Sketchbook Practice : Create Freely With Ink And Watercolor | Ohn Mar Win | Skillshare
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Sketchbook Practice : Create Freely With Ink And Watercolor

teacher avatar Ohn Mar Win, Illustrator Artist Educator

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      1:06

    • 2.

      Materials Used

      3:49

    • 3.

      Pen & Ink Practice

      5:57

    • 4.

      Sketchbook examples

      3:31

    • 5.

      Quick Chat About This Project

      2:02

    • 6.

      Tomatoes (Easy)

      9:35

    • 7.

      Pears (Easy)

      6:09

    • 8.

      Poppies (Intermediate)

      4:54

    • 9.

      Sea shells ( Advanced )

      3:40

    • 10.

      Final Thoughts

      3:20

    • 11.

      BONUS

      2:53

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About This Class

In this class we'll be combing, expressive and loose watercolour with dip pen details that will add character and linear quality to your sketches. I've been using a dip pen for over twenty years and recently I started to experiment with the ink line with watercolour as part of my sketchbook practice. I really love the quality of line it gives just by changing the pressure on the nib, from fine hairlines to dramatic strokes.

I learnt so much from my own sketchbook studies and I'd really like to to share with you some of my top tricks and tips for this loose and free technique.

We'll start with a rough guide to nibs, holders and inks, before moving onto a bit of ink line practice. Then we'll introduce the dip pen to watercolour. I'll show you many of my own examples and give lots of info about working in this loose and free way. This class is great if you're just a beginner of if you want to add that extra element to your own watercolor sketches.

The video classes start with the basic principles than gradually become more challenging as you gain confifence in working in this manner. All the video lessons are packed full of handy hints so you can really have fun with this and take advantage of the technque to its fullest.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Ohn Mar Win

Illustrator Artist Educator

Top Teacher

Hello I'm Ohn Mar a UK based artist, illustrator author with a long and varied 20 year career.

I am a great advocate of sketchbooks having filled over 30, which each serving as a record of my creative journey as a self-taught watercolourist for the last 7 years. They have helped capture my explorations in texture, line and tone as I extend my knowledge with this medium. I also share process videos and sketchbook tours on my YouTube channel - please subscribe!

Filling my sketchbooks remains a constant in my life, and furthermore inspiring many folks to pick up a paintbrush. Oftentimes these sketch explorations provide the basis for classes here on Skillshare.

