do that though, the only word I could get out was "cat".  My cat had passed away before this, and it was actually the first time in 33 years that I was without a pet.  But I said "cat". Meaning, that I came out with a word that had absolutely nothing to do with my situation at that moment.  "Did you have a stroke?" I ask myself, "cat" is the answer.

One of my videos listed on YouTube is about an abstract bead tapestry and working against your own thinking to keep your mind open to color and shapes.  I think that when I got hit by lightning, my perception of color went away to some extent, my language has completely changed (becoming simpler and non-expressive), and yet I am constantly aware of the vast time and thoughts that are part of our collective existence.  By that I mean everything.  I hear differently now, in all ways, and although psychic for most of my life, I am now, in it.  Not just a psychic, because I'm not psychic like I used to be, but I am in it, all the thoughts, all the colors, all of it.  I have been working on pieces called "Through The Tunnel" that describe my ten minutes of near-death experience.  And I am finding that my tunnel doesn't seem to have closed after the lightning event.  This can be overwhelming, but not really, because it's a true state of where I am.  Do I "see" the other side?  I'm not sure.  I do know I hear it all the time.

I drew an ACEO of Saint Michael in gray.  I believe I "see" and "hear" color in gray now.  There is a gray world out there, a brownish world of thoughts, and a black world.  Someone might call them dimensions, or they might be aspects of thinking or perception.  For me, they are separate from each other now.  I used to dream in color.  Now, not only do I not dream during sleep, I don't seem to reach REM sleep at all,  You could almost say I live in a walking, awake dream.

My latest "problem" has been deciding whether to draw my Saint Michael ACEOs in colors such as red, blue, etc., or gray.  I have seen him in gray.  I have seen him in gray.  The Saint Michael.  Because I have a degree in horticulture, and was a botanical illustrator for so long, I have recently been buying plants again, to draw, trying to get back to a "normal" of the past.  I seem to have stored some words or vocabulary in my ACEOS of Saint Michael- my own language maybe, as I sat and stippled his image for hours.  So, drawing ACEOs of him is next to breathing, and may be where my thinking will always be.  That takes care of a subject - and a language - and I am not sure yet why the question of color is still bothering me.  I always tried to work "from life", and as I said, I have seen him in gray.  If I draw his image as an ACEO in color, am I contributing to his existence at all? Adding color to his life or time? or taking away from it?

Being of a very knowledgeable religious background does not mean I believe everything I am told by a church.  I do believe the Bible is true, and Saint Michael is mentioned at least four times in the Old Testament, so yes I believe in Saint Michael.  If my mind is creating a "safe" image and color range because I got hit by lightning, I'm not sure I (it) would have chosen Saint Michael.  He spends his life battling the worst of the worst, and although I also believe he protects us, on some level we have to acknowledge the horror he sees in order to acknowledge him.

So, here I am.  Surrounded by new plants, green and yellow inks, all ready to draw geraniums and sinningias, orchids and trees.  Transcribing the gray colors I see into other colors. In an open tunnel of a near-death existence. Seeing, not only faces of other souls, but Saint Michael, walking in gray.  Did I mention that at least three times I have both purchased and then thrown away Saint Michael items?  Some that were expensive- his mountain as a statue, an Italian statue of him, books of Mont Saint Michel, medals, etc.  I keep trying to stick him back into a small part of my thinking, and the more I do it, over a month or two, there he is again, walking in gray.  And if my language is also tied up into the ACEO image I designed, well, how exactly am I supposed to get away from him?

Gray, as I see him, or in color, as others see him?

King James Bible, Daniel 12:1  And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation [even] to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

New video:  Vintage Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph Four-Pen Set No. 3065-S4

During my ten minutes of a near-death experience, I saw a tunnel and two relatives at the end of it.  I have been exploring what may have been between me and the end of that tunnel.  Much of what I have drawn is faces.  I have depicted them as faces, but I think they were closer to being "the essences of souls".

