Friday, January 25, 2008

Two Last Tips from Purcell (and one from me)

Two last hints from the Purcell book that we've been looking at all week.

Leave it!
"Keep your strokes few and simple. Watercolor is like golf - the fewer the strokes the better the game. Every time you go back over a previous brushstroke you weaken it's power." --Carl Purcell, Painting with your Artist's Brain, p.28

I think this also applies to pen and ink (and brush and ink).

Color Choice "Flood rich colors into the shadows and avoid flat, ugly darks."--Purcell
I think that where you put the rich colors and where the flat areas are depends a bit on your medium. But it is an interesting idea to think about in relation to your favorite mediums - where are the flat areas and how can you jazz them up?

Tip from me: if you watch NFL playoffs and sketch, without a pencil outline, your sketch is likely to come out skewiff, as my poor copy of Luca Signorelli's Head of an Old Man above. :D

Have a good weekend everybody! I'm off to celebrate a 3rd birthday!

5 comments:

Jo Castillo said...

That is a great head considering the distraction. Looks like you just need to widen the forehead on our left. Good job.

Good advice on the shadows.

Rose Welty said...

Thanks Jo for stoppin' in! I liked your blog update, btw. I forgot to mention that the other day.

Belinda Lindhardt said...

Hi Rose,

I tagged you :) I hope you don't mind. http://belindalindhardt.blogspot.com/

Robyn Sinclair said...

This book seems to be a real find, Rose. I'm really enjoying your adventures in composition and good luck with your watercolours!

Robyn Sinclair said...

I can't work out how to email you, Rose but I just wanted to say how much I appreciated your generous comment on my blog. Thank you. It was lovely having you drop in. I'll see you back in class - Katherine's class that is ;)