Over the Garden Wall

Looking over our garden wall (while watching some birds we are feeding). The only ones that come are Spotted Turtle Doves. They squabble and fight among each other and the only bird which gets to feed is a large dominant one. So much for doves being peace loving.

I did this ink-only sketch first with my Sailor fude pen.  A fude pen has a bent nib and this was a 40 degree one (as opposed to the 55 degree ones you can also buy). I sure like the ease of attaining thick and thin lines depending on the angle one holds the pen. 

This second piece I did with direct watercolour (no line) using a Rosemary & Co dagger brush.

Finally I added watercolour to the ink-only sketch with a waterbrush. 

Although I like all three, I was able to achieve more interesting colour effects with the greater holding capacity of the dagger brush as compared with the waterbrush. The direct watercolour technique is easier to do on quick drying paper and my Moleskine Watercolour Journal worked well here. (Much better than the slower drying Bockingford paper I had tried earlier in a home made journal). 

I added some text and “extras” later in an attempt to achieve a better page layout.

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourAlbum, 5x8”