Vintage nib pen

A young rabbit: actual size

The trouble with ebay is sometimes you find things you never knew existed that you realize you absolutely need. My new favourite thing that just arrived in the mail today is a small vintage travel nib pen. Sometimes I do my illustrations with nib pens because I like the variation in line that you get as opposed to a regular pen. (In case you don't know, a nib pen is the kind you dip into ink and the nibs are removable. Before ball point pens were invented everyone used them.)

I thought the artist nib pen I bought at a store was just fine until the travel one arrived. It does very fine lines and the ink seems to last longer or flow better or something. I drew almost this entire rabbit with one dip of the nib. Also, the picture above is the actual size, but in the enlargement below you can see how much detail I could do.

zoom in of young rabbit

And even better I can take it with me on trips and maybe even sketch outdoors. Except that usually I prefer to draw from my imagination. I've always felt slightly guilty about this, as if it's lazy not to draw from life more often, but then I read this and it made me feel better.

p.s. I am currently illustrating a book about a rabbit... I'll show you as soon as it's published!