Fine Art Paintings

FINDING FREEDOM in Pen and Ink #7 of 9 (cont’d)

§ February 17th, 2010 § Filed under Art, Pen and Ink, Pen and Ink / Watercolor, Tips and Techniques § 3 Comments

TRY A NEW APPROACH TO THIS EASY-TO-USE MEDIUM THAT ALLOWS YOU TO CHANGE YOUR COMPOSITIONS AS YOU WORK.

By Ron Colgrove

Building light and shadow (cont’d)

You can also make changes and additions to your design as you work. For instance, you may decide to add a few more plants or suggest a human figure. You might also want to change a window into a door to vary the shapes across the front of a building. And the same holds true for textures. You may decide that a wooden wall would look more interesting if it were made of brick. These are the small—but often important—decisions you make along the way that keep the inking process exciting.

Before working right up to the edge of my drawing, I stop and evaluate my composition one last time. If I think that one area is more interesting than another I may decide to “shift” my drawing on the board to eliminate the less interesting portion while retaining my standard 12 x 18 dimensions. This technique gives me the flexibility I need to make adjustments and still end up with a clean, neat edge. By doing this, I can erase the abandoned sections of the original sketch that were never inked and frame my drawings without matting, instead of using a mat to cover up an area that didn’t work.

A Simple Approach Demonstration Item #5 of 5

PREPARING FOR THE FINISH. Although I didn’t make any major changes in the placement of the drawing on the page, I did make a few minor adjustments to the house by cutting off a few feet to make room for the trees and added a few more darks. After I inked in the last of the details, I had a giclée made of Pleasant View Road (pen and ink, 18 x 12). This allowed me to keep the original pen and ink drawing intact, and to make watercolor paper prints or canvas prints at a later time.