Line and wash self-portrait of Nicolas Steenhout. He has a black mop style paintbrush in his mouth and is holding a fountain pen in his left hand, pointing up.

Nic's Art Journey

Line or wash first?

Should you put down your ink lines first? Or your color first? There are different thinking about this. I typically put down the ink first, and color later. But I’m exploring the idea of changing!

Line and wash sketch.An older house with a second floor, and a wrap around porch. There is a large tree to the left of the image, near the sidewalk. A small garage to the right of the house, towards the back. A tall evergreen tree directly behind the house. Hand written nose states: Yorktown, SK, July 2022, Stop for a few hours on our way across Canada. There are swatches of the four colors used to paint this.

The first sketch is done from a photo I took in one of our trips. I put down the ink lines first. Then added watercolor.

I kept the palette limited to four colors: Payne’s Grey, Burnt Umber, Permanent Sap Green, and Winsor Violet.

Line and wash sketch. A second version of the other sketch. An older house with a second floor, and a wrap around porch. There is a large tree to the left of the image, near the sidewalk. A small garage to the right of the house, towards the back. A tall evergreen tree directly behind the house.

The second sketch, I put down watercolor, and then I added the ink lines. My proportions aren’t as good (or should I say “more bad”?). The ink also behaves a bit differently - lines go thicker faster.

I’ll be trying this again at another time. Because I don’t like it now but looking at Mike Daikubara’s book “Color first, ink later”, this shows promise.

Done in Hahnemühle A5 landscape watercolor sketchbook.

Other Urban Sketches

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Published on August 5, 2025

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