The Old Shoes

I rather like painting shoes and when I saw this image taken by John Robinson I knew it was one to be painted.

The photo was from an old deserted cottage and the shoes just as John found them. I like this sort of image as there isn't too much detail, and it lends itself to my way of painting...lots of uneven edges. not too precise anywhere with scope for my wayward brush to make their haphazard unexpected marks!!  The only area which really needed attention was the shoes and even there I have left lots of white spaces which always makes watercolour sparkle.

Very limited palette with this, Cadmium red and yellow and UB. This is a palette often used by the lovely Joanne Boon Thomas and not one I often use at all but the whole image shouted those colours to me and I really like the effect. Cad red and yellow are opaque colours but because of how I mix them on the paper I rarely get mud.... check some of my earlier blogs for what gives you mud!!

I did draw the shoes on this as I wanted to get them looking right, just a quick sketch and the paint does the rest of the work.....