TIM BAKER

This was a good session again for ink but also watercolour. For the first time I’ve just got a few Cadmium Reds (Light and Deep) from Lukas and also Jackson’s own range, and I am testing them out with skin tones. A little goes a LONG way with Cad Red, and it can be rather intense, and in the case of the Jackson’s one dry a little chalky if used too heavily. At least the Jackson’s Cadmium aren’t seemingly mostly binder, unlike their Cobalt Blue which a third of it disappeared drying in the pan! It seems good in use though, but first time using Jackson’s watercolours (allegedly made by Sennelier) and although they are OK, it’s not really swaying me from Lukas or W&N at the moment. Also their slow customer service leaves a lot to be desired!

Anyway back to the session – a good if rather overdrawn watercolour with the pump fine liner (it went rather wrong in one part), I like the skin tone although didn’t have too much time left and felt I needed a little more to up the tonality. The brush pen sketch – I think with a Faber Castell Pitt brush pen – was the first thing I did, and I love the structure and feel, got her hair and her presence well in that for a 5 minute sketch.

I am still experimenting with brushes – this week I bought some round sash brushes from ALDI as they seemed perfect for ink work, like a cheap large chinese brush. As you can see from the very dynamic 5 minute piece above (which went wrong, so I literally scrubbed it out and then attacked it with tissue and more ink) it works well although the brush is a little large for A3 and near A3 size paper.

A smaller piece using the Derwent brushes didn’t go wrong, a 20 minute study called ‘Staring Into the Stars #3’ after the two other life poses with similar poses This one was using Winsor & Newton Liquid Indian ink (chinese ink basically).

And finally the belle of the ball, a large piece using my Molotow brush pen with Jackson’s ink and watercolour as featured above and below. I live the mood of this, then again I love moody poses, so wanted to do this justice. I think the better Fabriano paper helps too.