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| "Mandarin Oranges in Silver Bowl" |
The following is the description of what we did in the sixth week of the winter term, 2022 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class (my online Zoom class with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).
Yesterday I talked a lot to inspire you into doing more art and especially more drawing everyday. Bert Dodson's Keys to Drawing is
an invaluable drawing resource any aspiring artist should have in her or
his bookshelf and do exercises from daily. The fountain pen with
waterproof ink (instead of Micron pens) I use when I am traveling or at
home is the Platinum Carbon Ink Desk Fountain Pen.
It has an extra fine line; the one I have been using for several years
extensively shows no wear; I have two (one with black ink and the other,
brown).
The brush pen I showed is the Pentel Arts Pocket Brush Pen.
There are many similar brush pens in the market and this one is IT. It
has a steep learning curve and not everyone's cup of tea. At the end of the day, all you need for drawing practice is a sketchbook and a pencil!
I
am not sharing any links for watercolor sketchbooks. There are too many
out there to bother and it's a personal choice. You gotta go through
several until you find your favorite. And please finish all your sketchbooks so that you can brag about it (very few people do)!
I also talked about drawing in perspective with the aid of a ruler, which is not necessary but I bet opened your eyes. Some of your drawings were definitely wonky. Although I said a wonky drawing is preferable to a sleek,
traced drawing, it doesn't mean you have to live with wonky drawings
for the rest of your life. Nobody is born with the gift to draw
beautifully. Even the great masters practiced incessantly.
After the light pencil drawing was done (erase the construction lines if you have any), we did the line work over with a dip pen and black India ink.
This is when I "redraw" where I see drawing errors. Yes, you can draw
without the prior pencil drawing. It's a nerve-wrecking, yet
exhilarating experience. You have no idea how risky and dangerous an
artist's daily life is! You don't have to be a snowboarder. Lol.
You can apply a slight pressure where you want an emphasis (this is called a varied light weight in art lingo). Be careful with this, otherwise you end up with a sprung pen (permanently ruined!). India ink also has a steep learning curve. Just because you felt awkward using the dip pen and ink first time, don't give upon them. Practice!
In
the pen and wash technique, the pen line does at least 60% of the work,
so the wash (watercolor part) goes fast with minimum fuss. That's why
this technique is so popular among travel-journal artists. It has a bit
of illustration feel and perhaps that's why so many illustrators use it
(or is it the other way around)?
I am not going to tell you what colors I used for that reason. Keep colors of the mandarin oranges bright and glowing
(don't forget the alizarin crimson core shadows though)! This glowing
illusion comes from leaving the highlights pure white by painting
around! (You can do that with the leaves or silver bowl or anything
shiny you feel like painting). The
darks were the usual mixture of ultramarine blue and crimson. For the
silver bowl, I used cobalt blue as the base color and added different
paints as fit.
Try
to paint the shadow (luminous and beautiful purple, and not
dirty-looking; remember overmixing results in dirty colors and it's the
curse to the watercolorist) when the base of the bowl is still wet. Your painting should have a flowing look, not a disjointed and disharmonious one. That's why I often start painting the object B right next when the object A is still wet so that watercolor will bleed (yes, definitely nerve-wrecking).
Below is the image of the demo. In the demo, I didn't do any glazing because I ran out of time. It doesn't mean you shouldn't either. When the painting is "finished", assess the situation and do some glazing if deemed necessary. Remember that too many beginners and no-longer-beginners announce their paintings finished too soon!
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| "Mandarin Oranges in Silver Bowl Class Demo" |
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