Category Archives: Watercolour

Work, curse of the drinking classes.

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Mines a pint.

Trying to clear my backlog of paid work.


Just thought i would put up what i am doing to show the different requests from clients and the work arounds one has to do. Also the experimenting with rendering and perspective sketches.

Small narrow back garden.

Client request for veg, cottage style, new baby on the way, interest in perennial planting ie has the time to play/enjoy the garden
Basic perspective copied from a photograph on A3, rendered with pro markers until they ran out!. Finished in P/S. lots of little bolt on tricks, in particular using ‘poster edges’ from ‘filter gallery to get some depth and definition to finish. Tree is a bit Naff.


Looking back toward the house. Same again copied photo, straight into P/S and rendered. Struggled a bit with this one, the pergola is to large and heavy and a bit out of perspective. Looking at it it needs more umph on the planting. Very simple design (see earlier plan ‘Darwin or God’).



Front Drive on New Build ( ‘Knot Garden’ plan )

Drive and walls already constructed,so working with what is already there. I would like to take the curved wall down and have the hedge as a barrier, we shall see.
A bit garish on the colour front ,but that is to compensate for the printers printing on the dark side. Graphical. Drawn out of my head, scanned, rendered in P/S. See what i mean about the wall. A twist on the knot garden. Very formal due to the style of the house (mock Georgian) and the position as a semi circle on a two exit drive. Finished off with ‘water colour’ filter.Man in orange tee shirt seems to be a theme

A bolted panoramic picture , traced, scanned and P/S.
Same finish with Water colour.


Lessons.

Still yet to find a routine that i a happy with,though the graphic route seems to be favoured at present. I am just so aware of providing images that communicate, rather than provide atmosphere as limited time and finances means reading the client and fitting the image to their need is important. Plus i still need to ‘practice the atmosphere thing, as well as everything else.

Tomorrow back on ‘Park Life’ 



phew..Pen and Ink!

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Pen and Ink


Well had a go, small brush and ink pen, plus natural sponge for tree effect.


Need to practice more. I see the possibilities of this format. Though old habits die hard.


Big week this week for completion of 1;200 section, plus normal work…

Oops lolly pop trees. Though love a Gas works 

  
Salix and Cypress Oak
Small tree natural sponge.

‘To Nail or not to Nail, that is the question’

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Slingshots and Arrows 


If the Bard had been on our course i am sure he would of reached this conclusion. Having tried to complete stuff for pin ups i often compromised on annotation, levels, planting, materials, etc,etc. So ended up having to explain myself on the back foot, which is fine (you pay’s your money…..and all that), but non the less annoying. 
So this week i have concentrated on nailing the 1:200 ‘freeze’ plan. In particular levels, planting and materials. Really tried to get the ‘zing’ back. So slingshots and arrows, yes, but at least i feel that i have been thorough (to my ‘student’ standards at least).


Plan


Drawn on the ‘board’, scanned and merged. Photoshop rendering. A lot quicker this time as learnt techniques used and hopefully improved. Tried to make it a bit lighter in feel, but still atmospheric.
A lot of updates, but in particular the cafe to the right of the waterfall, set back into the hill, more space to accommodate seating. Thought a lot about the hills of grass to sit on, there aspect to the views in particular.

The annotation will be improved once i have completed the planting and material plans. Again a case of nailing them then updating this plan. I think the scale bar needs improvement, i know Andy had a good template. I feel some plagiarism or is that inspiration, m’Lord.
Sketch Book


Spent quite sometime drawing idea’s that were suggested as well as developing new ones. Scribbling seems to help me think, even if it turns out to be rubbish, also to check if whats in my head would look ok spatially and other problems that may be thrown up.

Had a go at rendering with water colour pencils, a hint is better than total fill i think.
My usual scratchy ink (fountain pen). I have come to the conclusion that this is the way that works for me, quick and effective (to my eye at least)

If i want to draw steady lines then i can trace over, but i think i have drawn this way for sooooooo long that the old dog ain’t gonna learn this time.

The zigzag of the planted path with axil steps cutting across, seems ok, Put a hoody in with some swag who is distracted by the lovely planting, later nabbed by the ‘Fuzz’ ,society to blame and all that

Brass railings an inspiration from the new bridge at Kew (with a nudge from Paula ,cheers ). Playing with a gold/brown glass or plates of textured brass, copper /zinc alloy (Admirality Brass higher Zinc ratio for reduced corrosion or maybe bronze copper/tin alloy)

Youth on bridge

Timber high walk way through the south bank. Resin in lay in the timber (aka Bluewater though black rather than yellow…yuk)

More balustrades, Central meeting point on the North bank under a large pergola. My version of the ‘Green Business Man’.

Cafe by the waterfall, out of scale and to near the front, rectified on the little sketch below.

A thought about enclosing the axil stair’s in a metal pergola with a climber. Plus a tunnel effect and shade, minus reduces the view across the park, mmmmm a conundrum as Sue would say. 

A cross section of granite by the water. Plus some anti skate board idea’s (grumpy gene coming into operation i am afraid)

Axil steps lined with trees? 


Something Borrowed..

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Had an attempt at Paul’s technique on tree’s, After working on levels and re-designing the planted area. Still trying to bring some ‘sparkle’ back into the design that has definatly got lost somewere along the way.




Tree’s

Fagus spp
Betula?

Hedge/planting from above


Have a look at Pauls Blog, he has put an instructional video, worth a look.
The trees literally took 2 minutes

How?

Water colour and natural sponges.


Conceptual Drawing

Had a go, tried to keep it as simple as possible. A fave medium of charcoal, why? Because its messy and expressive.






Tree’s blobs and lollypop’s

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Well like just about everybody spent a lot of time trying to create tree impressions for the plan as well as the perspectives.

Plan


As usual stumbled on this idea and developed it I think the result is quite effective and can be played around with further
1) Pro marker on Trace, shade to create depth, (the ink stays wet so mixing is possible). Let it dry. The ink one side with .3-.5 pen.

Then put in photoshop, Filter gallery>watercolour>ok and then again but this time poster edges. Adjust to suit. Cut out, play with colours etc  
                  
Cut out and duplicate loads of times for tree’s.When done, each tree will be on a single layer. Select all, duplicate. Then all the duplicates merge into one file. Turn to black via images>Hue andBalance>lightness bar to the left, so black.
And now the ta da bit, that layer put underneath all the tree layers, then  shift to one side and by magic you have perfect shadows in the shape of the trees all moving at the same angle.
Perspective.

Well spent ages with pencils, pro markers and to be honest still have not got it, but a start, pro markers on trace

Generally work needs to be done on perspectives.

Watercolour pencil + sharpie
Watercolour Pencil +.3 pen
Watercolour pencil+Bad Temper

Hey Marvin..’Whats Going On’?

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A bit peeved i missed the smashing fun at Tory HQ, and thank God i started the course when i did, as £6-9K per year would’ve been out of the question, so this policy is not Elitist then, my arse!

Back to the gentler world of Floristry, and friend who is at Hadlow asked me to give her some drawing/colouring in (rendering) lessons, at least she learnt how NOT to do it. The usual 1n(or so) glasses of wine for inspiration, m’lord.

Gauche, and some ink when dry. Usual style done in a matter of minutes, more on her expensive dinning table than on paper, but have to say a lot of fun. And i am keeping the day Job.

Dish cloth Flower.

                                    Vase and who knows what.

Found a park similar to Calverley, I used to live near it and the topography is very similar, so plenty of winter injuries tobogganing down the steep slope. The picture is overlaid in the same scale (no cheating, honest), with some photoshop reduction in opacity to let Calverley bleed through.