Value studies and working over a toned base.Transparent colour washes.

The Tramp by John Singer Sargent

Following last week’s profile of John Singer Sargent’s Madam X, it’s easy for me to include a second of his paintings in this portrait course.

This watercolour shows the power of both the person and the medium. In my view, it is one of the most evocative watercolour portraits I’ve had the joy to encounter. The portrait itself is masterly, with skillfully modeled features. Like many great watercolours, the realism then fades out into paint in places, adding and not subtracting from the overall effect.

This would be enough for inclusion here. Ultimately, there’s something more: sadness and resigned acceptance in his eyes I think, with strains of personality showing in the paint.

Value Studies

Previously, I proposed a couple of drawing exercises: gesture, and continuous line. An important third aspect of drawing (and painting) is value and creating believable lights and darks! It’s great fun to form shapes entirely with with lights and darks – placing darker areas behind light and vice-versa (forming the boundary rather than drawing it).

Here’s a great way to approach tonal studies which works really well in both charcoal and paint. It’s perhaps the most painterly way of drawing and the process translates easily into painting. It almost deserves its own category: neither drawing, nor painting, it’s rendering. It’s at the core of many pastels and paintings for example, and in this video I start off by using some nice messy charcoal:

Method

I begin with a mid-tone application of uncompressed charcoal – lightly rubbing charcoal all over my drawing surface using the side of the twig. Don’t try compressed charcoal, which sticks to the paper a good deal more and is difficult to erase. I then pull out lights with a kneadable eraser (a must – I don’t think I have any square erasers anymore). I’m focusing on the large shapes and relationship of forms in blocks of light. Typically, there’s a scary stage where nothing seems to be happening and then….Oh! there’s a ghosted image – faint, but real. In portraits, the effect is a bit like the Shroud of Turin.

Now I switch to pushing in darks and then work away with charcoal on the darkest areas – again, shapes and not lines, with blocks of light and dark. When you see shapes, you’re creating a jigsaw puzzle, distinct and separate from the subject and this always works the eye rather than the brain – the brain typically being the bad guy: over-thinking , making assumptions, judging.

 

As if by magic, there’s an image, which only then do I reinforce with some line. An image built out of just 3 values: light, mid-tone and dark, set on a ground of mid-tone and quite unlike those pencil sketches that most are used to.

It’s a technique so alien to many, but the light goes on and some find it a revelation. When I first encountered the approach, I almost felt it was cheating!

 

 

Exercise:

• Take a couple of portrait references of your choice or from the Reference Gallery and develop a value study from a couple of studies starting from a mid tone as above. Use uncompressed charcoal and a kneadable eraser  (as  mentioned earlier, compressed charcoal tends to dig into the paper and not lift nearly as well).

Pulling out lights and glazing colour – in Watercolour!

Part 1 – Creating a low-tone image

In the following video, I tackle a low-tone watercolour starting from a mid-tone wash – breaking my normal rule of retaining some (considerable) white space. In this manner, I am forcing myself to explore how watercolour can be removed and wiped out from the paper : creating “almost whites”.

 

Method

I start with an approach that is similar to the preceding charcoal exercise. Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine blue are once again my go-to tubes: These two colours work superbly together: warm browns mixing to cool, intense black and then blues:

1. Firstly, wash a saturated mid-tone base in Burnt Sienna onto the entire paper. No need to be very fussy about how even it looks – it’s going to be considerably modified. Let it dry.
2. Pull out from the Burnt Sienna base to create blocks of lightened area and then block in darker, bluer areas by adding Ultramarine to the Burnt Sienna.
3. Use a stiff brush and, depending on the size of paper, it can be small or large. In the demonstration, I almost scoured the surface…which you can do with good paper.
4. When the paper starts shedding little balls, which it may well do, just let it dry and the material will fall away. The result can be almost imperceptible with some papers.
5. Don’t be frightened of blues in the shadows and features, you need them! My general rule is, the darker the value, the bluer it must be. Mid-tones and lights in brown, with darks all having a deep blueish tinge. Warm tones advance and cools recede, giving the viewer all of the right messages.
6. Keep your paper at a bit of an angle, 15% or more. This will ensure that water you add for lifting will not pool.

Part 2 – Glazing colour and finishing

In the following video, I then work on the preceding low-tone base, adding colour washes whilst continually evolving the image:

Method

I’m known as a bit of a colourist, but typically evolve my images from a very limited palette base, applying colour on previously established values:

1. A couple of warm washes made from Alizarin crimson and Hansa yellow (or Lemon) are comparatively safe, if a little staining.
2. You can still lift paint after adding colour – even after washing with staining pigments (such a Pthalo blue)….you can lighten the effect – a bit!
3. I keep evolving the image as I proceed – rather than colouring the existing image. When I see an area that needs some adjustment, I go straight in and make the change.
4. Adding a splash of colour in the background and also for the clothes is a great opportunity to reinforce the image that you’re creating. In this case, I changed the colour of the blouse – why not?!

Exercise:

From a reference of your choice or the Reference Gallery develop  a watercolour using the above method:

1. Start from a mid-tone and proceed in a similar manner to the previous charcoal study. That is, make the primary focus the  lights, mid-tones and darks. Secondly, add colour washes for drama and effect.
2. Have a bit of fun and explore the capabilities of your paints and paper!