Sketching With Watersoluble Ink (Part 2)

Last week I accidentally posted publicly what was supposed to be a draft. It’s no big deal, except it was incomplete, so now I’ll try to finish my line of thought.

I had named my favorite watersoluble pen, the PaperMate flair. These are some of the pages I sketched a couple months ago while riding the Philly Ducks, an amphibian vehicle tour in Philadelphia. The simple setup allowed me to be very fast and loose, while adding a shading layer to the sketches.

You can also use fountain or brush pens with any soluble ink. Artist Marc Taro Holmes has explored this technique, using colored watersoluble ink for a wonderful effect. Be sure to follow his blog. He is also a great teacher; he’s got a couple of classes on Craftsy, I highly recommend these.

As a caution, some inks react in very weird ways with water. I got a bottle of DeAtramentis Mahatma Ghandi, a very nice yellow shade I intended to use in a pen brush and create these blurred effects with clear water. To my surprise, the ink turns into a bright neon yellow, pretty much like a book highlighter. Useless. Glad I had tested it out first.

Anyway, here’s a short video I recorded in my home studio using a PaperMate flair and a waterbrush. This is the typical process I follow when sketching on location with watersoluble ink.