Watercolour Paintings

[dogfacedboy uk1]

After buying Adrian Smiths wonderful artbook I was inspired to try my hand at watercolour myseld and after getting myself some nice W&N paints I made a start the other week. Now I am obviously no Adrian Smith, but I do like his style, but one watercolour painter I REALLY like is Brian Froud and his visions of the Faery and goblin World. His work with Henson is right up my street. So I am going to be doing some copying and practicing.

Anyway, first up I thought I'd do a simple caricature of Frankstein as a greaser....

I am currently working on a Brian Froud copy with a head change. Pictures of that soon.

There is an interview on my blog with Adrian Smith if you have not already read it. Just a quick one mind.

dfb

 

[freakinacage]

Damn good first try, i wish my water colour efforts went that well!!

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

Thanks mate, this is up close and ugly. Its on an a5 page, so just starting small....

dfb

 

[sivousplay]

Very cool stuff ... just remember to always work light to dark ... the paper is your white so you have to plan stuff out and be super careful or use some masking fluid to keep portions of the paper pristine until you are ready for them ... that will keep all the colors looking transparent ... light on top of dark on watercolor starts to look muddy

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

Thanks mate, I did read to do that a while back but I must admit I am struggling with it a little. Having to keep paper white for extreme highlights is also tricky!

dfb

 

[sivousplay]

No doubt ... it's really hard ... takes a lot of practice and patience. Now, if you want to see something that'll blow your mind, check out this:

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs45/i/2009/091/1/a/Wieskirche_by_micorl.jpg

jim

 

[Dragonsreach]

No doubt ... it's really hard ... takes a lot of practice and patience. Now, if you want to see something that'll blow your mind, check out this:

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs45/i/2009/091/1/a/Wieskirche_by_micorl.jpg

jim

Sh*t on a Stick but that's good!
That level of work is something I aspire to be able to do but its a looooong way down the road from my daubs.

Dogfacedboy theres a quarterly magazine called the "Art of Watercolour" which is to me the best around (Like the top ten on Coolmini) for watercolours.
Try and find it in WHSmiths and enjoy. But please don't use Smiths as a library.

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

No doubt ... it's really hard ... takes a lot of practice and patience. Now, if you want to see something that'll blow your mind, check out this:

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs45/i/2009/091/1/a/Wieskirche_by_micorl.jpg

jim

That is awesome Jim, my own artistic skill is not quite up there yet lol! But definately inspirational!

dfb

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

Sh*t on a Stick but that's good!
That level of work is something I aspire to be able to do but its a looooong way down the road from my daubs.

Dogfacedboy theres a quarterly magazine called the "Art of Watercolour" which is to me the best around (Like the top ten on Coolmini) for watercolours.
Try and find it in WHSmiths and enjoy. But please don't use Smiths as a library.

Dragonsreach - yeah been moaned at before in Spar for doing that lol. I will check the magazine out!

dfb

 

[Chrispy]

I'm still having trouble with gouache myself, but my watercolors got a lot better after I read in a book that one artist makes a graphite value study (gray tones) and lightly sprays it with fixative before doing any work on top. With this method I don't need to worry too much about darkening areas and since I like unsaturated colors, it knocks them back some. This also helps with detail work. I'll have to get my 2-d artwork up somewhere soon.

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

Thats an idea thanks Chrispy. I guess it would need to be a lot lighter than my usual pencils work. Most of mine I have posted on my blog are very dark pencils which I prefer. I would have to tone done my usual style for sure lol. I have some gouache, but it is REALLY old paint not sure how good it would be now. Like about 20 years old and mostly untouched lol. When I was thinking about using white gouache to cheat with watercolour highlights I posted the suggestion on Adrian Smiths facebook page and the response was along the lines of "errr, no!". Looks like I will just have to plan my pics better lol.

dfb

 

[Chrispy]

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/126/e/9/maeve2_by_thechrispy1-d64dj2q.jpg

Here's a good example, I did all the dark areas in graphite first, you can see it peek through in the bats, her wing and hair. I prefer Payne's grey to black, and I also went back in some areas with colored pencil. I really need to get my photobucket account back up so I can make details.
BTW- this is Maeve from the original manga "Mark of the Succubus"

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

Cool mate! Not very knowleageble on the Manga scene tbh, our local gaming group is big on it though and they sometimes put a film running during our board game nights. So I may pick some clue up lol. I must say I cant see the pencils through the watercolour on the main character, I thought you might be able to. I'll give it a try. Its just placing extreme highlights that will probably totally piss me off I am predicting. I am just about finished on the next painting so more soon...

dfb