In the style of...

I've been trying to play around with other people's styles of working lately, with not much success. Today, intrigued by what some friends have been doing after taking a class from Ian Fennelly, I watched a video of his on YouTube, thinking I would try out his way of working.

Unfortunately, I don't own all the tools he uses. His is a three-step process, in which he first blocks out the large areas: Sometimes he draws them lightly in pencil or gray marker, other times he simply blocks in all the color, using watercolors. Then, after that dries, he goes back in and draws over the top of the watercolor with various shades of gray marker, being careful not to obscure too much of the color, but making good use of the grays to delineate edges, shadows, and such. Finally, he goes in with his pen (he uses a fine-point marker) and puts in all the myriad details.

I didn't have any of the Tombow or other markers he uses in the gray tones—I only own them in bright colors. So I had to do the intermediate step using gray watercolor. For this one, I drew everything quickly and sketchily with a pencil, then put in the big blocks of color, and then did the pen.

Ian has a trademark look that is the one thing I especially meant to try and then forgot: He exaggerates the slants of all the buildings in some of his drawings, so that some bow out or curve inward at a much more extreme angle than in reality. With my problems with "real" perspective, I thought that that way of working might just suit me, but then forgot as I was sketching this!

Here is one of his scenes:

Ian has a quick, somewhat wiggly, curly line with his pen that I didn't duplicate. He is also a fanatic for all the small details that make the scene unique, so he would have put in every single brick (or at least 50 percent of them) on that building in the center, as well as the pavers on the cobblestone street, instead of simply delineating the outer edges, as I did.

I have to admit, I don't have the patience for drawing that would cause me to lovingly study and duplicate all those details. So while this picture has maybe a flavor of his style, it's still me. That is to say, a little messy, a little lazy, and with lots of glaring perspective problems that perhaps don't glare quite so badly when using this slightly looser style.

This is a scene from somewhere in Germany, judging by the Koffiehuis sign.

Pencil, watercolor, marker, in Bee sketchbook.