Coloured Ink, Watercolour and Gouache Rendering of Title Lettering

A carved wood title combined with an automata will feature on the title pages of www.whimsicalwood.com but graphically rendered title pages will be used for the graphics pages. This version of the title lettering is painted with coloured ink wash followed by some local watercolour and gouache washes.

The initial light wash of Liquitex Ink, burnt sienna with a little cerulean blue added is followed by repeated washes of the same mix, with some black ink added, in order to establish the form  of the lettering design as a grisaille under-painting. Over this washes of water colour and some gouache have tinted the final rendering of the lettering.

 To build up the tonal values I used a #2 pointed filbert synthetic fibre brush and a small Chinese calligraphy brush to lay in multiple light washes, a little wet in wet and then using the very tip of the, just damp with pigment brush, to 'wipe' on a very light 'wet-dusting' of pigment. This technique is a bit like dry brushing but with a moist brush loaded, not fully, but with a fair volume of ink or water colour wash.

 It seems to me at this point in experimenting with these brushes rather than round brushes, that the fullness of body, that tear-drops into a longish hair thin point, part characterising both these brush shapes, allows a lot of thin wet flowing pigment to be put in place with the feel of coloured pencil rendering.


It also seems that the acrylic ink washes themselves resist lifting even though used highly diluted and they also leave enough tooth and or absorbency to accept subsequent water colour washes without those washes

lifting too readily.