[.ca] The Technical Pen (ISBN 0823052273)

highly recommend:
Very helpful. When I bought this book I hadn't used a technical pen in over 12 years (since high school art class). So, I needed some thorough instruction on techniques and materials. I am glad that this is the book that I got. It covers a wide variety of different strokes and includes many examples of how they can be used. The color stuff is pretty cool too. I looked at many other books on the technical pen. This is the best one that I found which is devoted to tech pen work. (Other books had chapters devoted to using ink with brushes and metal nibs - which is also cool if your interested). If you are looking for a book full of info on just the tech pen though, then I would highly recommend this one. It was written in the early 90's, so the one thing I found is that there are some inks available at my local art store that probably didn't exist back in 1990. Therefore, the book doesn't have any information on them. The author seems to have a preference for the Kohinoor Rapidograph brand pens, which are still widely available today and work great. The early portion of the book has very detailed information on filling, cleaning , and maintaining the pens. It is very helpful and much more detailed then the instructions that the Kohinoor pens come with. Great choice!

Must Have for any Pen and Ink Enthusiast/Artist!!:
This book is simply amazing! Author Gary Simmons has delivered a perfectly organized and extremely informative book on the techniques of the technical pen. Simmons starts with the basics of the technical pen and walks the reader through the various techniques and even concludes with a chapter on the use of color. I couldn't recommend this book more...if you don't have it already, GET IT NOW!

Good Introduction to Technical Pen techniques:
This is one of the first books I picked up on the topic of Technical Pen illustration. The author (who is apparently known for his work with equine illustrations in pen and ink) is quite accomplished and provides a great introduction to the technical pen and its many uses in art. Decidedly missing much on the lines of brushwork in ink (not watercolor, of course) and it's possibilities, but, then, this is a book on the technical pen (not the brush). I rate this 4 stars because not enough time is spent identifying many of the basic styles and the author tends to stray from style to style in his illustrations. This makes for confusing stylization (ie: shifting from parallel line to scross-hatch to stipple) for the beginning technical pen artist.

Best Technical Pen Book on the Market:
This book is hands down the BEST technical pen book on the market today. The only other books I've seen come close to it in quality are from Claudia Nice but she uses many different types of pens. This book focuses strictly on the technical pen only. The beautiful artwork in this book alone is worth the price. The artwork demonstrated is definitely pro quality and it could potentially be daunting to the absolute beginner. However, I believe if a beginner is willing to sit down with this book and carefully read and implement the exercises and suggestions the author gives they will quickly find themselves executing drawings of a caliber they would never have dreamed possible except by the most experienced pro. The first few chapters deal with care and maintenance of the pens plus the many inks available. There are chapters on various textures & strokes you can create, chapters on creating a loose, breezy style or alternately a very highly detailed drawing. There are discussions of using a pattern motif as a texture fill and chapters on dynamic use of dark shapes for contrast and composition. One chapter shows the exact same drawing of a Monk portrait redone in no less than 24 completely unique styles. 24! And the final page in that chapter is that exact same portrait as an outline you can photocopy to let you practice any of those techniques yourself. Some techniques demonstrated include tonal patterns, regular/irregular weaves, basket weaves, scales, bubbles, wood patterns, feathering, merging/radiating lines, hatching/crosshatching, waves, zig-zags, loops, dots, engraving effects and random scribbling...Whew... there are too many to list but hopefully it gives an idea of the diversity this book demonstrates. There is a chapter on various loose pen-stroke techiques and exercises. Exercises such as how to handle an outline (some ex: tight & thin, thick to thin, missing edges). The next chapter is on tight pen techniques & exercises. My favorite chapter is titled Color and the Technical Pen. It shows page after page of color technical pen work. The first color piece shown is of a beautiful dragon with a Celtic style border and it was all done with technical pens filled with colored inks! Other demonstrations and examples shown have the technical drawing done first and then painted later with acrylics or watercolor or ink dyes. Overall this is a stunning book. It is crammed full of artwork from pen & ink artists, how-to exercises and tidbits. Anyone wanting to become more proficient with pen & ink NEEDS this book.

A Must Have!:
If you love the subject of pen & ink, you'll no doubt love this book. It contains one of the most thorough collection of basic pen strokes, and an impressive variety of styles: from simple portraits to highly elaborate fantasy art. One of my favorite parts is showing how a drawing shall look incorporating a variety of different pen strokes with each of 24 renderings. This chapter concludes with a reproducable sketch that can be used by the student to explore the exercises. A book replete with examples and exercises. Highly recommended!