How To Draw Trees With Pen And Ink and Ink Wash or Watercolor

In this video I demonstrate how to draw trees using pen and ink in combination with monochrome ink wash and watercolor. I show you two approaches to working with ink wash, give you bunch of advice to using watercolor, and as per usual show you some excellent examples of old master drawings along the way.
I'm using a Pilot Custom 912 FA fountain pen filled with Noodler's Grey, and working in a Talens Art Creations sketchbook.
Here is my introductory tutorial on wash technique:
• Intro to ink wash
Here are two tutorials on color mixing in watercolor:
Part 1: • Color mixing with wate...
Part 2: • Color mixing in waterc...

[@msgaltman3075]

Absolutely the best ink and wash tutorial on YT. Amazing amount of great info. thank you

[@mkompan]

That's high praise. Thank you!

[@dparf256]

It's just amazing! Your channel is like a treasure :) So much important clear information without any fluff.

[@mkompan]

Thank you! I’m glad you’re finding my channel useful.

[@steventhomas7292]

Brilliantly spot on, you've outdone yourself, thank you so much, i run out of superlatives for this one, regards 👌👍

[@mkompan]

You’re very kind. Thank you!

[@JesusChrist_Is_Lord]

This is a fantastic instructional video! Thank you!!

[@mkompan]

You’re most welcome!

[@jamesthoma6532]

A Masterclass! As a professional musician, I appreciate the musical analogies too.

[@mkompan]

Thank you! As a music lover I enjoy making analogies with music.

[@dimitrioskalfakis]

very good demonstration of the two different methods with valuable advice. the last watercolor sketch had great contrast of values as well as light balance.

[@mkompan]

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed this demo.

[@atelierthhun1165]

Excellent teaching, especially as you give good examples of why you recommend methods. I think you have nailed nearly all the common errors here, except one. When to stop is a problem for all artists which I wish you could solve too ! Many thanks .

[@mkompan]

Thank you! Knowing when to stop is the artist eternal dilemma. Renoir was asked when he knew he was finished with his figure paintings. He replied “I paint until I feel like pinching.” This principle is hard to apply to landscape. :) In all seriousness, this is why it’s good to have examples of what you’d like to achieve nearby. This could be images of artists that you admire, or your own work that you feeling is successful. That way you know what you're aiming for and won’t overshoot it.

[@ichirofakename]

I have two different ways that I know something is done. 1) there's no more blank paper to make a mark on. 2) I can't find another mark to make that will improve the results.

[@mkompan]

@@ichirofakename 1. Sounds like you have a acute case of horror vacui. 2. Sometimes you have to ruin a piece to find out what that point is. One good way of knowing when you’re done is to turn a piece that you feel is finished against the wall. If when you turn it around again a few months later you still feel like working on it, it probably needs more work.

[@ichirofakename]

@@mkompan like Keats, I like to "load every rift with ore." AAnd if the image is on a bare paper ground, too often I fill it in with black. So the colors pop.

[@pamelabozzi239]

love this!! I needed the tips on balancing these mediums.

[@mkompan]

I’m glad you found this helpful!

[@Deedster56]

I just subscribed to your AMAZING channel!! It all started with “How do I use my Fude pen?” and I am now hooked on all of your fantastic videos and tutorials! WOW! You are so very talented and an AWESOME instructor. I’m so very glad I found you 🤗👏❤️🇨🇦💫

[@mkompan]

Well, thank you for the kind words and for your subscription. I'm so glad you found my channel!

[@zbr7359]

Hey Marc, hope you're okay. I was revisiting some of your old videos and saw one about dip pens, I would love to see more or a better video about dip pens and some exercise. Thanks for the lesson

[@mkompan]

Sure thing! I’ll work on some dip-pen content as well.

[@moth9777]

the timing on this video is amazing. Thank you! very informative and the examples you provided to explain what you were talking about were very helpful. subscribed

[@mkompan]

My pleasure! I’m glad you found this tutorial useful.

[@ichirofakename]

Good info, thanks. In an effort to use up some of my excess ink, I tried a few full sheet brush paintings using only ink (on bristol). I found it behaved similar to watercolor, which I guess shouldn't have been a surprise. I got some results I was pleased with, especially with larger brushes. However it is very tedious to clean the ink out of the brush. Especially with larger brushes. I won't be doing that again with my nicer brushes.

[@mkompan]

Those dye based inks are indeed irritatingly difficult to fully clean from a brush. I really love how poorly behaved ink is when used with brushes, especially on smooth paper like bristol. It makes for some interesting happy accidents.

[@ichirofakename]

@@mkompan And beware the grease from fingerprints! I try always to wear gloves.

[@Louvre2012]

Thank you for this detailed and instructive lesson. 👏👏👏 An indispensable resource as I work on improving my drawing and painting skills.

[@mkompan]

My pleasure! I’m glad that you found this useful.

[@starr-starr]

Brilliant! This was absolutely great, and I see some things that will really help me!

[@mkompan]

Thank you! I’m so glad this will be useful to you.

Effective and useful, as always 👍 Thank you, Marc

[@mkompan]

My pleasure!

[@Anders.B]

Thank for the excellent information. I just found your channel. I apreciate you sharing your knowledge and techniques with us.

[@mkompan]

My pleasure! Glad to share what I know with you.

[@m.aburas]

You are soooo talented ❤

[@mkompan]

Thank you! You’re very kind.

[@renskee.jellema8697]

I prefer pen and brown ink with a brown or grey wash. It is the perfect technique for depicting bright sunlight and shadow, as you can see in the drawings made in Rome and surrounding area during the 17th century, by Claude Lorrain and the young artists from the Netherlands united in the Bentvueghels. Great tutorial! Could you give some instruction on drawing in the landscape? And how ink was made (sepia, bistre, ink from gall-nuts.) vs how it is made nowadays?

[@mkompan]

I love using brown inks too, but for this video decided to go with a black and white technique. Many more videos on landscape are forthcoming, as are videos on making traditional inks.

[@TheDynamite333]

Woah, excellent tutorial, very inspiring. By the way, I didn't know you are also an astronaut 🙂

[@mkompan]

Thank you! My studio (and every other part of house) has been taken over by my kids. :)

[@Brosephus]

Awesome timing on this video for me lol. This is a great refresher as ive been getting into landscaping pieces a lot lately. Your watercolor pen technique brushing off the pen!!!! Why did I NEVER think of that! I dont think ive ever seen you practice it in your other videos because its a great idea and I would have already been doing it lol. Also im still rocking my 25 dollar Noodlers Ahab

[@mkompan]

Thanks Matthew! I've used that technique a few times in my videos, but can't recall at the moment which ones specifically. And the Ahab (with an FPR ultrafle nib) is unbeatable, still one of my all time favorites.

[@EuropaPhoenix]

Very interesting video, with a lot of useful informations. Thank you very much. I'm always happy to learn how to draw with pen and ink (and watercolor), especially when the subject is Nature. Just one suggestion from someone who speak English as a second language : sometimes you speak very fast so, if that's possible, it would be very helpful to allow subtitles (I think they can be generated automatically).

[@mkompan]

You’re very welcome! As an intermediate level speaker of Spanish I understand your frustration with my rate of speech. I will enable the subtitles.

[@ichirofakename]

Remember you can adjust the Playback Speed of the video by clicking on the gear. I do this all the time to accommodate different speakers.

[@daveg686]

👍

[@mkompan]

👍

[@neodimium]

Prva liga Marc!

[@mkompan]

Hvala vam!

[@neodimium]

@@mkompan Wow! That surprised me! 😆 You are even better person than I thought.