London Artwork

Ok so a little divergence from the Singapore Project, some artwork. Now that my exams are finished and it's getting to the end of term, I have been using my location to explore some parts of London I haven't really seen much of. On Tuesday, as it was so nice I decided to look around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

While there I did this watercolour of a small shelter in Kensington Gardens. A6, took about 1 hour.

After that I went to see Russel Howard's Good News being recorded and while I waited for some friends I did this quick ink sketch just outside Hammersmith Station.

Brunel Watercolours

Yesterday started as a very stressful day, after having to stay up till 5:30 to get a lab report done, I then had to get up at 8 to finish the report and get to the days lectures. So suffice to say at the end of the day I wanted a way to unwind so, see how it was a glorious day I decided to head out on a walk around campus with some equipment to see if I could find a spot for some watercolours. Sure enough I found a nice spot and, just as the sun was beginning to set, spent an hour doing these two paintings.

Two postcard size studies of part of Brunel University. I must say I really enjoyed doing both of these. I was able to fully relax for the first time in ages, sitting in an idyllic spot under a willow beside the trickling stream that runs through the campus as the sun slowly set, it was bliss. The only downside I guess is that I had to stop early as it got quite cold and I had to go to archery, but still it was very nice.

Fantasy Tolkien Duel Watercolour

Click on the images for higher resolutions

So this is one of the two promised large water colours. I am very pleased with how this has come out and has ended up.

The subject of the painting is a scene from one of the lesser known works of Tolkien, The Silmarillion. This covers the history before what is seen in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The scene is a confrontatio between the High King of the Elves, Fingolfin, and the Valar(god) of Darkness, Morgoth (Sauron was his lieutenant). So quite epic stuff. The text follows:

"Thus he came to Angband's gates, and he sounded his horn, and smote once more upon the brazen doors, and challenged Morgoth to come forth in open combat. And Morgoth came....

...And he issued forth in clad in black armour; and he stood before the King like a tower, iron-crowned, and his vast shield, sable unblazoned, cast a shadow over him like a stormcloud. But Fingolfin gleamed beneath it as a star; for his mail was overlaid with silver, and his blue shield was set with crystals; and he drew his sword Ringil, that glittered like ice.

 Then Morgoth hurled aloft Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, and swung it down like a bolt of thunder. But Fingolfin sprang aside, and Grond rent a mighty pit in the earth, whence smoke and fire darted. Many times Morgoth essayed to smite him, each time Fingolfin leaped away, as lightning shoots from under a dark cloud; and he wounded Morgoth with seven wounds, and seven times Morgoth gave a cry of anguish, whereat the hosts of Angband fell upon their faces with dismay, and the cries echoed in the Northlands.

   But at the last the King grew weary, and Morgoth bore down his shield upon him. Thrice he was crushed to his knees, and thrice arose again and bore up his broken shield and stricken helm. But the earth was all rent and pitted about him, and he stumbled and fell backward before the feet of Morgoth; and Morgoth set his left foot upon his neck, and the weight of it was like a fallen hill. Yet with his last and desperate stroke Fingolfin hewed the foot with Ringil, and the blood gushed forth black and smoking and filled the pits of Grond.

   Thus died Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor, most proud and valiant of the Elven-king of old"

So good dark climactic stuff. Anyway the working pictures for this are below if you are interested, thanks.

 

Fantasy Watercolour Stage 1

So today I started work on the two watercolours I intend to do. I have not posted anything for the last few days for a couple of reasons as I will explain, the most inconsequential of which was that I was shopping all day yesterday, but I was able to prepare the paper for work so not all was lost. Anyway onto the actual artwork.

 

These two above are attempts at the two watercolours. However these were done on only heavy cartridge paper rather than gummed watercolour paper. This meant that when applying the water and the paint, the paper start falling apart, not good. However I did not have any watercolour paper so I persevered.

Until I found that I did have some from my AS. So I prepared two sheets of that to start afresh on. The preparation consists of soaking the sheets in water for as long as possible, before fixing them to a board using masking tape and leaving them to dry out completely. What this does is it first of all swells the paper while it soaks, and then once it is fixed and it starts drying it stretches the paper. This ensures that when you start applying the water and paint, the paper will not curl or create bumps while drying. Anyway so once that was done I applied the first paint in a wash layer which you can see below.

This is a very simple layer simply to get some colour on the page to cover the white (but it will make a bit of a comeback later). So all is going well so far, though still lots to go.

Fantasy Watercolur Sketches

So I've been inspired by the work of John Howe to do a couple of big(ger) water colour paintings. Like his work both will be a fantasy subject. Below are some preliminary sketches for the works. The main job of these is to establish the subject and the basic composition, the details I will do when painting so they are meant to be vague.

Lake Watercolour (Unfinished)

Click on image for High Resolution

This is a watercolour I did of the lake at the campsite. I consider this an unfinished piece, as when I did it the lake was full of people on kayaks and canoes, which I have yet to add and intend to do so. A couple of photos of the lake in use are below.

Campsite Watercolour

Continuing the 'From Denmark' theme, here is a watercolour painting I did while the group was just sitting around waiting for the next activity. I must say I'm really pleased with this one as it turned out really well and I'm not as confident with watercolours as I am with other media. Anyway that's all for now but there'll be more tomorrow.