Painting onto metal surfaces using Derwent Inktense Pencils and Daniel Smith Watercolour Ground

I want to share the results of using Inktense Pencils to paint onto a metal surface, an antique saw.

In summary:

Inktense pencils work well on a metal surface provided it has been prepared with a suitable medium (e.g. Daniel Smith Watercolour Ground). The Inktense Pencils took longer to dry than on paper and were able to be worked for longer. The colours are not quite as bold as on a white paper surface.

In Detail:

I had been asked by my father to paint a waterfront cottage scene onto an antique saw that he was intending to mount on the wall. This surface was not one I had used before and was not an easy surface to work with.  Because I am comfortable using the Derwent Inktense Pencils I wanted to see if they were capable of being used on this metal surface.

Investigations suggested Daniel Smith's Watercolour Ground product would be suitable as a base for painting with watercolour on any surface, including metal.  I decided to give the product a go. 

I followed the instructions on the Daniel Smith Watercolour Ground container to apply the product to the saw using a paintbrush, and including waiting the required drying time.  To create a more even surface I lightly sanded the paint after drying.  The surface felt a little velvety and was quite dry to touch, quite like dried builder's bog.

I had prepared a concept painting to scale and with all colour choices made so that the paintng process would go more easily.  This painting I felt worked well giving good contrast between ink pen linework and the Inktense pencil painting.


Inktense pencil painting on rough watercolour paper with fineliner pen

After developing the design I decided to transfer it to the saw surface using the old fashioned method of carbon paper.  This worked quite well.  I added some addition pencil line work as guidance for painting.  I had a little difficulty with the hardness of my mechanical pencil and had to swap for a much softer (4B) pencil used very lightly so that it did not scratch into the Watercolour Ground.

The Inktense Pencil was than applied one section at a time to the saw surface and water activated as I went.  I found the Inktense Pencils worked really well in application to the surface because they are a softer lead.  They were much more successful than I imagined.  On the addition of water, I was very happy to see I could work the pencil for longer than I could on paper (a bit more like traditional watercolours). I did note that the colours seemed a little duller than on the white paper.  I am not sure of the reason for this but unlike the paper version of this image, I ended up applying several coats of Inktense Pencil to some areas of the painting to bring up the colour to where I was happy - an example of this was on the roof of the cottage and the grass surrounding the cottage.

Inktense pencil painting on antique metal saw prepared with Watercolour Ground


The biggest mistake I made with the painting had nothing to do with the pencils.  I wanted to use Fineliner Pens to outline the shapes.  I found when I started using the pens on the saw surface, the pens dried very quickly and had to constantly worked on a piece of paper to return them to use as I went.  Even then, I found the fineliner ink was quite washed out, and also cut into the watercolour ground if I was not careful.  If I was repeating this painting style on this surface, a better outcome would have been to use Ink Black Inktense Pencil lines that I water activated.

I have since taking this photo had my father seal the surface with spray lacquer because I was not sure of the lightfastness of the pencil on this medium, and the saw is on the wall of his house.  Time will tell if it stands up to the treatment.

Comments