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watercolour experimenting with French village
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Message
Posted
Hey gang.
Been trialling a couple of watercolour techniques with this scene (techniques I wish to develop my skills in). I won't say a great deal quite yet, so as not to sway you in any direction, but could I have some thoughts on how successful or otherwise this is please?
Many thanks in advance.
Posted
Paul and Robert thank you for your kind words. Simplifying, especially away from the area I want to be the main interest, is one of the things I'm aiming for. I'm also trying, with those simple areas, to have them not only simple but vague, to 'suggest' what's there. I'm also looking at using much darker values at times, much more than I usually do, in the hope it increases the perceived light values. I know these are not necessarily watercolour issues, but I have several watercolour paintings planned to try to push that deep contrast, so thank you for your encouragement once again.
Edited
by Gerry Mellor
Posted
Hi Gerry, now I know what you’re trying to achieve makes it easier to understand and comment.
I’m pleased to hear that you consider tonal values to be important… because they are! More important than colour in fact, and too much colour in a painting can often be counterproductive, I’m not talking about fauvism obviously.
So, You’ve got some strong values going on in the chateau which is working quite well here.
You’ve also kept detail to a minimum in the distance, I think this could be lighter and less colourful so as not to compete with the buildings, on the blue scale of course, as is everything in the distance.
The foreground is nice and strong, the nearby tree could be less green and darker in my opinion…but pretty good generally.
Finally, I’m not overly keen on the somewhat patchy blue sky. A graduated wash using French Ultramarine blue would work better.
If you aren’t confident about graduating large areas, keep practicing on scrap paper, or ask for advice, it really is very simple.
Looks like you’ve used a white gouache mix for the wall, nothing wrong with that unless you’re a watercolour purist, which I’m definitely not!
These are my observations, trivial and minor, but you did ask… nitpicking one could almost say, but the devil is always in the detail!
Well done and pop it on the gallery!
Posted
I'm no purist either - Turner used gouache, so who are we to disagree?
The sky - I think there's been a bit of rescue work here: and could easily be wrong; but it looks as if Ultramarine WAS used, just not in a graduated wash; I'm nit-picking Alan's nit-picking here, because the overall result works well, whatever points within it one could find. Satisfy my curiosity, Gerry - did you use a bit of Ultra plus a touch of gouache in the sky, then wash it out? Because that's what I did some time ago, and that's what it looked like.
I appreciate and understand the aims you expressed in your second post, and just to repeat: it's worked - you've got a good 'un there, and your comment clearly indicates how much you've learned from it. So no pressure then, where's the next one?
Posted
Thank you gentlemen.
I am hoping to stretch myself and experiment and push....there is a impact from 'capturing' light, that I want some of my paintings to have, and I will endeavour to get there, so thank you for the encouragement.
I am okay with graded skies (I think), but for this one I was aiming to combine having a wispiness to it, but also use it to help the vignette appearance....so I did the sky (cerulean and cobalt), and wasn't happy it was dark enough towards the outside, so, once dry, glazed more (using ultramarine and cobalt). I think I need more practise glazing. I was tempted to use a thirsty brush for a moment, but didn't, and there was no washing out in the sky. I've used the 'kitchen-roll blotting' technique in the past, but didn't use that here as I wanted no discernible clouds formations. I also considered that the sky needed visual interest somehow, as it would be too great an area to have as quite plain.
Interesting thought on the white/gouache... one wall is white (paper) (with minor drybrush texture), and others are soft yellow mixtures... any white in the painting is the paper, as I have not used gouache in this one...I always aim to use the paper, and try to avoid gouache...I only use it for minor elements such as window mullions/frames, only if I haven't managed to keep the white and only when needed.
Alan, your observations are not trivial, and whether they are minor or major I certainly appreciate them...I certainly don't see it as nitpicking....I can learn as much from minor stuff as I can major....and the hope, when one puts something in the 'critique' section, that someone will comment...so, thank you, keep them coming. The way I see it is.... if there are no major comments I must be getting reasonable (and take confidence from that), and see it as the minor comments being a sign that there is just a little bit of refinement or a little bit of tweaking to really progress my art to a half-decent level of competence.
Thank you guys. very much appreciated.
Not sure when I'll do the next capturing-light attempt, but I will pop it on here. Thank you.
Edited
by Gerry Mellor
