I usually dont do these 'warm up' sketches that so many artists talk about, but I was feeling it hard to wake up this morning after not getting back from a gig until about 2 pm and getting woken at 7 am this morning. I thought I'd have another go at the Faber-Castell shades of grey pens with a little straight-on Dredd head shot:

The brushes were a little softer this time, after their initial use, and it was easier to get a broader stroke. I think a water colour-like technique is better with these brush pens; starting with a layer of lighter colour and building up with darker shades (after first inking the pure blacks with the Kuretake brush pen and bigger brush/ink pot.). The white highlights are just the white of the paper that I left black while drawing.

Still a bit of practice needed (both for shades of grey and drawing Dredd) but I like the texture thats starting to come from these pens.

New toys

Aimee got me some new pens as part of my birthday pressents including a pack of Faber Castell Shades of Grey brush pens which I've had my eye on for a long while.
They're a little tricky at first try, and really thats all I've had time for with so much work on. Here's a very quick doodle just to test how the pens actually look:

The brush tips are smallish (the same as the black Faber Castell ink pens), and dont seem to be made for broad strokes, so it was an odd feeling shading with such a small tip. The ink is also translucent, so when you overlap two shades, it will produce a darker one (as you can see in the middle of the forehead) and because the shade is so clean, I can imagine it being hard to blend and create gradients.

I'll post something more once I've had a bit of practice.