Drawing the Lock

This is a step-by-step illustration of an image made using simple collage and acrylic inks (in black and white).

I cut out the approxiate shape of the canal water in black paper and stuck it down.

I used black acrylic ink, applied with a dip pen, to start the drawing

I added some white paper shapes

I  looked at the  clouds and at the trees and realised that the trees need more "weight", so I used the eye-dropper to apply my black ink.

I added white ink to the black paper to indicate the turbulence

The  effect of the turbulent water was achieved by drawing  swirly  patterns into, over and under the  turbulence, with a dip pen. I also smudged it lightly with my finger and used a tissue to remove an excess of whte ink and then to lightly print that excess back into the rough water

I added sme white pen work to the trees to make them more interes

ting.

It isn't quite finished - there's several places where I should add defining black ink, but the white ink is still wet, and I don't want tto make a muddly grey mess.

The George and Horn: painting a line and wash

The finished painting is at the end of this sequence of in-progress shots, showing you how I painted the local pub...

Our printer was out of magenta and yellow, so I printed my photograph out in rough monochrome.
I used a mechanical pencil (beause it was there) to sketch in the construction lines freehand.
I used my Noodler's Creaper flex-nib foutain pen, loaded with Koh-i-Noor document ink, to ink in the line work. The document ink is wateproof and claims to be safe for fountain pens. Waterproof is important, because the wash is wet! Usually, I use acrylic ink or India ink with a dip pen.

Pen work (almost) all done
(can you spot the missing bit?)
and a few bits of masking fluid in place.

That fantastic moment when you remove the masking fluid...

Most of the watercolour wash is done...

Finished!