Monday, January 19, 2009

"Snowy Egret" 1-17-09

This is a miniature painting of a Snowy Egret done in Inktense Watersoluble Ink Pencil, black. It's very small, 2.25" x 3.25" and I used just water and a small brush to wet the pencil as I worked. I wanted to keep it fresh looking with pencil scribbles showing and blotches of ink. I like the dynamics of that, reminds me more of nature sometimes rather than a perfectly and meticulously painted peice.

When you work with inktense pencils you can either rub at the lines with a wet brush to eliminate the pencil marks or brush lighter to leave them there. Also if you draw on wet paper be forwarned it will draw very dark and quite permanent! The properties of these pencils are such that if you let the worked area dry it will be more permanent than watercolor pencils or watercolor. You can work over it without lifting the colors. I enjoy their boldness and the mixture of water media and dry media.

4 comments:

Doda said...

OOOOh, this is lovely!

Carol Creech said...

Hi Mary,

Great egret! (Ok, pun intended...) This is wonderful. I love the looser style that you were going for - yet the form is spot on. My work is always so cleaned up and I love the freshness of something like this that is looser and more lively. It reminds me of Chinese brush painting where with a few brush strokes, the essence of form is captured perfectly. I'll have to try some of these Inktense pencils!
Carol

Mary McAndrew said...

Why thanks Doda! What a great response! I liked doing it, more my style with some loose lines floating around. It was hard to do because it's so small!

Mary McAndrew said...

Hi Carol,
thanks for the compliments! The first thing I learned years ago was Chinese brush painting from a friend from Mainland China! It's the only lessons I've had in watercolor!

I think using one color, the black,was good, it made me forget that his beak was yellow..and all the subtle colors reflected in the white feathers...you just have to think value! A great lesson to practice with. Try the Inktense pencils..I just love them! They are very intense though...you have to go easy with the application.

If you want to loosen up, try to at least start with a light sketch, stick to good drawing and values but play with the background like I did. Add value by scribbling lightly, etc. I'd love to see if you try anything.