Anatomy Thread of .: Mr. Mu :.

#926

Hi there,

just throwing a self portrait at you to announce forthcoming upload of a few life drawing gestures and casual other stuff I did in the next few days.

I did a few things which I was very unhappy about. Mainly watercolor pencils. My main problem with them - so I thought - is that I tend to get very detailed right from the start which makes everything look ugly.

So, watercolor self portrait today - and to my dismay I realized my watercolor shows the same problem. I think I know where this might be from.

I have a problem getting dark tones right. Mainly due to two problems:

I tend to apply colours to light for fear of adding too much dark value, just to realize it’s not nearly half as dark as I thought when it’s all dry.
2.
I work from pans with dry watercolors and it’s hard to activate enough colour for a really dark wash.

Results: too many glazes (“Argh! Too light! Another wash!”), therefore too many unwanted edges, fiddly overall impression from going back over and over to the same spots.

In the end I despaired and used lamp black which looks like an alien element, here.

So, there… (oh, and I might add that I am not really that yellow… )
click for higher res…

#927

I got a set of watercolor paints this weekend.
Might give them a try next weekend.

Looks pretty hard to meh

#928

Glad I found this sketchbook! Nice stuff all around. You’ve got some excellent sketches and studies, and it looks like you are well on your way to translating that into painting. Awesome!

I have similar issues with watercolors. I tend to end up with a million transparent washes, and have difficulty maintaining edges and blending while trying to achieve the proper values. After experimenting with watercolors and many other things, I’ve found that oil paint is really my preferred medium: there is no other medium that allows me to control the blending, edges, values, etc. directly in a way that makes sense to my brain quite like oil. However, you’ve done a great job with your water color self portrait.

Nice sketchbook here! Can’t wait to see more :slight_smile:

#929

Hey Mister Mu…:wavey:

I like that self portrait…:thumbsup:

Yellow and purple mixed will give you a rich golden color…good for skin tones.
Always go about three times darker than you should, and when it dries, your water colors will have a nice richness and intensity to the color…vibrant.
A good heavy weight stock of watercolor paper is also key to success…Archers 100 percent rag clocth…cold press or hot press…try them both.
You can buy a big single sheet, and cut whatever sizes you want out of it…a bunch of small sizes to experiment with, and a couple of bigger ones for your best efforts can be gotten out of a single sheet.
The good pressed rag cloth paper is expensive, but well worth it…:slight_smile:
Glenn

#930

Hi MU

I like the battle scene with the dinosaur, as well as the process you used to build it - some nice photos in there. Great work!

#931

Hi Johan,

watercolors are special, but my weapon of choice. I decided there’s no medium which excites me as much as watercolor does. I even love good abstract watercolors and I normally hate abstract paintings with a passion…:smiley:

jabuhrer
thanks for your visit and the nice words. In fact, what you say about oils is the same for watercolor with me. Funny how we respond to the characteristics of a given medium, isn’t it?

Glenn
as always, you’re back with a treasury of great tips. I will try this and I do agree that the paper seems to be very important in the whole game of watercolour. I had papers which were based on wood fibres so far and while cheap they seem to tear easily and seems to undulate quickly (even with 250g/m²)
Will try the good paper soon…:wavey:

Gord!
so nice to still see you hanging out in this thread…:slight_smile:
I need to pay you a visit, too!

#932

hi there,

just two zoo doodles:

click for high res

preparin two new painting projects, stay tuned!

:smiley:

cya
Mu

#933

Hi Mu :slight_smile:

I like these doodles! The fast approach adds both movement and a sense of freshness to them which can easily be lost in prolonged fiddling. I think you’re making excellent progress in your watercolour adventure - and I can well appreciate that feeling when you discover a medium you really like :arteest:

With ample risk of putting my foot in it (repeating stuff you already know…) here are a few questions and suggestions…

[ul]Wetting the paper can help achieve flow and coverage of large areas (thicker paper definitely responds better to this).[/ul]
[ul]Do you mask areas you want to protect? With the paper being the “light” in watercolour, masking an area you want to have as pure light, allows you to work more ‘boldly’ on the area around…[/ul]
[ul]I really love the way your quicker studies (the doodles above) have less edges between dark and light, there’s more variation in brush strokes and still enough definition to create depth
[/ul]
[ul]I think I remember someone saying that it helps to divide watercolour painting into 3 stages: background washes (& if you’re not working wet-on-wet, let dry a bit before moving on), your mid-tones and finally your darkest tones. I did a quick search and found an article where an artist explores the benefits of painting “backwards” i.e. from dark to light - it looks quite interesting especially as he says the darker colours become more vibrant this way - maybe worth giving it a try? How to paint Backwards [/ul]

cheers and happy painting!
a. :slight_smile:

#934

hey Mu, liking the latest watercolour washes, nice work…

Kris

#935

Hi Annette,

yea, at times I flood the paper with water. I need the right paper, though. Sometimes I sketch on junk paper which would not hold it.
I also mask areas sometimes. I am still in the middle of exploring it all.

Going from dark to light in watercolour sounds like the best of both worlds, but the linked example (thanks a lot!) looks like you have to be very accurate in matching the right values from the start, which I am very bad at, LOL.

krispee - thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment!

here’s more exercises for a project or goal of mine. I want to do a self portrait, deep shades and lines in ink, colour and detail washes in watercolour. Hence self portrait exercises in ink.

I realized I can use my webcam for self portraits, btw! It is quite amazing, because with a normal mirror you need to add more mirrors to do sideviews and with a webcam, looking at the monitor, I can view myself from any side and keep a straight look on my paper!

All of the following ones are 2 minute sketches. I started with brush and ink, in several sizes, went over to marker and finally combined marker linework with brush washes for an overall 2+2 minute self portrait from webcamed monitor view.

this is 5+5 minutes, linework with markers, washes with brush

#936

and this is 10+10, same method.
I find this awkward. How can it suck so much, being twice the length. I seem to focus on the wrong things when I got more time! Well…

#937

nice brushwork - the last post is the weakest - too static - IMHO - but the others are very nice.

#938

Thank you very much for your honest and insightful comment,Gord. I feel exactly the same way about the last one. It’s strange how more time resulted in this stiff approach.

#939

and this is 10+10, same method.
I find this awkward. How can it suck so much, being twice the length. I seem to focus on the wrong things when I got more time! Well…

Imho, it’s because when we tell ourselves we will “make a really nice drawing” and we lengthen the process, we get caught up in details and we stop drawing from the elbow or shoulder and start working from the wrist more than we need to. The “schwung” gets lost when we start thinking too much iso seeing.

A solution may be to step back a few meters and check your proportions, shadows etc
Also, when stepping back, turn around and walk forward rather than stepping backwards. This way you will have taken your eyes off your work for a couple of seconds, and your view will be slightly fresher.

#940

Honestly, I think these are great practices you have posted lately and I cannot tell if they are digital or traditional. BTW I love to work with watercolor pencils.

#941

White pastel and charcoal on toned paper. Photo ref from a book on Cuba and the Revolution. And what looks like a strange Fidel is a lousy portrait of Che. Sorry Cubans…^^

#942

AH…there you go…Got and captured feeling in those last two…:thumbsup: Nice techniques also…:slight_smile:

Hope all is well with you and yours over in your neck of the woods…:slight_smile:
Take Care MR MU…:thumbsup:
Glenn

#943

Thanks Glenn!

We’re all fine and there’s a bit of news ahead on the drawing frontier… stay tuned…^^

#944

Looks like a formula that works well for you Mu

Looking forward to see more :slight_smile:

#945

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