Drawing the Moon

I like simple pen and ink drawings and the other day thought it would be fun to draw the moon. It also fits in with my obsession with maps and map art.

I've never used a white pen like this before and I'm really happy with how it worked.

(Note: I thought a half moon would look more interesting, and it was just a bonus that it took half as long!)

• Black mountboard
• White gel pen
• Picture frame

Often when I do pen and ink reproductions I use a little cheat which is to print a mirror image of my subject, go over the key features in pencil, and then rub it onto my canvas.

But I'd never tried on black paper before and it didn't work!

So for this one I drew the circle of the moon by using a bowl as a template and then filled in the details freehand.

There's not much to say about this step, other than to say how well the white gel pen worked. Using the old atlas and some pictures online as references, I tried to get the key moon features on there - roughly in the right places!

When I had this idea I thought it would be quite difficult to get a good result.

It actually turned out to be much easier than I thought. Almost too simple for an Instructable, but here it is! Hope you like it.