Sigune's Adventures in Watercolour Land
Tuesday, 15 April 2008 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
siguneDid I mention that I spent the Easter weekend with Cecilia/cabepfir? ;-)
...I did.
Anyway: when Cecilia visited the Sleeper's Den, she was kind enough to try and teach the Den's inhabitant a thing or two about watercolour, one of the media she handles really well. I was dying to pick up a few tips, anything that could help me improve, and, well, I did :-). Cecilia had to teach me the basic-est of basics, and I'm immensely happy that she had the patience to do so.
Now, I didn't actually paint anything while she was here. I did start a picture, but I just didn't get very far on account of the tedious fact that watercolour takes so much time to dry, and we had started so late :P. The result was that I had to try and practice what I had seen and heard when I was on my own again. I was a bit nervous about that, and I actually left the picture to lie around until last weekend. But once I had started painting, I couldn't stop anymore - it was such fun! - and I produced no less than three pictures (all of which I had admittedly set up in advance). Here they are.
Ambiorix in the Woods (G)
Brynhild (G)
The Lady under the Cherry Tree (G)
I know this is not a good picture - too many things are wrong with the drawing. Cecilia told me to do a quick pencil drawing to use as a basis for experimentation with the paints. This is basically a bad doodle on good paper :/. The arm and hand are too large and the shoulders too narrow, and let's not mention my amazing talents for landscape drawing -_-. But the paint... Well, the paint could have been worse, couldn't it? Or so I like to think, anyway :-).
When Cecilia left, Ambiorix looked like a Martian. Cecilia was teaching me about layers - covering all the separate elements of the drawing with individual washes of the same colour as a basis. I picked Sap Green. Ambiorix had had too much mead, he was all green. I had my doubts about the effect, but of course Cecilia was right and once the other washes had been added, there was nothing odd-looking about the first green wash anymore :-).
It may not be a work of art, but I'm really happy with it. The paint looks beautifully transparent, now that I have learnt to mix paint in water instead of adding water to mixed paint. I was very patient with the drying layers, and actually enjoyed the slow process. And whatever looks wonky in the picture, it finally is not the paint. Colour me pleased :-).
Even though I was finally beginning to figure out how to let the colours replace lines, I missed my lineart. I always do. A month or two ago I decided that the only way I would get used to colour was in combination with my inks, even if that isn't the appropriate use of colour. But because I don't always want hard black lines, I bought some Faber-Castell PITT pens in sanguine and dark brown tints. This portrait of Brynhild is my first try-out with sanguine lineart.
Looking good?
Not looking good?
Personally I rather like the combination. Too bad the painting went all wrong :-). What happened is that the paper (very light watercolour quality - I think it weighs 160 g/m²) started to cockle. I should have stretched it :/. Now the paint didn't dry the way it should. Little pools of it gathered in ... well, whatever the paper equivalents of potholes are ... and dried there, so that it looks as if poor Brynhild has been beaten up :/. That wasn't the idea at all. The pallor was, mind. Brynhild is sort of drained of all colour - there is a story behind that.
Conclusion: not a succes because I overestimated the paper.
This picture was started as a commission for a RL friend who is going to have her first baby soon. She asked me to design the cards, specifying that the picture wasn't to include any babies, baby things, or classic things associated with birth announcements. Instead she mentioned landscapes and faeries, and sent me to a website with Rackham, Dulac and others' illustrations for fairytales. The picture above is what I came up with. Unfortunately I have in the meantime been sacked as a designer because the proposed picture does not look sufficiently birth-y. I can't really argue with that... But on the other hand, I still don't know what kind of image would have been better in terms of atmosphere if I wasn't to include any of the classic baby things :/. I guess the greatest problem with this commission was that my new job made it impossible to spend lunchtime with my friend and talk things over with her. As it turned out, I had only this to offer, for sheer lack of time in the recent upheaval of my life :(.
Now that the picture is done (it was only at the pencil stage when it was rejected), I'm not sure my friend would regret her decision. I could probably have done something more convincing with this if I hadn't gone for experiment in terms of paper. I wanted to try coloured paper in order to get closer to the 'old' look of the fairytale illustrations she had given me as reference, but that just didn't turn out to create that kind of effect. Not early twentieth century at all, this :-). Instead my colours all came out very pale. The blue I used for the sky is the same that I used for Ambiorix's cloak in the first picture... The reds came out pink. It's not bad or ugly or anything - just nothing like what I thought it would be. One reason is that I didn't dare to use layers because this was not watercolour paper, and I by no means wanted the paint to pool as it had done in the Brynhild picture. The final effect is sort of sweet. Very, very, very sweet. *sigh* But then again, this was meant for a baby, so it's not as if I can use lots of black and edges, right? Also, I tried something that I haven't attempted, or felt inclined to attempt, since I was a teenager. My style has moved on, I think. And it's nastier than this.
Plus, you know, I'm not cidaq or any other illustrator who knows what they are doing. I'm a simple amateur who has always struggled with colour and has to find out everything about materials by herself.
Ah well. It's pretty, and I have learnt a thing or two. What more can one ask? :-)
...I did.
Anyway: when Cecilia visited the Sleeper's Den, she was kind enough to try and teach the Den's inhabitant a thing or two about watercolour, one of the media she handles really well. I was dying to pick up a few tips, anything that could help me improve, and, well, I did :-). Cecilia had to teach me the basic-est of basics, and I'm immensely happy that she had the patience to do so.
Now, I didn't actually paint anything while she was here. I did start a picture, but I just didn't get very far on account of the tedious fact that watercolour takes so much time to dry, and we had started so late :P. The result was that I had to try and practice what I had seen and heard when I was on my own again. I was a bit nervous about that, and I actually left the picture to lie around until last weekend. But once I had started painting, I couldn't stop anymore - it was such fun! - and I produced no less than three pictures (all of which I had admittedly set up in advance). Here they are.
