Tips For Using Using Graphite Washes

[@LadyFireHorse]

The respect you have for this tree and nature comes off your drawing and how you speak about it so beautifully! ❤❤❤

[@owingsart]

Thank you. I do love nature. I'm blessed to live in a place with so much natural beauty.

[@osmonauta]

Very nice, Sir! Very nice!

[@owingsart]

@@osmonauta Thank you. 🙏 😊

[@darlenemacdougall7561]

That is the most beautiful tree I have ever seen someone draw

[@owingsart]

@@darlenemacdougall7561 Wow 😲 Thank you very much!

[@Donna_G]

I like how the tree turned out. I live in the Evergreen State; so, I can easily find these trees. Usually, some kind of pine; but, I also see spruce trees. It is so rare to see a lone pine tree here in the valley. They are packed together like sardines. When I go for a walk, there are places where the trees are so tight that the sun does not reach the trail. It's nice; especially, on those really hot days.

[@owingsart]

Washington State is a beautiful place. So much variety there from Spokane to Seattle. Mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, high desert and the coastal area Pacific Ocean. I have often contemplated moving there. It’s like an artists ideal location because there is something everywhere to inspire and delight. Thanks for sharing and happy sketching.

[@geslinam9703]

I spent a few weeks in Washington in the 90s, I really don’t think there is any place more beautiful in America. I grew up on a very flat coastal plain, east coast, so Washington felt like another planet to me. We have a lot of pines here, but they are eastern white pines and pitch pines, what I always called “scrubby pines.” Most don’t have that conical Christmas tree shape. I don’t find them easy to paint at all.

[@geslinam9703]

@@owingsartmy grandfather lived there when he first came to America, and so true the beauty of the place, especially the Olympic Peninsula. A dream home for me would be a little cabin on Lake Crescent. What would stop me is that Cascadia subduction thing…

[@owingsart]

@@geslinam9703 Me to.

[@owingsart]

@@geslinam9703 Thank you so much for saying this, I felt the same way coming from the Midwest prairie.

[@Надежда-е8э1й]

Thank you. It is beautiful.

[@owingsart]

Thank you very much.

[@chrisgregore359]

This is a great video ... like all of your videos and tutorials. You made me laugh though when you said carnivorous ... and I was thinking yikes how scary. I realized you meant coniferous. Thank you for the videos you share with us.

[@owingsart]

😂 glad you figured it out because trees eat CO2 and light, not meat. 😂

[@olderendirt]

I had never heard of graphite wash so this was very interesting. Lots of good information about relaying the structure, too. Thanks so much.

[@owingsart]

Glad you enjoyed it and happy to introduce something new to you. 🙂

[@TerrieJohnson731]

I'm in love with the pencils 🎉 Thank you Marty and great seeing you again. Thank you for the great tips and informative description of the different trees ❤

[@owingsart]

@@TerrieJohnson731 Sure thing and thanks for the kind note.

[@pjlewisful]

I get the same pleasant feeling when I watch both you and Steve of Mind of Watercolor. I know you guys are friends and both love nature and trees. Luv ya both.

[@owingsart]

Wow! That is very, very kind of you. I really appreciate that. Yes, Steve is a great friend and I love doing collaborations with him.

[@amypanddirtytoo1926]

Oh nice! I've had that book in my Amazon "books" list for ages! But I couldn't be sure it would be any good or teach me anything I didn't already know (you know how some books claim to be groundbreaking and "teach you secrets that no one knows!" when in reality it just shows you a handful of basic knowledge concepts and doesn't expand on anything at all). I'm gonna buy it now, thank you!

[@owingsart]

Yes I do. In the case of James Gurney's book, each section has good info in it, and covers a WIDE range of practical concepts and ways to advance your skills. Highly recommend.

[@dgwarchitect]

A very fine video , illustration and teaching.

[@owingsart]

Thank you!!

[@3534538]

Thank you so much for the helpful reminder to use a light hand. Somehow I'm struggling with that and apply to much pressure to the pen. Someday I'll get it 🙂

[@owingsart]

Practicing light work helps a lot. You'll get there, I'm sure.

[@UraniaOfTheGalaxy]

Love your trees. Thanks from a fellow Minnesotan.

[@owingsart]

Thank you. Go Vikings!!!

[@sandymanning-b5o]

Wow that was a very good tutorial of graphite wash which I have never heard before. The detail was so natural and looked realistic very quickly! Thank you so much for sharing. May your work be a for filament in your life 🙌

[@owingsart]

Thank you for watching and the nice note.

[@almas.2530]

Excellent tutorial! I love water soluble graphite and I’ll try to copy your magnificent drawing following your detailed explanations. It will be a very good exercise for me.

[@owingsart]

I would love to see your finished work and really appreciate the kind words. Thank you for watching!

[@almas.2530]

@@owingsart I made the drawing and it turned out pretty well (although not so good as yours). I’ve learned a lot about how to draw these kinds of trees. You are an excellent teacher, thank you very much!

