Japanese Characters in Watercolours

 

In our latest watercolour session, we painted Japanese Characters in our own western way. Although some of us painted them the Japanese way, with a big pointy brush and very Zen, mindful and careful. All of them are beautiful in their own way, and as you can see above there was enthusiasm and diligence!

Corinne painted the big character that translates into LOVE. She added a background in soft tones with more characters and thus created a composition that would be fantastic for a Japanese film poster.

Martine also created a poster-like image, started with a background and then practised her spontaneous side, with a big brush and using lovely words, like respect and royalty, life and happiness
To translate use this chart:

And here's her practise page

Anna did a perfect 'Love' character and experimented with the background. She's not too happy about how that worked out, and I agree. The great thing about watercolours is, that is is quite spontaneous, you can learn from your 'mistakes' and just start again you on a new piece of paper! 

Thecla spontaneously painted 'Life' (above) and then 'Fire' - in that way painting her last name, which means Fire. She also started a quite technical abstract, inspired by her travels in Mauritius the last weeks, It is still pencil-only but hopefully we will see it in painting stages one of these weeks!

Charlie painted a lot of these little Japanese fish, in quick strokes. This one I think was the best, so transparent and quick, like the carps themselves. You feel their moves. Great idea!

Laura has a very steady painting hand! I love everything about this painting, the colours, the style and the sturdy elegance. Well done!

And lastly, a magnificent character by Roxane, Not sure what it is, but the handwriting is perfect - you can see she means it. Determined, bright and elegant. Love it!

In the meantime...

Next to a lot of other characters, Roxane painted this amazing landscape in the last 5 minutes. So simple and at the same time it tells a lot! So cool that snow on the mountain, just by leaving white!

Anna finished her leaves in the early sunlight

And Martine added some green to the black background of her plants. I would have thought improving would be impossible, but yes, it is even better now!

Foliage in Watercolours

Last Watercolour session we had an 'on request' subject, 'Foliage'. How to paint that, if there is a lot of green, like in a garden or a forest. We studied a lot of examples and decided that it is a mix of very vague watery and super precise one-hair-brush painting as well as lots of squinting to see the lights and the darks. Not everyone was happy but I certainly loved the results. Hope you do too:

Corinne wanted to practise this and to her it felt like a struggle, but look at the result - she really gets it!
Painting all those leaves is a combination of flowing greens, from dark to light, with a very precise one here and there, and that is what happens here. Love it!

Feeling the autumn, Glen painted just one leaf. It really gets the attention, good work with the colours and contrasts, on the leaf itself as well as in the whole painting- everything is painted loosely except the leaf and because of the dark shadow under the leaf, the background seems to light up. Cool!

Charlie painted these playful leaves and a blue blue sky. You can smell the spring and feel the sun! Great atmosphere, well done.

Anna Karin's WIP - this is going to be so wonderful, with lots of 'negative' painting, where she'll show the leaves by painting around the orange, leaving them out (below middle already has one) Can't wait to see the next step!

This impressionist painting is created by Marie-Françoise, you have to admire the light, the different shades of green and the beautiful composition.

Martine painted this amazing ivy growing next to the steps of the garden. Beautiful how the leaves are really lying on the stone and throwing their shadows. Well done!

Anna finished her pomegranate (see below) and just had time to set up a first wash with a soft background and cute fresh little leaves

Sue's WIP - still without branches, painted in her 'loose' style - but very well observed and therefore already so good, with the light shining through the transparent leaves.

Brenda was also in 'loose-painting' mode and splashed lots of paint and colour on the paper. I love this, for the process and also because it looks so good, and high. Brenda was less enthusiastic, but from further away she could see what I liked about it 😀

And then some other projects, like Charlie's turtle. What a happy little creature and what a boost of blue colour. It is so lively!

And on the other side of the spectrum, the warm colours and beautiful, still pomegranate painted by Anna.

It is so still and classic. Very well done.

Watercolour project: Man with cigar

Over 10 years ago, the Magazine l'Art de l'Aquarelle (the Art of Watercolours) had a column for advice, by the excellent Aquarellista Janine Galicia. And the question one day was, 'could you give me some advice to make my painting stronger' with the original photo and the watercolour. Janine then spruced it up, but with brown tones and I guess directly on the photo - I didn't like it much, and most of all thought, we can do that better! 

So it became the challenge of the day and some really good portraits were created. I sent the pictures to l'Art de l'Aquerelle, but never heard back from them. Here are some results

Last week we needed an in-between exercise and decided to give this another go. Not one is finished - but again fun to do and great results, already. I may send them to the magazine again! Wou never know, we might finally become famous 😀Here are the works in progress (WIP's)

Marie Françoise has almost finished hers.
A bit more contrast, shadow - the background is already really good!

Anna Karin is back! It is great to have her around again, in person and in original take on the work, always so inspiring. Her Man with cigar needs a face - but the basic colours are so well-applied, can't wait to see him finished.

My WIP - I need more contrast, his features are mwah especially the mouth, and the background needs to be finished. But hey, I loved doing it and that's what counts.

As usual there were other projects going on too:

Janine finished her pre-holiday poppy detail, and it is so transparent! Love it. She also started with an oyster (good subject for all of us in the future). It is looking very good and simple, only that shadow...it  is a bit dark. We'll see next time if we will do something about it.

Anna is back too! She worked in 'Anna Karin-style' on her pomegranate.

This means, making the whole background wet, leaving the subject dry. Then add loads of paint and flow that around the subject by moving your paper. After the background paint has dried, same with the subject, to see more about that styler, check out this blogpost from 2022

Then make plenty pomeganate-red, drip that on the wet paper and turn the paper until the whole fruit is covered. Then add shadows - and wipe a bit of highlight! To be refined next time...

Brenda finished the adorable portrait of her adorable granddaughter. Absolutely wonderful, in resemblance, atmosphere and composition. Big compliment!

Laura finished some of last season's paintings, so that she can start again with a feeling of accomplishment (my interpretation) And that led to a gorgeous butterfly as well as a painting of nearby village Opio. That I find very well done!!

Bev painted a new version of Auribeau (where we went on a painting trip) and although it is in oils, not watercolours, it looks so good and light and I am sure that her watercolour version would have the same light and freshness.
She also embarked on a project to paint her mother (already in the picture) and her daughter in one painting, because they look so much like each other...

Spheres & balls in watercolours

Last week in the Hangar: 'Semaine Decouverte' (Discover Week) New people were welcome to try out the classes at a lower-than-usual tariff. It brought us two very talented aquarellistas, Marie-Françoise and Delphine. They enthusiastically did the spheres exercise, finished it in no time - and followed it up with another one.The other Aquarellistas also worked super good! They painted spheres too - but other types of spheres! Check it all out below:

This fantastic sphere, a fishnet glass ball, was painted by Anne. I am in awe

Glen had a more organic take on the subject and painted beautiful red, round, realistic juicy tomatoes.

Delphine is an artist already and she really felt at home with the spheres. She worked on a double portion, starting with her own version in different sizes (below), and then with a more 'neat' example. And now she knows enough!

Marie Françoise also had her own take on the Spheres exercise, as well as a serious version, that jups off the paper! I love the colours and the neat-ness of both. Looking forward to seeing her back!

WIP by Martine, a coupe of spprts-related balls. Already so tasteful with its brown and ochre tones - and in the next stage, when shadows are added, it will be amazing!



Sue finished her warm & sunny garden-view and started a gorgeous boules-paintig that I forgot to take a picture of. Next week, promise!

Brenda started a portrait of her lovely younest granddaughter. Already beautiful but wait until it is finished...

Judith and Thecla really felt more like adventure and they had a great time together, mixing colours, splashing and dripping them on big pieces of watercolour paper, then looking at them for some time and deciding what they might still need. If anything, this is good for all of us, just t see that that is an option too - and seeing some amazing effects, with strong borders, beautifyl colour transistions and unexpected spontaneous shapes. Well done, experimetallists - or 'Les Folles' 😀

Judith

Judith


Thecla