How to draw a robot (wash and ink)

How to draw a robot (wash and ink)

by | Oct 29, 2024 | Pen and Ink, Watercolor Pencils

I finally have the 28 new colors in my hot little hands! Last year when I heard they had new ones, I couldn’t find anywhere in the US to buy all 28 easily; sure I could pick ’em out pencil by pencil, but I figured it would eventually happen. Uh, NOPE! I googled and eventually found a coupon code I could use at Cult Pens, which got the price down, even with overseas shipping. So now they’re here! 

I do keep swatches of colors – mostly for use in classes so I can show colors used in a particular project. I indicate what brand in a box in the corner so I can get them back into the right pages in my book 🙂

The hex chart has been updated from a 72 to a 100 chart! If you only have the 72 and don’t need the bigger one, just email me after purchasing and I’ll send you the 72 as well. If you already purchased, just re-downlaod from your account to get the full 100.

Tutorial: How to Draw a Robot

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Underpainting:

  1. Derwent Inktense pencils
    BLICK 
    AMZ 
    JACKSONS 
    CULT PENS in the UK (full set of 28) 
  2. Arches Cold press 9×12 pad
    BLICK 
    AMZ 
    JACKSONS 

For powdered pigment

  1. Tea strainer =
  2. Nail file 

Inking

TWSBI Eco fountain pen, medium nib

Draw a robot the easy way

Create blobs of color on the paper – stack them in a way to give yourself legs or wheels, body sections, and as many arms, legs or tentacles desired! 

If using watercolor pencils, then add water generously. To keep colors from running into each other, dry in between.

Or use watercolors to do the same thing. Or marker blobs. Anything at all!

Then use the shapes created to design your robot – break shapes up, add lots of nuts and bolts, gears, buttons…get as crazy as you want!

Tap on a picture to make it larger: 

Draw a robot the hard way

Follow the same process as above for the robot. Remember, he’s facing the dials, most likely, so you can think about what you’d add to the BACK of him. Does he have a backpack on?

To create the scene, draw a circle in the middle of the page, and lines radiating out from the middle. 

Use powdered pigment with watercolor pencils – or traditional watercolor – to the scene.

With ink, follow the lines generally to keep buttons aligned with the perspective of the picture. Have fun imagining what pressing all those buttons would do!

Tap on a picture to make it larger:

 

Make more robots!

These two are also “navigator” robots, but the kind you can hire to take on a car trip. They can look at a traditional map and get you to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving!

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Use your Inktense pencils

I’ve got a class specifically demonstrated in Inktense pencils – the first 72 colors, though there’s nothing stopping you from breaking out new colors too! Beautiful gardens from all over the world – you’ll learn to draw plants in pen and ink, adding lovely color….a great project for a cold and dreary winter ahead!

See class

Coming up Saturday

I’ll be doing a rare-ish realtime video – painting this parrot! The reference photo is on the left, so tap on it to make it larger/download to create your sketch, then come create with me. My painting is an eighth sheet – about 7 x 10 inches.

Myrtle Falls (Custom brush pen test part 2)

Myrtle Falls (Custom brush pen test part 2)

by | Oct 19, 2024 | Pen and Ink, Watercolor Pens/Inks

The colors on an iphone don’t do a beautiful fall scene justice, especially on a cloudy cloudy day….but what was so memorable for me this past Monday about my adventure up to Mount Rainier, it was my cousin’s visit! I haven’t seen her since she was a little girl, and now she’s a grownup 21 year old, traveling on her own and being all kinds of amazing!

On our trip she taught me about the science of the adaptations trees make as you get higher and higher up….and I taught her the differences in the branch formations, which she’d never noticed – and they’re something I see as an artist. A great back and forth for both of us!

After my last video and realizing I hadn’t mentioned some important things about these pens (read the last post to find out more), I also decided to try something that the folks in chat during the Premiere were asking about these brush pens – can you use watercolor in them? Let’s give it a try!

Tutorial: Myrtle Falls (Custom brush pen test part 2)

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Sketchbook

  1. Hahnemule ZigZag Sketchbook:
    BLICK 
    AMZ 
    JACKSONS 

Pens

  1. Nuobesty Empty Brush Pens (3)
  2. TWSBI Eco fountain pen medium nib

Inks/watercolor

  1. Platinum Carbon Black Ink
  2. Jacques Herbin Amethyst de L’Oural ink  
  3. Platinum Forest Black Ink 
  4. Daniel Smith Moonglow:
    BLICK 
    AMZ 
    JACKSONS 
  5. PhMartins Liquid Watercolor, Blue Aqua
     BLICK 
    AMZ 

The brush pens

These are fairly generic pen bodies – an inexpensive acrylic – but feel more like a fountain pen than any aqua brush pen. The nib is of course brush-like, and is more in the style of a Zig clean color brush point than, say, a felt type marker nib.