These days I'm is primarily... See full profile

Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Introduction: Hello. I'm Roma. I'm an illustration service designer. In this class I'm going to be introducing you to the dip pen. We're going to be using it with ink and combine it with watercolor to create really pleasing results. I've been using a dip pen since my student days; quite a long time ago. But I recently rediscovered this medium and I've been really enjoying combining it with watercolor in my sketchbook. What I really love about it is the quality of line it gets from really quite fine headlines to something that's really bold and elaborate. I've been achieving such great result creating really fresh, free, loose watercolors. We start off with a rough guide to header nibs and inks. We're going to apply the watercolor in a really loose way before we use the dip pen. I think this class will be a great introduction to pen and ink. Or if you just want to try a little something different for your own sketchbook practice please join me for this class. There's going to be some really fun projects. 2. Materials Used: First of all, I'm going to show you their selection of deep pens that I currently use, although I have used many different varieties over the last 20 years. As you can see, it comes into parts starting with the nibs. This is just a selection of what I have from various sets that I've collected over the years. Inside each handle will be arose fitting or something similar which will hold the nib in place quite snugly and these are interchangeable. I like to use that wooden handle on the right, which is Curtis ward. I often put the kuretake nib into that handle. This is the geoloc mapping pen. This is one that is my absolute favorites and since I was 18, and it stowed away really nicely and mapping pens in general are slightly different because they incredibly fine, so they have slightly different fitting. But the kuretake handle can take mapping pen nibs. This little hole in the middle is called the vent, and that's what draws that ink up. The nib is split down the middle into two parts that come to a point in cold times. The more they separate when you press harder on them, the wider the line with. These pens don't have any ink store, so you had to keep dipping it in the bottle, hence the main dip pen. If you're a beginner, I do recommend buying an inexpensive set of dip pens like speed boil, or gillott that have a variety of nibs for you to play around with. Or the slightly more expensive kuretake set, which is more for cartoon work but have great results. When you first buy your nibs, is important to remember that they often come with a protective coating for transit. I found the best way to remove this coating is to simply place your nibs in a bowl of boiling hot water for a minute and then take a paper towel and rub them off thoroughly so that the coating is removed and then they'll work much better. Now, let's look at inks. The ones I'm going to show you are the ones that I use and I do prefer Winsor & Newton Black Indian ink but I've also used speed ball and there's acrylic version from Daler Rowney and they all work just the same. It really is just down to preference. When you put the nib into the ink, I recommend just placing it just above the vent so that you don't overload the pen and that will give you just enough ink to create a really nice line. Take off any excess ink so that you don't get too many blogs because those accidents do happen. When you finish using your dip pen do make sure you clean it as soon as possible. Otherwise, the ink was dry on the nib and your pen and it'll make it so difficult to get off and make sure you dry it thoroughly, otherwise it will rust. You'll also be needing a glass of water for cleaning the nibs, some smooth printer paper or cartridge paper, just for testing our ink drawings and some watercolor paper, I'll be using my Montaigne sketchbook, which is called pressed. Of course, a watercolor set. This is my Winsor & Newton 24 pen set, which is very mucky. But that's the way I like it. For a project like this, I like to use a large round brush today, I'm going to use the number 12, Daler Rowney Aquafine. 3. Pen & Ink Practice: As I've mentioned, I've been using depends on and off for over 20 years. I find they give me a good degree of control over the line that I can create from really fine hair lines, too thick, heavy lines just by varying the pressure that you place on the nib. I'm showing you examples for this project using my Kuretake, Gillott and my Curtisward with a browsed nip. These are what I enjoy using at the moment. I have had many different nibs and holders throughout the years, but I do recommend that you play around with quite a few until you find one that resonates with you. That Gillott Mapping Pen, as I mentioned, is my absolute favorite because I can achieve such a variety of lines with it. Although I like the solid unit because it gives a really fine, beautiful line. I like to chop and change depending on what projects I'm working on or what quality of line I'd want. I hope that you'll find a nib and holder that you really enjoy using. We're now moving on to the warm-up exercises where we'll get used to using a dip pen. We're just going to draw some fruit and veg, starting off finding good reference, either on Google or Shutterstock. Just looking at the reference, spend about 20 seconds taking a good look at it and find one, an example that you like the look of. I can't give much advice apart from you're going to have to try because I don't know what nib you're using or what handle you've got, or what ink you've got. You might get slightly