Blind contours, washes, flowers, and all hands on the drawing deck

Dear Sarah - Day 184 of our daily drawing exchange

July 3, 2025
Hi Nikki,

Today in the class we learned to do flat washes--wet on wet. Goal was to create completely even colour. Very soothing. You hold the brush ever-so-lightly to move the paint around.

Then I did a blind contour drawing of some flowers from my deck, followed by loose and looser pen, ink and watercolour paintings.

Sketchy, sketchier, sketchiest. I tried this yesterday--loosening up with a BC drawing of sweetpeas, then painting the flowers in increasingly loose colour. I'll post those another day. For today--a cloudy day--sunny colours.

I'm off now to the optometrist, then errands, and tea with a friend--and you at 5:30!

XO S

Hi Sarah -

what a cool set of drawings! (and, washes - you have to show me how to do that when you get here… just a few more sleeps!!)

When we met to work on the book and chatted briefly about the drawing project, you mentioned having two takes on the same subject (blind contour and then pen and wash - v. 1 and v. 2). I fished out my favourite LAMY pen, dug around and found a new ink cartridge, and tried my hand and a hand - same strategy.

I had totally the wrong brush for the wash part of this pen and wash - hence too blobby - but the combination of the two techniques led to an interesting result (despite the blobby wash). Will do this again!

Well done today, btw - I can’t believe I teared up at that scene you wrote when a) I know we have invented everything and b) some kind of dark justice has been served?

Looking forward to this next stage - the editing of the first draft. And, very much looking forward to drawalking with you over the next couple of weeks.

Nikki