#1001 Face No. 11, copperpoint on gouache on paper

Can we live without color?  A few years ago I wrote a page for my website about how artists in a bad economy should not forget about graphite and pencils.  My high school teacher taught me a simple life-long lesson- if you can't draw it, you won't be able to paint it.

When I got hit by lightning, I lost my color perception.  One appointment with my doctor was especially both rewarding and heartbreaking.  After hearing about my painting and thinking, he said "You are like Vincent.." and he was about to finish "Van Gogh", but as soon as I heard "Vincent", my heart was beating double-time.  Vincent van Gogh has always been my favorite artist, since high school at least, if not earlier.  He could paint orange and green and make you see a rainbow. (Do not mention Thomas Kinkade to me, may he rest in peace).

For at least 20 years I headed down a path similar to Vincent van Gogh's, although I didn't plan it.  My doctor is the one who confirmed I hear color instead of seeing it, and he said that a use of a slight dissociative disorder that I have enabled me to put the colors aside as I heard them and painted.  Joy at having a professional "brain and thinking" doctor tell me something I guess I knew all along.  I understood Vincent van Gogh truly, whereas it took me about 20 years to understand and appreciate Picasso.  I think Picasso was painting math, while Vincent was singing the world.

The heartbreak in that doctor's appointment was that we were determining that I had actually lost my perception of color since getting hit by lightning.  I left that appointment thinking I would work in different color media until I got my color back.  That was at least a year and a half ago.  I can work in color, and I know how I did it before - BUT - I now hear color in gray.  When I would start an oil painting, whether abstract or traditional, my use of color was a satisfying pattern.  It was like baking a cake- I could do it in my sleep.  Did I mention I don't sleep now? lol- I don't reach REM sleep anymore since the lightning either. I dream while I am awake, my brain shuts down every once in a while, but it isn't when I am trying to sleep.  They are calling this epilepsy.

I have spent the last week going through some of my paintings, in oil, oil pastel, pen and ink of course, gouache.  I think I have found that I hear in gray and then if I were to use color now, I am transcribing the grays into colors. Steel Gray.  My world is steel gray.

As I work on depicting the near-death experience of the lightning strike, I had found already that the "tunnel" I saw when the event happened was gray.  It wasn't white like some other people have described, mine is gray.  I say "is" because I think that we each have a tunnel- a way to heaven when we die.  I believe I saw mine when I got hit by lightning, that I held onto having my son and staying here, I lost the ability to speak, and lost my previous perception of color before I saw the tunnel, when the lightning hit the right side of my head..

And now, my page on graphite is calling to me.  It isn't a bad economy that has me leaning toward simple materials and gray scales, it is being struck by lightning.  Where does a colorist who thinks like Vincent van Gogh turn when the world turns gray?  Metalpoint, and a literal use of gray.  Steel gray metal on gouache or marbledust, rabbitskin glue and wood.  I don't want to transcribe my world, I want to draw it directly.  I always have preferred to work "from life" instead of models, and trying to assign colors to a gray scale is not how I want to work.

The above photo is how I hear color now.  The same photo below, in color, is a noisy conglomerate of mush to me, someone else's painting.

I did a couple of things using a steel stylus yesterday- steel gray in the literal use is a very light-colored material.  Much lighter than copperpoint or even goldpoint.  I'm worried that if I work in steel only, I will always be trying to add the contrasting darks instead of allowing the light to be enough.  We will see...

If you are interested in working with metalpoint, you can see my pages here.

Laurie A.E. O’Meara, Artist and Horticulturist Twitter: @laeomtweets  FaceBook  Videos: YouTube

Below is what I wrote when I first started working on "Through The Tunnel" (c)

"Through The Tunnel"

In 2009, I was hit by lightning during a thunderstorm while I stood at my kitchen sink doing dishes.  When you know you shouldn't be doing dishes during a thunderstorm, and well, there were only a couple of dishes to do, and the storm wasn't that bad yet......well, the shock threw me to the floor, I couldn't speak but for "Gaaagh, gaagh"..trying to speak, trying to form words.  I felt myself fade to black, only it was grey.  I saw my grandfather and a Native American elder at the end of a long tunnel.

