I have decided to challenge myself and write with a Hunt crowquill nib for a while.  I started out with simple black and white pen and ink and crowquill nibs over 35 years ago.  Although I have many technical and fountain pens, it is a crowquill nib that demands the utmost control.  I recently filled out some paperwork for someone with a crowquill, and was shocked to see how poorly I was using my favorite old nibs.

I have many crowquill holders, a few nibs, and lots of Higgins black ink.  I also have a traveling inkwell.  Below are some photos of it just after I filled it.  I am using Carmex lip balm around the edge of the inkwell before I put the top on.  This particular inkwell is a vintage piece from Russia, and it had taken a long time to get the top off when I first received it.  Preventing that from happening again, I am using the simple lip balm to both lubricate and seal the threaded well.

If you'd like to try writing with a Crow Quill pen yourself, they are available at Dick Blick on This Page  These are extremely economical pens, and I feel are the"basis" of good writing or drawing.  Higgins Black ink is here  Higgins is the best ink to use with a dip pen, and is permanent enough to use watercolor over it when dry if desired, without too much bleeding or ink run.

I've just made a short video on using an ink converter in the Sheaffer No-Nonsense and Viewpoint pens.

Sheaffer No-Nonsense and Viewpoint Pens and Ink Converter 

A new addition to my Saint Michael studio - currently overseeing my beadwork.

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......