Line and wash is in many ways the cleanest example of the principle of duality in drawing and painting, and therein lies its power: line is so pure and crisp and wash so ephemeral. It’s difficult to imagine two more dissimilar yet complementary elements, with all of those defining lines energized and embraced in swaths of wash and colour. Everything that is wrong becomes right again. Yin and yang. The juxtaposition of opposites does something special. There’s always something magical in the interaction between components, and the whole truly becomes greater than the sum of its parts. This may indeed be a universal idea – an idea that repeats throughout art – as it does in life!
STAGE 1 – Pencil and Ink
I start by getting the overall spatial arrangements in dry media. Here, I used ink and pencil – rubbing out the pencil after the ink went in. My ink pen is waterproof – check this before you start!
STEP 2 – Washes
I then drift in colour washes for sky and grass. The sky is Cerulean blue. The grass Hansa yellow (any yellow will do) and Cerulean blue to make my green. Notice I don’t care too much about exactly where the wash is – the ink still predominates.
I try to leave quite a bit of white space. I want to leave myself bare paper for some chromatic washes later on.
STEP 3 – Painting the sides of the cottage
I’m using Burnt Sienna mixed with Ultramarine Blue to get a variety of browns and dark blue/blacks. Try mixing various amounts of these two colours – they work very well together. Again, I’m not being fussy and the Ink predominates. I try to use my brush sparingly to get effects of texture on the side of the walls.
I’m using low-cost watercolour paper here, however it’s fine to try this on good quality drawing paper too – just don’t try to go back over your washes – you will only rub them into a muddy mess!
STEP 4 – A splash of colour for the roof!
My watercolours invariably have a good splash of more intense colour, often red, this one being no exception.
STEP 5 – Finishing with Ink
I swap back to ink to add some details and emphasis. Not too much, as it’s easy to overdo the effect!
I like the result – wonder what A.Y.Jackson would have thought!
A FEW TIPS
Line may be applied before or after wash: many drawings can be livened up with a little wash. Alternatively, lay down some wash, let it dry and then start drawing.
Keep the line-work simple as this is more effective when combined with wash – plus you can easily reinforce images with additional line after adding wash. It’s trickier to cover up superfluous line work!
Because ink is so permanent it’s often a good idea to plan a preliminary layout lightly in pencil in order to inform ink work. Pencil marks can be erased prior to adding wash without disturbing the ink.
Pens can either be waterproof or water-soluble and predictably, results will be quite different. Should you like the idea of your line work bleeding out into the wash, a water-soluble pen is for you. However, for a classic effect, crisp lines and fluid wash always require a waterproof pen. Test prior to use!
Look for opportunities to keep freshness in the work, perhaps not exactly following the underlying image. It may seem counterintuitive, but more consistent images result: a little edgy, with “mistakes” becoming gestural features, underscoring my maxim: “it all has to be slightly wrong in order to be right”!