It took me four years to fully address what had happened.  I knew it, could "see" it, but didn't face it.  At the time, the right side of my face was bruised and blue. And, typical for me, I didn't go to the hospital, I went to bed.  And for those four years couldn't quite get why my left side would just stop working, why my arms would cramp up, why my speech would stop, why I have nerve damage to my face.

In 2012, my mother died, very suddenly.  I was lost.  And in order to find myself, I had to back up and face the lightning strike, and the damage to my thinking, to my physical being.  For about a year now, I have not been painting very often.  Until last week, when I saw a doctor who finally started helping me put pieces back together.

We discussed that I hear color instead of seeing it, that I was afraid I had lost my touch with the correct use of color.  But I came home and did a couple of small paintings.  They were in brown.  Without going into all the medical details, I'm a colorist at this point in my life, they should not have been brown.  So, I started a bright whale painting.  And color hurt - it hurts my eyes, hurts my head, just hurts. My color perception has been thrown- whether by the lightning, or by a condition called being a "migraineur".  Prone to constant migraines, only in my case, again perhaps because of the lightning, I don't feel the pain, so my body keeps going, even though it's in a full migraine state.

To heal, I feel I need to first work in brown and then work back into color.  I've been working on this very hard for a few days.  And all I seem to be able to do is draw faces. In my near-death experience, I have remembered the end of the tunnel, perhaps because my grandfather was there.  It occurred to me this morning, what about that whole long length of the tunnel?

What if that was a space of living thought, of faces, people, activity, between life and death.  I can't get to my grief for my mother if these faces are in the way, and I can't fully pull back from that tunnel until I face my mother's death. I lost her and I don't know where she is.  If these faces are keeping me holding onto that tunnel, well, I won't get my own life back. She isn't in my tunnel, I don't think, so hopefully when I again get to the end of the tunnel, past the faces, maybe then color won't hurt. Maybe then I can paint a flower for my mother, or finish the oil of a bench just like the one she enjoyed sitting on.

(note added August 29, 2014- I am finding that working in browns and neutral tones is not helping.  I will continue to do these face drawings, but I feel I also need to push myself to work in a familiar full color range in order to keep my overall color perception accurate.  I am supposed to be focusing on pain so my brain realizes I am in a migraine state.  There was no pain in that tunnel. )

My thirty-six years as a Fine Artist had been recorded on my website PenStroke Studio. 

For several months I have been working on depicting my near-death experience, and it is titled "Through The Tunnel" (c). I have been drawing images of Saint Michael, faces in graphite, faces in crayon, my view of my tunnel at the moment I almost died, and pears.

Going through my paintings over the last 30 plus years, pears have been a common subject when I am expressing emotion.

A well-known meteorologist helped me figure out the date of the storm that caused the lightning which had hit me and caused my near-death experience.  And my mother died.

I mention my mother because she died after I got hit by lightning, and although I am well-learned in religious belief and in the aspect of God, I have no feeling whatsoever as to where my mother is.

Right now, I am missing my mother, seeing my own tunnel, seemingly stopped in time on May 16, 2012, the date my mother died, and knowing I have to draw.

My doctor knows that I used to "hear" color instead of seeing it.  I had told him that after I got hit by lightning, color hurts.  It hurts- hurts my eyes, hurts my brain.  I had been a botanical artist, but also a colorist.  I think I now "see" as an artist, or rather in my case, "hear" in black and white or gray.  The tunnel I saw after I got hit was gray.  The lightning hit me on the right side of the head, the creative side of the brain.  My forehead and the right side of my face were damaged, including the major facial nerve on that side.

