Some more prehistoric skulls from the Natural History Museum. The big one is some ancient fish, the little one was a mammal. I don’t think I’d want to mess with either of these animals. 

T-rex skull, drawn at the American Museum of Natural History. Apparently this one comes alive at night when no one is around? 

The real challenge in switching from brush pen to rapidograph pen has been that the lineweight I can lay down doesn’t vary at all anymore. I had no idea just how much I used to rely on that to make slight adjustments on the fly. Now there’s almost no margin for error. It’s forcing me to strive for a level of perfection that I didn’t really think about before. With the brush, I liked to leave the figure and the proportions a little gooey. Now precision has become the name of the game. 

Some mountain lions from the Natural History Museum. I’m making trips there into a weekly thing, I think. 

I’ve forced myself to switch it up a little. I’ve been using a brush to lay down linework for more than a year, and it’s my general policy to change what I’m doing once I feel comfortable. I recently started experimenting with different kinds of pens, and I’ve come to respect, if not fear, the rapidograph. It creates a line with absolutely zero variation, and shifting lineweight is usually my bread and butter. This feels very limiting for me. I can’t wait to use it some more. 

Remind me to use better paper if I’m going to go in with watercolor.