SARAH ORCHARD painting a FOREST SCENE in WATERCOLOUR and
CHARCOAL.
The scene Sarah was to paint was in Bolderwood which she
visits about twice a week and so is very familiar to her.
She had come prepared with the painting already drawn in
graphite pencil. She uses sheets of watercolour paper instead of pads and
mostly Daniel Smith or Windsor and Newton
Working with watery washes the background tree trunks were
painted in first using yellow ochre. Then using a mix of cadmium red and
ultramarine to produce grey shadows were added on the trunks blending the
colours in with the yellow ochre wash. Blue for the sky was painted in the
background keeping a lighter area in the centre. Then the leaf areas were
added.
Starting on the foreground with yellow ochre Sarah then
darkened the lower parts of the tree trunks before moving on to the people and
the dog. These were first painted with a light wash before adding darker tones
for details.
Foreground shadows were added and the painting finalised
with tonal contrast and further detail put in with darker colours.
Leaving the Forest scene
Sarah next showed us how to draw people to add to a scene.
Trevor Waugh and Hazel Soan were quoted as good examples to
study.
After first painting an oval for a head Sarah then added a
carrot shape for body and legs. Arms and accessories such as bags and hats are
put in next followed by the ground. Feet are blended into the ground and final
tones and details added with darker colours or pencil or charcoal.
After the tea break Sarah showed us how she works on her
paintings with charcoal. There are two types of charcoal- willow charcoal,
which gives grey when blended, and compressed charcoal, which produces a dark
colour on the paper. Sarah uses a charcoal pencil of compressed charcoal to
draw soft lines on trunks, branches and other places to bring out the shapes.
On the figures the
charcoal is used to emphasise details such as pockets and collars. It is
important not to over-do the process.
For sketching Sarah uses a homemade paintbox with favourite
colours and a Pentel brush pen with permanent ink.
To finish the evening Sarah added details with the charcoal
pencil to the figures she had drawn earlier. The result was a population of
very funny images and formed a perfect end to a very good meeting.
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| Finished paintings |
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| People |
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| Tea break stage |
1 comment:
Sarah puts so much life and character into her work. It is lovely!
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