Line and Wash

I have been practicing my line and wash exercises ready for the workshop I am running in a fortnight. I have done a few and need to decide which of the reference photos we will be doing... whether I can paint it isn't really the issue (though it certainly helps lol!!) but it has to be something which is achievable for the group too. I have posted a few paintings on fb to judge reaction and one lady who is attending the workshop felt one would take her much too long to complete.  That is a problem when running workshops.... I have to make sure the ones who take a bit longer have the time while still keeping the faster ones engaged. Maybe 2 images is the answer so I am considering that as well.

In the meantime these are a few I have done. The first 2 are from photos taken by my brother in law John Robinson                                                     

This is the one which may take a bit too long as lots of windows 
and foliage but I do like how it turned out and liked the colours. The house was hidden on the banks of the river Lune and we only happened to see it by chance as we looked back.











This is certainly an option as it isn't too difficult to draw and not too many fiddly details

Next, this one was painted from one of my own photos taken at Anglesey during our painting break last year. I think these are some derelict old toilets and there was an old bike parked at the front but thought that was pushing it a bit as they are most definitely not the easiest things to draw... but hey artistic license, leave it out!! This is another possibility and quite a fun one to do.

Another of my own photos of the church in Ingleton (North Yorks)... I do think this one lends itself to line and wash but there is a bit of tricky perspective on the church tower which might prove difficult

Finally I have painted this a couple of times both in Brusho and watercolour and is from a photo of a beautiful house in the centre of Rivington, a tiny village about 3 miles away from where we live... typical tiny little village with a few houses, used to have a post office, 2 churches, a tea room but not even a pub!!

The lovely thing about pen and wash is you don't have to worry about the paint....if you go over the lines it doesn't matter because that's what the pen is for... to define the drawing. A lot of artists use the line after the painting and that will often rescue a piece and can certainly improve a painting but this way is done with intent to make a line drawing then paint it and can really encourage a looser approach as you can paint where you like, let wet paint run and none of it matters!! Just how I like it....