Studies of Surfaces in Watercolour and Ink

Watercolour and ink has always been one of my favourite mediums to work with. I will admit it is partly convenience, I have my travel art kit down to a single small case and a sketch takes just an hour or so. But beyond that, the constraints of one colour and two mediums really help to focus my mind on form and texture, two things I find I am fascinated by in physical objects. The style really lends itself to representing the essence of a surface, its shape and volume being brought out roughly with watercolour shading before adding solid black lines that force you to pick the elements that provide the strongest visual impression.

Before developing my own style, I looked at a number of others artist sketches as experiments. The most interesting I found were Henry Moore’s, who, as a sculptor, was hugely interested in volumes and I think this really comes across in his sketches. I copied a number of these as studies before changing my focus to picking out key visual elements such as surface details, like mental thumbnails.

Henry Moore, Forest Elephants, 1977. Drawing. Reproduced by permission of The Henry Moore Foundation. © The Henry Moore Foundation. Photo: Michel Muller.