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Creative Caravan

Richard Bell’s Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Sunday, 30th November 2008, 1 of 2

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THREE DOGS scamper around the field and the four ponies soon come down to investigate. The man who looks after the ponies starts a fire and white smoke drifts up in front of the ivy-covered ash.

He takes the blankets off the ponies and grooms them, allowing the blankets to air off. We had a keen frost last night so they needed the blankets but the ponies must be glad to feel the morning sunshine.

Creative License

He cleans the window of the old caravan. I think that’s the first time in ten years that I seen it being given any attention. When artist journaler Danny Gregory stayed with us one weekend in the summer of 2004, he did a pen and watercolour drawing of this caravan and it appears on page 4 of his book Creative License, Giving Yourself Permission to be the Artist You Truly Are.

Danny’s new book An Illustrated Life has just been published.

Noodlers

I feel that I’m dusting off my creative caravan a bit this morning because, following an exchange of e-mails about pens and inks with Charles Ackerman, inventor of the Pump Pen, I thought it was about time that I gave Noodler’s Bulletproof Black Ink another try. Noodler’s is unique because it reacts with the cellulose in paper, drying permanently, so you can use it in a fountain pen and it won’t clog it up. In a test some years ago, I’d decided it wasn’t as reliable at my favourite Indian inks but I realised there were several reasons (such as contamination in my pen) why this could be so. I’ve now given my Rotring ArtPen (with an EF nib) a thorough flushing out and, as you can see, the Noodler’s is working fine. I added the watercolour immediately after I made each drawing yet the ink didn’t run. It’s a little grey, probably because there was still some water in the nib unit.

Links: Danny Gregory, Ackerman Pens, Noodler’s Ink