Willis in the sunshine Stillman and Birn Bound Beta Sketchbook 5.5 x 8.5 Pentel color brush and watercolor

We have a window seat for the cats in the front window of our living room and Willis, our new kitten, likes to climb up there in the late afternoon for a warm, sunny snooze.

Good time for a sketch of her, right?

Only if I'm super quick!

I sketched the line drawing with a Pentel EnerGel pen. This a relatively new pen on the market and is advertised as being unlikely to smear because the ink dries quickly. And it does. The pen tip is an 07 in size and what I like about is that it bleeds giving me lots of fun gray wash effects, but leaves a strong line even after the ink is hit with water.

However, I knew I was going to need a much stronger, larger black pen or paint to capture Willis' likeness quickly. I've been looking for ann opportunity to start sketching with the Pentel Color Brush and this seemed a great time.

I focused on the getting the kitten drawn first because I knew she wasn't going to stay in that position for long. (Animals never stay in the same position for long. They have some kind of radar that lets them know when someone is watching them!)

Before I finished with her entire body, she'd curled up onto her side and gone to sleep. It worked out because I didn't get a chance to get caught up in the details.

I then went back and added the shelf with the fuzzy cover, window details and a few branches from the outside to add a bit of depth to the image.

About the Pentel Color Brush:
The Pentel Color Brush has been around for a while, but I'm just now getting around to mess with it. The ink is not waterproof, giving ample opportunity to create fun washes and effects. It was like a very pigment rich watercolor and played well with the other watercolor I added to the sketch. I put a touch of red to her ears where the sun was lighting up the thinner skin areas.

It was a fun, quick way to get down a sketch of a kitten that is never, ever still.

It was fun to cover a lot of area quickly and created a neat monochromatic effect.

I haven't done any lightfastness tests on either product and so I can't recommend them at this time, but if longevity of your artwork is not of major importance to you in your sketchbooks, I would recommend giving either of these pens a whirl, especially if you like black and white sketching!