MATERIALS

You will find a list of my favorite ink pens of various kinds in the Resources section (see here), but any kind of pens you already have can be used—you don’t have to spend a lot on professional artist-grade tools. A colorful set of children’s markers is a great place to begin, and I use them often. The most important thing is having a wide range of colors, including black, gray, and browns. White gel pens are useful and fun, as are gel pens in various metallic hues, such as gold, silver, and copper. You will also find that pens come with different types of tips—from the very thin line of micron pens to the chisel tips of calligraphy pens to flexible brush tips and everything in between. I suggest trying them all.

For paper, you can use the same 5 × 7-inch (13 × 18 cm) pieces of drawing paper you used for graphite and colored pencil work. Be creative with your paper choices. Nothing we are doing will be so wet that you would need a watercolor paper. You will also need a round watercolor brush in a size 6 or 8. Portable water brush pens are also great to try. The only other supply you will need is a pencil. My favorite supplies are listed in the Resources section (see here), so give that a look before you make any purchases. Once you have gathered your supplies, let’s get started with the magical medium of ink.

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LESSON FIFTEEN

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SCRATCH AND HATCH

The foundation of all pen-and-ink work is the line, but oh the variety of ways we can make lines! In this lesson, we will explore traditional ways of making lines as well as more intuitive ways. Once you add these different techniques to your drawing toolbox and give them a bit of practice, you will be able to call on them for any subject you wish to draw. It’s all about value, texture, and our familiar friend, direction of form.

Let’s keep it simple with our materials and use a black pen on white paper. The effects of these different types of lines, or as I like to call them, “scratches and hatches,” are best demonstrated and learned without the use of color. Choose any black pen you like, but make sure it has a fine point, so, in other words, it does not make a wet, bold line. It can be a ballpoint, felt tip, gel, or micron pen. Now, let’s get scratching and hatching.

TOOLS TO GATHER

  • Drawing paper, 5 × 7 inches (13 × 18 cm)
  • Graphite pencil
  • Ruler or straightedge
  • Fine-point black pen (I used a Pigma micron)

STEPS

1 - On a piece of paper, use a pencil and a ruler to create a grid of 8 even rectangles. Leave a 1/2-inch (1 cm) margin all around to give you the size shown. In the upper-left rectangle, use your pen to draw horizontal lines, as shown. Start with the lines a bit farther apart, draw them closer together until you reach the center, and then begin to draw them father apart. Do you notice how the image appears lighter when the lines are father apart and darker where the lines are closer together? Drawing parallel lines like this in one direction is called hatching. It’s a great way to show simple values of light and dark as well as depth. Things closer to the horizon line will appear closer together; they will appear farther apart as you move away from the horizon line. See A.

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2 - In the next rectangle, use your pen to draw diagonal lines going in one direction, then in the other direction, across the top half of the space, as shown. When we cross lines over one another in the opposite direction, it’s called cross-hatching. Notice that where the lines are closer together it appears darker, and when lines are broken it appears lighter. In the bottom section, make different areas of cross-hatching with lines going in 4 different directions: diagonally in 2 directions and sometimes horizontally and also vertically. The more directions used, the darker the area appears. Cross-hatching is a highly effective technique for creating different areas of value between dark and light. See B.

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3 - Moving to the next space, use broken lines to create the image shown. Continue to draw broken lines, following the curves of the first lines. Then, begin creating curved lines in new directions, as you desire, to create overlapping, curved cross-hatching of solid and broken lines, as shown. You can hatch and crosshatch with any shape of line. Notice how the areas that overlap appear darker and the areas with lines that are farther apart appear lighter. See C.

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4 - In the left side of the next space, use the point of your pen to make tiny dots that are far apart at the bottom and gradually closer together and more plentiful moving toward the top. This technique of using tiny dots is called stippling, and it is a wonderful way to show value and shading. Even though all the dots are the same size, creating lots of dots close together creates the illusion of darkness. On the right side of this space, do the same exercise, but make some of the dots gradually larger as you move toward the top. This is another way to use stippling—with dots of various sizes. See D.

