Gouache and Artbars landscape in the Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook

Evening Light, Winsor and Newton Gouache and Derwent Artbars in the A4 Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook.

Further experimenting with gouache, Derwent Artbars and Stillman and Birn sketchbooks.

This was a demo to students about the benefits of working on a dark background when painting moody scenes.   I scribbled various deep colours with the Artbars and then washed them into a streaky deep background.   Then with gouache I worked over it - thin glazes and thicker paint - then worked back in with the Artbars in places.  Leaving parts of that dark background as tree trunk, far trees, some of the field, scratching through to the darkness below for fine lines and marks.  The pale flowers in the foreground were done with white gouache, flicked from a bristle brush to keep the marks random and free.  The combination of media worked well with lots of  variation in marks possible.

Comments

Lisa Le Quelenec said…
What a lovely sense of mystery. I love the colours.
2:09 pm
Pam Johnson Brickell said…
Oh, la, la Vivian! Gonna have to get me some artbars :) Oh to have been a fly on the wall for this demo! I'm also keeping tabs on all that are working with S&B's alpha paper. Can't decide between alpha and beta. Are you choosing to work on just one side?

As always, I love the work you are posting... just don't always comment. Congrats on your new Grand :) Hope all is well with both Mom and little one.
8:37 pm
vivien said…
Lisa thanks :>)

Pam Artbars are nice :>) I like the Beta and Delta best as the paper is SO heavy and gorgeous. The Alpha is very nice though and there was no buckling at all with this.

I've sometimes worked on just one side and sometimes both. The paper is thick enough to work on both - I just have this extravagant liking for a plain white page opposite and only working on one side.
7:34 pm
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