Author Archives: patriciakarsten

Painting sky: Tonally graded wash and simple clouds

It was a completely grey and rainy day, so I decided to continue working from photos. I chose two images I had made recently in New York, with blue sky and few cloudy areas. I worked on 28 x 38 cm watercolour sheets, roughly A3 format. I made 6 washes – three monochrome and three where the blue was combined with yellow ochre. There wasn’t that much of a yellow tone in the photos, but I wanted to practice the technique.

I found it quite difficult to achieve smooth graded washes. Mine were stripy and changed tonal intensity abruptly. So I tried different brushes, varied the amount of water, the angle of the painting board, and also experimented with sponge, paper tissue and wet brush to create the white spots for the clouds. I also used different blue tones and tried mixing in Payne’s grey. I think I need much more practice. Making washes won’t improve in a day so I’ll leave it at that for the moment and proceed with the other exercises, but will certainly get back to the topic.

Research point: Painting sky

For this research point, I looked at four artists: J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. I have already researched them elsewhere and found it interesting to see how they treated the sky in their watercolour paintings.

J.M.W. Turner (English, 1755 – 1851)

Looking at Turner’s sky studies makes me feel less miserable about my own attempts at painting skies! There are brushstrokes, many ambiguities, muddy areas… things I didn’t like seeing in my watercolours. So maybe there’s hope I might improve if I continue to practice…

The skies Turner creates are very atmospheric. It’s interesting to see how he blends the colours wet in wet and they still remain separately visible as blue, yellow, orange and red.

Venice: The Doge’s Palace and the Riva degli Schiavoni, from the Bacino 1840 https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-venice-the-doges-palace-and-the-riva-degli-schiavoni-from-the-bacino-d32154

A sunset sky c. 1825-30 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-a-sunset-sky-d25486
Crimson sunset, c. 1825 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-crimson-sunset-d25331
Running wave in a cross-tide, evening c. 1820-30 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-running-wave-in-a-cross-tide-evening-d25433

John Constable (English, 1776 – 1837)

John Constable was a direct contemporary of J.M.W. Turner and I see some resemblance in how the sky was treated – with respect to some attempts to make brush mark contours disappear by overworking them with water.

In the study of clouds and trees (1821), the sky looks very fresh and not overworked. By contrast, the other skies look like there’s been considerable effort to create the desired shape from some initial painting. Nevertheless, there is a really dramatic effect from the choice of colour and the strong contrasts within the sky. If Old Sarum and Stonehenge had a clean blue sunday afternoon sky, this would create a completely different and much less dramatic atmosphere.

A study of clouds and trees 1821
A house amongst trees, 1832
Old Sarum, 1834
Stonehenge 1835

all from http://paintwatercolorcreate.blogspot.com/2014/01/constables-watercolor-landscape.html

Winslow Homer (North America, 1836 – 1910)

I’m completely overwhelmed by Winslow Homer’s skies. What I admire is that the brushstrokes are so nicely integrated in the paintings, and also the intense and brilliant colours.

Sunset Fires, gouache, watercolor, 1880
Storm, Bahamas, watercolor on paper
Adirondack Lake, watercolor, 1889, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Gloucester Sunset, watercolor, 1880, Private Collection
Eastern Point Light, watercolor, 1880
Sailboat and Fourth of July Fireworks, watercolor, 1880

All from http://paintwatercolorcreate.blogspot.com/2013/05/picturing-sky-with-watercolors.html and http://paintwatercolorcreate.blogspot.com/2014/05/homers-watercolor-evening.html

John Singer Sargent (North America, 1856 – 1925)

The skies by John Singer Sargent have much more prominent brushstrokes. I don’t know if I were satisfied if I had made them (taking into account that I’m practically always dissatisfied), but looking at them as made by someone else, I do like them and think they work well as a sky. So maybe… just be more friendly with myself? That is, besides practicing a lot which is definitely required!

From Jerusalem 1905-6,
Sky c.1900-10
Sky and Mountains c.1909-11
Clouds 1897,

All from http://paintwatercolorcreate.blogspot.com/2013/05/picturing-sky-with-watercolors.html and http://paintwatercolorcreate.blogspot.com/2014/05/homers-watercolor-evening.html

Aerial perspective, follow-up

Feeling motivated by the research point on landscape depictions, I decided to make a second version of the Cuban landscape. I wanted to improve the colours and the shapes. Again I was undecided between trying the same approach again, or applying a more experimental technique. I chose the standard way again because I thought that’s what I wanted to improve.

