Pink Zen
29
SEPTEMBER, 2016
Watercolor Painting
Pen & Ink
Pink Zen is a watercolor painting with a pink beach cruiser bicycle. Nice details done with pen & ink drawing. The sand and ocean are in the background with the bike and palm tree center stage.
Steps to complete this painting.
- stretch watercolor paper
- let paper dry, work on pencil drawing
- transfer drawing to paper
- do the pen & ink drawing
- paint the watercolor
- sign name with a brush
Pink Zen, 10 x 14 watercolor and pen & ink on paper, ©2016 PJ Cook.
This original painting was done on 90 lb watercolor paper. A lightweight paper like this needs stretching to prevent buckling. I soaked the paper in the tub for 1.5 minutes. Then stapled to a thin wood board with 1/4″ deep staples. I have found that a shorter staple is all that is needed to hold most papers. The removal of the staples is easier when they are not as deep into the wood board.
Zero in on the focal point in your painting.
I decided to leave the pink bicycle rather simple, with not a lot of detail. I mixed a variety of greens for this painting.Some of them are listed below.
- Viridian or Winsor Green with Permanant Alizarin
- Hansa Light with Ivory Black yup I said black
- Quinacradone Gold with Black
- Winsor Blue with Raw Sienna
If you are looking for olive greens try ivory black with any yellow. You can get a nice variety of olive colors with those mixtures.
