goat skull in watercolour and coloured pencil, demo for students

Goat skull in watercolour and coloured pencil, life size. Vivien Blackburn

I did this to show students how to work in watercolour without any preliminary drawing, simply drawing with the paint and brush, building up the tones. Working this way is so easily altered, so flexible and fluid, allowing mistakes to be corrected easily in the early stages.

I then added some coloured pencil to sharpen edges and haze glazes of colour in highlights and shadows. I wanted to show how blues added as glazes with watercolour and coloured pencil over the deep shadow colours add depth and coolness to contrast with the warmer highlights, which themselves have a little additional amber warmth added to the ochre underglazes.

Done with college materials: White Knights watercolours and Lyra coloured pencils.

Below is a link to a coloured pencil version I had done in the past - almost the same view, but not quite.

you can see it here.


Which works best?

I need to get back to seascapes and waterways and get on with my own projects now.

Comments

Jeanette Jobson said…
I think they both appeal in different ways. Your current piece has more of a anatomical feel to it with its colouring while the cp piece (which I have in my studio!!) has a looser feel that gives in more 'oomph' if that makes sense.

I love drawing bones, they're so fascinating. I think it will be next concentration after the apples are out of my system. I have a variety of bones and skulls in the garden waiting my attention. (that does morbid, doesn't it?) Its moose and caribou bones.
10:38 pm
dinahmow said…
Love the top one, Vivien! But then, I like bones, goats and watercolours, don't I?
(I think it's the creamy tones, which you get in old bones, that give it the lift.)
11:45 pm
vivien said…
That will be an interesting project Jeanette :>) This one is looser than it probably appears onscreen

Not morbid - just interesting!

Thanks Dinah - yes the creamy versus the cool shadows is lovely
10:01 am
rob ijbema said…
oei that is a bit different,didn't expect this here,so well rendered though!
i send rene in holland a sheep skull from wales to paint...
they are great subjects
8:31 pm
vivien said…
thanks Rob :>)

no it's much more illustrational than the way I work usually isn't it?
4:30 pm
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