These are some quick sketches of strong man Eddie Hall from 2019. I used a Pentel Brush pen and ink wash on the verso page. The recto page uses the same brush pen but watercolor. These sketches are in a commercially bound journal with green-lined pages. The smooth paper is something that I enjoy working on, even though it is not a wet media paper and really is not happy when I use it as such.
Well it’s just too fun.
Above is a detail of the color sketch. You can see where the wash is starting to seep through the paper to the other side as various fibers get saturated and “cloud” up. Also you can see that in some places I added a bit of white gouache to my watercolor to make tints.
I think these details make a fun contrast beside the quick and very sharp edged ink brush strokes. (The smooth paper is great for brush pen.)
Find some paper to play on with two media today. See how you can stretch the capabilities of one of them and enjoy the capabilities of the other. Focusing on the details in a portrait will give you lots of opportunities to play the media off against each other.