I don’t know at all how long these will last, will they dry out, etc; if you end up finding out, do let me know if yours dry out, and what was in them! The caps aren’t super-fancy or anything and it’s possible they’ll leak air in; I’ll be checking these periodically to see how it goes.

Ink vs watercolor

This was another lesson for me in the difference between ink and watercolor; watercolors are meant to be more transparent in use, which would be why it was hard to get a “thick” mixture of the Moonglow that would have enough flow to be sucked up into a pen like this. Inks seem to work better. Just be sure to get the brush–and the plastic it fits into– covered by the liquid so that whatever science magic of air and moisture happens, it’ll keep pulling liquid into the pen.

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Cleaning these pens

I couldn’t work out taking them apart without possibly damaging the piston by taking THAT end out; I know you can do that with fancy pens, I just didn’t trust these to go back together since they’re not solidly built! So I just went to the art sink and under running water, pulled in clean water, expelled colored water for about 5 minutes til it was mostly clear, then refilled with similar colors in each pen.

What was  your last national park adventure?

And have you sketched it yet? What are you waiting for?

Composition in doodling – with custom brush pen

Composition in doodling – with custom brush pen

by | Oct 15, 2024 | Pen and Ink

Before today’s tutorial…

BREAKING NEWS: I cleaned the studio Friday in advance of Saturday’s zoom call…not that anyone sees my space but ya know, company in the house and all. 🙂 When I walked in Saturday morning I was SO EXCITED to get working! The counter and desk had both been so covered in rubble from past projects….I was working on so many hex charts lately that ALL the pencils were still out, the charts had to go into my binders, stray supplies were just all over. IT FELT SO GOOD to walk in to a clean space. Not that it’ll last long, but hey, it’s a good feeling!

While cleaning I found a bunch of pens that have been here for eons! A number were dried out since they sat so long, which was sad. We had a wake.

But a three-pack of brush pens caught my attention. I think I got them in an art store, from my recollection, but did find pens that look just like it on Amazon -stay tuned for more assessment of this pen vs other aqua brushes you might know.

Tutorial: Composition in doodling – with custom brush pen

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

SKETCHBOOK SUPPLIES

  1. Canson XL watercolor pad 9×12:
    BLICK   AMZ   JACKSONS
  2. We R Memory Keepers Large Score Board 

INK AND PENS

  1. Nuobesty (3) Empty Brush Pens 
  2. TWSBI Eco fountain pen medium nib
  3. Platinum Carbon Ink 
  4. Pipettes (100) 

DIY accordion sketchbook

I paired the brush pen exploration with making a new sketchbook (I need one like I need a hole in my head!) but thought it’d be good to remind people you can make your own book if the one you love isn’t available. I scored 9×12 Canson XL paper at 4″, and made a few zigzag pieces that then were attached to each other. You can glue a front and back together, or tape them on the back. (I’ll draw out one side, then put clear tape on the drawn side and remove the white tape from the back and be able to draw unimpeded.)

 

What this brush pen can’t do

You might be well familiar with aqua brushes/water brushes. Those are generally the soft plastic into which you can put water, paint, or ink, right?

Well these brush pens FEEL like a fountain pen The casing is more of a hard acrylic like those are. Which means I switched to a pipette to drop the ink onto the paper; you can’t squeeze it to expel a blob of liquid like an aqua brush.

What this brush pen can do

The hard acrylic shell also means you won’t accidentally expel a LOT of liquid when you least expect it. That accidental overflow is one reason I don’t like aqua brushes, because they bloop, but this one doesn’t do that. It also means you can get some drybrush with it, which I’m excited to explore in another drawing sometime.

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Composition

I’ll be thinking more deeply about how to talk about composition – ways to use white and dark space to create direction, directional lines in the art, and more. But for this one–flowers unified the design first. Much of the rest of the work was trying to join the dark blobs that were there from the start so they seemed more like chosen areas of darks rather than accidental blobs.

I wasn’t particularly articulate about it all, but lots is just in the beginnings of my thinking at the moment; when it occurred to me that you might like a course on creating these kinds of beautiful abstract doodles, I realized I need to start paying more attention to the thoughts running through my head while I’m working! Filling this sketchbook should help.

Is this a course you’d be interested in?

And are there specific questions you’d like answered? I can keep those in mind while playing in this sketchbook and developing a class. What are the moments you find yourself challenged in creating this kind of drawing?

