Drawing in Ink with an Elegant Writer pen

The post office at Rupert, VT is such a quaint and fun image that I thought it would be fun to try drawing/painting it in a new way.

Karlyn Holman has a technique she uses with a speedball brand pen called an Elegant Writer.  Designed for calligraphers mainly, she has discovered that is water soluble.  Now that is actually not anything too new…as there are many water soluble pens out there. 
I use Tombows that way all the time.  But what is different about this ink is that once it has been wet and then dried…it becomes permanent.  Like Intense pencils, once you wet them they become permanent as well.  So after you do the initial drawing you wet a wc brush and you let the ink begin to put in the values for you!  

Now THAT is new.  And what if offers the watercolor artist is the chance to draw with ink, shade with ink and then to PAINT over the ink without moving the ink a second time which would blend into and dull the paint.  The key is to, of course, let the ink dry before you paint over it.  

AND there is one more important step…you have to lightly spray the whole inked drawing with "mists" of water.
That way it insures any ink that has not been touched by water previous will now be "set" permanently.  

As far as I can tell Cheap Joe does not carry the "Elegant Writer" pens.  Dick Blick carries them for $1.44 each…Karlyn Holman recommends the "fine" size in black.  You can also go on line and watch Karlyn demo this technique.  Click here.

Now as a disclaimer I haven't painted it in wc yet.   
Tune in tomorrow.