My name is Julia Woning and I love to be creative with Derwent materials. In this project, I draw and paint my old house in the Netherlands. It’s a place that means a lot to me.
My top tip, although it’s incredible tempting to do so, is don’t dive in and start with colour straight away.
Take your time and start with a sketch of the house using a Graphic pencil. If you have time, you can always start with a softer pencil to get the shape right and then add a heavier pencil, like a 2B, to confirm shape. Using a lighter pencil allows you rub out any mistakes – we all make them!
When I am happy with the sketch, I draw it over with a black Derwent Line Maker in 0.5mm width. After the ink is dry I erase the Graphic pencil. The best thing about Derwent Line Makers is that they are water resistant, so when I add colour to the piece with the Derwent Inktense Paint Pan Set, the lines stay beautiful and won’t dissolve.
The Inktense Paint Pan Sets are ideal for me because the colours are bold, vibrant and water resistant with high lightfastness – ideal for a professional artist.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s start with some basic watercolour techniques!
When you work with any water-based material, you have to work from top to bottom on your paper, back to front, large to small and from light to dark. If there was a single rule I would offer people, it’d be that.
Layer upon layer and every time you have to wait until the layer is dry to do a next layer. You can speed it up with the help of a hair dryer. But patience is the key. The best thing about Inktense though is that once it’s dry, it’s permanently fixed – unlike a traditional watercolour which will always move when you add water.
For me, I start by mixing some colours in a porcelain palette; this way I can create more colours. There’s always more possibilities with a blendable medium, which is another reason why I love Inktense so much.
I start by creating the colour of the roof, then I apply the same colour on to the drawing. If I apply a different colour next to the already wet colour, the possibility that the colours would flow into each other is big. So waiting until the first colour is dry is very important – be patient, go make a cup of tea or start planning your next move!
You can, if you like, speed it up by using a hair dryer or going to a different colour in your project like I did. I immediately went to the green leaves. You can see that I build up the greens by putting layers up on layers, starting with a lighter green.
One mistake people make with wet mediums is over adding colour – it can make your piece too overbearing. My top tip: leave some white space open in your work. It gives a fresher look to your project. So be aware to know when to stop before you do too much layering.
Good luck with practising with the Derwent Inktense Paint Pan Sets and enjoy creating.
You can find out more about Julia Woning on her website, her Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.