Midway through the painting I found that I had produced an almost identical version, some aspects better, some less successful than the first, and I asked myself what would have been the reason for painting a second version if there was no real step forward in what I did.

I took a step back, compared the actual painting to the first one and looked at my photo source, and tried to identify what made these paintings weak and how I might improve.

One problem was again the colours, which had become dark and muddy not by mixing, but by my choice of hue. Another problem was that I generally wasn’t very close to depicting the shapes I saw, rather trying to create a rough resemblance. This did not work very well.

So I first reworked the sky and this time tried to paint the actual white cloud contour on the right top using a fairly intense sky blue. This looked much better than before. I then mixed a very yellowish green and went over the agave plants. This considerably improved the overall impression and also made the plants appear closer. Then I reworked the foreground by adding more darker colours, which increased the contrasts and made the lighter colours come out better.

At that point I found that the paper would not permit more overworking and decided to stop. I’m looking at this painting with mixed feelings. I know I made some tiny bits of progress, although the overall image is still much too dull and muddy in colours for my taste.

Version 1 (left), Version 2 (right) of the Cuban landscape

The dull colours may have to do with the photo source I used, which depicts the landscape on a slightly foggy day and the colours are indeed subdued. I worked from the computer screen and depending on the angle of the screen, the photo appeared lighter or quite dark. Interestingly, the dark version had much more appeal to me because the plant shapes against the sky came out much more clearly and in greater light-dark-contrast.

So one idea would be to make another version of the landscape, based on the much darker view on the screen. This might help me focus on the shapes and would also change the entire colour selection. And of course the other idea is to proceed to the more experimental technique which I had in mind, with oil pastels and maybe collage or stencils for the stone fence.

Third version of the Cuban landscape

I set out to make a more experimental version, using oil pastels… but then, while planning the painting, changed my mind and decided to go for watercolours again. I chose a slightly larger format this time, 45 x 61 cm. I wanted to achieve better colours and contrasts. After painting a while, I realized that I was simply repeating what I had tried already, and then came a shift to a somewhat looser approach. The problem was mainly that I got stuck with the same old detail problems again, which I then threw over board in favour of painting “wrong things in the wrong colour, much too quickly”. But somehow I like the resulting painting. It’s less overworked than the earlier versions.

On the one hand, it might seem repetitive to do multiple versions of the same photo, but on the other, I actually felt this is beneficial for me because I get to the point where I consciously try out different approaches and techniques.

Research point: Landscape depictions

I was quite overwhelmed by this research point. The instructions mentioned 7 or 8 artists from different time periods, and I came across three more contemporary watercolourists. I was curious about them all, so I researched them all… it was a decision between selecting only one or two and digging deeper, or trying to get acquainted with them all, but more superficially. I chose the latter and will include selected works that I found particularly interesting.

Contemporary watercolourists

David Prentice, David Curtis, Trevor Chamberlain
Edward Wesson, Edward Seago, John Yardley

David Prentice (English, 1936 – 2014)

What I found interesting in these watercolours was how the complex landscape was simplified into larger shapes, and how the light was captured. Both paintings I selected are backlit scenes, which accounts for a reduction of detail and dominance of silhouette shapes rather than surface texture. I particularly like the intense colours and would like to adopt some of this in my own watercolour practice.

Black Hill below British Camp (2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Prentice
Green July, Herfordshire Lane http://www.lemonstreetgallery.co.uk/exhibitionImages/summer-exhibition-2012/Herefordshire-Lane-Green-July.jpg

David Curtis (English, born 1948)

Another contemporary watercolourist, but with a much more detailed approach. I was impressed by how the glaring summer light was captured in these two watercolour paintings. Interesting is also how the amount of detail is balanced from foreground to background. I think the atmosphere of a hot summer day in New York is captured perfectly in the second. The colours are much less intense, I think the main focus on was the extremely bright light.

Main street through Bubinon, Sierra Nevada
Street corner vendor, New York

Artist home page with gallery of watercolours: http://www.djcurtis.co.uk/david-curtis-watercolours.php

Trevor Chamberlain (English, born 1933)

I found these watercolours very atmospheric. They are less detailed than those of David Curtis and mostly in pale colours, with few hard contrasts. The focus is on tonality here. The rain scene is painted in cooler colours. The harbour scene is in warmer colours which creates the atmosphere of late afternoon on a sunny day. The landscape elements are mostly painted as shapes against a lighter background. Internal details are present in the foreground, but not in the background.

