Adding Colour to Monochrome Studies

High Wood on a Sunny Day
Watercolour and Ink on Paper
28cm x 38cm (11" x 15")

I've been adding colour to the monochrome studies I drew in the lessons about Tonal Drawing and Mark Making from Drawing and Painting the Landscape by Philip Tyler. This is part of a plan to develop my watercolour skills by painting more regularly.

This is my favourite so far. It is the drawing of High Wood from the post Drawing and Painting the Landscape – Blind Touch Drawing.

Quick Paintings

 

Otter Estuary
Watercolour on Paper
16.5cm x 12cm (6.5" x 4.75")

Watercolour is a medium with personality. The inexperienced find it unpredictable. It appears to have a mind of its own - there is even a YouTube channel called The Mind of Watercolor.

While novices flounder, experts charm the paint to their will. The only way to develop and maintain this rapport is by painting a lot - something I haven't been doing for the last few years. My plan to rectify this is to paint at least a couple of quick watercolours each week. They should only take 10 minutes (ish), so I can’t use a lack of time as an excuse.

Trent Evening
Watercolour on Paper
16.5cm x 12cm (6.5" x 4.75")

My main goals are to experiment and to create interesting washes by painting everything as a single big shape - letting the colours mix on the paper. In the initial pictures, I painted everything in a single pass without waiting for things to dry. Now, I am painting the background (usually the sky) in one sitting and the major shape as a single wash in the next sitting.

East Bridgford Barns
Watercolour on Paper
12cm x 16.5cm (4.75" x 6.5")

I am pleased that I’ve painted 8 of these little pictures in the first 16 days of 2022. It is a huge increase on the amount of painting I did last year. The emphasis is on quantity, not quality, but these are my favourites.

Rainbows

Happy 2022
Watercolour on Paper
16.5cm x 12cm (6.5" x 4.75")

Rainbows is the third topic in the Skies and Weather chapter of Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor by Claudia Nice.

I cross referenced Claudia’s advice with the section on rainbows in James Gurney’s Color and Light (A Guide for the Realist Painter). James explains  “The colors of the rainbow should be lighter than the background”. I think this is the main challenge for painting rainbows in watercolour - how do you keep the colours vibrant, but lighter than the sky. I didn’t pull it off this time, so I will have another go.

The tree in the foreground was in a neighbour’s garden. Sadly, it was sick and had to be cut down last year. I had a grandstand view from my office window of the tree surgeon taking down a tall tree in a confined space. It distracted me for a whole afternoon when I should have been working.

Happy 2022.

May the New Year bring us all peace, health and happiness.