meldrum artThis was originally a two minute pencil sketch (20121204) on 200 gram watercolour paper. I painted it last Friday, 20130125. I was really happy with it when I did the first wash, then it became muddy as I put on further layers. I want to create a three dimensional quality without losing the vibrancy of a single wash. Live and learn!
At last, I found time to go to life drawing. I’ve been very busy since Christmas so it was a great pleasure to sketch tonight. The session was a two hour pose, the model was a real pro, stood still as a statue. The venue was, The Swedish Academy of Realistic Art in Stockholm.
I’m happy enough with the painting, I have to get used to spending two hours on a figure, for the last two years I’ve been drawing quick poses. Now I want to slow down and capture more detail, the biggest problem I have is the stiffness of the pose, I need to relax. I can see from my 5 and 10 minute poses from two years ago that they were also stiff. All I need to do is lots of these two hour sessions and I should eventually find a fluid line to my art.
Click on the image if you would like to see it in a larger format.
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| Watercolour Nude 2013.01.24 |
Steve Hanks can certainly paint a nude. I admire his work, the detail is amazing, I guess he paints from photographs, it would be impossible to capture so much detail otherwise.
Steve Hanks – Female portrait nude from Art Center on Vimeo.
I discovered the figurative watercolour artist, Ted Nuttall has a Facebook page. His latest work is published there. Visit Ted Nuttall on Facebook here. Please note that for this link to work you need to be already logged into your Facebook account.
I am not 100% happy with this effort, I got the model’s back all muddy, too many strokes! The leg should also have softer edges to suggest depth. Another learning experience that caused frustration but at the same time satifaction. Nothing is straight forward and simple for long when one watercolours.
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| Watercolour nude study from photograph |
I got a scanner to work. Much better than the iPhone! Looking forward to getting back to Stockholm next week for some life drawings sessions.
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| Watercolour nude study from photograph |
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| Watercolour nude study from photograph |
Here is my basic watercolour kit that I use while traveling. 3 Escoda brushes (Charles Reid signature), 1 Pentel Twist-Erase 0.9 pencil with HB lead, W&N Field box, water spray, water pot, putty rubber and Hero calligraphy pen.
I still consider myself to be a newbie so my kit will change I am sure as learn more about watercolouring.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am in Northern Ireland at the moment so it is not possible for me to attend life drawing sessions in Stockholm. I really want to get started, so to avoid total frustration I sketched two photographs of naked models that I found on the internet. Am I breaking copyright laws by doing this? Anyway, I was very happy with the results, except I much prefer to sketch real models.
I met Nina Johansson and Maria Flood from my local sketching group today at Central Station. The station was a great place to sketch, lots of people just hanging around waiting for a train, they looked bored and didn’t move too much which was perfect. On the second sketch I masked the page with some tape which enhanced the picture a lot I think. Sketched in my A5 watercolour Moleskin, with Hero calligraphy pen and W&N watercolours.
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| Stockholm, Central Station 20130106 |
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| Stockholm, Central Station 20130106 |