different results. My best advice that I can give you is just draw a lot. Again, I'm glancing up at the reference and finding other reference. I always draw more than one version of every fruit and vegetable, or whatever I'm asked to draw because it's really helpful to understand the subject. I'm pressing down hard where there is shadow, so little tomato at the front. It's at the front so it doesn't need to have so much emphasis on it. But once I start putting other tomatoes in, at this stage please don't be afraid to make mistakes. Just keep drawing. If you make a blob, move to a different part of the printer paper or just use another piece. The sardin nib I do have to press just that little bit harder when I come to creating more depths like this shadow that's on the underneath of the tomato. I just need for you to get used to your pen. I know I've speeded up this video, but I do work quickly with a pen and ink in general. I think for this exercise, it's more important that you actually create the maps and try to reproduce exactly what you're seeing in front of you. The point of this exercise is to get used to the dip pen used to varying the pressure to create the contrast. The emphasis is on that line where it communicates whether it's in shadow or whether something is in the foreground or in the background. For this class, we are going to be using fairly simple fruit and veg items. We did tomatoes and now we're moving onto pears and we're going to be painting these as well. That's why I'm drawing them out first. Even though I've been drawing tomatoes, pears, apples, strawberries, whatever, I still do exercises like this so that I reconnect and really observe the food item in front of me or any item, whether it could also be butterflies or flowers or birds. This is just a warm-up exercise so that your observational skills are heightened and the hand-eye coordination and you're getting used to the line, you understand how to use that dip pen. You can see that I changed my mind about the shape of that pear. Also this one that's coming up, I realized that it was just too narrow. You can see that I created different lines and I don't have an issue with that. Please don't get too caught up on things like that. Just a word of warning, engine ink will stain clothes, carpet, jeans, hands. Be careful. In this section, I'm sketching mushrooms which are a little bit trickier because there's a few more elements that make up the mushroom from the cup and the stalk. I'm using the Juno and it's so sensitive. You can see the edge of that cup where it's created, that lovely, thick, irregular line. I think that's part of the reasons why I like it. Again, I'm using more pressure to create the darker parts of this mushroom where the shadows behind lie like the underside of that cup. Please remember, we're just practicing at this stage. If you see one of my other Skillshare tasks is three-minute challenge, the simple act of drawing something out quickly and doing it again and again is part of this journey that I'm asking you to take with me. I hope that it will help, not just getting used to paint in ink, but also later on when we move on to the water colors, so you have a better understanding about how your vegetable or fruit is formed. 4. Sketchbook examples: I want to quickly show you some examples from my sketchbook. These peas were when I first started introducing inclined with my watercolors. You can see that I've filled out my page with a lot of ink detail, including the shadows. I really loved these figs that just the intensity of the deep purple and again, combining it with the line to draw out the details of the seeds and also some of the markings on the skin. I haven't filled in all the line because there's enough of a contrast of the scheme to show you where the edge is. The same again, with these carrots, I haven't had to outline every single carrot just to give an idea, just communicate that this is the edge because the watercolor has done it for me and I haven't had to add any more ink information, although I did use inclined for the storks and also markings the skin here. I think this garlic is a really good example of the approach applying the watercolor first. I just applied loosely the shape of each clove of garlic and then I added the line detail. So you have to use a different part of your brain to decide what information you're going put down first with the watercolor and then the information that you want to add using the ink pen line. I know this is like a really tricky way to work but I think the results are so pleasing. I had a lot of fun with the amazing coloration of those [inaudible]. These avocados were relatively simple to paint and outline because we just got the skin, the flesh, and the seed. Dragon fruit because of the Coloration and the wet on wet that I was using, that it was a little bit trickier, but I think the results are really fantastic. I enjoyed that one. This pawpaw, you can see that I've used the wet on wet quite nicely there within the flesh of that pawpaw from reds, to oranges, to yellows, and then adding the green of the skin before adding just a few lines to emphasize the seeds of that pawpaw. I find pineapples pretty tricky to draw at the best of times, but I gave it a go anyway, particularly because there's so much detail that's needed for the skin and also the spiky thorns that come out of the top of the pineapple. I managed to use a lot of water color to convey that information. With a kiwis, I mixed up that brown first to shade the skin and then added the green. Some of it has bled into each other and I actually haven't included very much line work within the skin or the edge, the kiwi and lot of it is the seeds. I loved this beetroot. You can see I haven't used the watercolor to completely fill in the root of this beet roots, just using the inclined to just give the outline, I've left a fiber root of negative space in there. That really helped bring that beetroot to live. The same again with this banana, I haven't filled in every single portion of that banana in yellow. I've used the ink line to give more impact and information and detail. 