Friday 1st July
Peter Daziel – Animals in Watercolour
Peter gave us an enthralling and enjoyable watercolour demonstration interspersed with little snippets of his life on a cruse ship and beyond.
Here are some bullet point notes from his demonstration:
Preparation – Don’t use graphite if possible, or erase to faintest outline
Instead use faint watercolour lines to draw outline.
For proportions of head, base the drawing on a triangle, truncated at bottom up to chin.
Use reference photos, grids, or whatever you like to assist in drawing – just as the old masters did.
Brushes – size 10, 8, 4 and 0 inexpensive brushes are all that is needed (except for a special long brush thinned to 4 hairs for painting whiskers).
Paint – W&N in a variety of colours to suit. Not mixed on palette but only on the paper – (except for large background wash if needed)
Paper – 300gsm – not pre-stretched – but taped down
Process – Don’t start with the eyes – leave to later to get them in the right place.
First layer wet on dry with added colours added into wash.
Eyes added when face is formed.
Much use of tissue paper blotter, to lighten wash or delete errors
Almost never uses white paint – leave the paper unpainted – except for occasional highlights
For subtle shade in white areas uses pale blue paint
In second stage use ‘wet in wet’ to add interesting contrasting colours
Move paper around to control flow of water and paint
Brush technique – don’t draw carefully but instead use bold strokes, especially when depicting movement
Finishing – use fine ink pen to add faint lines sparingly for details, when paint is dry.
Don’t overwork – best leave it alone