SKETCHBOOK
November TIPS • ADVICE • IDE A S
FAST AND FREE LEO CR AN E introduces a quick ar tistic challenge to warm you up! Short, dynamic poses are used to get the model and painter warmed up at the start of a session. It is a liberating experience: there is no time to get stuck or fiddle with detail, and you can produce so many works in a short space of time that it doesn’t matter if many of them don’t work out. When the model and I are ready, I set the clock for two minutes. I spend the first few seconds reading the pose, then I load the brush with paint and let the feeling of the pose travel through me onto the paper. When the timer beeps, we move immediately on to the next pose, and the next. I’m aiming for at least a dozen poses so we can truly get into a rhythm. If I’m feeling adventurous, I will work wet-on-wet, liberating the pigment and watching the painting develop even after the clock has stopped. This is a space to experiment, explore, fail and perhaps stumble upon an unexpected delight. Here are a few examples…
This is an edited extract from Contemporary Figures in Watercolour: Speed, Gesture and Story by Leo Crane with Roy Joseph Butler, published by Batsford. www.pavilionbooks.com
Emotive drips This briefly described form captured the weight of Lidia’s pose with fluid strokes loaded with dripping paint.
Dynamic flicks To accentuate the movement of Maya’s forward step, I tilted the paper and blew into wet paint to encourage drips. I flicked paint to add dynamism and pushed my painterly mark making in exciting, unexpected directions.
Figure emerging For Roy to emerge from the page, I graded the wetness of the paper, so that painted lines softened in one place and rose to a definitive solidity where it was dry. Solid silhouette With a wash of clean water, I described Roy’s silhouette as he crouched down. I dropped paint into the wet shape and watched it bleed to the edge. Vibrant, transparent colours blend and bloom; opaque colours dominate with a reassuring weight.
Artists & Illustrators 9