5. Quick Chat About This Project: Now, before we start, I do want to talk a little bit more about the mindset when you're approaching a project like this. I know many of you are probably beginners. As I've said in my introduction, I've been using pen and ink for many years and watercolors for many years. As you can see, as you look for in my sketchbook, that this is a technique I'm familiar with and I don't expect you to be producing the same sort of results after watching short Scotia class. I urge you to not be fixated on achieving the same sort of results that you might see me do it in my sketchbook. I've actually broken down the videos so that I'm producing slightly less elaborate pieces and what I may have done for my actual sketchbook. That's why I've chosen quite simple shapes like tomatoes and pears. I've done things like being grouped with very lush leaves and stuff which does get more elaborate and for sure, if you want to carry on and try that from the get-go that's absolutely fine. It's just whatever you're comfortable with. Please go easy on yourself and remember to have fun. I will trying to give you as much information as possible especially since it might be the first time that you've tried pen and ink. It might take a little bit of getting used to, so please don't get frustrated. Maybe if it goes blobby because sometimes it does just take a step back and know that you're always learning. I'm always learning and sometimes you know my hand will brush across the page and it happens. That's absolutely fine. Have fun with this technique and keep an open mind and try to have that free and loose energy about you as you try out each video class. 6. Tomatoes (Easy): This technique is a little bit more involved than some of the other Skillshare watercolor tutorials that I've done in the past, but I'm going to include as much information as possible, so this particular video might be a little bit longer than others that you've seen from me. We are going to use the wet-on-wet technique. For that, we just need a really light orangey-red color or even a tiny hint of pink. That's all I'm going to do for the time being. I'm going to add that first wash, just starting here, we're going to do maybe three or four different tomatoes. I'm just going to do the basic round shape here. Add a tiny bit more water onto my brush and just round that corner there. I'm not trying to create a perfect round shape because tomatoes are not perfectly round. Just vary the red slightly. Maybe I'm going to add a tiny bit of white goulash to this to give you a pink tint, maybe here. We're not trying to create something that's perfect. This is called a free and loose watercolor technique, so we're not after perfection. Let's try another one. I might do a half tomato, maybe up here, so that the shape is slightly different. It's almost like a little heart shape. Because it's been cut in half the middle is quite red. I'm just going to plop in while it's still wet a bit of a darker, more concentrated red and using water just to draw it out like that. I'm going to leave it like that. I decided to add some plump tomatoes, which has got orange-red wash in this bottom corner. Wash is just beginning to sink in. While it's at this stage, we're just going to quickly load up our brushes with a bit more red. I'm going to use a orangey-red and I am just going to load this side of the tomato. I know it just looks like a big red blob at the moment but trust me, this is all we need to do at this stage. Do not overwork it because we still want to retain that loose feel because we're going to add details with the pen and we don't want to add too much. I'm going to do the same here and I think I'm going to add more concentrated red just down here and an orangey-red in this bottom section here of this tomato. I'm not going to forget about the stalks. Let's mix up a green. Now, I use a bit more of a fallow green as well here, which I have it's a Winsor and Newton again. I'm using very gentle pressure with the tip of my brush to add the stalks. Again, varying the greens within the wet-on-wet so that you'd have a little bit of contrast. It may still merging with the red of the tomato, but I don't have an issue with that. Let it dry at this stage. Now that this is mostly dry down, you can see that there's a lovely concentration of red on some of these edges, which is great. It means that we could apply line just to this side, just so that we can communicate that the rest of the tomato is round and that's the edge. I'm going to be using the Winsor and Newton Nut Brown ink, it's just a preference, you can use black or any other color that you like. For this version, I'm going to be using the Curtisward holder with the barrels, but again, you can use whatever nib and holder you like. I'm going to start with this one because I really like the way it graduates across like that. I'm finding my reference again. We've got enough information here so that we don't have to communicate that this is the edge of the tomato, whereas this area here, it goes that beautiful pale pink color. Again, it's not a perfectly round tomato shape. I think that's all I need to do just to unify this side and this side and there's enough information