Winnie the Pooh -- pencil or pen?

[demotlj]

I've been looking at E. H. Shepherd's work (mostly known for his illustrations of Winnie the Pooh) and though most sites say that he did his work in pen and ink, it looks like pencil and ink to me, for example, here:

Do you think he used pencil or was he using a lighter color ink? I'm interested because when I try to use just pen with hatching (no color) to try to emulate that style, the ink often looks too stark for the subject. Pencil is softer but of course, smears more so if he used pencil, I wonder how he kept it so clean.

Any thoughts?

[willicreate]

It's completely done in ink. The fine lines are achieved with quick, feather-light pressure with a crow quill pen, held at a horizontal, 90 degree angle. It's possible he could have diluted the ink for a lighter tone.

The line quality can also be achieved with metalpoint. In the past, both mediums went hand-in-hand, but I doubt he went to the trouble.

[demotlj]

@willicreate That’s really interesting. I usually use a dip pen so I’ll have to try diluting the ink to see what happens. Thanks.

[AngelinaKizz]

@demotlj if you watch the jump in the studio with vesper stamper she does an illustration with ink as watercolor.

[burvantill]

@demotlj I have an old dip pen from high school that will mark similar to this. With some lightly watered down ink and a jacked up (very used tip) I think you can achieve something close. On mine, the loose point on the tip of the pen makes hatching look scratchy.