A new technique

Quick pencil sketch

Well, what do you think of this? While reading a post from Carol King’s blog (listed in my blogroll and dated 6/12/15), I saw a link to a drawing technique using the Speedball Elegant Writer Calligraphy Marker.  After watching the linked video, I thought it might be interesting to use for some loose architecturals.  I looked through the photos from our trip to Europe in 2000 to see if I could find something suitable. At that time my husband’s timber frame company had cut a frame here in Indiana, shipped it to Germany, and then the whole crew went over to erect it.  I went over with our son Justin when they were finished and we spent a few days driving around the country.  What a great time we had.  I remembered I had taken some shots of narrow streets with the most incredible architecture you could imagine and found this one to use.

Speedball writer technique

I did a very quick sketch, not taking the exacting care I normally would, even changing some things to make it a little simpler (gasp!) for the first attempt.  There is a slight beveled edge to the pen tip for calligraphy usage so I was able to vary the strokes somewhat.  That was a little disconcerting at first, but I worked with it and came to a nice accommodation.  I let it sit for a day and then just went ahead and did the water wash in a more slap dash manner than I would normally use.  Wow, I really like it!  At one level, this really appeals to my sense of positive/negative spaces. I also like the randomness of the slight color changes.  When the water is washed on, the ink changes from black to shades of dark blue, light blue, and mauve in an unpredictable way.  Once the ink has set from the water wash and a light mist spray, you can then add regular watercolors if desired.

I can see a series of Germany architectural drawings and maybe a few florals coming up and a new set of listings in my etsy store.  This is just the inspiration I have been needing.

I really would appreciate some feedback and votes -add regular watercolor to it or not – so go right ahead and tell give me your opinion, even if you’ve never commented before.  I will total up the pro and con choices and let you know.  I am going to try more of these for sure.