Same Pose, This Time With Ink Washes

6/16/15 India ink washes, Zebra Comic G dip pen,
Fabriano 113 lb. drawing/watercolor paper

Today was the last session of the ink-drawing class I took at Gage, and I’m sad to see it end. I learned so much about seeing and building up values with either pen and ink hatching or brush washes. Instructor Eric Elliott gives excellent feedback. (He has an uncanny knack for anticipating the grave error I’m about to make – and then suggests another tact just before I make it!) I also enjoyed the sustained continuity of taking a 10-week course. I’m used to doing weekend or one-day workshops, where it’s more like an overview or an intensive crash course. Meeting weekly over an academic quarter gives me time to think about what I learned the previous weeks and apply them to later lessons.

For our final class, Danielle, our model from last week, returned and resumed the same pose for students who wanted to continue the same drawing. I decided to start a fresh drawing – this time with washes of ink plus a little detail work with my Zebra Comic G dip pen. Although I enjoy hatching, using ink washes is probably a better way to learn to see and apply values more accurately. I’m not inclined to use India ink washes for urban sketching, but diluted India ink will layer just like watercolor glazes, so I can apply the same principles to color.

6/16/15 India ink washes

After I finished my main drawing, I had some time left, so I did a few quick ink wash drawings using a large sumi brush, including one portrait.

Although I’m going to miss having this weekly class to look forward to, I can’t say I’ll miss sitting in a Gage classroom on warm and sunny afternoons. The Gage catalog for summer quarter just came out, and while I was tempted by a number of interesting course descriptions, I’m not signing up again until fall. In the summer, this girl just wants to have fun – sketching outdoors!