We split our normal spring week into two parts; 3 days in Askrigg (Wensleydale) and 4 days in the north of the Lake District, where we stayed in a cottage near Threlkeld. All but one of the following were done en-plain-air and are smaller than my usual pictures
Wensleydale
It was cold and wet, even for May. It is near impossible to do watercolours in rain and the light is poor because of heavy cloud. I needed to find a way of working fast to take advantage of the sunny spells. I settled on 10”X 7” Pen and Wash sketches which can be completed en-plein-air in an hour, some tweaking can be done on return to base if the weather turns before completion.
Northern Lakes
Although the weather improved towards the end of the week I carried on with the pen and wash sketches. For me (unless I set out to paint) the walking is just as important and being strenuous it helps to carry as little as possible.
My approach to Pen and Wash sketching
My materials are a dipping pen, some wooden skewers, a bottle of Indian ink, a small paint box and a small water bottle. That’s it. Sepia ink, applied with a variety of old steel nibs, or the skewers all in various thicknesses and coloured with a limited watercolour pallet – red, yellow, ochre, umber, 2 blues and 2 greens, & a “mixing” white. I start with the ink and the darks, then add lights – towards the end I may alternate between ink and paint.
The sketches are either done before 11am or after 3pm – so the direction of the light is settled. Because they are fast to do this timing means the direction of the shadows is established. All these sketches were preceded by a rapid, graphite tonal sketch. This is important. Firstly it’s most likely a lighting effect that has caught my attention. This can be fleeting because the sun does not stay out when there is a lot of cloud, it comes and goes. Secondly, it allows the composition to be checked out – what are you focussing on and why, what simplification can be used, will it have harmony? So it is best to just stop and get on as fast as possible. It is guaranteed that the lighting won’t stay the same during the session so a snapshot tonal sketch is, in my view, essential.
The sketch may take 2-3 minutes, but it can be longer, sometimes as much as 15 minutes. I limit the painting to about 1 hour and try to complete it in that time. There may be some tweaks later because sometimes you get rained off, but more often than not it’s nothing more than a few minutes to turn up the contrast, lift out some paint or remove straight lines.