My last watercolour for 2013. It’s been an interesting year. I’m excited about 2014 as I’ve promised myself to really start painting watercolours seriously.
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| Watercolour nude by David Meldrum 20131229 |
Category: figure painting
This is a great Christmas present! It seems I do not need to outline anymore. This is the second watercolour I have created without any initial pencil marks. I am happy enough with the result and I look forward now to 2014 and developing this new found skill. 🙂
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| Nude with no outlines. Saunders Waterford HP paper – 31 x 23 cm |
Do I need to use a pencil initially when painting a watercolour nude? I didn’t here and I like the result, I just started painting the nude directly onto paper. I will continue down this path and see what develops. Merry Christmas!
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| Pencil free nude. Saunders Waterford HP paper – 31 x 23 cm |
I recently bought Arches watercolour paper. Each time I try to paint on it I get cramp, I find it almost impossible to relax. Why? Because I have such a respect for the beautiful 300g rough cotton paper. I finally worked out the solution to my problem, I simply chop up the paper into smaller pieces and in doing so I make the paper less precious. Now I am not afraid to make mistakes, now I can experiment and learn. You wouldn’t believe what a relief this is to me. I’m just another artist with mental problems!
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| A4 Nude on Arches 300g rough paper. |
I stumbled over Wendy Artin’s Watercolour nudes today. There are not many good figure painters who use watercolour as their chosen medium . I am happy to have discovered her work and have bookmarked her as a source of inspiration. You can visit her web site here.

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| Nude by Wendy Artin |
It was a lean evening at life drawing last night. I only managed to produce one sketch that I was reasonably happy with. This means the next life drawing session can only be better. Something to look forward to 🙂
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| Watercolour nude 20131023. Canson 200g, 24 x 32 cm ( 9 3/8 x 12 1/2″) |
I don’t watercolour as much as I’d like to. I’m going to try paint for an hour or so after each evening meal. Go to less to life drawing evenings, I need to sit down and paint, practice and paint. Play, I need to have fun too, very important that.
Here are some recent watercolours and yes, they were fun to do. The first wash was done at life drawing and the darker tones where added later.
Another enjoyable session at Konstnärshuset here in Stockholm. One colleague asked if I would paint one more watercolour wash after getting home. The sketches would look more complete but then again I probably would loose the freshness. I chose to leave them alone.
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| 10 minute nude |
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| 5 minute nude |
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| 5 minute nude |
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| 5 minute nude |
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| 5 minute nude |
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| 2 minute nude |
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| 2 minute nude |
Here is a selection of watercolour and pencil sketches from my life drawing evening at Konstnärshuset, Stockholm. I hope to transfer the energy and freshness of these sketches into my paintings which are all too often, stiff and laboured.
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| Ten minute nude. 20130910 |
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| Five minute nude. 20130910 |
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| Five minute nude. 20130910 |
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| Ten minute nude. 20130910 |
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| Two minute nude. 20130910 |
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| Two minute nude. 20130910 |