Ambiorix in the Woods (G) Brynhild (G) The Lady under the Cherry Tree (G)I know this is not a good picture - too many things are wrong with the drawing. Cecilia told me to do a quick pencil drawing to use as a basis for experimentation with the paints. This is basically a bad doodle on good paper :/. The arm and hand are too large and the shoulders too narrow, and let's not mention my amazing talents for landscape drawing -_-. But the paint... Well, the paint could have been worse, couldn't it? Or so I like to think, anyway :-).
When Cecilia left, Ambiorix looked like a Martian. Cecilia was teaching me about layers - covering all the separate elements of the drawing with individual washes of the same colour as a basis. I picked Sap Green. Ambiorix had had too much mead, he was all green. I had my doubts about the effect, but of course Cecilia was right and once the other washes had been added, there was nothing odd-looking about the first green wash anymore :-).
It may not be a work of art, but I'm really happy with it. The paint looks beautifully transparent, now that I have learnt to mix paint in water instead of adding water to mixed paint. I was very patient with the drying layers, and actually enjoyed the slow process. And whatever looks wonky in the picture, it finally is not the paint. Colour me pleased :-).
Even though I was finally beginning to figure out how to let the colours replace lines, I missed my lineart. I always do. A month or two ago I decided that the only way I would get used to colour was in combination with my inks, even if that isn't the appropriate use of colour. But because I don't always want hard black lines, I bought some Faber-Castell PITT pens in sanguine and dark brown tints. This portrait of Brynhild is my first try-out with sanguine lineart.
Looking good?
Not looking good?
Personally I rather like the combination. Too bad the painting went all wrong :-). What happened is that the paper (very light watercolour quality - I think it weighs 160 g/m²) started to cockle. I should have stretched it :/. Now the paint didn't dry the way it should. Little pools of it gathered in ... well, whatever the paper equivalents of potholes are ... and dried there, so that it looks as if poor Brynhild has been beaten up :/. That wasn't the idea at all. The pallor was, mind. Brynhild is sort of drained of all colour - there is a story behind that.
Conclusion: not a succes because I overestimated the paper.
This picture was started as a commission for a RL friend who is going to have her first baby soon. She asked me to design the cards, specifying that the picture wasn't to include any babies, baby things, or classic things associated with birth announcements. Instead she mentioned landscapes and faeries, and sent me to a website with Rackham, Dulac and others' illustrations for fairytales. The picture above is what I came up with. Unfortunately I have in the meantime been sacked as a designer because the proposed picture does not look sufficiently birth-y. I can't really argue with that... But on the other hand, I still don't know what kind of image would have been better in terms of atmosphere if I wasn't to include any of the classic baby things :/. I guess the greatest problem with this commission was that my new job made it impossible to spend lunchtime with my friend and talk things over with her. As it turned out, I had only this to offer, for sheer lack of time in the recent upheaval of my life :(.
Now that the picture is done (it was only at the pencil stage when it was rejected), I'm not sure my friend would regret her decision. I could probably have done something more convincing with this if I hadn't gone for experiment in terms of paper. I wanted to try coloured paper in order to get closer to the 'old' look of the fairytale illustrations she had given me as reference, but that just didn't turn out to create that kind of effect. Not early twentieth century at all, this :-). Instead my colours all came out very pale. The blue I used for the sky is the same that I used for Ambiorix's cloak in the first picture... The reds came out pink. It's not bad or ugly or anything - just nothing like what I thought it would be. One reason is that I didn't dare to use layers because this was not watercolour paper, and I by no means wanted the paint to pool as it had done in the Brynhild picture. The final effect is sort of sweet. Very, very, very sweet. *sigh* But then again, this was meant for a baby, so it's not as if I can use lots of black and edges, right? Also, I tried something that I haven't attempted, or felt inclined to attempt, since I was a teenager. My style has moved on, I think. And it's nastier than this.
Plus, you know, I'm not cidaq or any other illustrator who knows what they are doing. I'm a simple amateur who has always struggled with colour and has to find out everything about materials by herself.
Ah well. It's pretty, and I have learnt a thing or two. What more can one ask? :-)
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no subject
Date: Wednesday, 16 April 2008 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 20 April 2008 07:47 pm (UTC)here via lionille
Date: Wednesday, 16 April 2008 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 20 April 2008 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 16 April 2008 07:05 am (UTC)I like Brunhild's portrait. The mix of lines and colours is pretty.
As for the commission, as a pregnant woman, all I can say is that I'd love it if I'd given you the instructions myself.
no subject
Date: Sunday, 20 April 2008 07:52 pm (UTC)Actually I suspect my friend will like the final result as a picture, just not as a card for her baby... And I can see why. I'm just happy I finished the picture anyway :).
Glad you like the Brynhild picture. I have plans to do a short comic in this technique. I was a bit worried about how the brown lineart might look in combination with paint, but I think that as long as I stick to soft colours it will be all right. For the Brynhild portrait it's just a shame that the paint pooled :/.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 16 April 2008 04:34 pm (UTC)Have you checked out
no subject
Date: Sunday, 20 April 2008 11:52 am (UTC)I'm afraid the difference between my art for
I think lines are possibly my strongest point, so it's probably not a good idea to try and get rid of them on paper. At the same time I do feel that urge to try and learn about watercolour without inks... I think that ideally my technique should be a deliberate choice, not the result of an eliminiation of all the techniques I can't master ;-). ...What a long way to go, eh? But it's fun all the same.