Tips for ink lines that “flow” over watercolor (ScareCrow)

Tips for ink lines that “flow” over watercolor (ScareCrow)

by | Oct 12, 2024 | Pen and Ink, Watercolor

Which comes first, the paint or the ink? While you can work in either direction, I love to paint in watercolor first, for a few reasons:

 

  1. The ability to work on paper with a color “sketch” that I can adjust as I add the ink
  2. The painting stays looser as I’m not trying to stay between the lines
  3. The pen and ink gets looser too

What’s that? The pen and ink is looser? I do like an “organized” pen and ink drawing, but I also like when the lines flow and move a bit. This post will talk about that as well as include a video on the topic!

The underpainting

A watercolor underpainting is usually the first pass and other layers would clarify details – but in the case of wash and ink, it serves as a color “sketch” to ink on.

This watercolor is in a video on Patreon (my patrons at the green level and higher get a realtime painting tutorial each month of 2024, including access to the previous ones.) 

Sign up for patreon / watch a video about my new patreon project

The underpainting became this in its finished iteration:

Tutorial: ink drawings that “flow” over watercolor 

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Black and white original drawing:

    1. TWSBI Eco fountain pen medium nib 
    2. Hahnemule Hand lettering pads
    3. Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen Ink

Color drawing, printed in a tint:

    1. Legion Stonehenge Drawing Paper, 9×12 pad
    2. Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils (12pencil set used here)
    3. Dahle Dual-hole sharpener

Flowing lines create movement

While drawing in every single feather and creating each barb carefull on every one of them — that can end up feeling a little clinical. It’s very beautiful and I do love art that’s got that kind of realism, but unless I’m in that mood, it’s not quite my vibe.

I love lines that flow, not only in the compositions I create but even in the line work! On this crow, I let my pen help define the outside edges of the bird – fixing the beak, puffing out the neck feathers missed in the watercoloring.

But once the main shapes were in, I broke the mass of the bird into shapes by tracing the shapes seen in the watercolor – hue (color) and value (dark/light) shifts. Then lines within them in different directions create that feel of movement, as if the bird is adjusting himself as he turns to laugh at the scarevrow.

If I’d done those sections out of my “thinking” brain, I might have created very regularized, repeating groups of feathers and lines. 

Flowing lines for shape and continuity

Switching to a thinner pen for some lines really helped! For the lines in the face, they’re a little bit rounded as well as thinner – creating a difference with lines nearby, and also contouring the round head shape. 

Vertical lines in the eyes are straight by comparison – and continue up in the hat in the same direction, creating a connection between those areas of the drawing that flow from one to the other.

And finally the hat contains quadruplets of lines -vertical. horizontal, and angled left and right. The lines can be closer together in shadow areas, further apart and even trailing off in highlights. The lines go with others in the drawing but indicate a different kind of texture in the hat.

Flowing lines for variety

In a drawing, especially a large one like this, large areas with the same line pattern could easily become boring – for the viewer but also for the artist! 

I could have created lines flowing around the fabric folds, and that’s certainly possible. I wasn’t working from a photo to be able to do that though. Instead I let the hue and value changes in the watercolor indicate sections that can contain lines in various directions, making it all more interesting than just very long long lines. 

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Need wash and ink help?

I have a whole page full of courses using pen and ink HERE – but I’ve picked out a few classes below, too.

First, two classes that apply the wash first then the ink. The first uses splashy kind of painting techniques, the winter version uses photography to create paintings to add pen and ink in the strategic parts of the piece. (Great for Christmas cards!)

TAP ON THE PHOTOS TO READ MORE ABOUT EACH CLASS

By contrast, this Spooky Mansion is created by drawing in pen and ink first – then adding the color later for a great Haunted House! 

 

What’s your favorite order – paint or ink first?

Neither is “correct” nor “incorrect” …for me it can make a difference by what the project is! 

Does an artist need EXPERIENCE or EXPERIMENTS more?

Does an artist need EXPERIENCE or EXPERIMENTS more?

by | Oct 8, 2024 | Pen and Ink

I had some art thoughts stemming from an inktober drawing’s questions…. They multiplied while I had insomnia. And to be honest, this drawing happened just yesterday, with the voiceover late last night, so I was a bit wiped out. Hopefully it’s a helpful discussion for you that can encourage you on your journey!

Video: Does an artist need EXPERIENCE or EXPERIMENTS more?

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

SKETCHBOOK

  1. Etched Stone paper sketchbook (use code SANDY10 for 10% off)

SKETCHBOOK

  1. TWSBI Eco fountain pen
    1. Extra Fine
    2. Fine
    3. Medium

“Binoculars” prompt

This drawing started with a unique perspective (I often think about what the world would look like from my dogs’ perspective!) Thinking about what the back of the binoculars would look like, I suddenly realized a hat would cover that so I could avoid it and get the drawing down quicker with a hat.

