Sunday, April 22, 2012

Making Fine Lines in Watercolor

When there are very dark lines in a photo, like the rock outcroppings on the hill to the left or in the half circles surrounding the tiny waterfalls, I will sometimes use a sharpie. But for this painting, I wanted to be 100% watercolor, so... I took the time to learn to use an old fashioned ink pen dipped in concentrated watercolor that comes in an ink bottle. As usual, I had trouble with the standard process and made up my own: using an eyedropper to put a drop of ink on hole in the pen nib before scratching it across the paper.
The pen gave me lots of nice dark squiggly rock lines and branches but it also made me wonder about the patience of the generations of folks who wrote with these cussed tools! They drag and skip and go dry and then dump all of their ink at once...
 
Nan Henke
Texas Hill Country Art

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