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Wednesday 3 October 2012

A statue and a leaf.


This watercolour of a flute player is taken from a photograph by Steve Lyddon on the Paint my Photo site.  I just knew when I saw it that I would do a watercolour version of it.
I intend to redo this as some of the proportions are not just quite right, but the general idea is there.
My intention was to give the painting that 'fresco' look.  Steve has taken quite a few photographs of
statues and most of them look very appealing to an artist.

There were just three colours used in this project.  Turquoise, Indian red and Yellow Ochre.  For the marble-like tones on the face I used the turquoise with just a touch of Indian red to tone it down.  For the darker colours I did the opposite.  My Indian red had a touch of turquoise.  The yellow ochre was added near the end to warm up certain areas.

I didn't pre-draw any of this, which is a pity as the arms and hands didn't turn out the way I wanted.
Here is a picture of the painting taken about half way through.


I would have preferred to stop just after this stage, but this has been a worthwhile exercise.  Watch out for the new version on here soon.

Around about the same time,  I cut a silhouette profile of my granddaughter, Jessica, from a leaf.  
This was quite difficult as the cut tends to want to go along the grain of the leaf surface.  It probably 
isn't too good for my scissors either.  Here is the result below.






6 comments:

  1. Brian this is a really beautiful start. Very unique and you've managed to give the statue lots of life. Great to see the opaques getting a look in too especially for earthy heavy tones that you obviously needed here. Looking forward to seeing the final version.

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  2. Thanks Laura. I am off on my travels down south at the weekend, so I will take my stuff along and try and redo this. Not exactly plein air painting - more like hotel room art! lol

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    1. Brian. You could always do a still life in that hotel room btw... and yes I'm forever pushing the "paint in the moment approach" these days. lol. Enjoy!!!

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  3. I had noticed the colours Brian and forgot to mention them in the group.... really lovely combination, I love it, unusual too, my Windsor and Newton Raw sienna is meant to be transparent, it's a mix of a couple of pigments but looks a bit more opaque to me and Indian red isn't a colour I particularly like and use only for stone work but usually with cobalt blue. Will try with the tuquoise......have just bought a new turquoise from Schmincke... Jean recommended it, Helio looks gorgeous....

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  4. Very attractive approach to this subject. Your choices have made an effective image. I look forward to seeing your next one and any subsequent pieces in this style.

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  5. Thanks Mick and Judith. Much appreciated.

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Thanks for taking the time to look and comment.