People walk up to a black and white drawing at a market, stand there for a few seconds, and then say the same thing. “It is jsut pen, is it?” Yes. Pen, ink, paper, and sometimes a bit of grey wash. That is the whole kit. The odd part is how much a drawing like that can hold once you know where to look.
We have a lot of these in the studio, and over the years we have noticed that people buy them with more confidence once someone has shown them how to read one. So this is that. No theory, just the things we check ourselves when a drawing is finished, and a walk through the range so you can see how different they get. If you want the longer story of how the studio came to work in ink, it is in our animal pen and ink drawings journey.
Every animal drawing is won or lost at the eye. Not because it needs to be detailed, but because it needs to be wet. Black ink on white paper has no colour to carry the feeling, so a small highlight, a patch of paper left clean, is what makes the animal look back at you.
That is why a tawny frogmouth is such a good test. It is built to disappear, so the drawing has to let you see it anyway. Look at where the eye sits and how it holds you.
See Do You See Me? at Rendezvous in Dayboro
This one hangs at the venue and is sold through them.
This one confuses people, and it is a fair question. A sketch and a finished drawing can both be black and white and both be on paper. The difference is decisions. A sketch keeps its options open, with lines laid over lines while the artist works out where things go. In a finished ink drawing the options are gone. Ink does not rub out, so every line you see is one that was chosen.
We draw an animal over and over in different poses until we feel comfortable with it, and those early rounds are the sketches. The piece you hang on a wall is what is left after all the wrong answers have been used up.
The skill in animal pen drawings is mostly in what is not there. A fur coat is not drawn hair by hair. A few sweeping lines suggest the direction it falls, and your eye does the rest. The empty paper is part of the drawing, it is the light.
Ask yourself where the drawing stops. A good one stops before you expect it to, and you finish the animal in your head. That is why they keep working on a wall long after you stopped noticing them.
See Mysterious Minds, $280 to $310
The price depends on the option you pick on the page.
When people search for black and white drawing art of animals they often picture a bird or a kangaroo, and we do plenty of those. But the animals that people live with are just as much a part of the range. Horses, dogs, a cow now and then. Some of the best drawings in the studio are about the relationship, not the animal.
A working horse is a good subject for ink because the whole story is in the posture. Weight, ears, the angle of the neck. You can read the mood from across the room.
See Working as One at LRB Retreat
This one hangs at the venue and is sold through them.
Each original is drawn once. When one sells, it is gone, and we do not make a second copy. Two drawings that have gone that way are Foxy Girl, one endeared little animal, and Gentle Winds, a beautiful owl. Both are sold. We mention them because it is the honest picture of how this works. The range changes, and what is on the shelf this month will not all be there in the next.
If you like the look but missed the original, the prints are the answer, and this is where the entry price drops.
The cheapest piece in the range right now is Sweetness and Sweetness, a baby and a puppy, at $49. It is an original, not a print. We say that because people often assume a price like that must be a reproduction, and here it is not.
See Sweetness and Sweetness, $49
From there the range goes up through framed prints at $59, like Owl Lovers, and on through the larger originals above. Shipping is calculated at checkout, so you see the full cost before you decide.
When you are standing in front of two drawings and cannot decide, ask three things. Which one do you keep looking back at? Which eye follows you? And which one would you still want to see in the weekend, once the first excitement has gone? The answer is usually the same drawing every time.
If you would like to see more of how we think about the work, the story behind our animal ink drawings goes further back, and the whole range is on the all artworks page. We are always waiting on the next bird to turn up in the gums, so the shelf is never quite finished.
Step behind the gallery doors at Running Duck Studio for a rare open weekend as part of Naughty November on Tawny Trails. Discover the brand-new Backyard Confessions collection, enjoy a little indulgence and glimpse an exciting new artistic direction. With unexpected surprises and a touch of mischief along the way, this is no ordinary gallery visit. No bookings required — just bring your curiosity!
Ink drawings of koalas made by hand in Dayboro. What changed after the 2022 endangered listing, the one that sold, and what is still on the wall.
They come through the gums before a storm and the whole paddock hears them first. Four birds, one flash of red, and the hardest thing I have ever tried to put down in ink.
