Essentials shellac ink on Aquarelle 140 lb NOT paper.
15″ x 11″ Ink on paper.
This sketch was an experiment with using coloured inks as a watercolour-type medium. All of the sketch, bar the girl’s face, was painted using four colours: purple, green, yellow, and a black Indian ink. For the face, which was tanned on the model, I introduced an orange. Line drawing was with Uni PIN fineliner pen.
I used “Essentials” drawing ink. This is probably shellac-based and dries to a waterproof finish. This means it cannot be handled like a true watercolour, which is bound with gum arabic and can be re-wetted, which allows adjustment of a wash to some extent even after it has dried. With a shellac paint this option is not available. One therefore has to employ a committed technique with these inks.
I cannot find ‘Essentials’ drawing inks for sale on the internet, so I assume they are no longer produced. The ones used in this sketch were old stock but I was impressed with them. The Aquarelle 140 lb / 300 gsm cold-pressed paper was also a joy to work with. I used it unstretched and it did not buckle significantly, although it did take a curve as the wash dried thoroughly. All of the painting, bar the face was painted with a flat brush, approx an inch or an inch and a quarter. For the face I used a smaller, pointed brush.
I added a fifth ink, an orange, to my palette to paint the model’s face. Unfortunately I was running out of time at this point and was trying to take a short-cut to finding a suitable colour for her tanned face. In hindsight I would have done better to mix a suitable value from the four colours I already had become familiar with.
The machine top-right is a roller printing press for turning out art prints.