Pump House Process

I sometimes get asked about my process, so I decided to document this drawing from my Brooklyn Navy Yard pump house series.

I start with a pencil drawing, generally with a 2H pencil. I'm using Canson XL Series Mixed Media sketchbooks; all the Navy Yard work is in 9X12 books. This drawing is looser and less finished than I usually do because I was working fast for a couple of reasons: it was hot and dirty and uncomfortable in there, I was trying to get a couple of sketches done that afternoon,  I was going to start losing the light, and I wasn't really supposed to be in there in the first place.

Pencil drawing becomes an ink drawing, clarifying details and solidifying structure. I primarily use Sakura Pigma Micron pens. They hold up under the layers of color I'm about to put over them. I forgot to take a photo of just the ink stage, so this also has the beginning of the color stage, a warm grey watercolor pencil wash over the background.

I should also mention that only the pencils were done on site. Urban Sketcher orthodoxy says that you should complete the work then and there, but I don't. Sometimes I start the ink stage on site, but only sometimes. Also, I take photos to use for reference, which is also frowned upon by the purists.

For color, I use watercolor pencils and Derwent Inktense pencils. I like the look of watercolor with the control of pencil. Sometimes I'll use regular watercolor paint for a big wash, like a sky or something. At this stage, I'm just using watercolor pencils, because you can layer and blend them and work over them in a way that you can't with the Derwent Inktense.

Here I lay in the base colors of the pump and some of the background objects. The pump is conveniently divided into two main sections, green on the bottom and blue on top. Much of it - especially the blue part - will be obscured by subsequent layers depicting accumulated rust and decay.

Beginning layering color, watercolor pencils,  then the Derwents. Focusing on the lower half at first. I'm consulting my reference photos, but trying to capture the gist of the rust patterns and values rather than photographic accuracy.

Continuing into the blue upper half. It looks like it's lighter than the previous stage, but that's just my bad photography.

The final result.  At the end, I stopped looking at reference and relied on memory, impressions, and what the drawing seemed to need. This is all done with the Derwent Inktense pencils, which sit on top of previous layers and have much more intense hues. The background in particular became a lot darker and colder; the value and hue creating more contrast with the pump.

This final image is a scan of the sketchbook page, adjusted in Photoshop to look as close to the original as I can get, because I don't know how to photograph my work well enough.

And that's how I do it!