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Art For Sale - Saint Michael Miniature Pen and Ink Drawings
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Our Lady of Guadalupe, stippled ink on genuine sheep skin, a (finished) Work In Progress |
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Citrus limon No.2
Adding a Decorative Watercolor / Ink Border
A work in progress
Image size: 11.5 inches x 8.5 inches
For the Drawing (already completed):
| Winsor and Newton 140 lb. hot press watercolor paper |
| Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pen, stainless steel nib, sizes 6 x 0 |
| Koh-I-Noor UltraDraw Ink |
For the Border:
| Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pen, stainless steel nib, sizes 3 x 0, 00, 0, 1 |
| Koh-I-Noor UltraDraw Ink |
| Daniel Smith Watercolors: Cadmium Yellow Light, Yellow Ochre |
| Hand-ground Malachite pigment in gum Arabic |
This drawing is a study of the common lemon, scientific name Citrus limon. You may see the process of creating this drawing at A Work In Progress - Black and White Pen and Ink Stippling . On that page, I noted that "While I was working on this drawing, I had the elements of it covered with a sheet of tracing paper. However, the edges of the paper were not covered. I happened to be spraying some Lysol spray near the drawing and the overspray darkened the edges of the paper. Although the drawing could be framed the way it is, the edge is dark enough to bother me, so what I may do is put a watercolor border around this drawing to hide that. " This page will show the steps of adding that border to the outer edges of the paper.
Finished Drawing Without Border:
The effect I want to have with this drawing is one that allows me the flexibility of framing this piece either with the border showing, or the border hidden by the mat. My purpose on this particular piece is to hide the paper discoloration, and not to add to the drawing itself. With that said however, I do want the border to be a nice one. There are a few choices for the border design: a decorative inked border with watercolor tinting, a plain ink border with watercolor outside the border, or a watercolor border without any ink work. I have decided to do a narrow decorative border which will be tinted, and I will extend a plain watercolor wash to the outer end of the paper. The addition of any border allows me to reflect colors that would be in the real subject, without having to tint the black and white drawing itself. I personally love the look of black and white stippling, and although I do also tint complete black and white drawings, I feel the strength of this drawing is in the detailed stippling, and color over the stippling will distract the eye to the color and away from the stippling.
The first step for the type of border I have chosen is to draw the border outlines in pencil, taking care to measure accurately. These pencil lines will be gone over in ink in the next step. If I had chosen to have a plain watercolor border without any ink, I would have drawn just the inner line and would have kept them lighter so that they would act only as a guide for the watercolor wash.
Note: Prior to inking the lines, I find it is best to make sure I have a ruler that has a cork backing. This raises the ruler edge just above the paper and the ink is much less likely to bleed wider than the desired line. Using an uncorked ruler may leave blobs along the line.
Below is a scan of the lines after they are inked with a size 00 nib. I will now start to add the decorative design inside the lines. I do not erase the pencil at this time, but rather wait until all ink has completely dried. This will prevent accidental smudging.
Below is another scan, this time with the major features of my border design penciled in. I like to do the whole border in pencil prior to inking, allowing me to change anything I don't like. Next I will use the size 00 and 3 x 0 nibs to ink in the entire border. I will then allow the ink to dry for 24 hours before adding the watercolor. Ink dries much faster than this, but when doing a wash over an inked area, I find the added time allotted for drying lets the ink resist any bleeding at all when a wash is applied.
Below is a photograph (not a scan) of a portion of the drawing after the border has been completely inked. The drawing looks nice at this stage and I could choose to simply erase the pencil marks and leave the drawing as it is. However, I still see an obvious difference in the tones of the paper, so I am going to go ahead and tint the border in the next step. I was "lucky" in that the drawing itself was covered with a piece of paper that made a complete frame around the elements at the time the outer paper edges became discolored.
Below is the border detail:
Below is a rather poor photo of the drawing taken before the washes are started. Although my flash needed adjusting to correctly show the elements of the drawing, this photo does show how obvious the uneven tone of the outer paper. The bottom area inside the border is actually shadow from the light source when taking the picture.
The first watercolor I will apply is a wash to the outer sides of the paper in a mixture of Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Yellow Light. Colored inks may also be used in the same methods as watercolor.
First, the artwork should be taped to a plain wood (clean) board or a watercolor board. Even though the washes are 4 inches or so wide at the maximum, wetting the paper will make it buckle. Taping it to a board will ensure that after it is wet, it will retain a certain tautness, and will dry perfectly flat. Below is a photo of the drawing with two transparent washes on the outer borders. As you can see, I did not tape the paper down, so that the warping on the left would be somewhat evident. Once these layers completely dry, I can tape the paper down for subsequent washes if I want to.
When I applied the two washes, I first applied plain water to all areas outside the ink border. This prevents the watercolor of liquid ink from puddling up or drying too fast as I work through the area. I next applied the watercolor wash with a number 7 Kolinsky watercolor brush, working in a left to right motion. I turn the paper (or board) as I work so that I am applying to one side at a time, a "stripe" of wash left to right, then going back to the left and starting at the bottom and into the last "stripe", making another "stripe". This blends the "stripes" together nicely, and when done right, no actual stripes are evident, but an even wash. There are three such "stripes" painted on the left side where the paper was widest. The fourth "stripe" of the first wash layer will be trimmed off later. I finish each of the sides completely before turning the board and doing the next side. Where the sides meet, I keep the watercolor wash slightly damp so that I do not get a "hard edge" and so that the sides blend together where they meet. I will allow these two washes to completely dry before deciding whether or not to add another layer. This outer yellow border is simply to be a color than the dirty-looking beige the paper had become. Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Yellow are botanical colors which tie into the subject matter, but my choice of using this color mixture was more to have a basic background to set off the drawing.
In The next step I add a watercolor wash of hand-ground malachite to the ink border. I go over the leaves and lines. I plan on re-inking some areas, such as the borders of the leaves, but I want the lines less conspicuous, so this is the best way to do that.
Malachite is a very gritty pigment, even when finely ground. The detail below shows some areas of paint that are slightly thicker.
Below is the finished border. After painting the leaves, I went over the ink lines of the leaves and of the border itself with a size 0 nib. I then went over the border lines again with a size 1 nib. This drawing can now be framed or reproduced either with the border showing or with it hidden.
Thank you for viewing this!