Calm Water

Calm Clear Water
Watercolour on Paper
280mm x 190mm (11" x 7.5")

Calm Water is the third topic in the "The Look of Transparency" - Chapter 3 of Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor by Claudia Nice.

The need to stay at home to combat coronavirus simplifies the decision about whether to paint from life or photographs. It suits me because my current inclination is to experiment with technique by painting inside.

The Bathing House on the Sharpham Estate
Ink and Watercolour
Moleskine A4 Watercolour Album
297mm x 210mm (11.69" x 8.27")

Both of these scenes are from our holidays. I took the photo of the Bathing House on the Sharpham Estate from the Dartmouth to Totnes river cruise – shortly before Doris let herself down. Elaine tidied things up before anyone noticed – even me. In Doris’ defence she was a young puppy on her first holiday adventure. She wouldn't do anything like that now - fingers crossed. You can rent the Bathing House as a romantic holiday getaway (The Bathing House at Sharpham House). It looks idyllic, but they don’t accept dogs, so it’s not an option for us.

The picture at the top of the post is of the river Otter between Otterton Mill (where we had sandwiches on bread made from the flour they mill) and the coast. I’m not sure what sort of fish this is. I’m guessing a trout, but who knows?

Drawing and Painting the Landscape - The Notan

Parkmill Pond
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Ink
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 15.25cm (8.5" x 6")

Lesson 13 of Drawing and Painting the Landscape by Philip Tyler is about notan – the word derives from a Japanese term meaning light dark harmony. Artists use notan studies to explore the arrangement of the light and dark shapes in a composition. It is common to see 2 value notans (black and white), but greys can be introduced to create 3 or more value notans.

Trent Towards Radcliffe on Trent
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Ink
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 15.25cm (8.5" x 6")

The lesson initially employs brush and ink to create black and white studies – I used a Pentel Brush pen. I’ve got a couple. The older one can't keep a fine point. I used it for these exercises because it is good for painting bigger shapes when a bit of unpredictability in the edges is unimportant and maybe a good thing.

Sunshine After Hail
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Ink
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 15.25cm (8.5" x 6")

Philip recommends training your eye to see values by manipulating the tonal range of digital images to remove all grey values.

I worked mostly from photographs but did a couple of drawings outside. It is a challenge to decide what is black and white without the help of a photo editor. In Lesson 11 (Drawing and Painting the Landscape - Grey Scales) Phillip recommends squinting your eyes and looking through your eyelashes as a technique to blur details and more accurately perceive values. This sounds easy enough, but is going to take practice to perfect.

River Otter
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Compressed Charcoal
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 30.55cm (8.5" x 12")

After a few pen and ink drawings, the lesson switches to compressed charcoal - mixing it with water to create subtle washes for 3 or 4 value notans. Phillips advises being physical and gestural in your mark making with the charcoal and not to worry whether the marks are in the right place.

Moor Close Plantation
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Compressed Charcoal
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 30.55cm (8.5" x 12")

I was going to put the study of Moor Close Plantation at the top of the post, but Elaine is not sure whether she likes it. She suspects if she looks at it for too long, she will see sinister figures emerging from the trees.