now for your eye and your brain to work out. This is going to be a tomato. I'm going to add just stalk details now. I really don't want to be overworking this. I know that's something that comes up. I keep saying that, but I keep looking at the reference. The best way is to look at the reference and just make a decision. I think that's absolutely fine. I'm going to move on to this half tomato here. We got this lovely edge, we've got graduation in-colors there. We can just make it out here that the edge is probably about here. You just add that bit of information. I'm going to add a line here just to boost that information that the rest of the tomato that appears on underneath it. I'm going to add that now. This is the stuff that's happening inside the tomato, where the seeds are, elongated kidney shaped, and I can see a few seeds in there, so I'm going to add those. I'm varying the pressure on the nib. You can see if I press down with the seeds, one side is not like the others because I'm letting more ink flow when I apply the pressure. The stalk shape is more like this, and this spindly, it's happening there. I apply the pressure where I see the shadow. Now moving on to this one here, and you can see that I'm not following the line of the watercolor. I've reassessed it and the stalk actually does this. Again with one of the other tomatoes, I'm just going to add the edge in that. It's a lumpy tomato. Plump tomatoes are actually got really curly-whirly stalks. I haven't quite included enough there and I'm going to extend that stoke a tiny bit further. I'm not going to be outlining any of that green. I'm actually going to add a few more stalks just using pen line. There's a lovely bit of red down there. I think all it needs is, because there is a tomato behind it, just to give the information that this is in front of the other tomatoes. Because it's quite faint, there is a lovely self red salmon color. I'm going to actually outline just the edge of that and I'm pressing slightly because I want a light mark. I haven't included the stalk at all, so I'm going to just draw in now. Now looking at the page is a little bear and sometimes if you saw my examples, I'd like to add just a few more line work examples just to fill up the page. That's just my personal preference. You don't have to do this. I just really like to add more line work. Now this half tomato, actually had a tomato behind it. This is why I got you to do the ink practice before, so you get used to just playing with the ink line. But the stuff that I'm putting in the background is just to fill that negative space. That's just the way I am as mentioned. I'm literally just gliding my pen across that page so that the line is really gentle and thin. If you go to the stage, please feel really proud of yourself. Practice takes a lot of effort and your mindset has to be one of, this is just for practice, it doesn't have to be perfect. I can draw another one in the next minute. Look at the way that I've just included that half tomato in the background. It's just peeping out there. It's just for me to understand tomatoes better, even though I draw them a lot anyhow. I'm pretty pleased with that. We can see the edge of the tomato with watercolor, and we used a dip pen to also add the edge of the tomato. There's great deal of information there to communicate what's going on. 7. Pears (Easy): Now we're going to be moving onto the pairs. The reference that I got in front of me, the base color is actually really yellow. I'm going to add just yellow to this green that I had mixed up for the stems of the tomatoes. I think that will do, and they look quite intense on this palette but when I apply it to the sketch brick pages, it's going to be pretty pale. Again, we are going to be using the wet on wet and using quite bold brushstrokes, I'm not going to be filling in the entire pear shape, fill in just a few more pairs around the page. Not a tiny bit more green to the next one. Just for variation, and put one here. I filled the rest of the page with a variety of different pair colors because I just wanted to experiment more with wet and wet. These two here, we're going to have a blush bloom on one side of it, and I really wanted to see how that turned out. While the paint is still wet, I'm going in again, to add a bit more intensity, I think the darker shades to give it small 3D feel. I'm using green for this one, also adding the leaves, and these lower two pairs, it was adding a peachy red blush. I'm going to let it dry at this stage and then we're going to add the incline work. I'm thinking, well it means the stalk here for sure, and it might even just a tiny bit of definition. There's enough green there just to show the edge, but just here to extend the line there. Again, the stalk needs to go here, and on this particular variety of pair, this one and this one, there's a lot of little dots all over the skin, which I'd really like to add as well. This one, when I painted it, I realized that this was actually going to be half a pair. That's the skin, so I'm going to add the seed details there and the stalk. Let's just do that, sorry, before I forget, I'm using my jello mapping pen. This is my personal favorite. I have used this since I was 18, and not this particular one. I've had loads of mapping pencils then, but it just gives so much variety of line. I just love it. You only have to press lightly and you get a much thicker line just by applying a tiny bit of pressure, I just feel like I didn't have to work too hard. What really helps me is if I don't have any ink on the nib and draw an imaginary line and wonder, is it going to work there, and if it does, then I apply the