If you missed all the awesomeness that went down at Flax this last Saturday, here is a recap of the inking demo I did for Pentel Arts. I was delighted when Pentel asked me to do a demo of their new (formerly Japan only) Pentel Arts line. The Pentel Color Brush is my primary tool, so I felt fairly comfortable fielding this request. Also, Flax is one of my favorite art stores, so it was perfect all around.

I did five demos in two hours to a crowd of about 30 people. I was really surprised with the range of people; 17 to 79 years of age and all backgrounds were in attendance.

To start, I drew four birds with four different sets of pens.

First up I used Hybrid Technica pens and drew a technical drawing using cross hatching and line work. Next I used the sign pens to draw looser and more gestural. Then I drew with the Stylo and Tradio Stylo, which have carved nibs which give lots of line variation but are also highly technical. The last bird demo I did was with the Pocket Brush, which is a straight up brush pen and gets really loose and painterly.

The last demo I did was a one hour demo with the Neutrals set, showing a full value range and how to knock in shapes really quickly. The picture ended up looking like a cross between Jeff Bridges, Dugald Stermer, and the Dos Equis guy.

All in all, I had a great time and met lots of great artists. Big thanks to Pentel for the supplies and Flax being so accommodating.

Check out Pentel Arts here: http://www.pentel.com/pentel-arts/

Check out Flax here: http://flaxart.com/