Technically, I think there is a mix of wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry: Wet in wet makes the colours run into another, while wet-on-dry is used to create the more defined shapes.

What I would like to learn is this way of focusing on simple structures and including only the amount of detail that is necessary to create recognizable elements. I realize that I need much more practice in the different watercolour techniques!

Trevor Chamberlain - (some boats and buildings in the background)

Rowers, River Lea http://www.mineonline.co.uk/trevor_chamberlain_roi_rsma__.php
Umbrellas, Charles Bridge, Prague. http://imageweb-cdn.magnoliasoft.net/bridgeman/supersize/trc115549.jpg
(Boats on a river with Buildings in the background) http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/02-Oct-2004/47691-Chamberlain.jpg
River Arno, Florence http://www.myartprints.co.uk/a/chamberlain-2/riverarnoflorencewconpape.html

I found three more contemporary watercolour artists referenced in a Webforum post: Edward Wesson, Edward Seago, and John Yardley, and decided to follow up.

Edward Wesson (English, 1910 – 1983)

These watercolours are also very atmospheric, buildings included as silhouettes in the London Bridge painting and in brighter colours with more details in the Ostend Harbour scene.

I’m beginning to recognize the watercolour principle: Wet-in-wet is used for tonal gradations, wet-over-dry when clearer lines for details and shapes are needed. Leaving out white areas creates the impression of intense sunlight.

London bridge at dawn
Ostend Harbour
Waxham Beach, Norfolk

From Somerset Fine Art collection of works online, http://somersetfineart.co.uk/rw_shop/ShopViewCat.php?&cat=1405&man=867&dx=1&ob=3&rpn=shopviewcat1405&page=2&sid=a8401e87e77e424b41fcf460acb6cf7d&page=1

Edward Seago (English, 1910 – 1974)

The style is again atmospheric with few details. The focal points of the paintings are where contrasts are stronger and details are included.

Spanish coast, torremolinos from Portland Gallery – very minimalistic both in colours and detail.

Boatyard on the Norfolk Broads – more details, more contrasts, more colours. The houses and boats are defined shapes in contrast to the loose style used for the landscape elements. The clouds are impressive in this one!

Image collection at Portland Gallery, UK http://www.portlandgallery.com/artist/Edward_Seago

John Yardley (English, born 1933)

Boats at Cadaquez – a harbour scene with boats, houses and hills in the background. Strong contrasts in small elements create a very vivid picture

Winter at Philips House – A house, fields, cows, and snow. I wonder a bit whether the cows would really be outdoors in winter – I know only cows that are kept inside during wintertime! But the watercolour is lovely.

Both watercolours make use of the dry brush technique. This breaks up some otherwise uniform areas of colour and creates the effect of light reflecting on the surface, for example at the edges of the boats and the shadows in the snow.

Again I’m impressed by the simplification of detail and the apparently very fast working style. This is something I’d like to adopt!

Bourne Gallery, Artist page and online gallery at http://www.bournegallery.com/artist/details.asp?artist_id=101

18th and 19th century

Sandby Brothers, Turner, Girtin

Sandby Brothers: Paul Sandby (1730 – 1809) and Thomas Sandby (1721 – 1798)

These watercolours from the 18th century are very different in style from the contemporary ones. To me they look like colourized drawings and less like paintings. The difference may also be a consequence of different painting materials available at that time.

Paul Sandby was the younger brother. Despite the much more detailed and naïve approach, I see a similarity to contemporary watercolourists in focus on light effects and the attempt to capture mood and atmosphere of a landscape. But the buildings have finer internal structure details, apparently painted slowly and with attention to small elements and exact shadings.

Iron Forge, Barmouth North Wales, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iron_Forge_Barmouth_N._Wales_by_Paul_Sandby.jpg
The Old Welsh Bridge http://www.darwincountry.org/assets/userfiles/index.php?GetFile=/assets/userfiles/large/sy1496.jpg
Rochester, Kent c. 1785-95 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sandby-rochester-kent-t08474
Windsor Castle, Northeast terrace c. 1760 http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sandby

Thomas Sandby, the elder brother, was an architect by profession and this is reflected in his watercolours. They focus on accurate depiction of building details, and correct perspective. Landscape elements like trees are stylized, but differently from comtemporaries in that there is much more internal structure.

