Based on Line…

Still Life-Line

This is a painting from a few years ago based on a contour drawing of a still life set up.  I was then, and am still, captivated by line.  I was learning from terrific artists such as Bob Lysiak and Skip Lawrence…and I can see Bob’s influence here.  Though I could have softened edges here and there, what I like is the emphasis on line and color.  This is watercolor, believe it or not.  Watercolor is amazingly versatile with possibilities all the way from oozling transparency to creamy opacity.

I have  recently been reading some books by Charles Reid that I borrowed from my mom. He also loves line, and I’m enjoying the simplicity of concentrating on following contours in and out of subjects, from foreground to background, and even “losing” some lines here and there.  I’ve also been enjoying charcoal lately…the approach there is less emphasis on line, more on shape.  But even this is enhanced by the time spent with contour drawing, especially if I train my eyes to draw contours of SHAPES, not necessarily THINGS.  That would certainly have helped the above painting be more connected, and less cut-out looking.  Still, I like that painting for what it is emphasizing…two favorite things-color and line.

0 thoughts on “Based on Line…

    • jenpedwards says:

      Thank you Jeff! I learned to use watercolor this way from both Bob Lysiak and Skip Lawrence (there are a host of others who paint like this). You use a 1″ house-paint type brush (called a Skipper, available from Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff), you put it in the water bucket then shake it out into a large trash can you have beside you. Then you use the watercolor much like acrylics (or oils…I don’t really know about them) and blend colors on the paper. It’s really lovely to work with this way. The cool thing is that even after it has dried you can still work back into it because watercolor can always be activated. So it’s really very forgiving. Acrylics dry so fast, you have to work fast and be confident you are placing paint where you want it.

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