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5 - In the next space, use your pen to create rows of tiny hatch marks that slightly overlap one another. Try them straight, father apart, closer together, curved in different directions, horizontal, long, short, and wavy. These types of tiny hatch marks are effective for creating fur, hair, feathers, waves, and other textures in subjects you might choose to draw. See E.

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6 - Now it’s time to scribble! Scribbling creates amazing textures that can be used for simple shading and textures. It feels free and easy. Try scribbling with the lines farther apart at the top, then gradually becoming closer together toward the bottom for great effects. See F.

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7 - I call this texture tick marks, and I use it a lot. Using tick marks is not only a great way to hatch large areas with even values, but they also make a wonderful decorative pattern. Try them vertically, horizontally, closer together, farther apart, in a curved shape, and even in varied lengths. See G.

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8 - This final pattern uses diagonal lines with little bends, along with small areas where the lines create tiny random shapes. Use this to create patterns and designs. Fill in the open shapes with cross-hatching, scribbles, and stippling. See H.

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USE YOUR CREATIVITY

All these ways of making marks can be combined and altered to suit any subject you wish to draw and embellish with patterns. What if you started a freeform drawing combining many of these textures? What if you used a brush-tip pen? Sometimes, when we make random marks, as in the drawing below, it begins to appear as something we recognize.

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This drawing using pens of different line widths became a geometric pattern. Try it!

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This random mark making with a brush-tip pen started to look like a person, so I embellished it with a simple face.

LESSON SIXTEEN

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EXPRESSIVE LINE AND WASH

One of the interesting things about using ink in a pen or marker is that, although you are always working with the line in various forms of mark making as we saw in Lesson 15 (here), because it is a water medium, you can also use a brush to wet it and create a wash. Even when using a waterproof ink, if you wet it before it dries, it will dissolve into a wash of color. This simple fact allows us to create beautiful effects in our drawings with pen—from crisp lines to dreamy swatches of transparent color.

In this lesson, we will use the line to create expressive marks and then use a brush dipped in water to create softer edges and areas of beautiful color. Make note that if you use some pens with waterproof inks and allow them to dry, then use water-soluble inks in the same area, the waterproof inks will stay put but the water-soluble inks will dissolve into a wash. I use mostly water-soluble ink pens, such as Crayola markers, in the sample images, but for a few areas, I use waterproof pens such as Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens to create some diversity in the finished drawing. I suggest experimenting with both. Try to recreate the image, as shown in each step, and begin again with your unique marks and colors. The student drawings are examples of a few more possibilities you can achieve when you take this lesson a bit further on your own.

TOOLS TO GATHER

  • Good selection of markers and pens in colors you love (I mention the colors used in the sample images, if you want to try to match them.)
  • Drawing paper, 5 × 7 inches (13 × 18 cm)
  • Round watercolor paintbrush in size 6 or 8
  • Glass of clean water
  • Paper towel or cloth to wipe your paintbrush

STEPS

1 - Choose 5 different colors to begin. I use a bright blue, violet, magenta, orange, and golden yellow. Draw 5 interlocking circles in the center of the paper. Dip your paintbrush into clean water and use the tip of the brush to apply a thin layer of water in each of the circles, as shown. Notice how the brilliant inks dissolve and move, mixing and mingling with each another. See A.

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2 - Choose 3 values—light, medium, and dark—of another color. I chose warm grays. Using the tick mark technique (see here), surround the circles with 3 rows of tiny tick marks, beginning with the darkest color, then the medium color, then the lightest, as shown. See B.

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3 - Using the same 5 colors you used to draw the circles, use the stippling technique (see here) to make tiny dots along the outer edge of the tick marks, starting with one color and then switching to each of the other colors, as shown. Use the tip of a wet brush to dissolve the inks so they create a fluid line containing all the colors used, as shown. See C.

