Here is another one of my quick building sketches from my recent trip to San Francisco. This time it’s a little turquoise house in the very cool suburb of Bernal Heights.

Once again, this is not a traditional ink and wash sketch (ie. ink first then wash) but I can’t remember whether it was ‘paint first’. I do know that I was alternating between line and colour and that it was done quickly – under 10 minutes.

I used my green Sailor with a 55 degree fude nib for this sketch and certainly didn’t wait for any part of the watercolour to dry as I worked. This is the way I love to work, line and colour in one pass.

While I will be teaching more conventional approaches in my upcoming SketchingNow Watercolour online course, I will also be sharing the important aspects that are esential to this way of working – namely confdent strokes, constant awareness of the wetness in my brush and on the page, and the characteristics of the paper which allows me to work rapidly and to create texture on damp washes.