This is my first large watercolour painting of a Ken Duncan photo from WA Kimberley’s from his Chasing the light series. I was trying out using sheet paper I didn’t have a board big enough so used masking tape to a new canvas board still in its wrapping.
I didn’t stretch the paper and should have used more masking tape, it cockled and also warped the paper. You can see I attempted to cover up some cockling creating a whirlpool which actually adds some interest. The perspective is not 100% right, and I have since learnt about the rule of thirds so next time will add more room from sky as this seems to be one of the highlights.
However with all its imperfections from far it looks good and it’s nice to look at because you can see the depth. The time I took to rework the shadows in the rock, whilst tedious, was worth it. I’m quite happy with the waterfall, using dry brushing to make the mist. I found another use from my premised skin tone palette.
I actually learnt a lot from this painting and found that it was important to let it dry between layers and that layers are important.
When painting it I focused more on replicating the tone and colour, and went to town using all the different blues I had. It still isn’t 100% but now can see a lot of the changes in the tone was actually from the shadow of the rock so instead of focusing on painting light I might try to focus instead on painting the shadows and leaving parts to let the light shine itself. Also have since read that to build harmony you can use the same blue in the sky and incorporate it into the other colours by mixing your own greens, purples and browns. The clouds whilst seem good from far, I would have like it to be more of the candy pink fluffy clouds but I was trying to be purist and not use white or gouache. I attempted to mix a little with buff titanium, but this gave the clouds a grey look and had to lift more to lighten it.
Next time I will try using titanium white gouache to mix a nice pink, or dilute more and try to be patient to paint thinner layers. I looked into the Daniel Smith Opera Pink which seems to be the perfect shade, but read that it is not lightfast, so decided against it.
Here is what it looks like in stages: for a long time it didn’t look like much but it’s great to see as time goes on it gets better and better.
The paper I used was cold pressed half sheet of Stonehenge Aqua Half Sheet which I’ve never used before it cost $6.95 plus shipping and fit the $25 A0 frame from Kmart. I used double sided sticky tape (so already I don’t expect this will last a life time but it claims to be archival quality) to stick it to the paper it came with which provided the nice grey border. Doing so has highlighted that the paper is not completely straight! I’m not sure if this is because I didn’t stretch the paper properly or if it’s the way it is. I might consider getting professional framing in the future but for now I’m still learning so a basic white frame from Kmart is fine for now. The frame is actually plastic not glass but read in the reviews this can be good because if it falls there’s no risk of the glass shattering.
From this experience I will be using watercolour pads and have now invested in some very large and expensive Arches watercolour pads so I don’t need to bother with stretching! I also love working with Arches as I find the white and paint seems to shine more on arches paper and even though it’s close to $100-200 (AUD) for 20 sheets depending on the size of the pad, it actually works out to be $5-$10 (AUD) a sheet which is comparable given you are getting a much better quality paper.
Overall this painting took me approx 10 hours in approx 3-4 sittings of 1-4 hours each over the course of 2-3 weeks.
Cost of materials was a few $$ for the paint, $6.95 for paper, $25 for the frame – max cost price was $40 (AUD). Not bad for a hobby and even though the materials seem super expensive to begin, it works out cheaper than a round of golf (4-5 hours of enjoyment) and you enjoy the end product much better than using cheap materials.
Sense of achievement and ongoing enjoyment – priceless.
Rachel Fong Art 