The Al Fresco Art Club met indoors today. For the last couple of months the weather has been too chilly outdoors for true al fresco painting. I decided to do an ink sketch of my pug and throw on some watercolor. When I do watercolor, anything goes. I try to keep the color palette cohesive, but most of the time I lose my mind and just start guessing about what colors would be harmonious. I feel like a kid doing finger-painting and love smearing the paint around.
When I look at this particular ink and wash painting, I see my true, native style — raw black and white ink, lots of hatching and contour marks, and broad swathes of paint. I like this style a lot. It’s always fun to forget about being an “artist” and just start drawing.
When I was finished, I got to thinking that a spectator seeing my picture for the first time would think ho-hum, what a weird, wacky painting. However, that same stranger looking at a book— or series of books — made in my wacky style might think, “Interesting style! It grabs me by the guts!” There’s something to be said for quantity.
For today’s painting I used a Pentel Brush Pen loaded with Rotring ink, a 12-color Yarka White Knights watercolor set, and a $2 synthetic flat brush. I used mostly yellow ochre and burnt umber, with a carmine glaze in the shadows. Wacky! Weird! Wow!
