Elegant Writer: Abner

This is Abner, my daughter’s beloved weimaraner. I keep returning to a reference photo I took of him quite a few years back. There are many versions of him within this blog. I seem to gravitate to this image when I am trying new techniques. This is my attempt with the “Elegant Writer”.

This is what I came up with following my initial drawing and wetting of the ink lines. I felt I did not achieve enough darks. I went back in a second time and re-inked the lines where I wanted the image to appear darker.

After re-inking the drawing, I re-activated those lines with a brush and water and came up with the above.  I think an artist could keep going and developing the ink drawing if they are not anticipating painting with watercolor. I have yet to experiment with this technique and collage, wax resist or some of the other things I create with, but am convinced it is a very versatile medium.

Hope you give it a try!

Grandchildren “Elegant Writer” Paintings

7 yr old

8 yr old

9 yr old

I have been spending the week with my three grandgirls again and it has been chock full of summertime fun. We used the rain day to settle in and draw and paint. The above is what they came up with. They each selected a reference they liked from wet canvas reference library and set to work drawing them and then tracing over their lines with the “Elegant Writer” I have been experimenting with.

Next, they activated the ink lines with a large round watercolor brush filled with water. The next day, they painted in their scenes. All three girls really liked working with this pen and want to do it again. It is great for talking about lights and darks with children. I also think it is a pretty good introductory exercise for teaching watercolor.

I always look forward to seeing what the girls come up with. I do have to help them with seeing angles of lines and widths of things. I talk about shapes and that it is sometimes better to break their subject into shapes and show them that the space between the animals legs or between the bars on the canoes is a shape. I try not to confuse them with too many technical terms all at once, but we did talk about shape, negative space and dark and light this time.