Saturday 12 July 2008

Three Red Peppers

I've always avoided doing red peppers as a subject because I feel it has been done to death, but today when preparing a salad for lunch I could'nt resist the luscious image this pepper made when sliced in half. It was a good opportunity to try watercolours in my own new moleskine sketchbook without having to pass it on to someone else if it was a disaster!

Pencil and watercolour on Moley paper: "Red Pepper 1"; Free flowing pencil line then sloshing some strong watercolour on the smooth paper. Well the first thing I learned was that the paper isn't exactly absorbent and the colour skates about a bit before it finds somewhere comfortable to settle. So much for being inspired by Vivien's alternative moleskine exchange thinking I must try that too!
Pencil and watercolour on moleskine paper: "Red Pepper 2"; Getting more confident that I can control the colour but still not a lot different from the first attempt.

Pencil and watercolour on moleskine paper: "Red Pepper 3"; Getting the hang of this and in fact beginning to like the way the colour separates and settles where it will making for an exciting and unpredictable finish. Here are the three drawing/paintings together:

Pencil and watercolour on paper: "The Three Amigos"; Although they are each painted about 9x13.5cm I can just see them 90cm wide by 1.5m high. That's another project added to my list. When will I get round to doing them? Manyana!

4 comments:

Lor Lor said...

Hi David,
I know what you mean about the moly pages and watercolour. I've had similiar problems, but I use watercolour pencils with water touched in with a damp brush. I think the pencils break the surface tension of the paper. But your peppers look better than anything I tired on this paper.

vivien said...

they are way way better than my attempts a watercolour on moleskine paper! - our other exchange is using the paper of our choice so some people are using lovely heavy watercolour paper.

That's why I collaged the poppies in our moleshine exchange ;>)

These are very successful

daviddrawsandpaints said...

I think you're right, Lor Lor, and also perhaps the tiny grains of raw colour holding a small amount of water in place giving it time to dry. I wasn't too unhappy with the unpredictability of the paint -makes life exciting!

Vivien: So that's how you did it! I was mightily impressed with those watercolour sketches. Didn't you actually all make your own concertina'd moleys? Are they the same size as we are working in?

Thanks to you both for your favourable comments :o)

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