Trying a New Technique
- Emma Butler
- Apr 11
- 3 min read
I've been drawing for a while, so it's pretty instinctive to move my pen in different ways to create the illusion of texture. Drawing in the same way each time isn't necessarily best for our development as artists, though. It's sometimes good to explore new ways to draw and to take a break from the normal way of working. Following the last blog post about The Nunnery in Douglas, I made an ink sketch of one of the trees but then realised there was a completely different shading technique that I never used. I decided to repeat the sketch using this unfamiliar technique to see how it worked. I was surprised at the results.
When I draw in ink I usually use a fountain pen. I used to draw using a Sakura Pigma Micron pen but when I switched to sketching on cold-pressed watercolour paper I needed something more robust to cope with the texture. I switched to a fountain pen and love the Twsbi Eco with Platinum Carbon Ink. I tend to draw a light pencil drawing first and then add the ink over the top when I sketch. Here's my first drawing of the tree in the photo above using my usual sketching technique:
This sketch shows my usual sketching style, where I switch between a few shading types, according to the texture I'm trying to recreate. On the main tree trunk I use lines which follow the contour (shape of the surface) of the tree and I also use a very loose hatching and cross-hatching shading method.
Where there are leaves, such as the ivy on the tree trunk, I create small oval shapes that may or may not be complete. Doing this quickly and imprecisely keeps the effect looking more natural.
In areas away from the focal point of the drawing, I make the lines even looser and just give the briefest suggestion of curves. For the bushes, I use a random line / scribbling technique.
A shading method I very rarely use is that of stippling. I don't enjoy the feeling of it and find it takes to long to achieve the shading I desire. I got curious about what I was missing out on though so decided to push myself out of my comfort zone and redo the drawing using this method. This was the result:
At first it drove me mad. It took ages and I had to keep stopping myself from making hatching marks. It felt a bit like trying to write with the wrong hand. I persisted though and gradually, it became a little easier.
As I worked and built up the stippling, I could see that although the sketch was taking longer, I was able to produce a much more controlled drawing and it looked much cleaner than my usual efforts. Once each drawing was complete, I added watercolour using Albrecht Dürer watercolour markers.
I did a better job of colouring the picture on the right as it was my second go and I'm new to using the watercolour markers. I was surprised at how much I preferred the inking in the second picture, though. The tree looks more textured and I was able to create a much tighter sketch. I did miss the expressive freedom and speed of the hatching, though, so I definitely won't be losing that any time soon, although I can see that I'll add in some stippling to my sketches in future.
By forcing myself past the initial discomfort of using stippling I found it has distinct benefits and that I should experiment with it more in my sketches. This exercise also allowed me to improve other areas of the sketch and get really familiar with the subject matter - I noticed things about the tree the second time I drew, that I hadn't the first time round. It also gave me the chance to practise using my new watercolour markers in a way that clearly showed me the improvement I made by changing the way I applied them.
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