All these paintings and drawing are done with a variety of media , on paper, yupo paper or canvas, they might be different in style but still they all have something in common. So what do these paintings share in common? It has to do with the technique.
Layering technique : It is what these paintings share in common?
For all of those I used some kind of layering building the colors layer by layer until I found the colors to be the intensity I wanted, and the contrast strong enough, making adjustments and corrections in the process.
For the watercolors I separate colors into primaries for the first layers, starting with the yellow, then red and blue. I then adjust by adding and removing colors. You can see demonstrations of my technique on this blog. This technique I am using was inspired by the book light up your watercolors layer by layer by Linda Moyer. I modified a bit her technique but basically the idea is the same. I am scrubbing off lots of paint too at the end of my process , which I don’t believe she does. Anyway if you are interested in trying out this way of painting with watercolors, this is an interesting book to read.
For mixed media on canvas I don’t have a systematic approach, I will just add layers and scrub some off until I am satisfied with the complexity of the broken colors. One painting can end up being build of 30 or more layers (I am not counting anymore…)
With pastels my technique was also inspired by an excellent book I read, Express yourself with pastels by Carole Katchen. She is also layering her pastels with different kinds of strokes, I am using the “squiggling” kind of strokes which I found very effective with pastels.
Finally when drawing with graphite, I usually start by drawing the general shapes with a very light stroke, then will add details and contrast slowly layers by layers, making corrections as I go.
Generally speaking, I think that , whatever your medium and your surface is, proceeding by gradual layering will allow opportunities for corrections and adjustments and produce very interesting effects in terms of colors, contrast and textures.
Originally from France, I have been living in North Vancouver, Canada for the past 20 years.
My work has been collected and exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally. I am also part of the Art Rentals and sales program of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Many of my paintings have been published in Art books and magazines (Artist Magazine, Watercolor Artist Magazine, Acrylic Magazine, International Artist Magazine). I wrote 2 art instruction books with North Light/F+W Books.
I have been writing for the last 5 years for my blog: paintingdemos.com, that has a mailing list of about 10 000 subscribers and about 20 000 visitors per month.
I am an active member in the community, as a co-founder of the North Shore Art crawl, a co-founder of a weekly life drawing group, a board member of the North Vancouver Arts Council, and have been invited as a juror for public art, art grants and juried exhibitions. You can read more about my collaborations here.
Comments (2)
Susanne
Very informative post! Thank you for the book recommendations!
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