Ann asked recently “What I am nervous about with this Homer is that most of the “washes” in fact seem to be paint applied very dry to very rough paper so as to get a dry brush effect almost everywhere in the water. You would almost think he’d spattered the paper with resist first. Not at all sure how to get that effect! My book says he also used opaque white – which I can never get to stay opaque! Anyway, I can’t imagine that he used it over such a large surface.”
Indeed. That Homer does look daunting Ann! It seems like rough paper to me and I think that this is a good part of the effect that he achieved. Papers in those days may have been quite different and so you’ll have to take what help that you can get from today’s papers. I think there is a light underlying pencil sketch (at least for the boat) although this has been almost entirely covered. I’m pretty sure he started early with the predominant grey (perhaps Paynes) in the sky and water (although there is perhaps a light wash of yellow under some parts) and he then blocked in the sails, clouds and reflections, adding the orange (plus yellow) quite quickly afterwards because you can see some bleeding of orange into and over the grey – including the sails. I think he got the almost dry brush effect by using a well loaded round, flat on it’s side, moving quickly so that the brush juddered over the paper – depositing the paint unevenly. It would be well to practice beforehand on a scrap of paper! I doubt resist was used at all. The scary stuff over, I believe he blocked in the darks and detailed the boat and rigging (using a rigger for this eh!). The lines are quite fine and this makes me think it’s a largish painting. You may like adapt the level of detail to the scale that you’re using. I don’t see much opaque white at all, although I think I can see some used to clean up the outline of the sails.
This is a delightful project, drawing upon some less-than-straightforward, core watercolour skills…. should be very satisfying!