Best Brusho!!

This is the final preparation piece I did for my workshop which I ran yesterday and I have to say I loved it!!

I decided to scrap the pen and go with a light pencil drawing (one of the problems with using pencil is that us you go in too heavy with the Brusho the pencil lines will not be very clear) and in this instance only use 2 colours.

I usually use 3 or 4 colours and though I love the black and how it separates into a myriad of other colours I have rarely used it in my paintings. As an aside I will be using it a lot more now!!

So I used black and yellow....sprinkled both colours very sparingly as I wanted to leave more white space on this so as I sprayed I quickly dabbed the wet areas so that the water didn't spread the colour too widely.

In the workshop we did one pen painting and one pencil so that I could explain the benefits of both styles but how the pencil allows for more emotion and atmosphere as lost edges can be used more easily. With the pen, there is a barrier and though you can still use contrast of light and dark, you don't have that loose feel you can get with lost edges.

Here is the painting, I would be really interested to hear which you prefer between this and the paintings I featured in my previous blog here.

Brusho Preparation

I am in the throes of preparing for an All Day Brusho Workshop to be held next week on the 23rd May. I know some people may think preparing for these workshops is a doddle but if you want to produce new work and teach it satisfactorily there is a lot of preparation behind the scenes not to mention the time spent with the admin work involved in the organisation in the first place!!

On the flip side it is a privilege to be able to do this for a living and while it may be time consuming preparing for days like this, the time I spend is fun and enjoyable so not like work at all...

The workshop is Brusho figures and I remember attending a session about 6 year ago run by Joanne Boon Thomas...check her out here Joanne Boon Thomas and she taught me a lot of what I know about Brusho and has done a lot to promote Brusho around the world.

What I have learned about Brusho since that day is how important choice of colour is when deciding on a palette for any particular painting. I find the complementary colours don't mix well producing quite dirty colours and muddying much more so than watercolour so limited palettes are even more important with Brusho. I also prefer to retain the texture and stop the mixing process early doors by carefully dabbing the mixes while still wet and preserving the attractive separation of pigments.

These are the paintings I have done so far, just 3 colours in each

I haven't finished my practice pieces yet maybe another couple to do then maybe an odd one without the line effect, but would be very interested to see which of these you prefer so far....