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4 - For the first part of this step, choose 2 shades of pink and a golden yellow. Lay one of the pink markers so the length of the tip is flush with the paper, and then roll it on its side to create a random wider line in a half-circle shape along a small part of the rainbow line, as shown. Use the other pink to create a similar line inside the first line. Use the golden yellow marker to color in a small circle in the center, touching the rainbow line from step 3. Dip your paintbrush into water and use it to wet the area inside the first wider line all the way to the rainbow line, as shown. Create 3 of these shapes, as seen in the sample image. Use a light blue marker to create a thin line of stippling around each shape. Finish by using a light green marker to apply another thin area of stippling, as shown. See D.

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5 - Using the same light green marker, draw tiny leaf shapes between the stippled areas, as shown. Use one of the pink markers to draw tiny ovals scattered to the outside of the leaf shapes. Use an orange marker to create another oval shape around the pink shape. Finally, use a wet paintbrush to fill in each leaf shape and the pink oval shapes, leaving the space between the pink and orange ovals dry. Study the sample image to see how it should appear when you are finished. See E.

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USE YOUR CREATIVITY

This is a wonderful way to create a cheerful greeting card or gift. You could also spell a word, writing the letters inside each of the larger circles with dark-gray ink. What about the word bloom? Or the name of the recipient? You can always adjust the number of circles to reflect the number of letters in the word or name you choose!

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Here is an example of the same techniques used in a different way on a piece of Kraft paper. Turn the page to see some beautiful works by my students that show even more possibilities.

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Debbie Brandecker

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Lisa Hofmann

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Nathalie Bélanger

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Hazel Scott

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Beverly Eddy

LESSON SEVENTEEN

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CIRCLE FLOWER POWER

One of my favorite flowers is the dandelion. Every spring when it presents those cheerful golden faces en masse in my yard, I cannot help but smile. I love its determination, its ability to be so proliferate—its tendency to spread joy far and wide. I also love the seed heads, those pearly, luminous white domes of fluff. This lesson is inspired by those sunny, yet humble weeds (at least to lawn perfectionists) and is a bridge between our expressive mark making and our beginning to create more representational drawings.

I have chosen a more subtle palette of colors, but feel free to go as vibrant as you wish. We will use bits and pieces from previous lessons to create a page full of blossoms that would make a wonderful get-well card or a postcard to cheer someone. If you have metallic gel pens or a white gel pen, try them in this lesson. There is also a sample image showing how you can make the images a little more flowerlike. This exercise is kind of magical and great fun.

TOOLS TO GATHER

  • Selection of markers and pens in 8 colors that you love (These should not be waterproof. I use Crayola markers.)
  • Drawing paper, 5 × 7 inches (13 × 18 cm)
  • Round watercolor paintbrush in size 6 or 8
  • Glass of clean water
  • Paper towel or cloth to wipe your paintbrush
  • Metallic gel pens
  • White gel pen

STEPS

1 - With a marker, draw an imperfect circle in the center of the page. Using each of the 8 colors, some more than once, draw a total of 15 circles, as shown. Dip your paintbrush into clean water and fill in each circle with water, making sure to take the brush all the way to the edge of the circle to activate the ink. See A. Let dry completely before moving on.

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2 - Draw a smaller imperfect circle inside each of the existing circles, using a different color marker from your selection of 8. Use a wet paintbrush to fill in each smaller circle with water, as in step 1. See B. Let dry completely before moving to step 3.

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3 - With a metallic gel pen (I used a fine-point gold pen), draw 2 loose, very imperfect circles around each circle. Now, create some marks to decorate each blossom. Here are some ideas, as seen in the sample image (see C):

  • • With metallic gel pen, draw scribble marks around the inner circle.
  • • With metallic gel pen in another color, make stipple marks to create tiny dots around the edge of the inner circle.
  • • Using a marker in a contrasting color, create tick marks around the inside circle.
  • • Using a marker in a contrasting color, create uneven hatch marks radiating from the inner circle.
  • • Using a marker in a contrasting color, create a series of tiny half circles around the center circle.
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4 - Use metallic and white gel pens to add even more details (see D), such as:

  • • Stippling inside the smaller circles
  • • White dots inside the circles, in the half-circle shapes, around the edges of things
  • • Larger metallic gel pens dots at the very center of the circles
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USE YOUR CREATIVITY

The image below gives an example of how to create a little garden row of flowers using the same techniques but adding long green stems with tiny leaves. See E. What if you drew them closer together, as if in a bouquet, and then cut a vase shape out of patterned paper to glue on top? What if you drew individual petal shapes from the edges of the circles to create daisy and sunflowerlike flowers, using the same expressive types of marks? I would love to see the gardens you create. Tag me on Instagram: @kateriewing.

