Inky Experiments

It has taken me a long time to realise that quite often the art that I admire the most and the pieces of mine that I am most pleased with are the more spontaneous and experimental ones. Sometimes the pieces that are thoroughly thought out and meticulously made can end up looking a bit stiff and forced. Therefore, I am making an effort to try and experiment more with what I draw and the media that I use in order to keep improving and discovering the elements that I enjoy and would like to include in future pieces.

For this experiment I decided to use Ecoline which is a liquid watercolour in the colour fir green. They behave very similarly to ink in that they are a strong coloured liquid medium, however unlike ink they can be reactivated with water after they dry. I chose to experiment with this medium so that I could focus on my brush work and inking skills. I really wanted to use the full range of thickness provided by the brush. These paintings were made using only a size 00 round brush. I also chose to paint with Ecoline so that I could play around with the tones that you can make by only diluting the single colour.

I began each of the mini portraits with a very quick pencil sketch using a blue Prismacolor ColErase pencil to allow me to improve and modify the picture when I started painting and try and keep them feeling more spontaneous. I also drew a guy which I don't do enough but it was one of my aims for this year so I need to start somewhere. All of the drawings were done without a reference image as well which I am very pleased with.

So I would say that this was a successful painting session and hopefully the first of many experiments. It is often after these more spontaneous paintings that I feel I am making some progress!

Thanks for reading!