Hamburger drawing – watercolor at Big Fernand in Paris

aquarelle de restaurant
Painting in a hamburger restaurant

This midday, during a getaway in the Batignolles district, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, we stopped by Big Fernand. It was a great find. I often have the opportunity to draw ready meals, recipes or ingredients when I do illustrations for magazines or the press.

As often, I brought all the painting supplies with me to draw when I go for a walk. This allows me to be operational to make sketches depending on where I am. I really like taking advantage of these opportunities to paint on location: it’s always a very good job of observation that gets out of my studio. With the freshness of these autumn days, I have a little less opportunity to paint Paris, which is why the refuge of cafes and restaurants offers a good alternative.

dessin de hamburger au restaurant
Watercolor of a burger in a restaurant

Once my watercolor was painted, I was able to enjoy myself: Big Fernand is a very good choice of hamburger! You can tell it’s good meat and quality ingredients.

matériel pour peindre à l'aquarelle
Watercolor set

For the very first time, I brought with me a brand new accessory that I got this week: a glass feather. I had learned a little about the subject, as I wanted to change some of my indelible India ink markers.
After trying several fountain pens from various brands: Rotring, Waterman, Lamy Safari or Pentel, my choice fell on glass nibs.

Of course, they don’t offer full and thin lines like a classic sergeant-major feather, or any other chisel point … but the regularity of the line is an advantage to me. For my part, this allows better control of the line, without unpleasant surprises. It is possible to draw from any angle of the hand. The pen thus runs over the sheet of paper, with a long reserve of ink.

In order to be able to combine drawing and watercolor, which is a water-based painting, I opted for a permanent ink. It is not Indian ink, the gum arabic of which obstructs the fine spirals of the nib. This black ink therefore remains very fluid, it flows well on the paper, and does not bleed very much in contact with water.

However, to avoid any unsightly smudging, I started with coloring in watercolors. As soon as it was dry, then I drew my outlines and details in ink. The blackness of the line is perfect: very dense, it combines wonderfully with the lighter shades of water-based paint. The contrast is therefore in my eyes a good balance, I can not wait to redraw now.

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