So, me, a Fine Artist, a Colorist, gets zapped, and wham, everything is gray.  It's been six years since I got hit by lightning. I've tried many ways to heal my sense of color, and I have gone through every medium that I had worked in previously in the past, and have found myself back at pencil, at graphite.

ACEO No. 40, "Saint Michael No. 8" - finished this ACEO recently.  I sometimes have drawings come out a certain way on their own.  I had decided to make his hair brown for this image, but he seems to have a darker tone overall, even though I use consistent ink colors. This was completed on Crescent hot press illustration board.

I have started another one.  This will be on Winsor and Newton hot press 140 lb. watercolor paper.  The absorbancy rate of the watercolor paper is higher than illustration board, so the drawing may come out darker still, as more ink will be absorbed into the paper.

"#998 Sinningia 'Bright Eyes' "

I have been working further on this drawing - photo below

I have also mixed the ink for the blossom color - a combination of lavender and magenta.

Add these to your list of equipment- Stabilicers Walk ice cleats.  I was sliding all over the place and in danger of falling quite often when I went out.  I have many inches of ice on my roads, and deep snow off-road.  These have proven to really make the difference in being able to walk safely on ice and snow, and not being able to do that.

One thing I have done for over 25 years is to keep my own recipes for ink colors that I use consistently.  Brands of ink come and go, but by mixing my own, I can always get to a color I want.

Below is one of my ink recipes:

"LAF Cranberry"  (LAF were my initials many years ago)

I use FW Acrylic Inks, vintage Rotring Artist Color Inks, KohINoor Drawing Inks to mix my own colors.  These inks are for tecnical pens only.

If you are looking for a great way to take your pen and ink supplies with you, there is a very nice storage box to use.  It is called the Artbin Sidekick, and I have one of these as well as another of the Dick Blick version of the Sidekick. With the Blick version being just $12.59, this makes a very affordable, spacious storage box.

I keep all of my current ink bottles in the bottom half.  Currently I have 38 one-ounce bottles of ink stored here.

In the top half I keep two Syringe cleaners, vintage pens, ACEO-size boards, sample size bottles of Rotring Artist Color ink, etc., and in the top's top container I keep crowquill pens and extra nibs.

Along with my leather pen case that holds 24 filled technical pens, I can work anywhere.

If you are like me, you buy used pens when you get the chance.  Recently I purchased some used Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pens.  They were sizes 3 x 0 and 1, two sizes I use often when working with multiple colors of ink.

Below are some photos that show what to watch out for when purchasing used technical pens. In the first photo below, you see three pens and an extra nib that I purchased.

This photo below shows a "typical" used pen.  There is old ink in the ink reservoir, and the nib is stuck in the nib collar.

 Here is another pen below showing typical use.  The cap has dried ink, and there is old ink in the nib weight.

Below is a photo of the extra nib that came with the pens, and it too needed a cleaning.

 The photos below show a nib in a nib collar, and then the bottom area of the nib collar.  The bottom area has to have that rectangle opening clear (sometimes they are a different shape) or the nib won't be able to draw ink.

 The nib shown below is really stuck.  This pen had been used and then left to have all the ink dry up in it.  When they are this stuck, there is no sense in forcing it.  The nib was put in an ultrasonic cleaner for four cycles before it started to free up.

In the photos above, you can see the different pens as I took them apart to check their condition.  That is the first step.  The next step is to put each one in an ultrasonic cleaner, unassembled, until there is no ink residue left on each part.  You could also soak them in Koh-I-Noor Cleaning Concentrate or even water, but an ultrasonic cleaner is faster.  When taking the nib out of the nib collar, be sure to use the correct nib key.  Vintage Koh-I-Noor pens came with a gold-colored nib key, and although it looks similar to the more modern black key, it is shaped differently.

Below is a photo of the ultrasonic cleaner I use.  For many years I had a Koh-I-Noor Ultrasonic Cleaner, but when they became hard to find, I purchased one made for cleaning jewelry.

