Making Corrections With Gouache

Smeaton’s Pier, St Ives
Watermedia and Oil Pastel on Paper
24cm x 34cm (9.5" x 13.5")

Smeaton’s Pier protects St Ives harbour from the sea. The pier was originally half its current length. The lighthouse was added when the pier was extended in the 1890s.

The picture started as an experiment in mixing oil pastels and acrylic inks with watercolour. I didn’t have any aspiration to produce a finished painting, but as it developed, I began to like it and started to wish I had taken more care painting the figures at the bottom of the wall.

What figures at the bottom of the wall?

Smeaton’s Pier, St Ives
Watermedia and Oil Pastel on Paper
24cm x 34cm (9.5" x 13.5")

I painted over them with gouache.

I started by lifting off as much of the figures as I could. I then painted over where they had been with a relatively thick layer of gouache and feathered this out to blend in with the rest of the wall. I used this as an opportunity to tone down some of the markings on other parts of the wall by glazing them with gouache.

I’ve never used gouache in this way before, but it’s a technique I will practice and refine. It won’t work in all paintings, but the flat matt appearance of gouache work lends itself to some materials, such as, harbour walls.

Keys to Drawing - Chapter 8

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 8A
6 March 2014
Charcoal on Paper
39cm x 55cm (15.5" x 21.5")

Chapter 8 of Bert Dodson‘s Keys to Drawing is called Drawing and Imagination. It is the last chapter in the book and Bert picks up some of the topics he has touched on in previous chapters. The main theme is creativity and he offers suggestions on how you can kick-start your imagination.

The chapter does not have the same set of structured exercises as the other chapters. The project for chapter 8 is to explore a theme in six drawings. Bert says:

"Make lots of drawings over a period of time on a particular subject or a particular approach to a subject. Paradoxically, when you narrow your focus this way, you widen the potential for discovery."

He suggests six possible themes, but offers the option of creating your own. I’ve elected to draw 6 charcoal portraits of Elaine.

I’ve chosen to draw portraits of Elaine because of the challenge of drawing faces and because Dodson emphasises the importance of revealing something of your self in your drawings. I suspect that for many people a drawing of a loved one will be more intimate and revealing than a self-portrait.

The picture at the top of the post is the first drawing of the six. It took about four hours spread over four evenings. I am planning to draw the rest over the next six months and I will post them as they are finished.

Capturing the Atmosphere of a Misty Morning

Misty Morning - Hugh Town
(Based on a photograph by Tony Slater)
Watercolour on Paper
38cm x 28cm (15" x 11")

Yesterday was the Shelford Group of Artists’ Painting day for March. Tony Slater's theme was Capturing the Atmosphere of a Misty Morning. I didn't have a suitable reference photograph, so I borrowed one of his.

Tony’s advice was to paint the background wet-into-wet, so there are no hard edges, very little detail and the middle distance seems to appear out of the misty background. He also suggested using a limited palate, which is an excellent way to capture the muted tones of a misty day.

I had one of those days where nothing seems to go right - the remnants of a cold had mutated into an attack of clumsiness. I spent the whole day putting my fingers in wet paint and even managed to walk into Tony’s easel.

The painting was a struggle right from the start. It had a wash in the sink and nearly ended up in the bin, but Tony regularly tells people not to give up on a painting until it is finished and he is usually right.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing Group - Weeks 28 to 30

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 28

The Studio Rousar Memory Drawing Group exercises for weeks 28 to 30 are about colour (see http://www.studiorousar.com/2013/07/07/memory-drawing-group-week-twenty-eight/)

The focus is on the relationships and differences between a group of colours rather than the precise recall of a single colour.

The instructions for week 28 are:

• Select five squares of dissimilar colours
• On the first day, choose one of the squares to act as a constant and another as a target to memorise
• Place the squares next to each other and study them for 5 minutes
• After 5 minutes, hide the target and try to paint a swatch of the colour using the constant as a reference
• On the next day, repeat the exercise with two different squares

Week 29 is the same exercise, except it uses two targets and on the last day, you memorise the constant as well as the targets.

Week 30 increases the number of squares again and this time uses similar colours.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 29

I started the study time for each exercise non-analytically - just staring at the colours trying to retain an impression of the whole. I used some of the time to compare the colours – asking questions such as is this one warmer or cooler than that one? Is it darker or lighter? Which is the more saturated colour? What is the difference in hue? I spent a small amount of the time trying to name the individual colours and thinking about how I could mix them.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 30

The exercises provided an interesting insight into my ability to recall colours, but also more fundamental skills to do with discerning the differences between colours, accurately mixing them and painting flat washes These exercises and many of the memory group exercises are good painting and drawing exercises that are worth repeating without the memory element.

Keys to Drawing – Chapter 7

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7F
60 Minutes
16 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
34cm x 28cm (13.5" x 11")

Chapter 7 of Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson is called Pattern and Design. It is about the skills of composing a picture rather than drawing techniques.

The central theme is to consider a drawing as a collection of abstract shapes to be organised on the paper rather than focusing on the objects they represent.

Dodson says

Sketching is concerned with things. Design or composition is concerned with the relationships between things.

There is some overlap between the material in this chapter and the material in Composition by Arthur Wesley Dow.

The first part of the chapter is about identifying shapes and patterns. Dodson then goes on to discuss good composition.

