Day: June 12, 2018

Man gazing at blooming tree

My friend Daniel gave me a book on Chinese Brush Painting. Although I have owned for years now three or four Chinese brushes and a few sheets of rice paper, I was not ready for this undertaking, and chose to continue with watercolor, since I have recently enjoyed it so much (and my vacation was getting to an end, so I went for the most gratifying process.)

 

It took me several attempts sketching the figure to keep to realistic proportions (the man still has a slightly too big head), I used a Pentel black pigment Brushpen, which performs wonderfully on really thin and thick lines:

I then erased the pencil and turned to watercolor. I used alizarin crimson for the flowers:

I added a few touches of black with my Brushpen to create the details of the flowers. I prepared yellow watercolor and painted the hat by drawing rays and leaving some white. I darkened my yellow with yellow ochre and added a few touches to the hat and went on painting the skin. I darkened further the mix with a bit of burnt sienna to paint the stick. Lastly I mixed a bit of turquoise and white to paint the belt.

I added water to my ochre/brown mix and with a light wash painted the background so the white robe would stand out. Here is the resulting painting framed (12.2 x 17.2 cm):

Carl’s house (from the movie Up)

Remember the movie “Up”? Carl is compelled to leave (in) his house when it is squeezed too tight between skyscrapers.

 

Pencil sketch on Canson 10,2 x 15,2 cm One Art book:

I used alcohol-ink brushmarkers and promarkers for colouring and a light grey Stabilo Point 88 for the thin lines:

The watercolor effect in the sky was achieved by using a light blue promarker in one hand and the blender in the other. Then I did the same for the grey buildings in the distance. I used a black 0.1 mm Uni-Ball pin pen for the black lines, and a white Posca pen for the white ones:

iPad watercolor: sailboat and island

After rough sketching, I painted the sky, using the watercolor tool of the Tayasui Sketches app that doesn’t “dry” until you tap the drop icon. While the paper was “wet” I added blue to my purple wash near the horizon:
On a different layer, I painted the sea:
On a third layer, I painted the rocky island, including the fort. I erased paint from the sailboat and the surf around it. And added a few strokes of different blue on the sea layer:
Then I painted the fort red, darkened the rocks, erased paint where the seagulls were, and painted the sailboat: