Line and wash

I have spent some time over the last couple of weeks to explore a new art style. I have always been fascinated with the combination of pen and watercolour. I wanted to master this artform as a way to do studies for larger paintings that I want to do. We are on our way to De Rust in the Western Cape in the next month and I particularly want to use it during our month-long holiday.

So, being a researcher by heart, I started to do some research. I found that the style that I am looking for is called “line and wash” or “pen and wash” and it often practiced by a group calling themselves “urban sketchers”. It is more a style of drawing with colour than a painting style, even if watercolour is being used. Urban sketchers practise this method “en plein air”. Some artists that really touched me are the South African Cathy Gatland and especially the Belgian artist Gerard Michel. His style and the softer usage of the watercolours really speaks to me.

So I started to pursue this style. I first used the wrong pen. I was suggested to use the Pentel Brush Pen, but it is too thick and subsequently switched to Pilot Permant Ink Drawing Pens. I use a 0.8 and 0.3 mm pen. For the paint I decided to buy good quality. I bought a Winson and Newton Compact set containing 14 half-pans of Cotman watercolour. I realised that watercolour paint is much more expensive that acrylic! I dropped the Cadmium Red Light (orange) and replaced it with Paynes Gray. The Payned Gray turned out to be essential for all kinds of shading in the sketches.

I will make a couple of posts of my attempts thus far in the next couple of posts.