27 September: Drawing music

Still wanting to draw music, I made a start on both options proposed last week. I prepared some small sheets of Japanese papers with monotype 'staffs' in printing ink mixed to a warm brown which works well on both the ivory and buff papers, using a ruler for some, and wonky freehand for others. These will be worked over in pen.

I also tried pencil on paper from the vintage music manuscript jotter I found. Just as my first attempts with a pen, pencil doesn't really work either. I thought my marks were weird until I found the characters worked better without the comic-strip style shading I normally use. At first it was frustrating, but the advantage of using pencil is the ability to erase, so I kept reworking characters over and over until they began to develop into the vision in my head. I discovered the old manuscript paper is very strong and withstood constant rubbing out, which I know for a fact I can't do with the Japanese paper I normally use.

However, as far as the vintage manuscript paper goes the verdict is that the pencil work is too pale and indistinct, the opposite of my first attempts with a pen which were heavy and clumpy. I keep almost-spent pens which produce various pale greys; using one of those may be an option if I want to work on the manuscript pages but to be honest, I think the monotypes are the way to go for now. The Japanese paper is beautiful and the staffs in monotype expressive and exciting. I accidentally worked one on the 'wrong side' of the paper which was lovely, taking the ink in a way I like, so I prepared a few more of those. I already know my pens draw well on it because I tested both sides of paper samples when I was selecting which to buy. As soon as the monotypes are is set I will use pen to draw the characters I developed in pencil.

I should probably use pencil sketching in the time-honoured tradition more often to develop new ideas instead of going directly to pen on paper.