Roland Hilder - a great role model

The best English watercolourists seem to go more for the quick compulsive eye catch that captures a mood or the spirit of a place rather than 'the long stare.' So the approach and relies very much on suggestion encouraging the viewer's eye to fill in the gaps. There are watercolourists such as David Curtis who begin with a careful pencil drawing and build up the painting in by carefully superimposed washes even when working en plein air. He is a superb draughtsman so he builds on his strengths. By way of contrast one of the most popular watercolourists of an earlier generation and with a looser style was Rowland Hilder. Hilder is a good role model to study by copying - this is a study I made of one of the watercolours from his book ‘Sketching Country.’ He’s essentially used the line and wash method in this sketch. A departure from the usual recommended practice is he's probably used a brush rather than a pen for the line work. I used a Prolene Plus No4 Rigger and acrylic ink for the line work in this study. By the way Hilder was continuing a long tradition of quick visual notetaking which goes back to Rembrandt. His drawings of the farms and canals around Amsterdam are also worth copying.