How to Add Watercolor to Your Pen and Ink Drawings

Watercolor can transform a pen and ink drawing. Pen is great because it gives your drawing structure, but watercolor definitely opens up a lot of new possibilities for artists. Here are a few tips for effectively combining these two mediums:

1.) If you're going to use watercolor paper like Arches, be sure you don't try to use micron pen because the texture on the paper will ruin your pens.

2.) If you plan to add a lot of watercolor and saturate your paper, you should tape it down with masking tape to prevent your paper from buckling. If you are only putting a little watercolor you don't need to do this.

3.) When using pen, you'll find that if you're adding watercolor you don't need to go overboard on your pen drawing - just a slight suggestion of an object can be better that it being very overworked.

4.) Make sure you let the ink settle a bit before adding watercolor.

5.) Watercolor is really a medium of water control. Practice how much water you need. Often students have too much water on their brush which cause those "cauliflower blooms."

6.) It's easy to overwork watercolor which dulls down your colors. Try making a lot of sketches all at once, so you won't get bogged down on your painting and overwork it.

Watch how to do this in this early access video: