pen before the watercolour wash

Last weekend I ran a poll on Patreon and it seems a number of people are interested in different ways to approach watercolours and adding different media. I'm excited about this! Let's mix things up a little :-)

As I mentioned in the poll, I won't be sending anyone on a shopping spree! The theme here will still be watercolour, but occasionally I'm going to show how to add different things you probably already have lying around - pens, markers, watercolour pencils, gouache, collage, pastels etc

Starting with this week's post - I'm going to show you some of my urban sketches from 2016 through 2018.

Like many people, when I first started sketching on location, I did the pen drawing first, then added washes on top. But in 2016/17/18 I really pushed this idea - very detailed pen drawings with loose washes. And I did a number of large plein air sketches in Europe in 2018. These larger ones were A3 in size and usually took 2 sessions to complete, so I'd have to go back to the same place twice - once for the pen drawing, once for the the watercolour. It was very absorbing and labour intensive, but the sketches were super special.

In this post I'm sharing some of those sketches with you, explaining how I approached them and some of my thought process. Then you can take the ideas and try them too, either in the studio or out. I'm looking forward to seeing you what you paint.

Join me on Patreon for this lesson and nearly 150 more. Sign up for Adventures in Colour

Happy painting!