There are 6 exercises

7A - Simplified Landscapes. The first exercise is to draw three simplified landscapes in which all the shapes are either black or white. The purpose of this and the following exercises is to start thinking in terms of shapes.

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7A
10 Minutes
2 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
15cm x10cm (6" x 4")

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7A
10 Minutes
2 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
15cm x10cm (6" x 4")

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7A
10 Minutes
2 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
10cm x15cm (4" x 6")

7B - Simplified Portraits. This is similar to the previous exercise, but with faces instead of places. The idea is to trace over three photographs and to simplify the features into black and white shapes.

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7B
10 Minutes
3 February 2014
Ink on Tracing Paper
13cm x19cm (5" x 7.5")

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7B
10 Minutes
3 February 2014
Ink on Tracing Paper
17cm x13cm (6.75" x 5")

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7B
10 Minutes
3 February 2014
Ink on Tracing Paper
15cm x19cm (6" x 9.5")

7C - A Pattern in Reverse. The concept for this exercise is to depict a subject by drawing what can be seen in the gaps while leaving the main shape empty. I misread the instructions and did not realise this was supposed to be another exercise in pure black and white. Additionally, I should have removed the outline around the scissors.

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7C
60 Minutes
5 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
23cm x 32cm (9" x 12.5")

7D - Compositional Studies. This exercise explores four different compositions for a still-life containing two objects. These are pictures of my office desk with Salty the Seadog by Joanne Cooke and a pot of pens.

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7D - Landscape
10 Minutes
11 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
15cm x 10cm (6" x 4")

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7D - Portait
10 Minutes
11 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
10cm x 15cm (4" x 6")

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7D - Close Up
10 Minutes
11 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
10cm x 15cm (4" x 6")

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7D - Long Shot
10 Minutes
11 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
10cm x 15cm (4" x 6")

7E - Clarity and Ambiguity. The aim of this exercise is to create a picture in which a complex subject is not immediately recognizable. I intentionally chose a difficult subject, but fell into the trap of messing up the perspective. I used most of the exercise time trying to correct the underlying structure instead of concentrating on the balance between clarity and ambiguity.

Keys to Drawing - Exercise 7E
80 Minutes
16 February 2014
Graphite Pencil on Paper
28cm x 23cm (11" x 9")

7F - Balancing Extreme Compositions. This challenge of this exercise is to go against convention and to create a composition in which the focal point is either in the centre of the page or close to the edge.

These exercisers are challenging, but rewarding. I gained a lot more from them this time than when I first tried them in 2009. I will definitely repeat them in the near future.

A Break in the Clouds

A Break in the Clouds
Watercolour on Paper
28cm x 18cm (11" x 7")

Last Saturday, I went for a walk in the Peak District. This is the view from above Castleton towards Win Hill. There is a patch of blue sky above Win Hill and an area of bright sunlight underneath it.

The sky is based on some of the sky washes I experimented with in 2012. First, I painted the blue patch onto wet paper. After this was dry, I added the clouds.

The red patch on the hillside is oil pastel. Elaine gave me Chris Forsey’s “Pushing The Boundaries Of Watercolour” and “Beyond Watercolour” DVDs as Christmas presents. He uses oil pastel as a resist to the watercolour in his paintings. This is my first small trial of the technique.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing Group - Weeks 24 to 27

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 27 Day 8?

Weeks 24 to 26 of the Studio Rousar Memory Drawing Group (see http://www.studiorousar.com/2013/01/01/memory-drawing-group-week-one/) are about drawing landscapes.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 24 Day 2

In week 24, you draw a different landscape on each day. You stare at a view for 10 minutes and then hurry home to draw it. Darren Rousar’s instructions are to focus on simplifying the tones and shape in the scene.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 24 Day 3

The exercises are a good reason for spending some time outside - just standing and looking at the scenery for 10 minutes.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 24 Day 4

In week 25, you draw the same view on each day. You study the scene at either dawn or dusk because the half-light helps to simplify the shapes and tones.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 25 Day 5

I did most of the drawings for week 25 in the evening, but on the last day, I got up early. The flat early morning light seemed more reliable than at dusk. In the evening, the light seemed to be changing constantly. At dawn, the light conditions remained the same through out the exercise.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 26 Day 2

Week 26 is more of the same, except you choose a new landscape every other day.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 26 Day 4

The challenge for week 27 is to reproduce a charcoal drawing by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. You can see the original here:

 http://www.studiorousar.com/2013/06/30/memory-drawing-group-week-twenty-seven/. 

On the first day, you:

• Print out the drawing, add a centre line and 3 marker points
• Copy the line and marks to a larger sheet of paper
• Study the original for 10 minutes
• Hide the original
• Copy what you remember on to the larger sheet of paper using charcoal

On the second and subsequent nights, you:

• Compare your drawing with the original
• Make a mental note of your mistakes
• Study the original for a further 10 minutes
• Hide the original
• Work on your drawing - making corrections and adding more details from memory. 

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 27 Day 3

I normally only follow each exercise for 4 nights, but I decided to work on this for 2 weeks. On the first 4 nights, I focused on drawing the shapes accurately. On the second 4 nights, I worked on the tones and made some refinements to the shapes.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 27 Day 5

This is the first time I’ve used charcoal. I was impressed by how easy it is to erase and correct. Eventually it stains the paper and the drawing looks over worked, but it is very forgiving.