Windsor Castle from the Great Park http://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/image/0004/238549/sandby_windsor_castle.jpg

Whitehall Showing Holbein’s Gate and Banqueting Hall, c. 1760 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Sandby_-_Whitehall_Showing_Holbein%27s_Gate_and_Banqueting_Hall_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

J.M.W. Turner (English, 1775 – 1851)

Turner has the label “romanticism” attached. I think he has a somewhat revolutionary treatment of colour in his watercolours, compared to his contemporaries – loosening up the boundaries given through a detailed underdrawing.

Ivy Bridge is a more conventional depiction of the subject, but a much more painterly approach, compared to the Sandby Brothers’ style. In the Dudley watercolour, showing the effects of industrialization on the Landscape, the use of colour dominates over the drawing and the contrasting colour areas almost seem to explode.

Ivy Bridge 1813 http://antonk.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Ivy-Bridge-water-colour-painting-by-J.-M.-W.-Turner-in-1813-trees-river-ducks.jpg

Dudley c1832 http://www.artfund.org/what-to-see/exhibitions/2014/02/14/turner-travels-light-and-landscape-exhibition – depicting the effects of industrialization. In the typical style of turner – no details.

Thomas Girtin (English, 1775 – 1802)

Although born at the same time as Turner, his works look much more conventional and closer in style to the Sandby brothers. But this may also be because he died at young age. Maybe he’d developed very differently with increasing maturity.

I found the two versions of Durham Cathedral very interesting. The earlier one is a drawing with monochrome washes to increase contrasts, the second is a coloured drawing with some looser, more painterly elements in the water and sky. A bit of loosening up the definition given by the drawing is happening.

Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire (1801) also looks like a colourized drawing. But although less radical than Turner, I also see the departure from the Sandby’s more illustrative style towards a more painterly use of watercolours.

Framingwell Bridge 1799. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Girtin_002.jpg

Durham Cathedral and Castle c1800 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Girtin_%28British_-_Durham_Cathedral_and_Castle_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire 1801 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Girtin_003.jpg

Beginning of the 20th century

John Singer Sargent, John Piper

John Singer Sargent (USA, 1856 -1925)

I already researched John Singer Sargent in a separate article, but haven’t looked particularly at landscape depictions. I love his colourful watercolours.

I discovered the Palmettos, Florida (1917), which are not exactly a landscape but they are personally important for me because of the similarity to my agave plants! Great how Sargent played with the green tones. I realize how much more I could have made out of my cuban plants… It may be a question of courage to paint what I see and be more radical in my use of colour and contrast.

All in all, it was quite difficult to find depictions of buildings in landscape in watercolour made by John Singer Sargent! What I found was either landscape/nature or building, not both, or it was made in oil on canvas… The Hills of Galilee c 1906 was one of the few which offer a wide open view over a landscape. I found it interesting to see how Sargent’s style worked with this different subject. The Venetian Canal Scene shows some houses and a more open view than other Venice watercolours. But somehow I find both of them not very characteristic for Sargent’s style, of which I see more in the palmetto watercolour.

The Wrecked Sugar Refinery (1918) impressed me by the choice of subject. It may have been related to the war, or simply because of changes in the economy of the sugar industry? The painting is difficult to read because elements of comparative size are missing. A sugar refinery must consist of huge steel constructions, but the painting does not have any elements to assess the size of what is depicted, for example some humans or houses. As it is, this could also be a little heap of rusted metal! Nevertheless, I think it’s an extraordinary painting for the use of colour and the unromantic topic.

Two more landscape depictions I found interesting were Corfu (c1909) and Fortress reads and rocks (undated). The Corfu painting has that tree stem going from lighter-than-background to upwards much darker. I encountered this effect in my Assignment 3 watercolour and had great trouble to paint it! Here it actually looks quite simple to achieve… The style is very rough and bold, even more so in the Fortress road and rocks painting. This is quite a departure from the 18th/19th century accuracy in depicting trees and houses in a landscape.

The 1917 Palmettos, Florida http://uploads3.wikipaintings.org/images/john-singer-sargent/palmettos-florida-1917.jpg
Hills of Galilee c 1906 http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/john-singer-sargent/hills-of-galilee
Venetian Canal Scene http://uploads1.wikipaintings.org/images/john-singer-sargent/venetian-canal-scene.jpg
Wrecked Sugar Refinery (1918) http://uploads1.wikipaintings.org/images/john-singer-sargent/a-wrecked-sugar-refinery-1918.jpg
Corfu c.1909 http://www.jssgallery.org/paintings/corfu.htm
Fortress roads and rocks http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/john-singer-sargent/fortress-roads-and-rocks

John Piper (English, 1903 – 1992)

John Piper’s works are quite distant from typical landscape depictions. I found it difficult to select images because what I found were mixed media paintings with drawn elements, and many prints. So in a way, they are difficult to compare to the more traditional approaches.