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LESSON EIGHTEEN

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FEATHERFALL

One of my favorite stories from childhood is the fairy tale Mother Holle collected by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. There is an image of old Mother Holle shaking her feather pillows high in the sky, and as those feathers fall to earth, they become snowflakes. In this lesson, we will use softly curving hatch marks to create a page full of ink feathers, so they appear to be falling from the sky. Then, with a sprinkle and splash of clean water, they will melt and transform before our eyes.

Feathers are a wonderful subject to draw with colored pencils or ink—try both. You can either use a selection of hues inspired directly from nature or use your imagination to create a rainbow of feathers straight from a fairy tale. Remember, use your feather touch with any medium you choose. Also, this lesson starts out feeling loose and easy, and it is, but the results can be so beautiful. Keep it loose and free—don’t try too hard. Let’s draw some feathers.

TOOLS TO GATHER

  • Selection of water-soluble markers and pens in colors that represent feathers to you, or simply colors you love (I use a mix of Pitt Artist pens and Crayola markers in similar shades of blue, aqua, and gray with a touch of rust to make it pop. If you have waterproof pens, use them a bit with the others to get some fun results.)
  • Drawing paper, 5 × 7 inches (13 × 18 cm)
  • Round watercolor paintbrush in size 6 or 8
  • Glass of clean water
  • Paper towel or cloth to wipe your paintbrush
  • Metallic gel pens
  • White gel pen
  • Graphite pencil

STEPS

1 - Choose 2 colors. At the upper left of your paper, use one color to draw a slightly curved line, and then create feather strokes starting from the center line (quill of the feather) and moving outward. Leave some areas blank to fill in with the second color. Remember, keep it free and easy using a light touch. It will look more featherlike than if you use a heavy, perfect line. See A.

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2 - Continue to draw tiny feathers in this way, selecting 2 new colors for each feather. Keep the feathers random in size, direction, shape, etc. Use the sample image as your guide. See B. If you have waterproof markers, mix them in. It will create fun results!

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3 - Dip your paintbrush into clean water. Holding it over your drawing, shake it or tap it with your other hand to create water droplets on the drawing. See C. Let dry completely without touching the droplets.

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4 - When completely dry, use your metallic gel pens to draw finer feathery lines on the tip of each feather, as shown. See D. These should be very random and dreamy—not realistic.

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ANOTHER APPROACH

1 - Using a pencil and following the sample images, draw 2 lines to represent the center lines of 2 feathers. Use the pencil to create the tiny feathery lines, paying a bit more attention to keeping them more realistic and thinking of them as forming a heart shape when finished. See E.

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2 - Choose 2 colors for each feather and create the feathery strokes right on top of the pencil lines. Take more time, really getting a nice integration of the colors and more realistic-looking feathery lines. See F.

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3 - Using a wet paintbrush, sprinkle clean water over the feather drawings. See G. Let the water dry completely.

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4 - Once the drawing is dry, use a fine-tipped metallic gel pen to create more feathery lines in the same way as the first layer. Notice the random, but delicate curve to the lines and how they are wispy at the ends, not harsh or ending abruptly. See H.

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USE YOUR CREATIVITY

What would happen if you made a circle or wreath of feathers in the colors of the rainbow, or in the colors of the birds from your neighborhood? What if you mixed colored pencil with ink? What if you used black ink with a silver gel pen for a very elegant, monochromatic look?

LESSON NINETEEN

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A SIMPLE LANDSCAPE

Of all the subjects my students wish to learn to draw, the most popular by far is the landscape. We are all filled with a certain sense of place, and being able to make even a simple drawing of a view we love is a worthy goal as a beginning artist. The obvious dilemma in teaching this to an entire class is that we each have different ideas of how that landscape should look. The best solution? I teach the landscape I know and love best—a summer field with distant trees. Once you see how simple mark making can create the different parts of the landscape, you can adapt the shapes and colors to fit your own. Biggest tips: keep it simple at first and practice!

TOOLS TO GATHER

  • Fine-point permanent marker in gray, black, or brown (If you have Pitt Artist pens or other permanent ink fineliners or brush pens in golds, greens, or browns, they will be great to use, too.)
  • Drawing paper, 5 × 7 inches (13 × 18 cm)
  • Selection of water-soluble markers and pens in greens, golds, rusts, and browns (Try to match the colors you see in the sample, but don’t worry if yours are a bit different. I used Crayola markers.)
  • Round watercolor paintbrush in size 6 or 8
  • Glass of clean water
  • Paper towel or cloth to wipe your paintbrush

STEPS

1 - To begin, use a light golden–yellow permanent marker or a brown, gray, or black permanent fineliner pen (PFP from here on) to create a random grassy textured line, as shown. See A.

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2 - Choose 2 green permanent markers—a light green and one a bit darker—or PFPs, and use them to create a random section of marks that resemble the treetops. The best way to learn this is to study my example and practice it a bit. Randomness is not always easy, but once you get it, it’s simple. Let the tip of your pen skip around. And dance. Don’t try to be perfect! Follow my sample, do your best, and it will work beautifully! See B.

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3 - Using the same pens, fill in the space between steps 1 and 2 with similar random mark making. Use hatching, cross-hatching, scribbling, stippling—whatever feels good. Follow my sample for guidance. See C. We are using permanent ink pens for now to build a foundation for the water-soluble markers later.

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4 - Select some golden yellow– and rust-colored permanent markers, or use a PFP, to create random marks in a horizontal format to resemble grassy areas, as shown. Use the darker green permanent marker to create 2 small shrubs with scribble marks, as shown. See D.

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5 - It’s time to use the water-soluble markers. Choose a variety of greens for the trees and golden yellow, rusts, and browns for the field. Use the stippling and tick-mark techniques to fill in the trees, shrubs, and grassy mounds with a variety of these colors, as shown. You do not need to copy my marks exactly. This exercise is about freedom with no expectations . . . be free and easy with your marks! See E.

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6 - Now, it’s time for magic. Dip your paintbrush into clean water and use the tip of the brush to wash over the trees and shrubs (all green areas). Do not saturate the paper; simply let the tip of the brush dance over the paper to activate the ink so it creates a lovely wash. Notice how the permanent marker lines stay put, giving the trees some structure. See F. Let dry completely before moving on.

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7 - Repeat step 6 for the field area—everything golden, rust, and brown. See G. Let dry completely.

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8 - For a final step, no matter which pens you used, use a PFP to create tiny hatch and tick marks where the trees meet the field and on the two shrubs, as shown. See H. This just gives a bit more dimension.

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USE YOUR CREATIVITY

You have drawn your first landscape! How can you personalize it to fit your favorite landscape? Can you find more natural-looking colors? Are the tree shapes different? Is there green grass instead of a golden field? Is there an expanse of water, or even beach sand? How would you draw beach sand? Maybe tiny stipple marks, or tiny circles? So many possibilities. I hope you will share your results with me on Instagram: @kateriewing.

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Debbie Brandecker

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Fran Lowell

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Carol Williamson

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Lisa Hofmann

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Nathalie Bélanger

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Liz Tobosa

LESSON TWENTY

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RIVER STONES

When I am anxious, I draw or paint circles. It’s just this thing I do—and for some unknown reason it always calms me down. Perhaps it has something to do with ensō, the Zen meditation practice of painting circles, but I believe it’s all about the repetition of all those tiny marks that requires every bit of my focus. I have many pages in my sketchbooks of patterns made from tiny circles, and sometimes they are quite beautiful and worthy of framing. This lesson came from that practice, and I would go so far as to call it a mindfulness practice of its own.

