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So angry with myself!
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Posted
I finished a really good urban sketch of some houses, garden and wall etc. Pen, ink and watercolour. All I needed to do was the shadows. The first thing I did was get lazy and instead of mixing my usual Daniel Smith mix that I like, I picked up a violet/grey tombow brush pen. So angry with myself as I then completely wrecked the picture, which then caused to overwork it. I tried lifting it but it lifted the watercolour and left the brush pen. I'm new here, I wanted this for the Gallery, but it looks awful. Obviously no one can help my laziness, but any ideas of how one can stop overworking, especially as my own style of urban sketching is pretty simplistic when I introduce the colour. Be grateful for any members tips. Julie x
Posted
You've answered your own question - you took a short cut, and it failed. That's not really overworking, it's using the wrong materials - in this case, the Tombow ink pen on a watercolour; you only overworked because you tried to remove the (probably indelible) ink, ended up removing the watercolour instead, and tried to correct the mistake.
So (don't think I don't sympathize, just because I'm playing schoolteacher!) there's one consolation: if you did it (well, the good bits) once, you can do it again; and this time, leave the brush pen out of the equation - they rarely work well with pen and ink, and are likely to swamp watercolour. You've had what we call a "learning experience" - treat it as such and be as grateful as you can bear being for it.
If you really do habitually overwork - well, I have a tendency in that direction too: there's no one answer: put a piece away when you think you're near the finish-line - you might find you HAVE finished; use big, broad shapes; take advantage of distance - a look out of the window will tell you that the human eye just doesn't see the handful of details some of us tend to push into our pictures; take deep breaths, and the time you need, to paint or draw - forget the idea that artists work very fast their wonders to perform, because that tends to lead to work you haven't thought through properly - so there are gaps in the vision, which we then try to fill with something interesting.... and before we know it, there we are, fiddling like Paganini.
All that, and - practise; keep at it, because the more you do - the more pictures or sketches you do - the less time and inclination you'll have to pick at and fiddle with them. (But a bit of a fiddle now and then isn't necessarily such a bad thing: we do, after all, want to get it right, if we possibly can - a bit of tinkering is inevitable: it just needs to be controlled.)
Posted
Thank you so much Robert. I will take all that you suggested on board, and yes you were right about the tombow not working with watercolour and me trying to correct. I am going to do the painting again, as its a good subject and I did a good painting up until then. I have also decided to pop my brush pens in the charity bag. I don't like, but they were a very expensive gift.
As you said, this is a mistake and a learning curve, rather than an overwork. I do overwork though when I paint when tired. Thank you everything you said is so useful
Posted
Welcome to the fiddlers club, it’s a constant subject or comment we hear often , ” I like it how it’s going but I’ve fiddled a bit to much”. I thin both Robert and I have discussed this several times , I do believe that we are in the top class and have a degree in fiddling, how do we stop , you tell me .
Posted
I often combine watercolour with Tombow marker pens, but you need to be selective, particularly with the pens.
I’m not overly keen on using them on large areas, a watercolour wash works better. But they do work well on smaller areas of blocking in.
Don’t worry, it’s all a learning process, we all have failures so just move on and start again.
I have a feature in The Artist section of the magazine coming up in a few months time, it’s about working with sketchbooks and in fact my own routine of doing a sketch a day - you should find it useful.
This is one of dozens of sketches I did recently using a Rotring Ticky 0.2mm profipen, Tombow markers and watercolour - a great combination if used correctly!
Posted
Well Alan your tombow use looks a whole lot better than mine. Lovely picture by the way. I'm putting them in the charity bag. It isn't just this picture, I just can't get on with them. And Norrette, I looked at the offending picture of mine again. I could possibly salvage it, but I am going to take Roberts advice....re do it. It was a good urban sketch, so we'll worth the effort.
Posted
Just a quick 'un - I think Julie used the Tombow brush pen, not an ordinary ink pen; so would have found that a challenge. The ink pens aren't a problem, but the brush, combined with watercolour - I wouldn't like to try it (I have tried it... I must have my little experiment somewhere, will see if I can unearth it, just to prove we can all get problems: not that this was really in any doubt.
I must read Alan's article when it comes out, but I find I don't always read the magazine at all online - I really ought to go back to the paper version.