ink. On that pair, on the very far left, I've only applied the line on the left-hand side just to give it definition, and the same again with this pair that I'm filling in now, and to give emphasis on the base which was in shadow. After doing one do assess the page, see what else it needs, and already you can see the difference that just a few key pieces of line is making to this fairly formless pair shapes. I think it's really important to consider where that line is going to go before you actually apply it. Workout where the emphasis should be, where the contrasts are, especially if it's in shadow, and then add your details. You actually don't need very many details for the eye and the brain to work out what is going on. For this detail here, I'm pressing quite lightly on the pen apart from the seeds where I've pressed down really hard, I'm trying to make a decision here where to include the age of the flesh compared to where it meets the skin. You can see I made a slight error there, but it's a judgment call. But I think what is produced eventually reads very well, and you can learn for the next pair that you create how to approach it. I felt this pair on the very bottom right was a little bit to formless. It actually looks more like a mango, so I decided this one in particular needed a lot more line work to emphasize the shape because it is not reading as a typical pair shape at the moment. This is what I'm doing right now, using a really faint pressure to just make quite fine hair line marks, and since I had that bit of space there, I decided to include the leaf and absent vein details. As I mentioned earlier, these two pairs have a lot of dots within the skin. This is just what I'm adding now, and I think this extra detail really adds another dimension and layer to this watercolor sketches. If we look closely at this watercolor sketch, you can see where there's high concentrations of watercolor, we don't need to add too much line apart from if we for adding little details like the dots. I've added line where it just needs more definition and that's just the right balance we are after. 8. Poppies (Intermediate): Now we are moving onto florals, I've chosen poppies because they're still quite simple but they are moving on just to that next level up. I've called this an intermediate project because there's a little bit more complexity, we're going to approach this exactly like the other stuff, we're going to look at reference, see how petals are formed and attached to the flower head, and I'm going in with pretty broad strokes here, still using the wet on wet. I started with coral pink color and I've decided to add much more deeper concentrated reds in the middle and I've let it spread. There is a temptation at this point to overwork but I do urge you to have faith at this stage, you can see I'm giving you a little blow dry. Now I'm adding the stalks with just some basic sap green and this will be the beginning of the balance that we're trying to seek. At this stage, I know the flowers don't look alike very much and then you're going to start seeing me put other green blobs on this page, they will turn into something, just relax into this. Now, when we're adding the line work to these poppies, and it's the same again with any florals, you have to look out for what gives it its distinctive characteristic. There is information that already but I'm using the pen details to add another layer to communicate the essence of the flower that I have chosen, you don't have to do poppies, you can do roses or rhododendrons or pansies. One of the characteristics of this poppy, is the centerpiece, it's the way the stamens stick out like that and it's recognizable. That's main feature that I wanted to add because that is more involved in making up the characteristic of a flower compared to the tomato or the pear. It might seem that, I'm actually outlining every petal and there is a temptation there to do that. I want you to think about it more like defining areas to give information, if you feel that an area is already doing that job, then there's no need to outline it. That was a bit of negative space so I decided to put a leaf there, that was something that I decided on the spot. This particular flower that I'm adding the statements to now, I found the only definition that particular flower needed was that petal which was in the foreground and the stamens, the characteristics stamens. It was something that I made up on the spot, it's not something that I premeditated. As I was painting it, I needed to see the outcome first, so I hope you'll have enough confidence to do the same. You will have to assess each piece and judge accordingly, you'll get a better idea of this as you keep practicing. Now, this particular one that you see me outlining now, it had two petals at the top and there was not enough wash going round to the right just there, so I found that I need to define that edge using my pen. Don't be afraid of getting these lines wrong, we're just practicing in reality. Moving onto the last poppy, I realized that I hadn't painted enough of the red for it to be proportionally accurate. That's why I went over it, quite a bit over in the line work before adding the stamen details, and that's absolutely fine because we're always trying to assess and make the best decisions, it's not always set in stone. You can see with some of the stems that I didn't like the angle that I'd originally painted the green in, so I made a decision with my pen and I diverted the course of the green stems. I think that's absolutely fine, it might look a little bit messy to you but for me, I think it just reads better. Otherwise, it was looking too regular for