Watercolour Practice
PART 2 Painting from observation
Project 1 Drawing and watercolour
Exercise 2 Pencil and watercolour
Having done exercise 1, I had unwittingly discovered a working method that suited me for doing watercolour still lifes. If I drew the still life arrangement first it had the advantage of the fruit not rotting in the process and no one can then unwittingly knock over or move the still life, especially the cat, before I am finished with it. Drawing the still life helps to solve some of the problem before starting to paint and the drawing is a constant reference until I am happy with the watercolour.
Figure 1 (2.1.2.1) Initial charcoal drawing
I arranged my still life and drew it on pastel paper using charcoal. This took an hour or two but then I cleared the coffee table and re-commissioned it as a coffee table.
Figure 2 (2.1.2.2) tracing for transfer
I then traced the salient lines and transferred them to two A3 watercolour not sheets.
Figure 3 (2.1.2.3) working within the lines
Considering the slow detailed painting first, it took quite a while and I was fairly pleased with the outcome I learned a good bit of technique doing this. I like the hollowness of the goblet and I am fairly pleased with the fruit. The bottle is a bit solid and flat but the cloth has an airy feel, on the whole by slowing down by a couple of films and maybe a few extra nights I could have achieved a better overall result.
Figure 4 (2.1.2.4) Working without the lines
The quick one took all of ten minutes, and no films were used in the making of this watercolour. At first it was hard not to follow the lines but after two minutes I was into the swing of things and was having so much fun I had to stop myself fiddling with things after ten minutes. I’m surprised it says about the same amount about the still life as the slow one, maybe even more but what it says it says loud and proud. Of the two I prefer the quick one it just looks so effortless and free.
Did the drawing inhibit your painting or did the outline structure give you greater confidence?
I think the drawing helped in both instances. I was working mainly from my charcoal drawing. In the slow painting the drawing and the traced marks helped to give a structure to the painting and in a funny way the quick one really benefited from a bit of structure. I don’t think I could have done the quick one without having done the charcoal drawing and the slow one, even though I was slapping the paint I only had a target for my looseness that was clear in my mind.
The first more precise method of fitting wash into pencil outlines can be very useful for some subjects. What did it help to bring out in your drawing?
I think it brought a lot of form into the painting and I think when I have had a bit more practice at watercolours and an not so worried about the technical aspects I will be able to paint fairly realistic pictures.
Is the pencil concealed by your paint or does it act as an accent to your painting?
In both cases the pencil marks were light enough to be concealed by the paint.
In the second looser approach, how would you describe the role of the pencil lines? Is there a sense in which the separateness of the pencils of interest in itself? Would this effect be stronger if you had darker pencil marks or another medium such as pen and ink?
As I already said initially I found the pencil lines inhibiting and the pencil lines were too light to show through the paint. I already experimented a little with pen and ink over watercolour in exercise 2.1.1 as a means of strengthening a watercolour to give it more form.
What are the advantages of the more careful method?
More realism and form
What are the advantages of the quick method?
More fun and quicker results and more transparency and light in the painting
Did the pencil drawing require a different kind of looking to the painting? If so what were the differences?
I don’t really think so, perhaps doing the tracings after the initial drawing meant that I paid more attention to the initial drawing from the still life. While I was doing the paintings I was referring to the initial drawing quite closely. I guess I looked harder while I was drawing as the reference would no longer be available after that.
Which of all the studies you have done so far has been the most successful? Consider how and why that is.
That is, a really tough question. All the studies I have done have, in one way or another, been successful in teaching me how to paint in watercolours and to pick a favourite while I am still groping in the dark would be a little unfair. When I show these paintings to friends they each chose a different one as their favourite, however, if I had to pay for framing costs, six or seven of the paintings in exercise 2.1.1 would not make the cut.
My Learning Log 