The artist had been among the officially designated British war artists, and I recognize an element of darkness which I had found in works of other war artists researched earlier, for example Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious.

I selected four paintings that fall broadly under the heading of landscape to illustrate the modern approach. Slopes of Glyder Fawr (1947) is indeed a landscape, made in watercolour with pen & ink. I still find it radical in its use of colour (all dark) and perspective, with almost no sky left and contrasting horizontal and vertical elements. The Dairy, Fawley Court (1940) depicts a church and some trees, the style apparently influenced by cubism.

The Whitehorn Priory is another church, but a very different style. It is based on a drawing, but then watercolour is applied in a very patchy manner, making the building and the painting look vibrant and “unfinished” in a positive sense. The Town in the Charente (1957) is a mixed media work, combining watercolour with gouache, ink and wax resist. The style is abstract beyond cubism, with a dark yet vivid pattern of colours, contrasts and shapes.

What I appreciate is that these works illustrate that is no rule to forbid mixing watercolours with any other media or technique appropriate to convey an idea. This is important for me because when I was thinking about technical approaches to the Cuban Landscape I painted for the Aerial Perspective exercise, I had considered using oil pastels for the Agave plants in the foreground, and for the light effects of the stone fence. This would have permitted a more generous working style for the background, with darker washes which would not overpaint the foreground elements in oil pastels. But then I shyed away, sticking to a more conventional approach, maybe postponing experiments to a later stage.

Slopes of Glyder Fawr, Llyn Adwal, Caernarvonshire, Wales 1947 http://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2012/08/john-piper-part-1.html
The Dairy, Fawley Court 1940 http://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2012/08/john-piper-part-1.html
Whitehorn Priory http://www.portlandgallery.com/artist/John_Piper/item/all/12898/Whitehorn_Priory
Town on the Charente 1957 http://www.olympia-antiques.com/gallery/item/john-piper-ch-lg-town-charente

Concluding remarks

I’m not sure whether I’ve done myself a favour with this research point. Somehow it was too much squeezed in a single research session. It is one thing to look at artists’ works and be inspired, and another to write a text about it. The obligation to write down notes and observations in the learning log switches the focus from internal engagement with a topic to communicating something intelligible about it. Despite these objections, I found the research quite interesting. I only wish I had more time to do everything more thoroughly, both the research part and the writeup part.

I have seen so much that it’s hard to decide where to begin with all the possible improvement and inspirations I came across. Maybe there’s one central theme for me – be more adventurous and experimental, and practice many different approaches. I thought it’s all a matter of practicing to see and depict things, but there’s also the technical aspect of learning the different effects that can be achieved with watercolours.

Aerial perspective

Preparatory studies: Experimenting with elements of aerial perspective, using the palette of Thomas Girtin in Westminster and Lambeth

Despite some theoretical knowledge, I had never before actually painted “aerial perspective” and therefore wanted to make some colour testing before approaching the exercises. I chose Thomas Girtin’s painting and tried to isolate the elements of aerial perspective that the course materials described. So I experimented a bit in my watercolour sketchpad. I chose the Yarka Watercolours which come in a box, anticipating these might be the colours I’d take with me on outdoors excursions. First I selected colours resembling those used by Thomas Girtin: Russian green, gold ochre, raw umber and neutral black. The green was a bit too colourful, but otherwise I found the hues were a good match.

Then I made one abstract sketch with just dots to try out colour contrasts. I wanted to have areas with strong contrast of reddish orange and green, and other areas with less intense contrasts by mixing in raw umber to tone down. I think the red-green contrast comes indeed to the fore, whereas the areas where colours are more similar seem to recede. The funny thing is that I misinterpreted the course text which referred to “Tonal contrast” to mean colour contrast and this way seem to have discovered another element that can add to a sense of depth.

I made a second page to look at tonal contrast, using the colour sepia. The idea was to see whether areas of high contrast, where very dark and very light elements were adjacent, would come to the foreground compared to other areas with more similar colours in dark, medium or light tonal values. I used geometrical forms and painted in portrait format. Indeed the highly contrasted areas seem to capture attention, compared to those areas with more similar colours. This may be a combined effect of my painting little dots and patterns of dark onto light background, which can be interpreted as the third aspect: More detail in the foreground. I feel that the darker colours in general seem to come to the foreground and the lighter colours recede. This would be the fourth element (lightening of palette).