me. As I mentioned previously, it would be great to see your own examples of other florals or foliage that you can use this exact same technique and you can really make it your own and have lots of fun with it. 9. Sea shells ( Advanced ): I wanted to include this bonus video for those of you who have really gotten into this practice and felt, you needed a little bit more of a challenge. I chose seashells because they are very pretty. But when you start them off like this, they do look very formless because they are very delicate and this is where we can include incline to define some of the decorative details. I personally find seashells really challenging. It might sound odd but to find starfish quite tricky and also some of the twirly wurly ones they are actually quite complex remain. When the wash has soaked into the paper, I add just a bit more of pinkie coral color so that it doesn't seem so flat and there is a bit more interest and it just ups that contrast. As you seen in the other class videos this is the first phase of a project of this nature. We try to add information using watercolor. Then the next phase is adding information using the line work. As I mentioned, I find starfish really tricky even to illustrate, to paint because of the slightly angular nature of starfish. But what I did enjoy doing in this particular instance was adding these little dot details. That is something that I am quite keen on. That was me finding the silver lining. I am naturally drawn to nautical subjects and I practice shells a lot. I know I am not the best at starfish, as you can tell from this example. But as I just said, I do practice a lot. I want to get better at this. This particular shell is a lot simpler. Using the Geologic mapping pen, which has that amazing, fine hairline quality that I can achieve. But also the thick lines that shows the much denser areas of that shell. This particular shell is very curly wurly, goes around in a spiral. I actually had to simplify that down quite a lot. There was a lot of markings on there, but I felt this was all I wanted to include. You are in charge. You don't have to include every single marking that is going. You didn't have to include every detail. It is just what you are interested in. What you believe carries enough information. Because I haven't painted in that scattered edge I used a pen to give that detail. Again, this one is quite a simple one. I made a bit of a sludge there, but that is absolutely fine because it did have markings which were much darker on that particular shell. Moving back to another starfish. I find the angles are a little bit odd and proportionally I just can't seem to get them right all the time. But I was really pleased with this one. I like playing around with all that little circle and dot details. This one on the very far right that I am going to approach in just a second. Again, it was a fairly complex shape and I had to work out, which was the most important details. There is in the reference a shadow that is happening as the shell goes in on itself, but I have decided not to include it. I just wanted to play with the line. 10. Final Thoughts: I really hope you've enjoyed playing with your pen and ink and combining it with watercolor and seeing the results that you create. I think it's really important to experiment and have fun and don't get too caught up in the minute details because that's when you start overthinking and then it may start to be overworked. I want to end with a quote from Van Gogh, who said, each drawing, one makes each study one paints, is a step forward, and you have to believe that with each practice, whether you're drawing strawberries, mushrooms, or florals or butterflies in whatever technique, not just this one that you are improving and your creativity is increasing just that little bit more. I want to show you just one last thing, where I use my deep pen for a magazine project. The magazine I illustrated for recently. These are my pen and ink illustrations just here. It's for article about steaming Chinese food. So we had a walk, a bamboo steamer, and a metals steamer. I want to quickly show you the ink illustrations I drew for that. These are the actual pen and ink line work and it is just on good photocopy paper is nothing special, and I use the geologic mapping pen. As you can see, I have filled in the line work, but they saw something on Instagram, which I'll show you in a minute and they wanted the same effect. It was actually this piece that they referenced, as you can see, it actually started off with just simply a pen and ink drawing, but I decided at the last minute to see what it looked like with that green wash inside that apple and that's what they liked about it. The art director wanted the similar effect which I use Photoshop brushes for because it's very tricky to add watercolor to pen work and even manipulate in Photoshop. If it's gone wrong and the art director might have changed her mind. So that's why I use Photoshop brushes but achieve similar results. This was another [inaudible] illustration she wanted me to do. This is the finished piece and you can see that I was able to manipulate it a bit more within Photoshop. This was the final spot illustration, and you can see that there is a variation in the lines that I was able to achieve using geologic deep pen. She did asked me to add a few extra details, but she really was attracted to that line work and what it could achieve. If you want me to see you work on Instagram, please use the hashtag M Moscow share and I'll try to like and comment on every one of them. Thank you very much. I hope you all have a great day and happy creating, bye bye. 11. BONUS: