Initial Drawing
To begin with cut the Arches rough 300gsm watercolour paper to size (22 x 28 cm) and using masking tape attach it to a board. You can just use an old piece of hardboard as your painting board.
Now complete a simple line drawing using a 4B pencil. Use soft pencils to draw with and don’t mind if the pencil is visible on the finished picture. It can be erased, but you don’t need to bother.
Concentrate upon your drawing and try to get it to be accurate. You don’t want detail, but you do want accuracy at this stage That is, you want the drawing to look like what you can see).
After drawing apply the masking fluid with an old brush; never use a good painting brush. Apply it sparingly, it can be seen on the
drawing as the black marks.
In this exercise Allan has shown how a simple window can become an attractive subject when the sunlight gets to work on it.
Often when we choose our subjects we look for complexity and miss the simple beauty that surrounds us. We may find ourselves intimidated by a street scene with many buildings, trees and vehicles. We can find a way through this complex vista if we simplify our subject choice.
In this case Allan was in a small medieval street with numerous old buildings. Narrowing down his subject matter enabled him to concentrate,look and find the quiet beauty that is often right in front of our eyes.
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