How To Create Mixed Media Ink And Watercolours

I have found creating a type of Tattoo effect on watercolour backgrounds to be  a very therapeutic activity as well as very rewarding. I have “tattooed” Boats, Classical Buildings, Dolphins and Penguins, but truth to tell, it can be done for any form of image.

There are two quite separate disciplines involved here.

One discipline requires that, within an uninhibited flourish of no more than 15 minutes, one can produce a free flowing watercolour sky and background. It can be in full colour or in monochrome.

The second discipline calls for the painstaking and minute detail of an image created by ink pointillism – blue ink on full watercolour, or say, black ink on monochrome grey, or sepia ink pointillism on monochrome sepia. This can take 2 to 10 hours depending on the size and complexity of the image.

I am left wondering if there is more than one type of artist residing within each of us or whether it is just me! One for flourish and one for detail!

Another joy of this kind of medium is that with the sky and background already painted, you can carry the unfinished picture in a roll and with a pen and some peace and quiet, one can finish the image with the minimum of equipment to carry..

Yet another bonus is that, given the intensity of the dots in the pointillism image, the final pictures can then be reproduced as fine art prints in enlarged or reduced form with impunity.

I have found it has provided me with a great way to create relaxing and pleasing pastoral or water scenes and then to really work on the detail of particular types of images of subjects that I love.

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It is possible with care to super-impose the pointillism images in a way which does not make them appear stamped on the background. This is achieved by using the pointillism to heighten the intensity of the background here or there, maybe with eddies on the water, or intensifying movement in long grass.

The light created in the watercolour background, strangely, does not offend the eye. Instead it appears to the eye as reflected light.

I hope I have inspired you to try it too.  There are good instructional books on pointillism.

Use good standard watercolour paper and high quality water colour paints. The pens I use are Pilot pens and I use mostly size 1 to 3 and just occasionally 4 or 5. Most good art shops, office suppliers and stationers stock them.

Do leave comments or questions on my blog if you need more help. I have posted some examples there for you to look at.

My sincere hope is that you will gain the relaxation and therapeutic advantages I have derived from this mixed media form of art.