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Sketching
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Message
Posted
Helen personally I do stick to pen and wash and have done for years regardless of recent stuff. The main difference I find is I sketch differently with the same tools, but that's me.
I carry charcoal but find it too messy but it's there. Just do what ever you're happiest with and your carrying capacity.
Posted
Art has no boundaries Helen, but a sketchbook is an important and useful way of jotting down what you see on your travels. Sometimes the smallest insignificant scribble can supply the nucleus for a painting in the studio, I use absolutely anything to draw with, recently I have started using a fine biro with some interesting results.
Posted
/ I use an old peg ....and an old knib pen
I never clean the knibs ,and a build up of acrylic ink on the pen end ...seem to stop the ink dribbling on to your paper
Also find a sterile straight line of all one thickness is a no no for me ,,some of my favourite painters used broken effect
in their linning ..check Fletcher Watsons .or Edward Wesson,s pen drawings ,they have character .
don't be to clinical with pen and wash .
unless you are doing an architects drawing ,,mind you who am I to talk..I could not draw straight line for the life of me
love you all Alan
Posted
yes you are correct about Mr Wesson .I did a tube video trying to explain how the depth of shade can be added with fine pen work
in foliage ,and shadows ,I used it before and after painting in my video . and Ted often gave character to gable ends with hardly noticeable scratches of fine lines .down and across .,I tried to show this ,,,,,but his what I call special effects eluded me ...and still dose.
he had certain spots in his foliages where he dropped a spot of watery raw sienna that gave a soft blended out edge .to show his branches through up to his more solid colour top foliage ,this he did in his hedge rows .
sorry for wondering away from the subject ,but his colours and methods fascinate me
Alan
Posted
As well as the twig I also use pen and, as you discuss Rob, I use it regularly after the paintwork. However I am just in the middle of a couple of paintings which have been requested where I have reverted to doing the linework first. I actually find, quite paradoxically, that by working this way round the painting ends up being looser than when I add the pen afterwards.
By the way, does anyone else have a dislike of the term 'pen and wash' when applied to a finished painting as opposed to what you might call a sketch? I often feel the term is used too widely. The paintings I am doing are a lot more than a pen drawing enhanced by a few washes.