Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Draw Ink Erase

When creating a pen & ink watercolor painting, I like to draw the image first lightly in pencil on my watercolor paper. Then I will use an india ink pen to trace over my pencil lines. When I have the inked drawing just the way I want it, I will erase all the extra pencil lines.

The kneaded eraser is perfect for this step because it does not leave behind a lot of eraser dust, it doesn't smudge the graphite or ink and it doesn't leave behind the color of the eraser.

I even erase over the ink lines incase there is a little bit of pencil line hiding along the edges of the ink.

Now my pen & ink drawing is ready for watercolor paint.

1. Sketch out drawing lightly in pencil

2. Ink over drawing with a waterproof, bleed proof ink.

3. Erase pencil lines with a kneaded eraser.

4. Paint away!