Category Archives: miscellaneous

Some research on watercolour figure drawing

While working on Assignment 5, the series of five paintings, I made a pause to research for a more ‘watercolour style’ approach to figure drawing. To gain a quick first impression, I did a Google image search which came up with several interesting leads I could follow up. None of the hits were by more widely known artists, but nevertheless they helped me forming ideas how to tackle my task differently. Of the many I saw, I selected works from three artists that came close to the qualities I wanted to have in my watercolour painting.

This nude by Charlene Thomforder (Rose I, 2008) appealed to me for the interplay of delicate, expressive lines and the subtle watercolour washes.

I like how she uses fairly light washes to differenciate between figure and ground: The white paper is left for the highlights of the right shoulder, where the wash denotes the background tones. By contrast, the lower part of the body is indicated through coloured shadows, and the background is just white paper.

The two watercolour figures by Christina Havens (2011) convey a more impressionistic, soft overall impression. The background and the linework are more integrated with the figure, which is a consequence of using watercolour pencils which dissolve when water is applied, as opposed to using pen and ink for lines.

The nude by Steve Fleming reminded me of Egon Schiele’s expressionist line qualities. On his website, Steve Fleming’s watercolour figures show his development from a conventional to a much looser and expressionist approach. I find this one very appealing for its focus on the essential elements of the pose – the head resting on the arms, and the bent body. There were more on the website with darker colours as well, which I liked a lot.

References

Charlene Thomforder: Watercolourways blog
Kristina Havens: Watercolour drawings from the live model
Steve Fleming: Alternative approaches to the figure

Brooklyn Museum Workshop, including exhibition visits: Swoon and Judy Chicago

This summer, I participated in a workshop at the Brooklyn Museum entitled ‘Abstraction from Nature’. The workshop encouraged us to engage with two current exhibitions, Swoon’s ‘Submerged Motherlands’ and Judy Chicago’s Early Works. We also went to the Brooklyn Botanical garden for a painting session.

The workshop extended over 8 weeks in July and August 2014 and we met Saturday afternoons for 2 hours. This was the first time I participated in an art making class since starting my studies with OCA. I very much enjoyed being part of a group, looking at other’s works and having a real person instructor who provided immediate feedback and help when we got stuck. Important was not only the individual feedback, but also listening to feedback others received and also the interactions among participants. I became aware what I was missing as a solitary student in distance education, which was not sufficiently compensated for through online interaction and written tutor feedback on assignments.

That said, I highly appreciate the possibility to study via distance education, but I more and more realize that I need to complement this with real-world interaction.

Starting out: Swoon’s ‘Submerged Motherlands’

In the first session, we went to the exhibition with the instruction to take some time for looking and then draw some elements with recognizable shapes from the installation. The task was not easy because of the sheer dimension of the installation. The photos can hardly convey how huge it was – the people on the lower left of the photo give an indication.

Students chose a wide variety of subjects. I opted for “easy shapes”, taking the instructions literally, whereas others ventured to draw sections of the huge tree or the upper lace-like parts of this monumental sculpture.

Later back in the studio we were supposed to work over the drawings using ink washes that should include different tonal values. We were told to cut these shapes out and later mount them on cardboard to include them in a three-dimensional group work, but this idea wasn’t actually followed up and so this session just served as a warm-up.

Painting from nature

In the next session, we went to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, which is just around the corner of the museum. Equipped with watercolours, we were advised to walk around a bit and then sketch out a landscape view we liked. As a second step, we should develop it further as a watercolour painting.

I painted a scene that included some stone benches and a view towards a pathway and some trees. I liked how the sunlight came through the trees and illuminated them. I also made a photograph of the scene, but the painting was made directly on location.

Developing the abstraction idea

The instructor’s ideas for our workshop became somewhat clearer to me when he outlined them again. He wanted us to develop something that extended from the original painting space into all directions, thus creating a three-dimensional work. His suggestion was to take shapes from our painting and repeat these as simplified forms, cut them out, mount them on cardboard and then compose a layered, three-dimensional image.

The next several sessions were devoted to working this out. Initially, it was all very vague to make sense of this abstract instruction, but then the idea took off in participants’ minds and we mutually inspired us to interesting creations.

