How To Ink And Watercolor 11 Steps With Pictures

For an ink and watercolor project, try using a paper with a weight around 180 gsm.

Later, after you’ve applied the watercolor, you’ll return to trace over these light pencil lines with ink.

Liquid mask is a thin, putty-like substance that dries quickly and will protect your pencil lines from being smudged or washed away by the watercolor paints. The fine line applicator comprises a small plastic bottle (which can be filled with any liquid) and a fine-tipped, needle like point that you’ll use to apply the liquid mask precisely over your pencil lines. Both of these supplies will be available at any art-supply store. You can also purchase liquid mask and empty fine line applicator bottles online.

Thoroughly rinse your paintbrush off between colors. Otherwise you’ll end up ruining one paint color by smearing another in it. A watercolor palette contains multiple shallow-bowl like indentations. This allows you to mix multiple colors without letting them run together. As a rule, watercolors look better when the colors are mixed generously with water. This will increase the transparency of the wash and allow for more expressive final results. Mix only the colors that you’ll need for your painting. For example, if you’re painting a mountainous landscape, you’ll need to mix a few different shades of gray, white, blue, green, and probably black.

In the mountain landscape example, start out by using half a dozen large brushstrokes to paint the sky deep blue, the mountains gray, and the lower plains green. You don’t need to let this paint dry before moving on. It will quickly be absorbed into the paper, and shouldn’t smear as you continue painting.

For example, you could apply small amounts of very light gray to mountain peaks to indicate snow, or add small streaks of darker green or blue in the plains to show different grasses.

Use your hand to brush off any lingering small pieces of liquid mask. You want the material completely gone from your paper so that you can ink smoothly.

Use a fine pen for this work. Try a 00 or . 30 size pen. Use a high-quality art pen, like the ones made by Rapidograph.

Your local art store will sell a large variety of high-quality artist’s pens. Check there first when looking for new art supplies.

In our example, you could add crosshatching near mountain peaks to indicate shade, and fill the sides of lakes or streams with a half-circle pattern to indicate moving water.