Have You Tried Derwent Inktense Sticks?

'After the Storm'                  11x14             pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $175

We finished the Paint Along painting this week and here is the result of my demo! For this month we did a wet underpainting using Derwent Inktense sticks with water. I decided to try a complementary color underpainting which was an interesting way to add unexpected color to my painting.

If you are not a Patron consider joining us for this paint along video series and much more! www.patreon.com/karenmargulis

Do you want to know more about Inktense? Here is a post and video from the archives!

I am continuing to play with wet underpaintings this weekend. I love how a wet underpainting helps me move away from my reference photo and allows me to interpret the scene with my own voice. Today I decided to do an alcohol wash using Derwent Inktense Blocks. These look like sticks of hard pastel but they are actually blocks of water soluble ink. You can use them wet or dry but they really shine when wet. They explode with rich color. In the fall I made a short video for my patreon page showing an alcohol wash with the intense blocks. You can now watch the demo on my YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/SS11aA6DI6Q

(update: I have discovered that water actually works even better than alcohol!)

The underpainting done with Derwent Inktense sticks

A close up of the distant figure. She is just 4 marks.