Drawings on Toned Paper

Posted on

 

These new drawings were done on toned paper, either gray or tan and measure around 18 x 24. Most were made with black ink and white Prisma pencil. Some have white ink. The ink was from Pigma Micron pens of various sizes or else applied with a brush.

  • See under Artwork/Illustrations

When you draw on white paper, the lightest areas of the resulting image are the color of the paper. They are the left-over parts and are not drawn directly. When you draw on toned paper, the lightest areas need to be drawn. Since drawing with white was something I wanted to explore, I looked through my photos for images that had opportunities for this kind of exercise. The Rhinos, for example, have forms that are rendered almost entirely with black ink, but the small areas of white help to make the forms pop out. The donkey is mostly white and had to be approached with a different technique. White ink in a bottle is thinner at the top than at the bottom, if you don’t shake it up. If you dip the brush in the top of the ink the strokes are transparent. When you want more opaque white, you use the dropper to get a sample from the bottom and apply it to the brush.

The rocking chair drawing below, has the lighter and darker tones blended together. They are made with different grays of Prisma pencils and rubbed. This produces a more painterly effect than the ink scribbled tones of the other two.