Above: A pigeon sketch on a page in my 6 x 8 inch take everywhere journal, handmade by me. (No I wasn't wandering around looking for pigeons at 9:30 p.m. I had to draw this one from city photos I'd taken.) Staedtler Pigment Liner on Gutenberg paper, with light washes of gouache. To the right there is a tab running down the page which is where I took out a page when I started the journal, to make room for collage material. Here I added back a bit of bulk with a baby announcement card (image obscured for privacy) and a bit of copper foil paper and non-archival Japanese transparent masking tape—the tape holds in a sheet of glassine to protect the announcement card from any rub off of the gouache opposite. Click on the image to view an enlargement.
Just like yesterday's image, I drew this pen sketch and then immediately washed over it with random strokes of light washes of gouache, using a 3-inch wide flat brush. Unlike yesterday's sketch, on this paper with that much water, the Staedtler Pigment Liner (which usually I have no problem with even on this paper) bled into the washes (see the darkness creeping into the yellow at the side of the pigeon and also in the pink at his feet).
Not to worry, I kept painting using a 3/4 inch filbert and used light washes on the pigeon, and then a bit of white gouache used in a thicker and more opaque application around the eye, beak, and on the feet.
Be sure to click on the image to view the enlargement so that you can see the lovely paper texture which influences the washes in fun ways, and allows me to stroke on some pink and white on the feet, where it breaks up because of the texture of the paper.
