Watercolour

[John the Monkey]

I've been messing about with paint lately.

fox004.jpg

This little guy was outlined with regular pencil (0.5mm (HB/#2) lead in a Parker Jotter) - watercolour pencil went on the page dry, and was then blended with a wet brush.

stoat006.jpg

This aristocratic Stoat was outlined similarly, but I used the facing page of the sketchbook I was using as a palette. In this technique, the dry watercolour pencil goes onto the palette page, is blended there, and then "lifted" with a brush and applied in washes to the picture. I like working that way better, I think, and the facing page ends up looking like this;

stoat_pallette005.jpg

which has a charm of its own You can also test that the colour blend you have in mind is going to work as a watercolour wash too - notice the brush strokes on the palette page where I'm doing just that.

The second sketch uses Derwent "Academy" watercolour pencils, which I'd wholeheartedly recommend - useful set of colours in the 12 pencil box (£6 ish over here, but worth the money compared to cheaper pencils), and nice to work with too.

I'm using an A6 sketchpad, so these don't take long to do at all (30 minutes or so, depending on how many times you want to go over the washes, and how patient you are about letting them dry). It's good fun, and the materials aren't expensive - have a go!