Art 101: Using Watercolor Like a Pen

at the Prairie Wetlands Center

Here’s a quick watercolor sketch I did at the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center in Fergus Falls, MN. If you ever happen to be in the area, definitely stop there! It’s amazing.

This one is very much in the spirit of the David Hockney-esque watercolor sketches we did a while back. (In the archives, also check out 90-92.)

Basically, I used my watercolor brush like a pen and just drew this scene with a brush. This approach is great when:

• You don’t have a lot of time

• You’re using paper that can’t handle heavy watercolor washes

• You don’t want to carry a lot of art supplies

• You love the look of markers or colored pencils, but (see above) you don’t want to carry a whole palette of them with you.

You could easily do this with nothing but a tiny watercolor palette and one small water brush, like this: