This is another experiment, using just watercolor pencils, some washes, and regular graphite on light sketching paper. My technique was to create lines and a composition, along with some colors that I would bring out in more vibrant fashion in post-processing using Lightroom and a bit of Photoshop. Here is the original drawing, which doesn’t look like much. Very low contrast and not much color. Overall very flat.

In Lightroom, I added a bit more exposure, then cranked up the clarity and vibrance along with saturation (a bit). In doing, that the yellow color in the paper became much stronger.  I also adjusted the whites and blacks to give it a bit more contrast. From there,  I went into the color adjustments to modify the hue,  luminance, and saturation. Finally, I tried a few sharpness and noise settings. I was not worried too much about the extensive noise, because I thought it lent some interesting texture to the image, which of course had been there from the beginning.  Here is the final result.

This is a slight variation on a theme I have been working the past several weeks. I enjoy creating the contrast between the dark ink and the bright watercolor. The ink was applied with a ruling pen.

Prints available from Fine Art America

Ink applied with a ruling pen on heavy stock paper with watercolor wash. This one takes the very minimalist ink with ruling pen idea and adds some color.

Ink and watercolor on mixed media stock

This is another piece where I used ink strokes on a background of watercolor. I imagine that it may be a bit too busy for some people, but others may enjoy letting their attention roam from one section to another, looking at colors, shapes, and lines. How do you see it?

Prints at various sizes available here

Still exploring textures, colors, and shapes with ink, watercolor, and photography.

Another take using similar materials and going for a similar effect. The color palette of this one is slightly different from Feedback 1 and 2.

Sometimes abstract work defies my attempts to give it a title, but in this case, I think the ink does look a bit like it is encased in stone. Of course, others may see it differently, which is one of the neat things about abstract art.

This piece continues my explorations of using watercolor backgrounds to ink foregrounds and blends. I like how the textures turned out.