Water soluble media

Members gathered on Monday 17th March for the first regular monthly meeting of the year. We had been anticipating a demonstration by a visiting artist but sadly we were notified at short notice that the artist was ill and could not attend, happily GWA member Jenny Pepper was able to move up her member led workshop from April to March. Members therefore gathered round eager to see what Jenny would show us and what she had brought in for us to try out.

Jenny began by showing us a variety of pens, inks, pencils and pastels all of which are water soluble and ideal for sketching outdoors and on the go. Jenny has some wonderful sketchbooks filled with charming sketches of her travels, many of which utilise the products that she brought to show us. She went on to demonstrate and briefly explain how each product might be used when sketching.

It was amazing how much there was to choose from and what follows is a rundown of the materials and some of the experiments members produced during the evening.

Pilot’s G-TEC-C4 pen allows you to draw an incredibly thin 0.2mm line from its 0.4mm rollerball, making it perfect for sketching. The smooth gel ink gives vivid and dense colour, and is available in 10 different colours. Pens can be bought in sets or singly. The ink is water soluble so you can pick up colour from your linework or a swatch and use it to shade your sketch. To make things even better the G-TEC-C4 is refillable. Jenny’s sketch admirably demonstrates this technique.

Caran d’Ache Neocolor II are water-soluble wax pastels. Dry: You can use them like regular crayons for drawing, sketching, or shading, applying water with a brush to the crayon marks will create watercolor effects, blending colors, and creating washes. While they are beautiful and versatile, it’s worth noting that they may not be as lightfast as some other art mediums. Jenny often combines the fine lines of a black G-TEC-C4 pen with colour washes from her Neocolor pastels picking up the colour directly from the pastels with a reservoir water brush (another invaluable tool).

STABILO point 88 is the popular hexagonal fine liner with the iconic orange and white design. Available in 65 brilliant colours you might have passed them by thinking they were aimed at children. But, as the ink in the pens is not waterproof, they offer many artistic possibilities for shading sketches and blending with water.

Derwent Inktense pencils – are a highly pigmented, intensely vibrant, watercolour pencil that offers exceptional layering without moving previously dried layers of colour. These pencils give ink-like effects the dry pigment intensifies when mixed with water, think ink in a stick!

Watersoluble Graphitint pencils are another product from Derwent. These provide a blend of graphite and colour. Used dry, Graphitint pencils provide a hint of colour but used wet the tint is transformed into vibrant shades. Ideal for landscapes, animal studies and portraits.

Jenny brought along a number of other products which she uses now and again such as; Dual tip makers, the Elegant Writer Pen (whose ink splits into different colours when water is applied) and Winsor & Newton Watercolour pens. She also showed us her blocks of water soluble charcoal and a drawing ink called Writer’s Blood that can be used in a fountain pen.

After seeing all these media demonstrated the members had a go themselves using whatever they fancied from Jenny’s stash and things they had brought in themselves. Here are a few of the results: