Last week I was feeling like all the work I needed to do for my upcoming show was ready to go, that is until I visited the venue again. I decided I needed a few more pieces to properly fill the space, and one of these needed to be large. I decided this was a good opportunity to work on a large gel pen drawing, which turned out to be a bit of an endurance test.

I used a white Sakura gel pen to draw on a piece of black 98 lb Canson paper with a light texture. I didn’t like drawing on this paper as much as the card stock which has a smoother surface to work on. The diameter of the circle is 13.5″ on 17″ paper, and I drew it over the course of about four or five days.

I’ve never spent so much time drawing, but my hand did not end up feeling as sore as it does when I’ve been doing too much paper cutting. That seems to take more effort.

I shared the collage of the four in-progress photos on Instagram a few days ago, and a few people expressed liking the incomplete versions. I like them as well, but I really wanted this one in particular to be a circle.

And just like that it is now framed and ready for the show.