Wash First, Then Line

4/10/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku and
Diamine Chocolate Brown inks, Canson
mixed media paper (20-min. pose)

It had been more than a month since I went to life drawing practice, and I was feeling rusty. I got back into the groove quickly by using the technique I mentioned in my blog post last time: putting in large blocks of shading with a wash of ink first, then defining contours with a pen or pencil.

Last time I also mentioned a major advantage of using a waterbrush instead of bottles of ink for this type of application: no spills. A woman in the life drawing studio this morning was using bottled India ink and a large brush, and at some point during a 20-minute pose, the bottle overturned. Black and permanent as anything on earth, India ink spilled all over her drawing pad, clothes and the floor. During the break when she was still cleaning up, I showed her my waterbrush (which she was not familiar with) and mentioned its advantages. She took note, and I had a feeling she was going to run right out to get one ASAP.

4/10/14 diluted India ink, Pilot Iroshizuku
Take-Sumi ink (5-min. pose)

During another break, I stole a quick sketch of the model checking his messages. If a life drawing model is wearing a robe and doesn’t know I’m sketching him, it counts as urban sketching, right?

4/10/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink, Sailor pen (unposed)