finally sat down today to scratch out this year's holiday card illustration! Floated the concept to my husband this morning, did a couple quick pencil studies (never drawn animals in this style before!), pulled down inks to swatch... and dove in! I really love how working with pen and ink makes limited palette work easier - IMO it takes a lot more discipline to keep things lean when you can just keep mixing and mixing colors. 

The whole illustration was done with the inks pictured (*Teranishi Guitar Orchestra Tangerine and several Sailor inks: Ink Studio 673, Yurameku Kyokura, Tea Time Japanese Tea Ceremony, Ancora Birthstone November, Dipton Marshmallow, and Manyo Nagi*). I used two glass dip pens (one with a damaged tip, which produces a thicker line) and a single round brush for all of the colorwork, and a couple Pigma Micron pens for final linework on top. The little fude de mannen pen was what I used for the very loosey-goosey lettering! The blunt-tipped glass pen was a Hanukkah gift from my MIL last year, and my very first introduction to the world of pen and ink. (Of course it was gifted with a regular tip and I damaged it while learning some lessons about caring for your writing implements. It still gets plenty of use as is!) Feels good to be making work with it a year later :) 

I hope you guys enjoy my doodle and maybe feel inspired to make a couple scribbles in your margins too! 

pen and ink time: this year's holiday card!