Pen Over Watercolor

Here's a strategy for sketching subjects with a lot of surface complexity.

In this YouTube video, I demo a sketch of a woodpile using fountain pen over loose watercolor washes.

It's more common for artists to do the line drawing first, which I presume is how Thomas Girtin did this one....

...or this one by John Sell Cotman.

The first stages can be remarkably loose, just setting up possibilities for the pen line.

I use a few blobs of white acrylic to suggest the bright sun, and add loose, scrubby textures from a house painting brush.

Check out the whole presentation in the YouTube video, which contains links for supplies in the description.