Today's version of the Archangel Gabriel features some fine-lined detail work: refining the border edges and placing the shaft of the weapon.
In the upper left corner, you might make out the brand for Wild-Heerbrugg. They used to make precision instruments, but went out of business decades ago. The black case holds a ruling pen set that my Father gave me; it was his set when he was a draughtsman back in the 1950's or '60's. Ruling pens are a style of steel pen nib, the sort that you dip in liquid ink. The nibs are adjustable by screw so that you can achieve different line thicknesses. I really should feature this set on JSVB someday, it's very special.
This was my first time using these ruling pens. I know you should load them with ink, but thinned acrylic paint works nearly as well. I discovered that these pens create lines from hairline at the thickest down to atomic at the thinnest. It was crazy how thin the lines were, I had never seen anything like it before. By comparison, drawing with a modern ruling pen like the one I typically use for setting down haloes is like using a houspainter's brush. Nobody seems to make precision ruling pens anymore, so using my Dad's old set was marvelous.
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