I know that my last post was all about how I’ve been slowly moving towards working entirely digitally (which is really useful when working with clients and editors and I’m having to make lots of tweaks and changes on a project), but I think working so much on my iPad for work-based illustration and comics has pushed me into wanting to try out different mediums when making fun illustrations for myself. In particular, I’ve really been keen to get into watercolour.
Tina is wearing her favourite clothes that make her happy, showing off her multicoloured scarf and green tile skirt.
I’ve tried delving into watercolour a few times: I’ve tried plein air painting, I’ve asked friends for tips, I’ve watched YouTube videos. I aways thought that if I just found the “right” set of watercolours that it would all make sense and I’d be able to paint the images like I could see them in my head. But what has really stopped me in my tracks every time I’ve tried my hand at watercolours is the fact that I’m just not that good at using them straight away (not that there is any reason why I should be naturally adept at watercolours). So I kinda give up before I give myself a chance to really learn how to handle them.
My watercolour tribute to Mr Tod (the kind-of-a-jerk fox gentleman character from Beatrix Potter’s book).
With some (possibly unfounded) optimism that this time would be different, for my birthday this year I treated myself to the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour set. I’d seen a few mates use them online and they looked quite different to other watercolours I’d tried before. And they are pretty lovely to use, almost more like a gouache so the colours are more opaque (less see-through) than other watercolours. As I’m so used to working in smooth flat digital colour, I find that that the washy-ness of watercolours makes my attempts look not like my own art. (Although I love this look in other people’s work, I’ve found I don’t love it for my work.) However, when I started playing around with the Gansai Tambi’s more opaque pigments, I found them really pleasing to use and like I had more sense of how to handle them. Plus, the colours are delightful and warm my soul.
Kuretake Gansai Tambi 48 colour watercolour set (includes a really great pink and lilac as well as boss metallic colours).
Although I’m enjoying watercolours a lot more this time, it does feel like I'm back to basics and having to learn how to make art yet again. But I’m really excited about learning new art skills and how to control and use watercolours so they can help me create more interesting works. This time that I’ve delved into watercolours, it feels like a puzzle to solve instead of me just failing at something I “should” be good at. My brain feel like it clicks into gear and wants to make the images in my head appear on the page in front me.
A fancy-looking anthropomorphic dog with a moustache wearing a red dressing gown stands in front of an old and full bookcase. They are holding a bone in one hand and an old-fashioned smoking pipe in the other.
After chatting to another friend, they mentioned I should try using coloured pencil on top of the watercolour for more detailed things, which I loved when I tried it out with this fancy dog in a smoking jacket picture (see above). I haven’t really tried all the possibilities with pencils & watercolour yet but I’m keen to see where that could go too. Sensory-wise, it feels really nice to draw with pencil over the watercolours.
Scully, junior “repawtor” for the The Fire Hydrant, sits, bored, at their desk waiting for an exciting story to break.
I love the flexibility of working digitally but nothing draws me into a work more than if it’s traditionally watercoloured or coloured by pencil (particularly if you can see the mistakes or wobbles the artist has made). There is something about the hand-made nature of it and the textures of the paint on paper that speaks to my soul. Maybe one day I’ll be able to make a watercolored picture book. I do not think that I will ever watercolour a whole comic though. That way madness lies.
Following on from my last post about how the design of the characters in my graphic novel, Oh Brother, have changed over the 7-ish years I’ve been working on the book, this post is about my absolute favourite thing: drawing emotions!