20140430 - Deer - Work in Progress

I thought you might like to see how I create the under painting using pen & ink. I've been working on the a deer feeding in winter. This is a "work in progress", so you get to see it before I add the watercolor to the painting.

As you can see, I try to outline my subject, then use a waterbrush to create the texture of the painting.

All of what you see is just pen & ink work. I am using a Noodler's Ink brush pen. The ink is Noodler's Ink Polar Brown. It's a permanent ink that binds with the cellulose in the paper and becomes quite permanent and lightfast. But by using the waterbrush it may not be as lightfast as I would like. So, the watercolor added to the painting solves any problems due to fading.

You can also see that I by using my pen & ink I tend to get an image that feels as if it comes out of an illustrator's guide, rather than a pure watercolor painting guide. But that's okay, since I am really drawn to the pen & ink work with watercolor.

As you can see, I also provide a small copy of the reference photograph that I am using. As you can see, it's a wonderful photograph.

Hopefully you will enjoy seeing the work in process and the resulting painting.