Tutored Life Drawing Inspiration Blog Week 07: Ink & Wash (Patreon)

In this blog post we're looking at artists who work in Ink and Wash, accommodating a little watercolour in that definition. These weekly posts, which accompany our existing 34-week tutored life drawing course of blogs and videos, are intended to point you towards artists that you might not have encountered and to remind you of artists you might have forgotten about. As always, selecting only three artists to accompany the topic of the week has been difficult and it seems an omission to leave out the plethora of historical and contemporary Chinese and Japanese artists whose work speak of 5,000 years of ink-painting history, something that I can correct when we return to the medium at a later stage. 

Main image: Study for The Dance by Paula Rego 

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Rembrandt Van Rijn 

Rembrandt Van Rijn's (1606-1669) drawing of a young woman sleeping is probably one of the most reproduced European ink drawings in history, and for good reason - the calligraphic efficiency of the brush strokes (a detail of which forms the cover of Diana Petherbridge's The Primacy of Drawing) shows a confidence of looking and mark making to which we can all aspire. 

• Read more about Rembrandt Van Rijn 
• See more drawings by Rembrandt HERE 

Young Woman Sleeping by Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1654, ink on paper

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Paula Rego

While the Portuguese-British painter and printmaker could have been included under any of our recent themes, I've chosen to include her in this ink and wash selection simply because of how this drawing struck me when I saw it in the recent retrospective of her work at the Tate Britain. Taken in isolation each part seems relatively simple; as a whole it has a much greater impact than the sum of its parts. 

• Watch THIS short video of Paula Rego talking about the process of creating a picture. 
• Read more about Paula Rego HERE 

Study for Crivelli's Garden by Paula Rego, 1990, Pen, ink and watercolour on paper

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Jesse Leeroy Smith

British artist Jesse Leeroy Smith used to attend life classes at Draw, where he would paint water in the shape of the model's pose onto large sheets of watercolour paper and drop ink or watercolour into that shape, letting it spread within the wet space and pool where the paper buckled. The drawing below shows a similar approach, bounded by a pencil line, reminiscent of Rodin's pencil and watercolour sketches. 

• See more of Jesse Leeroy Smith's work HERE 
• Follow Jesse Leeroy Smith's on Instagram HERE 

Figure by Jesse Leeroy Smith, ink and pencil on paper

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The blog posts in the 34-week tutored life drawing course are available to all supporters, the full course of videos and reference photos are available to life and student tier supporters.

>> Read the Week 07: Ink &  Wash blog post HERE (All Tiers)
>> Watch the Week 07: Ink &  Wash main lesson HERE (Student & Life Tiers)
>> Watch the Week 07: Ink &  Wash demo video HERE (Student & Life Tiers)

Find links to the whole Tutored Life Drawing Course HERE