![Image 1 — [Traditional Art] Artists who don’t start their paintings with loose blocking/shapes, what materials do you use to sketch your paintings?](https://preview.redd.it/8d1qn74etd2h1.png?width=1321&format=png&auto=webp&s=e6eff07e5f34dcc743dbef7f81cdc917465096a4)
![Image 2 — [Traditional Art] Artists who don’t start their paintings with loose blocking/shapes, what materials do you use to sketch your paintings?](https://preview.redd.it/wrjgf9qgtd2h1.jpg?width=2609&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=818b009abc06d8a295e4fbbc13f97b776bf9d190)
![Image 3 — [Traditional Art] Artists who don’t start their paintings with loose blocking/shapes, what materials do you use to sketch your paintings?](https://preview.redd.it/o2z2g6tiud2h1.png?width=1517&format=png&auto=webp&s=2e8a2da9885aec9bbef43c9d537d0f736e212913)
[Traditional Art] Artists who don’t start their paintings with loose blocking/shapes, what materials do you use to sketch your paintings?
Right now I’m using a charcoal pencil for my sketches, but I like to refine and clean up my lines before I start painting. I used to do this with graphite, until I noticed that when applying the first acrylic wash, the graphite would often lift together with the paint, besides not being dark enough. I then started using BIC ballpoint pens, and it was working well at first, but after I began using a Galeria Winsor & Newton varnish, the pen ink started bleeding through the acrylic layers and showing over the painting, besides shifting from black to blue (like in the Frieren piece, 3rd image).
In the second image, I used the BIC pen with a generic varnish and it worked really well, but I bought a higher-quality satin varnish, and I’d really like to keep using it : )
I like how much the charcoal stands out, but it smudges too much with water and doesn’t allow for very thin, clean lines.