[@mg2023faith]

This is a fantastic video! Thank you!

[@owingsart]

@@mg2023faith Thank you for watching!

[@jamesduncan578]

Awesome, thanks for sharing this technique.

[@owingsart]

Thanks for watching James.

[@anathema1828]

Excellent content- thanks for posting!

[@owingsart]

@@anathema1828 Sure thing. Thank you for watching.

[@dianacurrao8348]

Beautiful drawing!

[@owingsart]

@@dianacurrao8348 Thank you kindly.

[@jannettebeatsonberger2516]

Thank you Marty Owens! Dark wet scared me at first.

[@owingsart]

@@jannettebeatsonberger2516 You’ve got this. Give it a try!! Thanks for watching.

[@gertietheduck]

when you said “coniferous”, I heard “carnivorous” and for a split second I was very confused 😂

[@owingsart]

LOL, yes I can see how that might be confusing and concerning.

[@3534538]

@@owingsart Audrey Jr. comes to mind 🤣

[@tmcook6161]

lol! I watch a lot of carnivore/ketogetic diet content and me too!

[@stacys447]

Very useful. Could you do this same idea for a deciduous tree? I have been working on my trees and they aren't great yet. The bark seems so much easier than leaves. Super useful! Thank you.

[@owingsart]

Hi Stacy - Not exactly the same because it's watercolor, but maybe this video would be helpful - kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6aZhZmkgrKrrdUsi=9lmIVdFhNWBCJ6zF

[@stacys447]

@@owingsart Thank you! I will check it out.

[@owingsart]

@ Let me know if that helps otherwise I’m happy to do a specific wash video for leafy 🥬 trees. 🌳 😊🙏👍🏼

[@TerrieJohnson731]

I had to look at casein paint. My goodness I don't need any more and I am working with pencils WS a lot now. Maybe you have a video on it. I'll look!

[@owingsart]

@@TerrieJohnson731 Which one? Casein or Pencils? WC?

[@TerrieJohnson731]

@owingsart my apologies... paint 🎨 watercolors especially! I'm really interested in the ws pencils, crayon and soft pastels atm.. I found the casein very interesting except for that it doesn't reactivate. I ditched acrylic everything for that reason. I invested a chunk in Derwent last month and this one, Soft Pastels and a mechanical pencil set. The focus on better sketches. It's that time of year where wet paper dries s l o w l y. LoL 😂 I just have to mix it up.

[@TerrieJohnson731]

@owingsart oh and ws graphite. I made a pan with gum Arabic and I have the FC set that I really enjoy. Going to watch your video 📸 again.

[@owingsart]

@@TerrieJohnson731 Oh sure - Yes there are lots and lots of videos on my channel that feature watercolors and ws pencils. If you look under the playlist Here: kzbin.info/aero/PLPQb9J9F-5B7Vo6c5jBWLKNfbuYR1o33d&si=QcjCzcrlBsLB1ugE Or Here: kzbin.info/aero/PLPQb9J9F-5B6tW6OjYkk5V3o5M1HTTYYi&si=uT9g3LVAaU_-RCGf Good luck and let me know if you find what you're looking for.

[@AnnieThyme]

Hi Marty It was really helpful seeing your work start to finish here and how the tree changed and final product emerged as you went. I have been looking at my graphitint pencils on my shelf for a month or more now thinking I should take them out and have another crack at them- I'll have to do that soon and apply some of the tips here. After watching you apply both the pencil and the water to this I will try both a lighter hand and a more precise water application and see it that improves my results at all! (It should- as I really didn't have any idea about using them when I first bought them but they were on a crazy sale and I thought they would be fun to try - but I think a heavy hand may have been bollocking up my results and they have just been sitting there waiting for me to pull them out again) Really appreciate this type of video and explanation of what you are doing as you go. I hope you're having a good weekend! :)

[@owingsart]

@@AnnieThyme Hi Annie - So great to hear from you. Sounds like those Graphitints are calling to you my friend. I think a nice paper helps as well, and should have mentioned that more in the video. A solid 140# cold press that’s not too toothy or even a smoother Bristol after you get more comfortable. Hope you have a fantastic week ahead and please, please don’t be a stranger as I always enjoy hearing from you. ❤️😊

[@ms_chigger]

Ah, Marty, good to see you here & doing well.

[@owingsart]

It's great to be here! Thanks for checking in.

[@felicitycrowe6971]

A lovely tutorial! Thank you for posting this video! I do have a point of confusion, though, which has led me to this QUESTION: is the light direction from the left or the right? I thought you said it was from the right at the start of the video, but, to me, the drawing is more like it is from the left??? What am I seeing incorrectly?

[@owingsart]

@@felicitycrowe6971 Good catch. Light from the left, shadow on the right.

[@felicitycrowe6971]

@ thank you so much for the clarification - I thought I might have just been misinterpreting what I was seeing!

[@theartisticactuary]

A lot of this applies even more to using Artgraf blocks. Add minimal water and keep cleaning the brushes.