Quicker didn’t end up happening, due to the crazy grass issues described in the video! But i did like the ZZ Top outcome….what a beard!

“Hike” prompt

My goal for this drawing was to create rocks and plants with different line work – straight/hatched lines for planes of the rocks, and more squigglies for the plants.  Photo reference is here.

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BACKPACK – the items I’d take with me, both physical and mental for inktober

DISCOVER – Dis cover not dat cover! Perspective trouble but the idea was great.

BOOTS from a dog’s low perspective

EXOTIC – Amaryllis  – see the short video tutorial on shading here.

TREK – I’m sure the folks making the list intended a travel theme, as all the prompts are on that theme. But I went Star Trek and drew Vasquez Rocks, a filming location for 10 episodes of Star Trek over many years.

Perspective in Nature: Puffy Clouds part 2

Perspective in Nature: Puffy Clouds part 2

by | Sep 21, 2024 | Pen and Ink, Perspective series, Watercolor

Today we tackle part 2! In the previous helpful discussion we looked at photographs of clouds and assessed the size and scale of detail in clouds. If you missed that post, you might want to check that out before starting in on this one. 

This project includes a little addition of some new goodies to the studio. A bit ago when I’d  received a payment for a wee freelance project, I dedicated a little of it to buying some new supplies. (My studio has been on a starvation diet kinda like my waistline, and the studio has lost more weight so I’m a tad jealous.) And since I’m now an affiliate for Jackson’s Art, I wanted to try out a few of their branded line of products.

If you’re in America and haven’t heard of Jackson’s – there’s a reason! It’s a company with little footprint in the US, but they do have a US website. So you can buy from them – but please watch shipping costs. My box  was quite heavy with all the paper and was almost $20.

If you’re in Europe, you know Jackson’s well, most likely! I’ve been adding Jackson’s to my supply lists for the last several projects and classes; I’m working on building up my link list so when I release my updated artist gift guide for 2024, links for you will be included. And yes, I get to post one link and it works for both the US and EU sites, which makes my life so much easier!

All this means that when I release my artist holiday gift guide for 2024, I’ll get to include Jackson’s links for my overseas pals! So excited.

And if you want to purchase something that I haven’t provided a direct link for, I’d love it if you’d pop over to my blog and use this link in the sidebar of the blog to start your purchase – just like the Blick link.

As with all affiliate links the LAST one you clicked on is the one who gets the credit.

Tutorial: Perspective in Nature: Puffy White Clouds part 2

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Watercolor painting

  1. Jackson’s Watercolor sketchbook
  2. Brushes:
    1. Jackson’s Kite brush size 12
    2. Isabey Kolinsky Round 4 Brush 
  3. Daniel Smith Watercolors:
    1. Verditer Blue BLICK  AMZ   JACKSONS
    2. French Ultramarine BLICK  AMZ   JACKSONS 
    3. Transparent Red Oxide BLICK   AMZ   JACKSONS 

Pen and ink:

  1. TWSBI Eco fountain pen medium nib 
  2. TWSBI Eco fountain pen fine nib
  3. Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen Ink

The art supplies

I did enjoy the sketchbook a lot – the paper reminded me of the sketchbook I have by Senellier. Same weight as Arches, not as soft but a nice texture to it. The blocks are the same paper, quite nice. But I think the other pads were on clearance, which might be why they hopped into my cart!

As for the brushes, the Isbey was very nice, and I’ll see over time whether the hairs do any more of the splaying; it didn’t bug me while painting so far. The Kite brush was, well, disappointing. I’m so sad, I had hopes for it!

The TWSBI Eco Medium and Fine nib pens are ones I picked up elsewhere 

Loose watercolor first

Keeping it loose with watercolor helps in the next step to get the pen and ink to be looser. Why loose? Because it’s hard to get things “perfect,” and after our AI discussion about a week ago – I love having a more artsy piece of art!

Obviously if you want both to be tighter, then sketching everything out and doing the pen work before painting.

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Two pens

The medium nib provides a nice heavy line for the outlines – broken, loose, and fresh. Shading is single hatched in one direction – vertical. Sometimes I do horizontal or angles – but when the whole drawing matches in that aspect, it brings harmony to a busy piece.

Make life easier on yourself…

If you haven’t attempted a wash before your inking, you’re missing out on something that’s possibly going to help. Give it a try!

And if you’d like to do that with some guidance, the Winter Wash and Ink class has some ‘structure’ to it combined with loose and splashy watercolor. Use photos, and trace them so you have a basis, then the watercolor – and only use pen and ink for the focal parts.

Winter Wash & Ink