“Togetherness”
(Watercolour)
20x20cm
ABOUT THIS PAINTING:
This watercolour was the first I
attempted. I took the subject (Bridie
and Connie – my granddaughters) from a photograph which my daughter Bernice
took. I thought that the composition was
intriguing. Not having any training in
watercolours I was waded into deep water myself and can confirme that
watercolour painting is very difficult to master. It took me quite a time to figure it out and
even now I am not completely competent. A
couple of books which are invaluable to the beginner to watercolour painting are
”Making Colors Sing” by Dobie and “Colour Choices – Making Colour Sense out of
Colour Theory” by Quiller. I think
that the former is out of print now but you may be lucky to pick up a second
hand copy.
Artistic techniques used in the
painting:
With watercolour
painting I am more methodical than I am with acrylic. I work out the composition and what palette I
will use in advance. Firstly I painted
the image in a gradation on a separate sheet of paper to get the highlights. Then I re-sketched the image onto 300g
watercolour paper. The colours for my
palette were then thought out. I wanted
to achieve a cool light as the subject is in natural light, so I kept the
background cool and the figures warm. I
keep notes on my painting process when I paint in watercolours. The palette is below:-
Watercolour Palette:
Aureo. Yellow
Rose Madder
French Ultra
Blue
Cad. Red
Windsor Blue (or Phthalo Blue)
Indian Red
Aliz. Crimson
Veridian
Cobalt Blue
Light Red
Windsor Green
(or Phthalo G.)
I kept the
colours naturalistic with expressionistic overtones. The palette is analogistic which means that
the colours are adjoining on the colour wheel.
There are vibrant notes as seen with the use of yellow. The painting is in mid tones. Form is natural with a one point perspective
but I have purposely kept the painting flat and stylized as this is generally
my approach.
Although this
is a genre painting which means it is a painting of everyday life, it is also
of my two granddaughters so it is a double portrait also.
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