I worked on shapes to complete the elements that had been cropped at the edges of the original painting: A large and a smaller tree, a fence, a bush, and three stone benches. The painting itself was mounted on a large black cardboard. Another cardboard was attached at the bottom in a 90° angl to provide support for a construction to attach the mounted shapes.

This was the arrangement I wanted to retain. The next step was to build the backside construction to keep the shapes at different distances from the background.

Judy Chicago – Early works

Towards the end of the workshop, we all went to the Judy Chicago exhibition, showing some of her early works. This was a very irritating experience for me, probably because I had never before studied an overtly “feminist” artist or works from the late sixties/early seventies feminist movement.

I had real difficulty relating to the works, finding them cold and polished. Somehow they were emotionally inaccessible to me. My attitude changed while I wandered through the second exhibition room and took a closer look at the “Female rejection drawing #3” (1974) with its handwritten notes below. The notes thematized Judy Chicago’s image of self and her experiences with others – her fears of rejection in close relationships and the difficulty of coming out as a lesbian woman in a feminist context. From then on her drawings and sculptures began to make sense to me as expressions of her personality. But a strange gut feeling remained and I was not able to like her works.

It is also difficutl to say in what ways might have an impact on subsequent work for the workshop or OCA courswork. I do remember that I was impressed by the psychological effect the exhibition visit had on me – it felt like stomach turned upside down and I needed some time to get back to normal.

Completing the installations

The remainder of the workshop sessions was devoted to finalizing our constructions. The shapes were attached using cardboard as distance holders and with several layers at different distances there was quite some fiddling with the cardboard and glue until the whole thing became sufficiently sturdy.

Zen Browne, our instructor, began attaching the finished works onto a wall for us to look at and the more that were added, the more we became impressed with what we as a group had accomplished. Starting out with a vague idea, the resulting installation was colourful and every work was different and particular.

In the final session, we could either make last touches on the work or make a painting inspired by it. I made a watercolour painting that took up the visual effect of the black cardboard background and the shapes that extended beyond it.

Overall, I think the workshop was an enormous enrichment. I loved how it was ‘un-academic’ in approach, just designed to have fun and enjoy ourselves while doing something creative. I felt that I loosened up in my application of watercolours and got more confident to try out new things and follow up ideas. It encouraged me to add real-life events and meeding people to my practice of art making. It is all a bit difficult when working full-time, but I think the benefits absolutely outweigh the additional investment in fees and time.

Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum

I was thrilled about the announcement that our works would be included in the museum’s Educational Department exhibition, starting in September 2014 and staying on display until around January 2015. I went to the exhibition opening and was approached by one of the staff members to explain the workshop’s idea to one of the visitors, a young girl. That was about the first time that I was questioned in person about some artwork I had done, an interesting experience!

Resources

Swoon exhibition pictures from http://www.clawclaw.com/2014/08/swooning-over-swoons-submerged-motherlands/ and http://www.life-creative-collective.co.uk/swoon/

Brooklyn museum, educational program: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/education/

Swoon Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/swoon/

Judy Chicago exhibition: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/judy_chicago_los_angeles/

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.

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.

At the end of part 3

I think part 3 of this course was quite important for me. The beginning focused on technical skills with mixing colour, and I enjoyed these exercises. I think I made nice progress in my use of the medium, colour intensity has improved and I can now mix and include a multitude of different colours in a painting. My washes have also improved and I feel much more comfortable with watercolours.

What I would like to improve on is the painting style. I think I have not yet really understood how to give room for the medium to develop its own life. I’m still too much trying to control, rather than letting watercolour effects do some of the work. To improve this, I think I will have to do more paintings on my own beyond the course exercises. Maybe choose simple topics and few colours and practice a quicker and looser style, just as my tutor suggested. I’m really eager to work with vivid colours, and the research I’ve done during this part of the course was highly inspirational.

But I will take a small break from coursework before tackling part 4. This is because part 4 is about landscape elements, and I want to wait until the winter is over before I get back to landscape topics. I want to make excursions outside the city to make new photographs and also to paint outside. Maybe I’ll change my mind later on, but for now I have different plans.

