Ink Drawings
Drawing is a subtle approach to creating a picture or a visual form by applying lines and using a variety of tools and techniques. Today, there are many tools and techniques to choose from, ranging from pencils to pastels and markers and even to digital methods. However, historically the choices of Balinese artists were limited to materials such as pencils, home-made traditional bamboo pens, bamboo brushes made by crushing a bamboo stalk at one end, and sharp quill pens made from the vein of the palm leaf.
With all the options available to me, I find a traditional tool best reflects my aesthetic. I make my own bamboo pens and will sharpen one until it is fine pointed to make very fine lines, carefully using a very sharp pointed long neck Balinese knife ("Mutik") to create and finish one perfect tool in a little bamboo pen. Only then am I ready to do the drawing, which is already sketched in pencil. I repeat the pencil lines, and contrast or contour the lines by using the bamboo pen dipped into Chinese black ink, steadily and carefully applying ink to the surface of the paper. It is a complicated and lengthy process.
Link: Gallery of Ink Drawings