[@owingsart]

For sure and thanks for mentioning that.

[@ReeveMcNall]

nice drawing , what kind of graphite pencil is that?

[@owingsart]

A faber-castell Graphite Aquarelle.

[@sharpmountaingames9303]

The water really fuzzed out the pine needles quite realistically. Very nice drawing, Marty. Have you ever used black watercolor to add gray tones, or does that granulate a bit too much?

[@owingsart]

@@sharpmountaingames9303 Hi John - Yesir with both water soluble pencils and without. It’s a bit trickier adding watercolor in with water soluble graphite, but you just have to be ready for the resultant mixture and effects. It can get a bit muddy pretty fast if you don’t take care to be light handed with the water. I even tried a little dry brushing and it worked out okay, but again the trick is to practice a little on a scrap paper first then be very light with the water. I like Payne’s gray for representing shadow because it gives a cooler feel, so I mixed some blue watercolor (ultramarine) with the black graphite to get a sort of Payne’s gray which turns out works pretty well.

[@sharpmountaingames9303]

@@owingsart Another thought is using a black ballpoint with a watercolor wash over it. I love ballpoint drawing (just have to dab the point on a rag every so often to avoid "The Blob"). Thanks for the shop talk!

[@grannieannie1371]

It might sound funny, but I can draw realistically really well. Close to photorealism well. But it's so time consuming and stressful. For my birthday my sister gave me a packet of ohuhu fineliners and an ohuhu sketchbook. And I had no idea how to use them. Sketching was such an alien process to me. But I've been taking them out and sketching with them and I'm enjoying it so much. It's helping me to loosen up and learn how to represent what I see with a lot less fussy detail. I'm really enjoying it and that's what matters

[@owingsart]

@@grannieannie1371 Secret unlocked. Rediscovering the joy of creating art. Really great to hear this and very happy for you. Giving yourself permission to be happy. 😃

[@debbiespeer7776]

Hi Marty, A bit confused with your description of your light source. You stated that you wanted the light source to be coming from the right, however your rendering indicates that the light source came in from the left. The left side of the tree trunk is the lightest and the right side is the darkest and in shadow with indicates to me that the light source is coming from the left. Correct me if I am wrong but this can be a bit confusing to the beginning art enthusiasts. Otherwise a beautiful rendering of the pine. Good luck in your journey.

[@adelheidbekaert5972]

I was as confused as you are about the lightsource. I think the sun is on the lighter side of the tree and don't on the dark side.

[@owingsart]

Yes you’re right, my mistake. I was looking down and my brain saw right when I meant left.

[@johncarter4411]

That is so cool, I've been using graphite wash to do my sharing because it takes the shiny out. I do patterns and mandalas, nothing realistic. Still a great video tho.

[@owingsart]

@@johncarter4411 Thanks John. It’s good to put them to use in patterns and mandalas.

[@lindabay1491]

What is your black pencil you are sketching with?

[@owingsart]

I used this pencil - amzn.to/3AxFGS0

[@MandriaA]

Did I miss what kind of tree? Ponderosa?

[@owingsart]

@@MandriaA White pine. ❤️🙏👍🏼

[@paulah317]

Hi Marty. Thanks for the very helpful video. I have Cretacolor graphitint pencils in red, blue and green and Derwent graphite wash pencils sitting on my shelf, barely used! Thanks for the idea of using these to sketch trees and nature. It's time to start a new project with them. Can you clarify off the 140# watercolor paper you useful cotton or pulp? I hesitate to use my cotton paper as I'm primarily a water color artist and use that paper just watercolor . I like Strathmore 300# paper and will first experiment with it....but any thoughts on other specific papers to use? Also, if preserving the drawings, do you spray them with a fixative for graphite/ charcoal?

[@owingsart]

Hi Paulah - Great questions. You can use pulp or cotton paper. The paper I used was Legion #140 cotton paper, but I have also used alpha-cellulous (pulp mixed with cotton) paper and even Bristol paper. You can definitely use Strathmore 300# and that should work okay as long as you don't soak the paper. I don't use fixative on these graphite wash drawings because they really don't need it, however for charcoal and pencil drawings and even some gouache/watercolors I use a varnish. I find that using cheaper and even some expensive fixative changes the color and washes out some of my drawings. That effect of the fixative on my drawings is another reason I like to use higher quality paper when I can instead of the spray. When I want to preserve a piece of my work, I think the best way to do that is to use good paper (acid free, often 100% cotton rag or some Japanese papers), because they are archival and have a good history of lasting a long, long time. Thanks for asking, this might be a good topic for a future video.

[@paulah317]

@@owingsart thank you!

[@UJB123]

Graphite wash??? Are you speaking of water soluble graphite pencils? The Aquarelles? Love them. Btw, great tree & tutorial. (Those puppies are everywhere here)

[@owingsart]

Yes graphite washes which can be done with any water soluble type of graphite. 🙂

[@nataschapicart1948]

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

[@owingsart]

@@nataschapicart1948 Thank you 🙏 😊