Fantastic "Scrape"!
@Erica McPhee - I'm a huge fan of your "Salty" S as well. Actually, the whole "Salty" bit you did is magnificent. It really evokes a nautical vibe in the flourishing above and below. And this "Scrape" has a
lot of wow! I'll be studying it for a long time.
Thank you, Erica and
@AnasaziWrites, for your ongoing enthusiasm for my copperplate learning curve. Maybe my art background helps! It has trained me to really have good fine motor control at least. But I may have given myself a setback today, as I noticed the G404 getting scratchy and switched to the G303 - which is much softer and harder to control. But maybe my hand is also getting steadier and my eye more accustom to the shapes, because it seemed easier to use than my last experiment with it. Also - I'm trying it in a different holder, which seems to help with this nib. Moral of the story for those of you following along: try different combos! It might work out better!
Mike - I'm so happy to see more of those Invent inks! (because I kind of feel like I put you up to getting a set last year, and am so glad that you don't seem to regret it). Hey, nice "ji" with that sumi too! You'll get through that ink in no time, if you keep practicing your Kanji/Hanzi. It reminds me of my childhood - My father had me prepare the sumi ink in his studio; it had to be just so! I had to do it for months and months before it met his standards.
@Zivio - your lovely beach Sandserian is making me a little homesick for the Pacific coast, so I drew one of my favorite shore birds with its scrape nest for this one.