Ultrasonic Cleaners will run a little hot if used continually to clean several pens.  I leave mine open every few cycles to allow the fluid in the tank to cool off.

After cleaning each pen, I let the different parts dry on a paper towel unless I am going to use the pen right away.  When fully dry, I re-assemble the pen.  The process of taking a pen completely apart and fully cleaning it should be done whenever a pen isn't in use.

One note on vintage Koh-I-Noor pens.  I had a size 0 vintage pen that needed a new nib.  When I started to insert a new nib, it didn't screw in easily.  I thought it just needed to be screwed in a little hard, until I had a second thought and took it out again.  The original nib's weight collar had been in the nib area of the barrel, and prevented the new nib from being inserted easily.  The resistance wasn't that much, but I probably would have ruined the pen if I had forced it.  Try to look inside the barrel of a vintage pen before inserting a replacement nib.

Below is my current work space.  The pens on the left are in use, each with a different color.  The pens on the right are empty and clean and ready to be used.

I have a plain purple, commercially purchased African violet.  It has decided to set a seed pod!

When speaking of equipment needed for botanical illustration, one can't forget items that are beyond the art table.  One item that is essential is a pair of "Wellies".  Wellington-type garden / rain/ mud/ snow/swamp/ meadow/ bog / boots.  The photo below is of my pair from L.L. Bean - these have been essential to me for tramping around collecting plant specimens or digging plant material to work from a live plant.  Mine aren't lined, so I have other boots for deep winter, but these are my go-to shoes for 90% of what I do that is involved with growing or drawing plants.

There is so much today about recycling and re-using materials.  One very important item to re-use is glass ink bottles.  Dick Blick company used to sell glass ink bottles that were empty, by the dozen.  Their supplier went out of business and they haven't found a replacement source.  So, save your empty ink bottles!  I use an old Dymo labeler to put labels on my own mixes of ink, stored in re-used ink bottles.

It's nice to be warm and working inside:

Best book:"Manual of Woody Landscape Plants" by Michael A. Dirr-When you get the chance, plant a tree -plan now for spring

I am currently working on two drawings in pen and ink.  The first is a Saint Michael ACEO :

In the photo above, you will see an error I don't usually make.  On the right side, in the blue/green area, there is a small area where I started to add a light green.  This area will end up fairly dark, so it may not show when I am finished, but just a simple thing as starting without checking you have the right pen can ruin a drawing.  I had several of the same size pens in front of me, and just started with the wrong one.

The other drawing I am working on is "#998 Sinningia ' Bright Eyes' ".  This drawing is also an ACEO-sized drawing, on Aquabee Super Deluxe Sketch Paper.  There are several things to point out in this drawing.  First, for my professional-level drawings, I fully draw the subject using a 2H or harder pencil, keeping the lines very light.  In this drawing, I used a 2B pencil, changed things, added things, and erasure marks will probably show up on this paper after I am finished.  I use a white vinyl eraser because it is the cleanest at removal of pencil lines.

The next thing to point out - I had planned on using FW Yellow Ochre as my base yellow.  I usually rely on FW Process yellow for my first layers, but this plant has a warm undertone to it, so I used a warmer yellow.  On the left leaves there are three layers: the first is yellow ochre, the second is light green, and the third is process yellow.  I really feel that process yellow, a bright color, also ties a drawing together on the same plane.  On the right side of the left leaf, there are the two yellows, and I will be adding greens after I fill in all of the areas with process yellow.

Pen and ink:

A few tips to be aware of when working in pen and ink:

1. The humidity level of your environment will affect the ink flow in your pens.

2. Paper absorbs inks at different rates- a cold press paper will absorb the most ink, having a soft, feathery ink line.  Hot press paper is less likely to absorb, but sheep skin or calf skin absorb the least amount of ink, and the image will almost sit upon the surface.  Those are for professional-level papers; student-level papers will act the same, but more so.

