Pen and Ink and Wash workshop at Fay Boyd’s Fine Art School

Next week I will be running a five days workshop on Pen and Ink and Watercolour wash techniques at Fay Boyd’s Fine Art School in Grafton. It should be a lot of fun.

I have spent a few weeks preparing my material so that my students can progress throughout the week in the right sequence i.e. simple work at the start and more complex at the end of the five days.

The focus on the week will be developing drawing skills, designing a work of art, watercolour techniques, and having a lot of fun!

Why Pen and Ink?

Pen and Ink is a great medium for helping you develop your drawing skills. As it is permanent it forces you to think through each step before committing the mark to paper – otherwise you are usually stuck with it!  It is a great medium for watercolour artists as you cannot create mud with it unless you include a watercolour wash in your paintings. The fact that you have to think through each step before drawing is also a great help for a watercolour artist as doing so will also help you with your watercolour painting.

Figure 1: Old farm house in pen,ink, and wash by Joe Cartwright

Tones are also very easy to see and understand when you paint with ink as there are no colours to confuse you and all you see are tones.

If you are interested here is the materials list the students will need for my workshops:

Workshop: Pen, Ink, and Watercolour Wash

STUDENT REQUIREMENTS LIST

Tutor: Joe Cartwright

Drawing Nib and Holder: I use Hunt’s Drawing Nib #99 along with a plastic holder.

Artists Black Ink, water resistant – I use Art Spectrum brand

Arches 300 gsm Cold Press watercolour paper either as a pad ( 26cm x 36 cm) or loose full sheets (76cm x 56 cm) which can be cut to size. Three full sheets should be sufficient for the week.

Masking tape approx 2.5 cm wide

Small water container

Board to support paper e.g. waterproof ply board or Gator board

Old towel: used to take moisture out of your brush and pen

Box of plain tissues

Kneadable eraser

HB or 2B pencil, I use a .7 mm Pental HB clutch pencil

Watercolour pallet

Old watercolour brushes to be used with ink. If you have some good watercolour brushes which can be used for the watercolour washes please bring them along too. The watercolour brushes I use are size 24, 16, 12 and 8.

Spray bottle – trigger spray bottles are no good; you need the press down type which must have a fine mist spray

Watercolour Paints – Artist Quality only (I use Winsor and Newton)

Required colours:

French Ultramarine

Cobalt Blue

Cerulean Blue

Permanent Alizarin Crimson

Cadmium Red

Cadmium Orange

Cadmium Yellow Pale

Aureolin

Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna

Burnt Sienna

Raw Umber

Cobalt Turquoise

If you don’t have these exact colours we will work with what you have, but make sure they are Artist’s Quality.