My sketching kit these days is cut down to a bare minimum. I draw directly with a Pentel Sepia Colour Brush onto an A5 sketchbook containing cartridge paper. The ink in the SCB is water soluble and the Pentel Wash Brush filled with water can be used to thin the drawn marks to create blends and washes. These tools allow quick bold tonal studies to be made like ‘Porthcressa St. Mary’s’

I’ve always used the Pentel Brushes in this way but lately I’ve begun to feel the need to create more tonal variety in the sketches by using light washes. On a recent holiday on the Isles of Scilly I discovered an easy way of creating washes by using one of the small milk containers that come with the tea making kits provided in hotel bedrooms and café’s. The SCB when swirled around in few drops of water in the container makes a light sepia wash. The study proceeds just like a watercolour with the first light washes applied with the wash brush. The prepared wash can be made stronger by taking more colour from the SCB. Finally the strongest tones can be drawn with the undiluted colour from the SCB itself. The resulting studies are more satisfying because they have a more subtle tonal balance. See: ‘The Blockhouse, Old Grimsby, Tresco’ and ‘The Old Lifeboat Station,Hugh Town, St. Mary’s.

The final study of ‘Tean Sound, St. Martins’ illustrates the depth of tone that can be built up using the wash technique with Pentel Colour Brushes. Interestingly these tiny granite islands of the Scillies have eroded down into landforms that are reminiscent of the mountains and the sea lochs of Wester Ross. A timely reminder that buildings or boats are needed to provide a scale of reference.

One final tip that is worth passing on is that I found that wearing sunglasses to be very helpful while making these tonal studies. Sunglasses work rather like a ‘Claude Glass’ by enhancing tonal values and suppressing colour.

Robert Kirk.
04 October 2006

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