Exercise: Adding line to watercolour

Enjoyed the exercise, felt I could be  a lot looser in my application of the paint given that any linear marks I added after the paint had dried would help to to reinforce better define the subject matter.


Pencil used here mainly to show the sides/sections of the bananas

Water colour pencil used here when the paper still slightly damp, given feeling that each object has been outlined by a thick felt tip pen.. not sure why I selected a purple pencil.

Biro used in this painting, again mainly to highlight the sides of the bananas

Pen and ink used in this sketch, probably my favourite out of the four studies

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Exercise: Tones in several layers

In this simple still life painting I am building up the tonal contrasts using multiple layers of the same watercolour mix.  I think tonal range achieved here is greater than the painting performed in the single layer exercise. This is due to the fact that you are assessing then painting when dry before deciding if and where to apply anther layer of the same wash.

In this painting I think the tonal values of the cups is more consistent, and am happy with the way the scissors have turned out given that I was using a large brush focusing on tones rater than detail.  Will not mention the quality of the ellipses used when drawing the cups...bottom of cup in foreground not to clever, but wider ellipse of the top of this cup helps give the picture depth.

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Exercise: Tones from a single layer

In this exercise I am applying the tones paint in single mixing up the watercolour before applying it to the paper, the hardest part is knowing whether the watercolour will leave you with the tones you wanted once dried.  Knowing that watercolour dries lighter I still find it hard to judge how lighter the dried paint will be.

In the following simple still life I think the cups have been defined successfully relying more on the change in tones than the quality of the drawing. There is a sense of depth and direction of the light source in this picture.

Left hand cup could do with some darker tones to match the other cups and not sure that the chair slats behind the cups reflect any form could possibly read as stripped wall paper...either way I think they help the composition.

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Exercise: Dramatic interiors

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Exercise: Pencil and watercolour

In the this exercise I have done two version of the same still life, both initially drawn in pencil but one being painted carefully following the pencil mark and the second painted using the pencil mark as a rough guide.

I found the pencil marks helpful in terms of knowing exactly where I was to apply the paint, though if I am honest feel I prefer to go straight to the paint brush, that said I have only used watercolour as a wash for colouring in pen and ink drawings in the past.

I think given the simplicity of the subject matter I think the more expressive looser painting style adds more interest to the painting.

The pencil marks are lightly rendered and are not an obvious addition to the finished paintings. Pen and ink be and more obvious way of making linear marks a stronger feature in the painting.. perhaps too strong if you are producing a work that had a lot of detail underling pencil may allow you to hint at this details with out the need to paint it in using watercolour (slightly harder)

I certainly felt more pleasure painting the the version were your not obliged to stick to the drawing, and for that reason feel these paintings are more successful.

Exercise: Quick watercolour studies

In the exercise I am painting in quick succession the same still life, simple arrangement of fruit.  In this exercise I was initially concerned with the tonal values up as the still life was directly under the light source the tonal contrast where not that exciting, some shadow at the base of the fruit where it sat on the table surface.  I experiment with the  colours in the shadow, sometimes using paynes grey the main element and in other sketches switching to blue and or purple.

Though I did not use a pencil to define the object before painting I found myself drawing the shapes out first with a brush before applying any washes in sketch number  4 I purposely avoided doing this though did at a few details after the main patches of colour had been put down.

Most of the paintings show signs of the wet in wet approach, possibly due to the nature the exercise (quick sketches). I particularly like the way the colours of the objects have bled into the table (number 3)

A problem with all of the sketches is depth of colour, still need to gauge how much lighter the colour will appear once it has dried.  

Composition wise I like number 4 and there are also some interesting wet in wet patterns in his sketch.

I think the sketches could have been improve by taking more time to consider the lighting and having an obvious focal point highlighted darker tones and or more detail.