Artemis Draws

I have finally started my fifth story in the collection, based on Van Gogh’s “The Cafe Terrace At Night” – there are other titles, indicating that the cafe is in Arles, but I have shortened the working title to “The Cafe Terrace” to fit in with my storyline better. The plot is a departure from the others, as there aren’t any main characters but rather, it will home in on different characters who come into the cafe throughout the day. It may be difficult to pull off and I am already wondering if I can fit it all within my self-imposed limit of 10-12 pages or if it will stray to 15 or more. I have decided to work much more on the drawing this time, with an emphasis on setting and background detail. Also, I’m starting to experiment a little bit more with panel framing and will not use the standard rectangular boxes for all my frames. Like with all my previous stories, this will be a learning process for me.

I am using the vintage Hunt 102 dip pens that I procured from eBay; they seem no less scratchy or liable to clog and blot than the newer versions, so maybe I’ve wasted my time hunting down vintage nibs. I really did like the one that I borrowed from Martin though. It flows much better with the thinner Liquitex ink, but I prefer the thickness of the Winsor and Newton black ink. Maybe I really do need to experiment with different inks. The good news is that Cass Arts in Soho now stock Speedball nibs and pens (Hunt 102 nibs!) – I bought a Drawing set the other day. At the rate I’m going, I think I am going to need new dip pen holders every few months!

So keep posted, I will endeavour to update the story by at least a few pages every week so keep checking if you’re at all interested. As yet, I haven’t even completed the script for the story yet, am just ”winging it” as I go along.