ART

I’m Never Too Old To Learn

New Tricks

White Flower in watercolour by the Author.

I’m very keen on reading any article on art by @Anne Kullaf within this publication, for she has remarkable art skills and a knack of teaching them so well.

By taking up art once again after a mere 50 years gap , I need all the help I can get from time to time.

Learning new tricks is a must and Anne provides more than enough expertise for me to try to follow some of her topics.

So it proved with my ‘White flower’ watercolour attempt above, trying to emulate Anne’s instructions within her, ‘How to add more depth in watercolour’ article recently published.

A couple of tips shouted out to me from this article:

• Use more paint, less water.
• Go straight in with dark tonal values, to create that depth.
• Use paints from their tubes, otherwise pan paints may require too much water.

Outcome:

I adhered to these points and while they may look obvious in hindsight, they certainly were not beforehand, particularly with the subject matter.

Surprisingly the end result was a reasonable one. Yes, maybe I should have introduced a little more colour within the white flower to make it stand out more, but for me the lessons had been learned.

To ensure it stood out, I introduced a couple of smaller red roses. Job done.

So much so with her tip of using more paint, less water, I applied this simple rule to one of my favourite subject matters afterwards, namely animals.

Watercolour by the Author.

As you can see, less is definitely more.

Initially I’d made my usual error in using too much water within the coloured areas. Soon rectified when applying strong colours over them, with little to no water and subsequently improving a rather insipid look.

Thankyou Anne once again. I’ve popped it in a frame and may well use it for my art group’s exhibition at the end of the year!

Lastly came another interesting experience after reading through Anne’s article, ‘The Elegant Simplicity of Pen & Ink.’

Once again, simplicity itself at first glance with her sole use of pens, ( ball point or any other type of pen and ink.)

• Major point being the shading used. Different types, including cross hatch.
• Applied to various subject matter.
• Catching my eye once again, particularly with the landscape and building examples on display.
• I’ve never really tried pens as a sole means of drawing, but previously used them to enhance my finished watercolour paintings, by way of highlights.

Another challenge for me.

Pen sketch by the Author.

I particularly enjoyed this experience, almost meditative as Anne has outlined.

The tree being central to the image was soon formed, due to the shading techniques, but of course with my usual quest for realism, I must apologise to her at this point.

I put aside the sole use of the fine-line pens at this point and used a watercolour brush pen for the tree foliage. Returning afterwards with the fine-liners to enhance some of the colour aspects. In effect the final sketch became a sort of ‘hybrid’ of brush pen colour plus ink.

The subject matter in this case being a photograph of a scene taken by myself during a recent holiday break near the Norfolk Broads in the UK.

If it appears that my colours, particularly the blue tinge I added to the smaller branches are a little over the top, I assure you I haven’t done justice to my photo. For it really was stunning. No fake colouration involved from the phone camera, but rather an unusual lighting effect.

Have a look.

Photo by the Author.

Truly a great blue underscore effect to the smaller branches.

So , as you can see previously, I tried to capture it with my coloured pens. I will of course try Anne’s methods of using only a pen in the future for landscapes and architectural scenes. I promise!

Sometimes Mother Nature wins out. This is one such instance.

*I’ve enjoyed the whole experience and will take these tips forward with me.

Yes, never too old to learn.