Colour and Line in Watercolour PDF
Preview Colour and Line in Watercolour
Glen Scouller Boat and Fishing Paraphernalia, Hastings Watercolour, Berol Karismacolor water-soluble pencil, oil pastels, Waterford NOT paper, 71 x 53 cm (28 x 21 in.) Collection of the artist The Conversation, Falacho, Portugal Watercolour, Berol Karismacolor water-soluble pencil, white oil pastel, Waterford NOT paper, 23 x 42 cm (9 x 16½ in.) Private collection Glen Scouller Contents Small Boat, Sicily Paolo Olbi handmade, leather-bound watercolour sketchbook, watercolour, white oil pastel, water soluble pencil 23 x 30 cm (9 x 12 in.) Collection of the artist 1 INTRODUCTION The discipline of working from life Sources of inspiration 2 TOOLS AND MATERIALS Basic tools, papers and surfaces Outdoor equipment 3 METHODS AND TECHNIQUES Discovering and exploring watercolour Mixed media Demonstration: Still Life with Blue Background Demonstration: Self-Portrait with Still Life 4 SKETCHBOOKS Book and paper choice Which is best for me? 5 PAINTING OUTDOORS Hot climates Bad weather Demonstration: Octopus Boats, Santa Luzia, Algarve, Portugal 6 COLOUR AND LIGHT Creating light Saturated colour 7 FAVOURITE THEMES What is a suitable subject? Boats and boatyards Still life Landscape and urban landscape Demonstration: Red Table and Jugs Windows Figures Animals Farms and villages 8 WORKING IN THE STUDIO Still life Portraits Glossary Index Introduction The Church, Mexilhoeira Grande, Algarve, Portugal Watercolour, pencil and oil pastels, Waterford 300 gsm NOT paper 53 x 71 cm (21 x 28 in.) Private collection A strange thing happens when I can’t get far enough back from my subject, and this beautiful old Portuguese church, with its trees stripped of their leaves in winter, is a typical example. The verticals appear to be distorted as if seen through a fish-eye lens. This is not something I do consciously: it just seems to happen naturally in my attempt to ‘fit’ everything I want into happen naturally in my attempt to ‘fit’ everything I want into the picture, but I rather like the dynamic effect it has on the composition. Watercolour is a swim in the metaphysics of life... a mirror of one’s own character. Let it be unpredictable and colourful. Anonymous The mere mention of watercolours to some contemporary artists is often met with a reaction of derision and disdain: in their eyes, the medium is in the bracket of the ‘hobby artist’ or ‘Sunday painter’. This is despite the fact that the use of watercolour was firmly established in British painting history by eighteenth- century and nineteenth-century English artists such as Turner (1775–1851), Cotman (1782–1842), Sandby (1731–1809) and their contemporaries. The rise of watercolour painting was also tied to a growing acceptance in Britain of ‘landscape’ as an appropriate subject for painting. The use of watercolours by these pioneering artists had a truly liberating effect on the nature of art for future generations. Artists now had a medium that was easily transportable, and there was no need to carry around easels, canvases or other heavy equipment. They were no longer tied to creating art within the four walls of a studio: the whole world opened up as a studio. The Spongeware Jug Watercolour, Waterford 300 gsm NOT paper 53 x 71 cm (21 x 28 in.) Private collection This is an example of an early watercolour where the sumptuous colour and pattern made by the objects’ grouping was what charmed me. There is no under-drawing involved: here I simply relied on all my senses and got straight into the colour washes and mark-making, firstly with a large mop brush. Then, with a smaller brush, I added dots of pattern where they appeared on the jug and various bits of exotic fruit. By its very nature, watercolour can be a fickle, infuriating and elusive medium, where mistakes are difficult to remedy and the applied colour sometimes appears to have a mind of its own. This, however, is one of the things I like about watercolour – its
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