Hints by Denise Jones
When I am doing a lot of Penwork, particularly Black Penwork, I always mix some strong Gold Base Paint, i.e. American Beauty or Derby Rose in with the Black. I have found that this gives your Black Penwork a beautiful warmth to it. If you wanted a cooler Black, you can use Blue. But I seem to work more in the warmer shades.
For firing I will take the firing up to about 860-890. This is on porcelain Not Bone. The paint goes into the glaze better and you have less chance of the Black chipping, which Black can be notorious for.
Obviously, if you have done textural work before the Penwork, you will need to be careful.
Pen and Ink Illustration – Little Mouse Eating Grapes by Sandra Lucey
I had been in the garden looking at the grape leaves because they were very pretty with beautiful colours of yellows, reds and various shades of rust, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something move. After I picked myself up off the ground I saw the next little project that I had to draw and quickly took a photograph. I decided many weeks later to proceed using pen with black paint.