Hey, there!

I was asked by more than one person to give a tutorial on how I prepare and carry my ink washes. Thanks for the question.

I buy 1-ounce glass jars on-line from Container and Packaging. They're super friendly and shipping is fast.

https://www.containerandpackaging.com/products/92/glass-straight-sided-jars/G074C

 

 

I buy them in bulk, about 150 at a time, so I can offer them to students in classes and workshops so we're all working with the same materials. You can find them in plastic, but I prefer glass because the plastic ones scratch, turn milky over time, and are not as air-tight and damage-resistant. I've never had a spill (knock on wood) but for extra peace of mind I carry them in a zip-lock bag.

 

One of the jars is for rinse water. The other two jars hold a light ink wash (one is about 25% gray) and the other one is a darker wash (about 75% gray).

 

I use Black India ink that's made for technical pens.

 

I think Rapidograph, Kohinoor and Staedtler/Mars might slap their labels on the same ink. The important thing for me is that the ink be completely opaque and waterproof. Higgins, Sumi, Noodlers, etc, may be cheaper but can be very frustrating when trying to get dark darks. Students waste a lot of ink trying to achieve the contrast we want when they use other inks. Around $8, these bottles last a long time because we use so little ink in each jar, as I'll explain.

 

A note- there are slight variations in labeling:

 

(Ultradraw vs. Ulniversal vs. Universal, but I haven't noticed any difference in the way I use it.)

 

I find it helpful to buy ink in these bottles because of the eye-dropper top that makes it easy to add ink one drop at a time. I don't want to go through a messy trial-and-error process every time I refresh the jars, so knowing exactly how many drops of ink I want in each bottle is really helpful.

 

A caveat to the following recipe- many variables will affect the washes:

1. Jar size (if you use different containers)

2. Ink quality (if you use a different ink than shown)

3. Temperature (in the summer, the water can evaporate and the ink can dry out leaving flakes that won't blend)

4. Paper type and quality (I use Canson Montval All-media Field hard-back spiral sketchbooks.)

 

I fill one jar full of water and add six (6) drops of ink. Don't squeeze the bottle or a stream will shoot out and you'll have to start over. Be gentle. You can always add more drops but you can't take them out. Also, there's no need to shake or stir the jars. You'll create air-bubbles and risk dropping them. Put the lid on and give a gentle, single swirl. I find that just walking to my drawing destination keeps them plenty stirred.

 

The other jar I only fill halfway with water, but again place six (6) drops of ink. Because this jar has half the water, the ink is darker. Due to all the possible variables, test the washes to see something like this:

 

Once you put ink in the jars, it's impossible to see the difference in darkness. Having one jar only half full is a way to see at a glance which one is the dark wash. (It also saves ink.) To further differentiate the jars, I label the tops with a sharpie. To avoid mixing up the lids, I never have them both open at the same time. Once I finish applying the light washes to a drawing, I put that jar away and only then open the dark wash.

 

Here's an exercise to test your washes for the correct shades. (After you do this once, you can adjust the amount of ink in your jars,  but keep track so the next time you fill the jars you can just add the right number of drops without going through this again.)

 

Draw a 5-frame scale:

Leave the first frame white and fill the rest with the light wash:

Let it dry, then fill frames 3-5 with the same wash, brushing it across all three frames with a large brush:

Now, put the lid on the jar of light wash and open the darker wash. Brush a layer on frames 4 and 5:

It seems like you could simply apply another layer of the same wash, but I find it doesn't cut to the chase as well as applying darker ink.

Our darkest and final layer of tone is created with hatching:

I apply these washes to my drawings the same way:

1. The first wash is to isolate the highlights and any true white areas in the drawing.

2. The second layer of light wash starts to build up shadows and dark areas.

3. The dark wash is for deep darks: concavities, deep recesses, etc.

4. Hatching is last for surface textures and details, to show overlapping and nearly black areas.

(I never use solid black because it would obscure my contour lines.)

 

As a final test of your gray tones, practice these solids:

 

This is exactly the process I use for all my drawings.

 

Even when color will be "glazed" over the ink washes:

 

 

I hope this helps. If you have my book, Everyday Sketching and Drawing: Five Steps to a Unique and Personal Sketchbook Habit. this will clarify the process described in Chapter 3, "Gray Does the Work, Color Gets the Credit."

By the way, I just today lowered the price of all my books on both Amazon and my etsy store: etsy.com/shop/stevenreddy

 

And now, time to sketch,

Steve