So the problem with this kind of abstract experiment is that the elements are normally supported by the actual traits of the landscape and do not appear in pure forms. But doing this exercise helped me internalizing what to look out for!

Exercise: Aerial perspective in an uban landscape: Drawings
Exercise: Aerial perspective urban landscape – painting

I made an excursion to the Brooklyn Bridge for this exercise, taking a sketchbook, drawing utensils and a camera with me. It was Sunday, Mother’s Day and beautiful weather, and the bridge was crowded… no way could I have bring myself to draw there amidst all the people. Nevertheless I enjoyed my trip and made several photos of the bridge itself and taking views onto Manhattan from the bridge and later from the promenade in Brooklyn Heights.

Reviewing my photos, I decided on two for exploratory sketching to find out which one might work as a watercolour painting. One had people in the foreground, whose clothes gave nice colour spots, but then I decided against this one because I thought that the figures would look frozen in a painting focused on an urban landscape. So I chose the second view which also seemed to work better because the lower half wasn’t blocked by the construction fence.

I began by making an outline drawing, as suggested by the course materials, then painted light colours first and increasingly darker tones. I painted several hours, almost an entire day, with breaks.

I’m not really happy with the result because I think the painting looks overworked and the colours are not bright and glowing. Somehow I think I did not do justice to the medium, rather treated my material as if it was Gouache paint. Assessing my work so far, I don’t think that there’s progress compared to the initial perspective paintings. It rather feels like I was repeating old errors – fiddling with detail, too many layers, unskillful brush strokes. I made a second painting after the first one, trying to work more energetic and generous, and improving the colour intensity. Both paintings are on 40 x 50 watercolour sheets.

Unfortunately I’m at a motivational low with the course right now. I don’t feel that the exercises help me to move forward. Maybe they are too complex for my current skill level. I feel overwhelmed by the complexity of a landscape and the task of painting from photo seems like a chore. I really wanted to paint outside but I cannot get over my embarrassment of drawing or painting in public settings. I’m really frustrated at the moment and can’t find pleasure in this part’s exercises. I really hope that the more experimental approach of the next course part will get me back on track with watercolours. Otherwise I might never touch the medium again after completing this course!

PS: Looking at them now, some days later, I’m much less negative about these paintings. In particular the first, more detailed one – I’m beginning to like it. I don’t know why I’m so often extremely dissatisfied immediately after finishing a painting, only to find “oh it’s not that bad actually” when I look at it again a few days later! I was tempted to delete the paragraphs with all the negative comments and my frustration, but then decided to leave it in – to remind me of how I actually felt!

Exercise: Aerial perspective in rural landscape

The weather forecast wasn’t good and rather than again postponing my work for the course, I decided to continue working from photos. I chose a photo made in 2005 when I travelled to Cuba. I saw many elements of aerial perspective: Stronger colours of plants and a stone fence in the foreground, a midground of subdued tones and less contrast, and finally a far background with a line of mountains in a blueish tone.

I began my work on this topic with a pencil drawing from the photo in my 23 x 30 cm sketchbook and was surprised by my own patience for the task. Compared to what I achieved in the drawing course, I think this is one of my better landscape drawings. Then I made two watercolour studies in the A4 watercolour sketchbook, one of the entire scene and the other of the plant detail. I made another pencil study of the further background because I found it very difficult to depict “non-detail” the tiny trees, bushes and fields. Finally I attacked a larger painting in 38 x 48 cm.

I’m quite satisfied with my work for this exercise and luckily got over the motivational crisis from the previous exercise. I think there are small improvements everywhere – the wash for the sky is more regular and the clouds have something cloudy about them. I tried out different brushes and how I could capture the somewhat bizarre shapes of the agave plants in the foreground.

I think the final painting captures distance quite nicely, in particular the silhouette of the mountains in the very far background helps to achieve this. The foreground has much more detail and stronger contrasts. I struggled with the middle distance because there were so many small elements in low contrast, and I didn’t know how to depict this. I tried several techniques, like making marks with a dry brush and a sponge, but it worked out less well than I had hoped. Nevertheless I feel the painting represents a step forward.

The colours in this painting are colder than that of the landscape in the photos, particularly in the medium distance. This is probably a result of my choice of brown tones – apparently I chose the cooler tones. But it may also effect from too much layering in the midground. The effect is still exaggerated in the digital image I took of the final painting. Maybe another layer of golden ochre would improve the overall effect, but I’d risk to create a muddy overall tone so I’d rather not try on this painting. Probably choosing warmer base tones would have been necessary.

