1 I begin my drawing of this poised-to-leap lizard with a few pencil gesture lines; one for each visible leg and one curving from the top of the head down to the tip of the tail. Then I block in the head and body, and I create the boxy shape of the lizard’s mouth and nose.
2 Now I begin to outline the iguana, adding the droop of skin beneath the round chin and defining each toe and claw. I adjust the lines as I draw, knowing that I will eventually erase all the pencil marks as I transform my drawing with pen and ink.
3 At this point, I finish the outline with a waterproof ink pen. I also add the striped pattern to the tail and the spikes along the iguana’s back. I use a few strokes to show the iguana’s rough skin, as well as curving lines that suggest the sag under the skin. After the ink dries, I erase my initial pencil marks.
4 Then I add shading with ink thinned with water. (Because the ink used in the previous step is waterproof, I don’t have to worry about marring it by applying washes on top.) Using a pointed soft brush, I lay in the shadows beginning with light washes and slowly building up to darker values, such as those beneath the chin and on the left claw. (For extra caution, I test each wash on scratch paper before applying it to the drawing; it’s difficult to determine the value of the ink wash until it is applied to paper.)
Simply adjusting the amount of water you use in your ink washes can provide a variety of different values. When creating a wash, it is best to start with the lightest value and build up to a darker wash, rather than adding water to a dark wash. To get acquainted with the process of mixing various values, create a value chart like the one above. Start with a very diluted wash at the left, and gradually add more pigment for successively darker values.