Pen, Ink and Watercolor Sketching on Toned Paper: Pen, Ink and Watercolor Sketching

By Shirish Deshpande

Learn the magic of the toned paper in bringing your pen, ink and watercolor sketches alive!

Are you a beginner sketcher? Or are you a seasoned sketcher looking to infuse some magic in your illustrations?

Do you think that the average art instruction book omits too many steps in explaining the illustration techniques?

Then this book is for you.

 

Why combine pen, inks and watercolor for illustrations? And why use toned paper?

Pen and ink are the ideal tools to create mind-blowing textures and contrasts in illustrations.

Watercolor painting is appealing for the charming effects it creates but notorious for its unpredictability.

Toned paper brings in a surreal charm to the pen-ink-watercolor sketches. A toned paper can be used to create a vintage feel or to create unexpected, vivid color effects.

 

What will you learn in this book?
- Understanding shapes and values.
- Color theory - complementary colors, warm and cool colors.
- Composition and coloring techniques.

 

Of course, the real learning happens by doing, not just reading.
So, we will implement all the shading techniques and the brush techniques into ten step-by-step demonstrations.

Each demonstration will teach you how to do the initial rough pencil sketch, line work using pens, and coloring.

 

The ten step-by-step demonstrations will cover the following topics:

 

A Ladybug
We will begin our exercises by painting a beautiful Ladybug on beige paper. This is a simple exercise where we will learn to create a luster effect using white paint.

 

An Old Wall and Door
You will learn to create exquisite textures using pens, ink, and watercolor in this exercise.

 

Reflection of a Tree
You will venture to the dark side by doing our first painting on black paper. You will learn to paint loose and take advantage of the paper color.

 

The Waterfall

You will paint a beautiful waterfall in the jungle. You will also learn to use overlapping elements to create depth in a painting.

 

The Garden Steps
You will learn to simplify a seemingly complex subject and add some jazz to the painting using white highlights.

 

The Bicycle
You will paint a beautifully charming, yet neglected bicycle surrounded by thick foliage. You will learn to handle complex overlapping elements in this illustration. 

 

A Path in the Forest
You will again visit the black paper in this illustration. In this illustration, you will learn an interesting technique of painting fog and creating many levels of depth in a painting on black paper. 

 

The White Church
A painting with various elements and their complex interactions with each other. This is one of the most demanding paintings in this book.

 

The Yellow Boat
A simple yet beautiful illustration of a boat and the lapping waves around it. Learn to use a limited palette to paint beautiful illustrations. 

 

An Autumn House
You will learn to declutter a seemingly overwhelming subject in this complex exercise. You will also learn to understand how to handle highly complex overlapping elements.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shirish D
• Release date: Apr 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9788195075072

Book preview

PEN, INK AND WATERCOLOR SKETCHING

ON TONED PAPER

Learn to Draw and Paint Stunning Illustrations

in 10 Step-by-Step Exercises

Shirish Deshpande

Copyright ©2021 by

HuesAndTones Media and Publishing

Author: Shirish Deshpande

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

All artworks presented in this book are copyright of the artist, regardless of whether they bear the artist’s signature or not.

Table of Contents

Title Page

INTRODUCTION

Do I Need to Be an Expert in Pen Sketching in Order to Paint on Toned Paper?

Free Resources

Materials

Transparent and Opaque Colors

SHAPES AND VALUES

How Does Painting On Toned Paper Differ From Painting On ‘Normal’ Paper?

COLORS

Warm and Cool Colors

Complementary Colors

The Colors Used for the Various Paintings in this Book

COMPOSITION AND COLORING TECHNIQUES

Foreground, Middle Ground and Background

Negative Spaces and Highlights

Using a Plastic Wrap for Applying Color

Spattering Color

Technique 1 – Flicking the Brush

Technique 2 - Spattering Color Using Brushes

Technique 3 – Spattering with a Toothbrush

EXERCISES

The Ladybug (Beige Paper – 8.5 x 5.5)

An Old Wall and Door (Beige Paper – 9 x 12)

Reflection of a Tree (Black Paper – 7 x 10)

The Waterfall (Beige Paper – 9 x 12)

The Garden Steps (Beige Paper – 9 x 12)

The Bicycle (Beige Paper – 9 x 12)

A Path in the Forest (Black Paper – 10 x 7)

The White Church (Beige Paper – 9 x 12)

The Yellow Boat (Beige Paper – 9 x 12)

An Autumn House (Beige Paper – 9 x 12)

MORE INSPIRATION

PARTING WORDS AND ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GRATITUDE AND REQUEST FOR REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

A Foggy Mountain Path: Beige Paper – 5.5 x 8.5

A pen is an accessible and convenient instrument for sketching.

Ink and watercolor are often used to supplement pen sketches and/or add color to them.

Watercolor is a seemingly unpredictable medium infamous for being difficult to control.

When pen sketching and watercolor/ink come together, magic happens!

There are numerous advantages of pen and watercolor sketching. The spontaneity and the scope for happy accidents is one of the strengths of watercolor/ink. The stark value contrast and the availability of more shading options are the strengths of pen sketching.

In this book, you will learn to add one more magical dimension to this combination of pen and ink/watercolor. You will learn to paint pen and ink/watercolor sketches on toned paper.

What is toned paper?

A paper of any color other than white is toned paper. Everyone is accustomed to sketch and paint on white-colored paper. But sketching and painting on toned paper poses different challenges and produces different effects.

The result of painting an illustration on toned paper is almost surreal.

In this book, I will sometimes refer to using ink and sometimes to using watercolor. In most cases, these mediums can be used interchangeably. However, there are certain differences between their use.

The most common type of ink used for painting is acrylic ink. This ink becomes waterproof once dry. Thus, it becomes almost impossible to modify the ink blots once they have dried. Watercolor can be manipulated (to a certain degree) long after it’s applied to the paper. Ink is also brighter and more opaque as compared to watercolor.

You can find more information about ink and watercolor in the Materials section.

Do I Need to Be an Expert in Pen Sketching in Order to Paint on Toned Paper?

A Building in Italy: Beige Paper – 5.5 x 8.5

There’s no need to be an expert, or even to have any special skills. You can be a total novice in sketching and/or painting and will still find this book helpful.

The only qualities you need to bring to the table are an enthusiasm for sketching and an open mind. Some of the learnings in this book may be contradictory to what you have learned so far (for example, you may have been told you must cover every inch of paper with color).

When explaining any technique or method for drawing/painting, I always put forth a caveat.

Whenever I explain a technique, it’s one of the many correct ways to draw/paint. It’s not the correct way.

Let that sink in for a second.

Unlike mathematics, art has many ways of achieving the same result, and all of them might be right. When I explain a technique, do not take it as a gospel truth. You may copy my technique the first time you draw to understand and learn one possibility. But you can improve your skills only by trying out different methods.

I will even encourage you to find flaws in my artwork and improve upon them in your own artwork.

With that caveat out of the way, let’s begin.

Free Resources

You may download a guide to materials for pen, ink, and watercolor sketching from here:

https://HuesAndTones.net/materials/

You may download a ‘cheat-sheet’ of pen shading techniques from this URL:

https://HuesAndTones.net/cheatsheet/