The key to this lesson is the variation of line weight, which simply means using different-size pen tips. If you buy fineliner or micron pens, you will notice they come in various tip sizes. I recommend having 4 different tip sizes—and a brush pen is nice to have, too. If you only have one micron pen, such as a .005, you can draw double or triple circles, making the lines wider yourself, but this is really time-consuming. If you like the way this project looks, get a set of micron or fineliner pens in various nib sizes. They are useful for many types of drawing and are good to have available. It’s also important that the ink you use is watercolor, so you can color over it and it won’t bleed or smudge.

I call this project River Stones because I used some of the muted shades of the kinds of rocks I see in river beds and it absolutely reminded me of stones. However, this project is great for any creative color combinations. Use your imagination to create all sorts of shapes and effects.

TOOLS TO GATHER

  • Graphite pencil
  • Drawing paper, 5 × 7 inches (13 × 18 cm)
  • Selection of permanent black fineliner or micron pens in various nib weights (I used a brush pen and .07, .03, .01, and .005 pens.)
  • Markers in assorted colors

STEPS

1 - Using a pencil, draw a curved line from the top of your paper to the bottom, as shown. See A.

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2 - Using the .07 pen (or the thickest line weight), draw a series of randomly shaped and sized circles and ovals all along the pencil line, leaving a tiny bit of space between them, as shown. See B. For this entire project, some shapes are bigger, some are smaller, some go left, right, or sideways, some are skinny, and some are fat—random is key.

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3 - Continue with the same pen, adding more circles, but now make sure they all touch one another, as shown. See C. Do this on both sides of the line from step 1. Use the sample for guidance.

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4 - With the brush pen or the same .07 pen, fill in all the spaces left between the circles, as shown. See D. Take your time with this and aim for nice clean circles.

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5 - Changing to a smaller nib size, .03, repeat step 3, keeping to your goal of randomness and clean circles. Take your time, relax, and focus. This is a particularly good thing for calming the mind. See E.

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6 - Change to an even smaller nib size, .01, and repeat step 3 again. See F.

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7 - Finally, change to the smallest nib size, .005, and repeat step 3 one more time. See G.

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8 - Now for the color! There are no rules . . . choose some colors and fill in each circle individually. Use one color at a time and skip around to create any patterns you like, or be completely random, like the sample. See H. Leave some white, or fill in every one. It’s up to you!

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USE YOUR CREATIVITY

What if you made the line in step 1 a circle, or any other shape? What if you drew tiny squares or triangles instead of ovals and circles? What if you used colored pencils to fill in the shapes? What if you used metallic gel pens to fill in a few? Experiment. Oh, and what if you filled a piece of paper that was 3 feet × 5 feet (90 cm × 150 cm)? That might be modern art. Experiment. Relax. Enjoy.

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Carol Williamson

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Liz Tobosa

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Debbie Brandecker

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Beverly Eddy

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Lisa Hofmann

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Helene Jorgensen

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Wendy Ching

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Hazel Scott

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Mary Dowson

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Jon Pedersen

LESSON TWENTY-ONE

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A TINY BIRD

We have arrived at our final lesson in this book. You have learned so much and, hopefully, your confidence has grown and you now see that drawing isn’t just for professional artists—it’s truly for everyone.

For this lesson, we are going to draw my personal favorite subject, a bird on a branch. What I want you to know most is this: you can do this. Step by step, shape by shape, we will draw a bird. Yours will look different from mine and, if I drew it again tomorrow, mine would look different, too. This is desirable. We each can create something in our unique way. So, relax and remember your greatest ally when drawing with a pencil—your eraser! And your second greatest ally is beginning again, if you must.

This is an imaginary bird, which means we can use any colors we desire to give it our unique touch. For your first try, feel free to use similar colors, but after that . . . experiment! I used only Crayola markers for this drawing and, of course, a pencil and a permanent black fineliner pen. If you have a brush pen, get that ready, too! Let’s draw a bird.

