Library Journal
Artist and architect Morales H. shares with readers his personal growth as an artist, showing how a dedication to daily drawing practice led to his mastery of the pen-and-ink medium. Having found that a pen and notebook were the most convenient tools to carry while completing architectural drawings in his native Colombia, the author shares his drawingsintricately detailed portraits, buildings, and natural subjectsthat illustrate how different pens, pressures, and shading techniques achieve variations of depth and texture without the use of color. Providing information about different types of pens, paper, and inks, Morales H. doesnt insist upon the use of any specific tools but helpfully shows how different line and hatching methods look when created with a variety of pens and pressure. Example exercises refer back to the sections of the book explaining how to use techniques like cross-hatching, contour hatching, and stippling, to create shading effects. The book also provides readers with subject prompts and drawing exercises to be completed within various time limits.
VERDICT: With its comprehensive examples of hatching techniques and excellent advice, artists of all levels will find something useful in this book.
Artbookreview.net
This is a book whose title means exactly what it says. It is not a guide to pen and ink drawing, nor is it subject-based. It is all about technique stippling, cross-hatching, tick-hatching, shading.
This is an interesting approach and, somehow oddly, one I havent seen a lot of before. Youd think it was obvious, and technique-based books have appeared before (not just on drawing), but theyre usually subject led do this using that, rather than try this and heres a random example.
It is also not to say that David ignores the practical, creative side of things. The second half of the book, while sticking to the main theme, includes a series of exercises where everything youve learnt previously is applied in real life. He includes buildings, still life objects, figures, portraits, vegetation and animals as well as introducing composition, perspective and proportion. If the first half was learning the scales, this is creating the fugue.
Davids style is, I think, what you expect pen and ink drawing to look like and this is a thoroughly useful book that will help you get the most from not just your materials, but your ideas.
Leisure Painter, December 2024
The ultimate technique-led guide to the graphic, expressive art of pen and ink: perfect for artists and illustrators! Columbian-born architect and artist, David Morales provides easy-to-follow advice and inspiring instruction in this indispensable guide to pen and ink. Discover how to hold your pen to create different types of line, add a range of key strokes, from hatching and stippling to scribbling, understand value, tone and contrast like never before - and so much more.
Whether you're just starting out in this bold, exciting medium, or you're already an intermediate artist, illustrator or designer, this book contains pearls of wisdom that will teach and inspire you - and even experienced artists will appreciate David's 'asides' on common mistakes and how to avoid them.