Linear perspective – Part II

Exercise 2: Distance – linear perspective drawing and painting

Unfortunately, this exercise was overshadowed by my dislike for drawing urban scenes from photographs. I felt trapped – bad weather and not finding interesting photographs in my archives, so I stayed with the view from the terrace and made a watercolour from the photograph. I began with an underdrawing, then colorized beginning with light colours and gradually getting darker. I painted in two lengthy sessions and it felt like a chore. I wasn’t able to get away from detail and hated having to draw the myriads of windows, balconies etc. I let the painting sit for about a week and then finalized it by drawing in the metal fence of the terrace.

My feelings towards this watercolour are very mixed. On the one hand, I think it is not bad, because there is some more generosity in application of paint and treatment of detail, compared to earlier watercolours from photos. On the other hand I think I could have made much more of the motif if I could find pleasure in painting it and be more patient. I guess it is basically a psychological issue having to do with my feeling of being at the wrong place, where I’d largely prefer to live in a quiet and rural setting far away from this bustling city.

Technically, more attempts would be warranted, but mentally I can’t get over my dislike and unwillingness. The situation reminds me of what I felt while doing the drawing course, not being able to positively relate to the exercises and instructions, and a feeling of being led away from what might work for me. I’m not sure what to make out of this. For one, I’ll certainly keep trying to do what’s necessary to achieve the learning aims of the exercise. But I also need to develop an approach that permits more personal engagement. I’m not totally against drawing this city. On the contrary I often like the street views I come across on my way to work or when under way cross-town. But I can’t envision myself drawing or painting in New York’s crowded streets, so it’s all a bit difficult.

Guided reflections

To what extent have you conveyed a sense of distance? What devices have you used?

I think there’s quite some sense of distance resulting from the street prolonged towards the horizon and the size effect of high apartment buildings that become smaller and smaller towards the distance.

How has the painting element enhanced (or otherwise) the drawing?

Well it is actually the painting supplemented by the drawn fence on the terrace. The view looked nicer without the fence but I included it because it is part of my everyday experience of the view.

Can you identify further subjects that you could explore effectively in this way?

I don’t have anything particular in mind, but I think there are many interesting views of the city. If I could overcome my discomfort with drawing/painting in public and find quiet places to sit and work, why not. I seem to have missed out that we were supposed to draw in the first place and use watercolour only as a supplement, so I might try this approach in the future.

Miscellaneous: Tulips

For a change from the unloved urban motif of the linear perspective exercise, I bought tulips in a pot and made two watercolours of them. Both were based on pencil underdrawings. I think I should have documented these because I liked the style in which I drew them. Tulips seem to lend themselves to elegant drawings. I wasn’t aware how much they can convey a sense of the 1920s with their clear and elegant lines.

My compositions got a bit messy in the middle area. I probably used too many different shades of greens on the leaves and as a result, the shapes are somewhat unclear. I found the first painting a bit pale and aimed for more intense colours in the second. The style feels like a step towards a direction I like, with intense yet transparent colours.

Linear perspective – Part I

Exercise 1: Distance – preparatory drawings

I had some trouble to get going with this exercise. The main problem was that I did not feel inclined to draw urban landscape. I felt reminded of the drawing course where I was constantly directed towards subjects that didn’t interest me, and I had to overcome a lot of resistance until I was finally ready to draw. Due to cold weather, I resigned to using photos of street views, which I took off my terrace. I have all sorts of reservations against these limited views and against working from photos, but at least it’s convenient and helped me to get on with the project. Currently I fear that I’m running into the same type of motivational crisis like with the drawing course, so this was my way to avoid getting completely stuck.

Reviewing my drawings

The first sketch was the view of the opposite site of the street. I was aware that I was supposed to do a quick sketch, but couldn’t help drawing quite detailed. After half an hour I stopped and made a break to rethink my approach. In the next sketch, I tried whether I could reduce complexity and focus on simple shapes and broad outlines.

Drawing became indeed faster, but I found it difficult to depict rows of windows with the fine tip of the graphite pencil. Therefore I switched to a thick, soft tip black felt pen for the third view. Indicating rows of windows and balconies worked indeed better, but the drawing became a bit cluttered from the many dense marks. The fourth view was from a photo I made by holding the camera over the little balcony wall. I corrected the distorted verticals in the photo using photoshop. As a result, the view is as if I was standing in the air, outside the balcony, in 20m height. I used black fineliner for the drawing, and it’s the first sketch in landscape orientation, the earlier ones were all portrait. I think it’s this last sketch that would work best as a painting, because the composition is more open due to the landscape format.

