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Pen and Wash
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Message
Posted
There's a good Alan Owen video on YouTube, showing his technique with pen and wash - particularly useful, because he also shows how to deal with the problem of accidentally painting wash into ink that hasn't dried properly. And he goes straight in with the pen - takes courage, that! It would be a very useful watch for anyone who's not tried this technique before, or is nervous of it. He says it's easier than watercolour ..... I wonder if most of us would find it so.
Posted
Recently looking at pen and wash as an alternative to pure watercolour and my recent post is an example of using a sharpened matchstick in a clutch pencil. I am still not sure what is the best tool. I have two Steve Hall paintings in which he used a felt tip pen, I think a Pitt Artist Brush Pen in Dark Sepia. Looking at them carefully the drawing, very simple with little detail, seem to have been done first and then a limited palette used with warm and cool washes. Ted Wesson was of course an expert in pen and wash and always said he used a sharpened twig. But did he ever use a pen? A good example is his Padstow Harbour in Peter Slade's Book "Honesty in Art'. Some of the lines look very fine for a twig. Others use a matchstick and recently talking to John Hoar about this the way the match is sharpened is critical in getting exactly the width and shape of line you want. I have two of his paintings and he has a lovely variety of lines. I am still experimenting with Pitt pens and matchsticks with Black Acrylic Ink. Great fun way to use watercolour. Also not sure what is the ideal paper for this technique. I think Arches Rough is too rough! My Steve Hall paintings are on Bockingford and John Hoar has used Fabriano Artistico. I wonder what others have found best.
Posted
Certainly if you're using a steel pen, and especially a mapping pen, you're probably going to want to avoid rough papers, unless you like the spattering effect which inevitably occurs - very hard to control, and it usually turns into huge blots for me. It also ruins the pen (the nib) - snaps or mis-shapes the tines.
I would think you could get away with a rougher paper, even the Bockingford Rough, with a matchstick/cocktail stick/twig. I like the Daler Rowney cartridge pad (the one with red and yellow covers) with ink - or the Winsor and Newton cartridge, assuming they still make the one I'm thinking of: it was slightly more absorbent than the Daler Rowney paper.
A paper I was very fond of was made by Goldline - 140gsm cartridge, ideal for pen and wash: so of course they stopped making it.........
Posted
This is a technique I really like, but my huge inexperience means I can but dabble at the moment. Ive been reading a lot about it in old Artist magazines I was recently given and I am amazed at the number of artists who dont use nibs at all but bits of sharpened twig, matchstick or bamboo. It seems that if it can be dipped in ink it can be used.
The other thing I am seeing constantly quoted is that to be a watercolourist one must first be able to draw: so I imagine my dabbling with ink and wash is only to the good!
David
Posted
Well, far be it from me to dissuade you from drawing; however, you don't really need to be able to draw if you paint abstracts, and watercolour lends itself to abstraction almost as well, possibly not quite so well, as the opaque media.
You do need to be able to compose, though; and drawing will help with that.
Posted
Leonard Squirrel used a pencil in his work ,, I think Edward Wesson was an admirer of him and so was James Fletcher Watson...
notice Edward Wesson uses a pencil on top of his pen and washes and on his roofs ,,I am not sure if it was a fine Black crayon pencil
or a lead one ,, he did use a red coloured pencil(according to the Steve Hall pics) and we all know he used a match stick in the end of thin garden cane ,,,,but the match sticks to day are a harder wood, and look impregnated with oil ,,,shucks has any one still got a box of captain webb ,,with the white soft wood I can chew as I paint ,
love you all
Alan
Edited
by alanowen
Posted
Don't worry about having all history wiped out, Alanc - Phil Kendall, whom we'll all welcome back with acclaim, was on this site under various names long before I was: it's what you say that matters.
And Michael, yes - Bockingford extra rough is much less rough than it might lead you to believe, and works find with even a steel nib and ink, so I'm sure it'll be good with your twigs.
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