Pen, Ink and Watercolor Wash Sketching.

Pat's Pen, Ink, and Watercolor Wash Sketches, Techniques, and Tips...3-08

I took the photo below from a roadside vantage point on the Oregon coast and made two sketches from the same photo. The sketch above is a realistic interpretation. 10" x 7.5", Saunders Waterford Hot press watercolor paper, flexible vintage pen with Noodler's Bulletproof black ink.

My second sketch was simpler and stronger in design. I enjoyed doing both versions of the coastal scene and especially liked working with the limited colors above: one warm brown, one cold blue, and just enough raw umber to make a soft green. 7.5" x 5.5", Strathmore Aquarius II, 80 lb. watercolor paper, vintage pen with Noodler's Bulletproof black ink.

At holiday time, our city's nice street fair is an excellent place to sketch. I sometimes duplicate this kind of sketch in a copy machine and tint the copies with watercolor washes. 9" x 6" (shown cropped), Strathmore 300 Bristol Smooth surface, flexible vintage pen with Platinum Carbon Black ink.

These are lemons from a tree outside our kitchen window picked on March 11. The leaves on this branch were an unhealthy yellow, but the lemons were OK. I held the paper under the water tap before I began, so it was quite wet when the first washes were laid down. Some of the initial pen lines also diffused into the damp paper. As I worked, the paper dried so the final colors and lines did not run and remained crisp. Strathmore Aquarius II, 80 lb. watercolor paper, 11" x 7.5". Waterman #7 Pink nib pen with mix of Noodler's Eternal and Sheaffer brown inks.

I'm sketching quickly here because it is January and cold for Carmel, California. There aren't many tourists on the beach at the end of Ocean Avenue this time of year, and you can see, several are wearing coats. 10" x 6", Arches 140 lb. Hot press watercolor paper. For speed, I used a big pen with a wider nib to get the Platinum Carbon Black ink lines down fast and move on to the watercolor wash before heading home.