Runny Ink, Watercolor, Waterbrush Sketches

Black-bellied Plover and Dunlin at Two Mile Landing. Ballpoint Pen and Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski.

Black and White Warbler at Carpenters Woods. Ballpoint Pen and Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski.
 

I decided to experiment with the runny ink from a Pilot Precise V5 ballpoint pen, watercolor and a watercolor brush that I used the other day in an American Redstart sketch. I suppose you might call this Fast and Lazy Watercolor.

Due to the fact that I really can't change the ink line once it's down and to the fact that I'm using a waterbrush, whose water load is limited, instead of watercolor with a normal watercolor brush I'm very constrained in what I can do. In some ways it's like a potato bag race - limited but quick. Well maybe not so quick in the potato race. In any case there are severe limitations in terms of artistic handling.

But because of that I can to a lot of sketches. They stay spontaneous and they also let me work through a lot of ideas quickly. In this case I'm a bit more tempted to pursue another more developed work with the shorebirds rather than the warbler.

The Black-bellied Plover and Dunlin were some of the few shorebirds we say at Cape May last November. The Black and White Warbler on the other hand was one of many, many warblers that we saw at Carpenters Woods in Philadelphia earlier in May.