This drawing has taken a bit of an unexpected turn, to say the least.

Two black ink-filled Parker Jotter XL fountain pens, one with an M nib and the other with an F, were used to draw the structure of this drawing and add some patterns and textures.

I then decided to use some Zebra Sarasa gel pens with vintage colours to add more patterns and textures. All was fine, but it all looked flat and not finished in any way.

So, I added some flat colours with softly coloured alcohol markers. This improved things a little, but it wasn’t quite right. The drawing was missing contrast and dimension.

A deep breath was taken as I broke out a graphite pencil and tortillon and set to adding shade to the design. And that really did help, much to my surprise. Even more surprising was I actually preferred this way of adding shade to using alcohol markers, and it was easy to remove any overspill of shading with an eraser!

Next, I added some layers of the colours I’d already used to intensify the colour in some areas. I also added some more darkness with pen textures.

Finally, I was happy-ish with what had been created on the paper, so much so that I felt it was finished!

Yes, that’s right, I’m happy-ish with this! Using less saturated alcohol markers to add colour also works for me, especially the more muted, vintage and less bright and garish.

What works for me is seeing the drawing scanned in, as scanning seems to improve how I view the graphite shading.

So, is this an onward process for me? Yes, I think so. I think the graphite shading needs to be added last. Also, I think the use of Pitt Graphite Matt pencils will improve how I view the use of graphite in this way. Maybe coloured fineliners would work better for me than the gel pens. Things to consider (and make a note of too!)