Pen and Ink Drawing

Pen and Ink drawing is typically shaded with hatch patterns. The theory is that the higher the hatch density the darker the area is and the lower the hatch density is the lighter the area is. This means that with a single color pen (black), an image can be rendered that appears to be shaded. Inks of different colors can be used to provide a more interesting effect.

Once the drawing is dry it can then be colored. Care should be taken as to what is used to color the drawing. Color pencils can be used, but because they are translucent and not transparent they must be used carefully. Water colors tend to be more transparent and can be used with greater success. I would like to try using water color markers and alcohol based markers.

For my first stab at Pen and Ink and Watercolors I did a brick wall. I drew the mortar lines in graphite. Next I drew in the individual bricks using a rectangle template. Each brick was represented by a series of vertical lines drawn with a 0.1mm technical pen. Once the ink was dry all graphite was removed with a Pink Pearl eraser.

When working with color pencils it is absolutely critical that all graphite is removed before drawing over it. I used a Terracotta pencil to fill in each brick. Using a small flat brush and water I brushed in the Watercolor pencil. When done the bricks looked textured but lacked the realism. From here shadows were added to each brick. This was done with a black Watercolor pencil. A line was drawn under each brick and on the right vertical edge of each brick. Water was not added to this line and was done sort of dry on wet. The pencil was dry and the paper was moist.

After looking at the picture it was decided that the mortar was too plain. Stippling with 0.1mm ink helped, but it needed some gray tone to give the illusion of weathered mortar. This was done by blending in some graphite.

I am working on a larger work that will use technical pen, watercolor pencil and graphite. I want a brick wall with sunflowers and a watering can an other stuff. I need to do a sketch to put together all the elements. I liked the darkness done by the Terracotta pencil for the bricks that I just did. The darkness of the bricks should cause the sunflowers to pop out.