More feet

This one looks better as a photo than it does in reality.

The background colour was a pre-painted experiment, works well but haven't revisited it as a colour since.

Glow

As Ella Henderson says....

" We will Glow, oooh ooh  oho ooooh ohhh."

Like how the colours seem to glow in this life drawing.

More colour ! More bottoms !

The demand went out.

And was duly met.

More colour

Still playing with colour to see what happens.

Like how this is sometimes figure and sometimes colour pattern.

Dr Martins

No, not the boots, the ink.

Well they call it Concentrated water color ( USA spelling Grrr ) But it works more like ink. I have had favourite colours like Slate blue and Tobacco brown for years. The colours are so vivid and in your face. Took a bottle of Pumpkin to life drawing...

Initially a bit of a mess, but then it calmed down and I got some actually drawing done with it. Was using the pipette to draw with so I could control ( sort of ) the amount of ink coming out.

Finished off later when the ink had dried by knocking out the background colour to bring the figure forward.

The model, incidentally, was the same guy who was on the BBC's 'The Big Painting Challenge' the other Sunday, demurely pre watershed in a loin cloth. Hehe. 

Happy Easter.

It just occurs to me I should have found a rabbit to sketch and post. Oh well. Too late.

Instead, two girls with long hair. ( No pun intended )

This girl, her hair was such an undeniable red, and her skin was so pale, and enveloped in a big grey scarf, she was almost a tinted daguerreotype of a girl.

Limited colours, held in check.

Red Hoodie

Have been a bit unenthusiastic about posting these past few weeks.

But this sketch got me excited enough to log in and load up.

Love it when colour makes such an unmissable appearance like that.

Especially on these grey and white days we are having at the moment.

Happy Halloween

I can't post a sketch of anyone under a heading like that.

So here is a suitably autumnal colour study instead.

Don't eat ALL the chocolate !

Pink is my favorite crayon

Pink boots and pink handrails...

Did she call ahead to co-ordinate with the train ?

Three pieces of colour

Just playing with colour.

And pattern

And marks.

Marathon revisited.

Played with the blur tool in Photoshop.

You wear red and I'll wear yellow.

One thing they are not afraid of in Cuba, is colour. I'm not sure if it was the sun, or if they have access to a better, more vibrant pallet of colours that us, but it just knocked me off my feet every day.

See, even sketching them and bringing them back to the UK has dulled their punch, like Victorian botanists sadly watching their exotic specimens wilt and die. 

These outfits could have taken your eye out, they were so bright.

So... pt 2

Well that didn't go as planned. I am not brave enough to be as loose. The end result is...

...weak and muddy.

I had a warmer colour for the outline, but it disappeared, so went for a stronger dark purple, but, whilst it kinda works for him, it is way too heavy for her.  She looks almost armoured !

Although who is to say this is the end result !

So...

Having looked at Mr. Dufy ( last post ) am putting some thoughts into practice.

Here is original sketch, two people on the tube.

And have worked over the top in loose, but hopefully thought through colour.

Now am going to redraw again, in paint. Back soon.

Analysis

Took some time to stop by the Tate Modern, in hope they might have a Dufy on display. And they had his portrait of the Kessler family on show. Go see it. You owe yourself.

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/explore/work.do?id=17286&action=4

Anyway, spent some time looking at it and realised that, although they appear effortless, there are many layers of working going on in them. I had mistakenly assumed that after sketching and all the prep work, that he would lay down the colour, and then do the line work over the top. But I can now see that he builds these apparently impulsive gestures very slowly and methodically.

Take this area of Mr. Kessler and his horse.

Although it at first looks like line over blocks of colour, if you study it you can see the order in which he worked.

After first ( I assume ) sketching the image on the canvas, he laid down the base colour for the Horse (A), then working in a warmer body colour (C), and the outline in brown (B).

On top of this he drags a brush loaded with half mixed brown and white for the Stirrup leather (D), before outlining this in the brown as well (E). Then, clearly over the top of these he draws a stroke of white for the metal of the stirrup (F) before a brush of blue to colour and outline it (G). Then another layer of the brown for the boot toe (H), before finally outlining this in brown as well (I).

Seeing how these layers overlap means he took time with these apparently loose paint gestures, allowing the oil to dry between times. And even though, in themselves, each mark appears impulsive, he had planned exactly how he was going to depict each piece.

So believing I can do a sketch and then just whack some colour on it will only end in unsatisfaction. Need to look closer, and more.

Does this work ?

Hmm. Gonna have to take this out into the field a bit more, but this is where I am thinking at the moment. Following through on the Dufy thing.

Maybe... Hmmm... Thinking...

Eraser + Dufy

Managed to fit a trip to a Dufy Exhibition in the scrum of last november ( thanks Sophie ! ) And at the start it said Dufy believed colour stayed on the retina longer than form. And that has caught in my head, and is probably the basis for what I want to explore here. Early days, let's see where it goes eh ?

Got a bit excited by using erasure at very low opacity in Photoshop just now...

I know, more a shaded sketch than anything Dufy was about... but Rome.. you know... 

Plus... great coat Mister !!!

Sunday Colour experiment - 209

So, had time to think a bit, and saw what Laure wrote, so back to the tablet.

Not convinced, not convinced. I think I am just putting colour where I think it should be, rather than looking at the subject and SEEING where it really is. So the whole idea of adding colour to sketches after the event is a bit null and void here. And those rich dark depths are nigh on impossible digitally. Well, for me, at the moment, they are.

But picked up a few interesting bits here, stuff to carry forward. Not letting it go just yet, still things to discover.

Light is, as always, the key. Maybe if I can sneak a photo of the subject after sketching them... Hmmmm. Asbo's here I come.

More colour experimenting -208

   Had some time this morning to do a bit more playing in photoshop, trying ways to add colour.

   Hmmm. Not sure. It does seem that the purely linear nature of a sketch is at odds with the bulk that colour brings. A sketch allows the eye to make it's own mind up where things are, but colour has to have an edge. And is more dictatorial. Back of the hood is way too heavy. And blue ? How did that happen ?

   But in playing around I started thinking about Sargent's charcoal sketches, and how he uses a rubber. And how the Photoshop eraser tool seems to have the same sympathy. It's very different to watercolour, almost the opposite

   Hmmm. Maybe try not to be too precious ( and oh does the geek fan-boy needs slapping down as I write that ! ) with a fidelity to the original line. Let the two co-exist, like... well, yes... like layers.

   Oh look, if I alter the background...

   Okay, definitely something to learn here.