I was looking through some old boxes and found the sketch above. It was done in 1955, somewhere in England, using my prized Pelikan Graphos pen designed to hold real India ink. India ink contains lacquer, is waterproof when dry, and allows tinted watercolor washes to be brushed over dry black ink lines. It cannot be used in fountain pens because it clogs them. Prior to getting this exciting pen, I had to use India ink only with dip pens and only indoors where my bottle of ink could sit on a table.
This sketch in London's Hyde Park is drawn on the back of the coastline sketch above. My new Pelikan was expensive for a twenty-five year-old, and I tried to save by using both sides of each sketchbook sheet. Luckily, we now have scanners, so we can see both sides at the same time. My new pen came with a variety of fine nibs that were messy to insert but well worth the trouble because I could now carry my pen outdoors where I could sit and work directly from my subject to my sketchbook. I can remember the pleasure of sitting in the park on a summer day while sketching the people around me.
The Graphos pen had interchangeable nibs.
Here is a scan of the little sketchbook I used in Hyde Park. If you look closely you can still see the penciled price of 2/7, that's two shillings and seven pence, or about 35 cents then.
