Thursday 28 April 2011

The April Challenge

The latest in the monthly series of paintings that I do with my friend Peter Ward. (www.watercolourfanatic.blogspot.com)
Peter has been making pictures of native americans for some time and this is the one that he chose for our latest joint effort.

This was the photograph that Peter sent at the start of the month, a dramatic image with strong contrast and a strong set of features.

Just for a bit of fun I had a bash at doing a finger painting on the iPad before getting out the paints.
Ostaho Indian - iPad painting

I then set about rendering the image with watercolour. I was keen to try and get close to the value range of the original photograph but had some difficulty in getting sufficient depth in the darks without building up that with overlaying washes. This tends to degrade the painting as the paint loses brilliance. All in all an object lesson in paint application. More pigment required in the first pass.

Another interesting exercise.
Ostaho Indian - Watercolour on Not paper 12" x 9"

2 comments:

Peter Ward said...

I think you have his expression spot on Mick. Not sure about the hat though. Mine is finished and will be posted in the next few days.

Caroline Simmill said...

Hi Mick, it is not easy to work from such a dark photograph. we need information in order for us to paint. However you have captured his expression very well and you are painting confidently with watercolour. Very nice use of colour.