Pen
and Ink Drawing
A
Detailed Pen Drawing - 1
Houses
in Whitby, North Yorkshire
Pen, Ink and Watercolour
View
our ink and watercolour drawing in its actual size
This
pen and ink drawing lesson takes you through the various
stages in the development of our illustration above.
It is a mixed media work on an A3 sheet of cartridge
paper, using pencil, Indian ink and watercolor. This
tutorial will develop some basic drawing skills in pencil,
the use of cross-hatching
and stippling
techniques with Indian ink and your watercolor painting
skills.
Choosing
a View
Architecture
is a very suitable subject for ink drawing as the flat
planes of buildings lend themselves naturally to ink
drawing techniques such as cross hatching and stippling.
For our illustration we chose a location with a flat
frontal view. The way that the buildings stack up helps
us to convey a sense of depth without the complications
of perspective
drawing. Buildings viewed from a high eye level,
like this view of Whitby in North Yorkshire, England,
provide good subjects of this type.
Selecting
an Area
If
you feel the overall view is too complicated, zoom in
to a smaller area of the scene which you may find easier
to develop. Choose a section where the composition of
the shapes, colors or textures of the buildings appeal
to you.
A
landscape drawing or painting does not have to be an
identical copy of what the artist can see, but may have
some of its elements adjusted to create a better composition.
The section above was chosen for the unity and pattern
of its larger shapes. It has an even distribution of
flat rectangular walls with angular gables and roofs.
The smaller shapes of the chimneys and windows create
an interesting counterpoint to these larger elements.
Although the colors are quite similar throughout the
image they can be changed in favour of a more interesting
composition. Tiles, slates, brickwork and bushes provide
a range of patterns and textures that can also be adjusted
to contrast and harmonise different surfaces.