Conveying a sense of space and distance

The main features that helped to create space in my drawings were diminishing size of objects, receding horizontal lines that converged to a vanishing point, and less detail in the background. My drawings are characterized by impatience and the desire to work fast. The attitude seems to work better with bold and dark media like felt pen or fineliner, whereas I feel pencil would require more consideration to work out a broader tonal range.

Maybe I will be able to engage more with drawings when I work on views that I find personally interesting. I’m not sure whether I can overcome my dislike for New York’s endless and monotonous rows of high-rise apartment buildings. I was planning to make excursions to search for more interesting places, but currently it is still too cold for drawing sessions outside.

Reflections on media

My choice of drawing media was guided by the aim to try out several different types and explore what I could do with it. I think that at my stage, I would benefit from sticking to one medium, no matter which one, explore its possibilities and develop my mark making, before going to the next. I feel that switching media too quickly doesn’t bring me forward because I never get to the point of really working out what is possible with one particular medium. On the other hand, there is benefit in variety and trying out new things, so I’ll try to get this balanced.

Approaching Part 4: Tomatoes and strawberries

I made some simple still life sketches just to practice with watercolours. My main aim was to work with simple shapes and clear, intense colours. For the first attempt, I chose tomatoes and put them on a blue ceramic plate. The first sketch was made without pencil underdrawing and I found the composition unfortunate because it didn’t fill the sheet of paper. The second sketch was based on a pencil underdrawing and I think this has improved the overall composition. I think there are also improvements in other aspects of the drawing, for example clarity of shapes and three-dimensionality of the plate. On the other hand, the first sketch has more of the nice watercolour chance effects.

For a second subject some days later, I chose strawberries, which I placed inside and around a dark gray soup bowl, using a white paper cloth to increase contrast. Again I made two sketches. The first is somewhat lighter and has more chance effects in the application of colour. The second is improved with respect to colour intensity, although it also appears a bit more controlled. I particularly like the intense red and orange tones of the strawberries.

Overall, I’m quite satisfied with these little studies, they have more of the particular qualities of watercolours and they are less overworked than earlier watercolours I made. I have already read a bit ahead in the course materials and feel somewhat intimidated by the complexities of landscape painting. Somehow I feel that I still need much practice with basic handling of watercolours. I felt quite comfortable doing these studies, despite some initial struggles with finding a subject and arranging it nicely. I hope I can retain some of the freshness of these sketches when I proceed with the landscape exercises.

Assignment 3 follow up work

Encouraged my tutor’s comment “How would you have done it differently with more freedom?”, I did some follow-up work on the assignment 3 painting, the landscape painting for which I chose a winter view on The Cloisters. I had several ideas what I could improve:

–        Invention with colours to get away from the dull atmosphere of a gray winter’s day
–        Reduction of detail to clear up the painting, focus on larger shapes. But retain the characteristic broken lines and shapes of the trees
–        More variation/experimentation in the application of paint – maybe trying different types of mark making or tools other than the brush
–        Experiment with tonal gradations and contrast

To support futher development of the painting, I went back to the original photos of the place and manipulated them using photoshop. My aim was to bring out more clearly those aspects I found interesting to serve as basis for new paitings. I made one version in black and white with increased contrast to make the shapes and tonal values come out clearer. I made a second version in colour with exaggerated and modified hues, as a starting point for colour inventions

I wanted to simplify shapes and obtain more intense colours, but not too much because I wanted to retain the wintery atmosphere. I built on the pallette I had developed in an earlier pastel study, where I discovered a yellow tone in the sky and purple in the dried woods.

I made two more paintings. They are more like quick sketches. The most difficult aspect was the trees before the background, and I struggled with giving them a lighter tone before a darker background. In the second painting, I tried a different approach by drawing the tree silhouettes using pen and ink over the watercolour background.

Both drawings are not worked out. I abandoned the second because it felt too repetitive drawing the tree shapes again and again, and I lost patience and interest for the topic. Basically I think there was a compositional problem. I think for watercolours, an open view with simple shapes works better. Maybe I should have left out the trees in the foreground altogether.

I agree with my tutor that I have probably learned a lot from the assignment 3 painting, despite the only moderate results. In particular, I begin to get a feeling what doesn’t work with watercolour and what kind of painting style I prefer. I will try to incorporate the other ideas on how to improve paintings in subsequent works, but for now I think it’s better to proceed to a different painting subject and free up my mind.