Village Church - 4

There we go! The final grey watercolour wash added to the Tower.
Now it looks like flint - and when the masking fluid is removed there will be some lighter areas to really enhance that flinty appearance.

Masking fluid removal and next stages will be done in art summer school today - the last one of the summer - boo hoo!
Perhaps the weather will improve now summer school comes to an end - and I can take my new sketching toy outside and play !
We live in hope, eh?

New Toy!

I bought a new hardback sketchbook yesterday. Whilst I was in the shop I also bought a new sketching pencil - a Derwent Inktense.

Brilliant little pencil! It draws as you'd expect a pencil to do, but if you wet the area you have drawn, you get a deep intense inky colour.
The two sketches are two really quick ones I made, just to test out its capabilities. I'm very impressed and will be using this from now on for field sketches.

If you want to know more about Derwent and their range of specialist pencils, click here

Spattering!

Spattering is great fun!
Its a technique used to add texture to buildings - or even snow to a dark night.

Firstly you must mask off the area that you don't want spatter to land on, as in the first pic

Then you load a brush up with a wash of your choice and flick!
Once you are satisfied with the result, remove the masks and voila! The result is revealed.( as image below)

The church now needs just one more layer of paint and the Tower will be finished.

Village Church - 3

First grey wash has been added over the base wash.
As the church comes more to life, it seems to change the intensity of the sky. That's part of the fascination of watching a watercolour develop.

Next step will be to create some texture by spattering paint over the Tower and the body of the church.

If you look here you can read a little more about the church and its history.

Village Church part Two

Here's the village church after I laid down a base wash of ultramarine and yellow ochre on the Tower and the body of the church.

I have also applied masking fluid to the windows and the light stone work, so that I don't colour them with greys, when I want them to be a sandy colour.

Really like this effect on the Tower, it almost makes the Tower transparent. I might well do another painting of the Tower making it so. But for now, this one will be realistic ( I hope!)

Quick Painted Sketches

Sometimes I take up pen and paints and make some quick sketches.

Usually this happens when outside - or indoors when Missy strikes a pose I find adorable.
I get the pose drawn in technical pen as quickly as I can, then I add some paint to remind me of the colour.

These are fast aide-memoires, later they may well be used as the basis of a full blown painting.

Sometimes though, a painted sketch looks so new and fresh by itself, I don't ever paint a larger version, because the spontaneity will be lost.
This sketch is one of those!

Celebration

We're having a celebratory day here today - its Paul's birthday!
So we'll be off out for lunch with a couple of good friends.

I can't see much painting being done today - but I do foresee a happy day.
Paul has been used as a model in my paintings before, here is one example.