Farewell Modelled Drawing in Water Color

Dirty Nelson
Modelled Drawing - 18 December 2011
Watercolour on Paper
43cm x 35.5cm (17" x 14")

Happy New Year.

On Christmas Eve, I finished Section 10 of the Natural Way to Draw and said farewell to modelled drawing in water color (see Modelled Drawing in Water Color and The Return of Modelled Drawing in Water Color). Sadly, I am not sorry to see it go.

The drawings on this post are my best  – the rest are never going to see the light of day. The picture at the top of the post is Nelson (see the photo at the bottom of The Return of Modelled Drawing in Water Color).  The second picture is a papier-mâché piggy bank made by Jeff, Jack, William and Christopher for Elaine.

Modelled drawing in water color is a difficult exercise. There are watercolour techniques that would give beautiful modelling effects, but Kimon Nicolides stresses the importance of not using them because the point of the exercise is to draw with the brush as though it was a crayon.

At times if felt like I had my hands tied behind my back. In the end, I accepted the drawings are not going to be as pleasing as the ink and crayon drawings. If the result looks solid and 3 dimensional, I judge the drawing to be a success. More important is the experience of creating the drawing - Did I learn something? Did I feel as though I touched the object? Did I learn something about the subject that I didn’t know before I started the exercise?

Oi Piggy
Modelled Drawing - 21 December 2011
Watercolour on Paper
35.5cm x 33cm (14" x 13")

Elaine eventually found the Marie Prett cats she wanted for her birthday (see Angel Cat Thing). Joan bought them for her from Baxters in Dartmouth. 



Angel and Devil Cat
Sculptures by Marie Prett