For now, I’m intending to switch focus from watercolour to the drawing course and complete its final assignment. While doing this and as time permits, I would like to review the basics in watercolours, making simple studies to practice washes and maybe also experiment a bit. I will also see whether I can include some research and exhibition visits.

I’ve also finally taken up the suggestion of having a small sketchbook that I can take always with me. But it is very difficult to fit drawing into everyday life, because I’m usually busy and stressed. The first two drawings were made recently during lunchtime, at the Ford Foundation building. This building has an atrium with tropical plants and trees, and people are allowed to sit and have a break. I drew the top of a tree and a flower.

While working on assignment three, I also made three small pastel studies of fruit. The assignment painting was so dull in its colours that I needed something to counterbalance this, so I chose arrangements in vivid colours. The next step will be to do this kind of mini-still life in watercolour as well.

A first attempt was made with the Lemons and Tangerines. As a start, I made some sketches and experimented with composition in my sketchbook. I had in mind to use a square format for the watercolour, but this meant placing the bowl somewhat awkwardly to the left or cutting the shade off. On the sketches it looked as if the landscape format was better able to accommodate the shapes of bowl with shade, but I found the square format more interesting and therefore stuck with it.

Recently I bought sable brushes, and this was the first time I used them. It made a huge difference. I used a large brush, which was just great. It was able to take up a lot of paint so I was able to paint large areas in a single go, but with its fine tip, I could also make very fine lines. I overworked the study so the difference is not very visible, but in its earlier stages the painting was really magnificent with the bright colours of lemon and orange against the light green tone of the bowl.

I read so often that synthetic brushes are comparable to natural brushes, and I have used synthetic brushes exclusively until now. But I think I will switch, because the difference is remarkable and I seem to get along much better with sable brushes.

The painting is a bit overworked and I think I will repeat it, trying to get the effects that I want with less layering. My main focus was on the tonal values and I think while trying to get these correct, I overcomplicated the painting. In particular, I saw that the green sheet of paper under the bowl had a dark tone where it met the white table, but under the bowl, its tone was lighter than the lower contour of the green bowl. I tried to capture this in graded washes, but these became irregular with brush strokes and unpredictable flow of pigment, so I added more layers which resulted in a dull tone.

The problem is that there are very soft gradations in tone which could be worked out more easily with graphite, coloured pencil or opaque paint, because these media permit more control and reworking. With watercolours, I have not yet found out how to approach the problem. There were these earlier exercises of monochrome tonal studies which focused on the issue, and I remember how technically difficult I found them. There was an artificial element in that they demanded to make a firm decision where one tonal area ended and another begun. But when I look at my objects, there are soft gradations not clear boundaries within a coloured area. So I’m not sure how I’m going to tackle this in the future.

But despite the overworking, I found the reflection and three-dimensionality of the lemon quite successful.

Roses

I bought a bouquet of roses – rose petals with a yellow inside. They look wonderful. I made sketches in coloured pencil and HB pencil before painting them in watercolour. The sketches belong to the drawing course, so I won’t include them here, but I’ll include the watercolours.

The first rose became a bit too dark for my taste in some areas. I still have to experiment with getting the tones right. I used Winsor & Newton watercolours in tubes and a big sable brush, with rose madder and Turner’s yellow and sepia for the background as main tones, plus chromoxide green and some more red and brown tones for the shades and the stem. With the second painting, I used fewer colours, trying to improve the clarity of overall impression, but this was compromised by the uneven background wash. Need more practice…

Miscellaneous: Taking a break

I’ve now prepared the parcel with Assignment 1 for sending to my tutor Lisa, and this will mark a break point in my course work. I will take some time off OCA coursework for personal and professional reasons. I’m planning to resume OCA studies in April 2013.

I’m not glad about the decision but I realized that I need to finish some other projects first before I can fully commit to studying art. I’ve only started the watercolour course 2 months ago, but it has already become part of my life, and I’ll miss it.

Not quite sure whether I’ll be able to do some “secret” work just for myself, like just experimenting when I have some leasure time. I might write update articles to the blog from time to time.

Bye bye for now.