TOOLS TO GATHER

  • Graphite pencil, HB or no. 2
  • Drawing paper, 5 × 7 inches (13 × 18 cm)
  • Eraser
  • Permanent black micron or fineliner pen
  • Markers in assorted colors, including browns and greens
  • Round watercolor paintbrush in size 6 or 8
  • Glass of clean water
  • Paper towel or cloth to wipe your paintbrush

STEPS

1 - Let’s get the trickiest part out of the way first. With an HB or no. 2 pencil (and your eraser nearby), draw a series of shapes, as shown, allowing them to overlap. Be messy, erase, whatever you need. Keep your lines light (feather touch!) so they are easy to erase. I made mine darker so you could see them. Start with the small oval (the head), and then add the larger oval (the body), curved triangle (a wing), and rectangle (the tail). Try to keep proportions and angles similar to the sample, but remember this is your drawing, not mine, and it will be different by nature. See A.

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2 - Now, we refine. Using your eraser when needed, follow along by comparing the drawing in this step with the drawing in step 1. With your pencil, change the shape of the lines connecting the head to the body, as shown. Then, starting a little bit out from the head, draw a straight line that eventually curves down toward the body—this creates the area for the beak and eye. Make the beak as shown, like a tiny triangle with a line through it, and create the eye by drawing a tiny circle on the line, as shown. Erase any extra lines. See B.

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Then, work on the wing. Draw in the lines, as shown. Erase the outer edge and any extra lines in the original curved triangle. Do the same for the tail. Now, look at the bottom side of the body. Notice how the lines have changed. Make that correction on your bird and erase the old lines. Finally, draw two legs and feet, as shown. Remember, your eraser is always there. We are learning to refine our line drawing from the initial basic shapes we put down. We can begin any drawing with simple shapes and refine it using new lines and an eraser.

3 - Using the same pencil, draw a simple branch with tiny leaves, as shown. Follow the lines in the sample or create your own branch shapes. The only caveat is, make sure the branch fits under the bird’s two feet. See C.

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4 - The hardest parts are over! Use your black permanent pen to trace over the pencil lines of the bird and each leaf. Do not leave any parts untraced. If you have a brush pen, use it to create a thicker, rougher tracing of the branch. If not, use the fineliner pen. Let it dry for at least 20 minutes. Use an eraser to remove any pencil lines you see. You should have a clean ink drawing now. See D.

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5 - Below is a close-up of the technique for the branch. Using markers in 3 shades of brown—light, medium, and dark—create lines of color from light to dark inside the branch, as shown. Light colors go on top, darker colors on the bottom. Then, use a light green marker to draw a line under the top of each leaf, a medium green to draw a line under the center line of each leaf, and a darker green to put a small line where each leaf meets the stem. See E.

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6 - Dip your paintbrush into clean water and paint over each leaf and the entire branch, allowing the ink to soften and create a lovely wash. Choose your colors for the bird, making sure you have a dark version and a lighter version of each color. I chose rusts for the bird’s head, blue for his wing and tail, and a buff color for his body. Follow the markings, as shown, using your color choices. Notice the lighter blue is used separately from the darker blue; the same is true of the rust colors. The buff color is all the same, but you could certainly use a bit of a darker color right along the bottom of the body. See F.

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7 - Dip your paintbrush into clean water and carefully paint over the bird, creating lovely washes. I did each color section separately, letting them dry a bit before moving on, so that they didn’t completely mix and mingle. See G.

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USE YOUR CREATIVITY

What if you drew tiny flowers at the base of each leaf for a springtime branch? Or, how about using the colors of autumn leaves instead of green? What if there were two birds, or three, all facing different directions? Use the basic shapes to create the bird with different angles to see how you can create different pictures and positions. Look at pictures of real birds and see how you might break them down into simple shapes. Birds are endlessly satisfying subjects. I hope you try many and that you will share one with me on Instagram by tagging @kateriewing.

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Carol Williamson

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Nathalie Bélanger

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Sallie Binder

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Fran Lowell

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Wendy Ching

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Liz Tobosa

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