3. The best way to learn control over ink and pen is to work with a crowquill nib in a nib holder.  And in black ink.  You will have to control the ink flow, control the "blobs", know what you are going to put down before you draw it, and mistakes will be more visible.  Its the best way to learn to be better.

4. The tip of a pen is called a "nib", not a tip.  The nib will transfer the ink from a reservoir to the paper.  In crow quil nibs, or other dip pen nibs, the reservoir is the nib itself.  In technical pens, there is a small reservoir that holds ink.

5. Fountain pen inks will work in fountain pens, and you can use fountain pens to draw beautiful things.  Acrylic inks may be used in technical pens, but check the bottle or ask the manufacturer / seller if the ink is safe for a technical pen.  Shellac-based inks, such as some Winsor and Newton inks and other specialty inks will clog and ruin a tecnical pen.  FW Acrylic ink is very similar to the "old" Rotring Artist Color Inks (which are no longer made), and is safe for technical pens.  I think Noodler's has the best fountain pen inks, but I wouldn't put them in my technical pens.  A dip pen can use any ink.

For over 20 years I have had a website up displaying my artwork.  It is also called PenStroke Studio.  I am now moving toward using this blog more and the website less, and at some point will be taking the website down.  Thank you for visiting it in the meantime.

This morning I am working on a Saint Michael ACEO.  In order to fill in the tones of his face, it takes many layers of stippling.

Miniature Pen and Ink Drawings - ACEOS

Art Cards, Editions and Originals

ACEO stands for "Art Cards, Editions and Originals" and the concept behind these miniature works of art is that they are always 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. 

I offer only one icon-style ACEO design, Saint Michael, Archangel. I have decided to offer original miniatures of the one particular design due to a couple of reasons. One reason is the time consuming format of pen and ink stippling, and the care I take in producing all of my stipple ink work. As with egg tempera icons, working with one "model" or image consistently, improves the results of all the images completed. A second, perhaps more important reason, is that I feel that Saint Michael can guide each of us, and he represents both guidance and safety to me personally. As such, I hope anyone would benefit from owning an original image of Saint Michael.

An ACEO in stippled ink offers an affordable way to own an original stippled piece. Even with their small size (the size of a baseball or trading card), each one takes between 18 and 24 hours to complete. I use professional inks (Rotring Artist Color or FW Acrylic inks ) and now offer them only on genuine sheep or calf skin. These are permanent and original drawings, having light and water resistance to a high degree. Although I recommend each piece be matted and framed by the consumer, each will come in its own protective poly sleeve. ACEOs created on sheep or calf skin are highly recommended to be framed, due to the natural elements of the skin. Humidity and temperature will affect a skin more than any other art surface. 

Please note - these pieces are "only" two and a half inches x three and a half inches in size.

Traditionally, true icons are always created to look the same, using the same "model" icon for each new icon. I consider my icon-style pen work to be just that, and not a true icon. My icon-style artwork will not be signed on the front, as is the tradition with true icons. With religious subjects, it is always hoped that God has worked through the artist, eliminating the need for the artist's signature. However, my ACEOs that are religious in nature will be signed and dated on the back.

Saint Michael Design Available

You may expect that Saint Michael's wings would be a color other than red. At the time I originally designed the "model" for these drawings, I was also working on Orthodox-style religious icons. In iconography, Saint Michael's wings are depicted as red when he is in battle against evil, most especially when done in the Voevoda style. Voevoda is a slavic term that means "leader of warriors". An example of this type of traditional icon may be seen here. My model and design is meant to depict Saint Michael as the triumphant leader of the angels over evil, but to also depict the Light of God reflected in his face. I believe we are always protected by Saint Michael.

On Genuine Sheep or Calf Skin

ACEO " Saint Michael "

2.5 inches x 3.5 inches 

$48.00 each plus $5.80 shipping - on genuine sheep or calf skin 

To Order: 

Please email me to special order a Saint Michael, Archangel ACEO, The time for me to complete a special order is two weeks. Payment method is Paypal and payment must be received prior to my beginning the work.