A Very Interesting Update

Hello there!

Blog read = tea-break, so pull up a chair, get a brew, and pop on your fave pair of slippers.

First a mention and welcome to 2 of my blog's new followers, Amanda-Jade and Matthew. Thanks for taking the trouble to follow - I appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy what you get to read.

Tuesday's promised report did not happen as I was unexpectedly snowed (oh it is winter) under with other things to do, and Wednsesday, well, I was rather ill, to be polite, and spent all day asleep and doing nothing!

So, today it is then. On Monday evening I took along one 1/4 Imperial size sheet of the Saunders Waterford 300lb paper, as I knew the first pose at least would be fast and furious! Try it for yourselves; sit down and take just 1 minute (timed, and no cheating now) to draw, sketch or even suggest something. It's not as easy as you think. Another couple of quick 1 minute poses, and we were all loosened up, and we set off for the luxury that is a 5 minute pose.

For this, it was time to break out the new paper! And as if by magic (how many remember Mr Ben?), the Hahnemuhle paper appeared. I find it to be a good handy size to carry about and to work on. It's a glued pad of 140lbs paper, and a good looking surface to work on it is too, obviously smoother, but also much brighter. My first impressions were that it takes a good covering of wash without running too much, and I'm not sure that I changed my skin tones any, but they seemed to keep more of their colour, not paling out as with the Saunders Waterford. As I continued working the rest of the colours all appeared brighter, and having more "life" so for me, it is looking like the paper of choice for this type of work. The SW paper is an excellent paper for landscape work, and one I will continue to use for that purpose.

One point on using watercolours; there is a big divide between watercolour artists about using white in their work and others who do not. I have never, ever used white in my still lifes or landscapes, but, for skin tones especially, I do not think that you can beat having white in a mix of cadmium red and either cadimium or lemon yellow. Just my observation.

Having worked my way through a couple of 5 minute poses, it was on to the "big one" - the 40 minute pose which always ends the sessions. The previous few poses had been good, I had enjoyed them and had begun to understand how the paper reacted to different situations (please note begun, and not fully) and so was feeling that little bit more confident in continuing. Now it was just down to me and my ability, so, brush loaded with a light coloured skin toned paint, it was off to draw in my initial sketching.............

I really enjoyed working with this paper, and will continue using it again for my life drawing group. One thing for certain though, is that I will deffinately be ordering some more. Perhaps in the future I will see what it's like for working still life's on, and maybe the odd bit of landscaping. There is also the probability of using it come next spring when I can sit outside and attempt some watercolours of my hens. There is also the interesting thought of using it with ink pens etc!

Hope this has been of some interest to you, and please remember that these are only my personal thoughts.

Until next week - whatever your art - enjoy it.

Paul