Kippford and Rockcliffe in watercolour

After coming back from Scotland I have had a play with some painting based on the scenery there, working from the photos I took.

This is the view of the sunset from Rockcliffe over Urr Water. In retrospect I think this was always going to be a difficult image – in photo form it is very compelling, but it was hard with watercolours to get the intensity I needed in a loose style and there was not really enough detail to work in a more detailed style. On top of this the intensity of black is not really something watercolours do well. I think I am going to play with this more (in acrylics and maybe oils) and perhaps a bit more abstract. I experimented a bit on the basic sketch adding some gold ink and gouache – the latter of which the brown had seperated a little and gave quite an interesting grainy effect.

The second image is the bay at Kippford in the evening. This seemed a very simple scene, and I began to paint it as such, but again in a sense it was too detailed for what I was trying to do. I quite like my reletively fluid interpreation, though the colours are not quite right – my current set is the floral pocket set which is not really the colours I was seeing, though it seemed it in the photo.

Thinking about these images is an important development process. Painting from photos is very rarely about trying to reproduce the photo, it is about using the photo as a source image for a watercolour of the scene. These sketches and experments are useful – if only to draw me to a different medium.

The last image I went a different route with an ink and wash. I am quite pleased with this one. It reminds me of some artists work I have seen but not sure whom, though it has a feel of some anime style background settings in my mind. Obviously this is not a lifelike interpretation, but in a style of it’s own.

I will play with these some more.