Martin's Online Sketch Book

Linda Saul Workshop Review

I went to a workshop hosted by the Woodley and Early Arts group with Linda Saul, ARWS, with some trepidation. Using watercolour and creating granulation is not something I would normally do, but then it’s good to get out of your comfort zone.

Linda explained the difference between natural granulation and granulation caused by the rough texture of watercolour paper – where paint pigment pools in the dips of the paper. Her technique works on smooth paper and utilises the pigment as it separates out in water.

Pigments in the Daniel Smith range of Earth colours (Primatek Range) specifically allow for this – Sodalite Genuine, Hemalite genuine and Amethyst Genuine being particularly effective. Amethyst Genuine contains Iron that also allows it to be manipulated by magnets!

I started, as instructed by creating a sky wash and allowing it to dry. I then tested my colours to see which ones worked well with the granulation technique. Flooding the paper with water and allowing the pigments to bleed and separate out.

Example Landscape Image using granulation and watercolour mixing.

Rather than creating an image of a scene – Linda’s technique produces an abstract landscape that you can then add details too. To find areas of interest I used Mount board to frame small pictures, thinking about the composition of light and what extra’s I could add.

The technique is very relaxed way of using watercolour and anyone can try it! It’s very mindful way of producing art. Linda also introduced the idea that all of the test pieces could be torn/cut and used as collage pieces to enhance a final picture.

Linda was very generous with her time and advice during the day. Everyone enjoyed the workshop and came away with a picture they could frame. To find out more and to organise a workshop for your group visit www.lindasaul.co.uk

Something Different!

I recently took some online courses to prepare a post about my learning experiences. In doing so I found a new outlet for my art – Comic books!

I tell a lot of stories on my hospital radio show and I’ve always wanted to share these with a wider audience. The course from Domestika gave me insight into creating a comic page and organising my ideas from an audio recording.

The results can be seen below and have added a new dimension to my my hospital radio facebook page!

To Market

This is a post about my recent painting – To Market – A collage using ink and limited palette of sugar paper and gouache.

The inspiration for this piece came from a visit to Beaulieu. In amongst the cars from the screen exhibitions was an old French three wheeled truck, used in the Absolutely Fabulous film. The orange of it reminded me of Pumpkins and from there I knew what I wanted to draw.

Picture of an old three wheel van used in Absolutely Fabulous.

My designs start with a rough sketch. I like to work quickly to get the idea down, the initial sketch this work will always need refining. I may work on several literation’s of the design. I’m looking for big, interesting shapes and thinking about the line. The cut out version was my final sketch but I was still thinking about the positioning of the dog.

Image - First sketch of the idea in my sketchbook created in pencil

Working with Sugar paper and other paper, I transfer the individual elements by tracing round the cut-out shape. Depending on the complexity of the shape I may cut the sketch down further. To achieve a rough edge on the sugar paper I paint with water around the outline and then gently pull the paper apart.

I use newspaper to break the shapes up. I then position the shapes on a support, in this case a white piece of mount board. They are then glued into place with acrylic matt medium – which is waterproof and able to withstand the next process of applying ink and gouache.

sugar paper shapes laid out ready for glueing

The lorry logo came from a leaflet for a tuk tuk ride in Saundersfoot. I had to adapt the design as the dog cut out didn’t fit the image after I added the ink. I’m always making decisions and standing back to see the effect.

I use an old, trusted stick with a sharpened point and Indian ink to roughly add details to the image. The line work is irregular, and I don’t worry about jagged edges of paper poking beyond the line.

Tips – when using ink, right-handed people, start from top left and work across and down …If you are left-handed start at the top right and work down…so you don’t smudge the ink

The dog being a central part of the design took several literation’s to get right. I was aiming to get the feel of a dog enjoying the wind and hanging out of the window. I experimented with different line weights and paper. The final dog uses a paper that allowed the line to bleed into the image.

four picture of dogs showing the development of the character

Finally, gouache paint is applied to add accents. This process starts with a photo of the image that I open in Procreate on my ipad. I am able to add and remove highlights to find the right balance. I wanted the main focus to be around the dog and the pumpkins so I added detail to the pumpkins closet to the dog and left more flatter paper colour towards the back of the van.

I also wanted to add some highlights to the edges of the lights and make the wooden panelling on the lorry look aged.

detail from finished image of the headlights and indicator

detail from finished image showing rough paint work for truck

The final Image – To Market – Collage, ink and gouache

Finished Image showing a dog in a lorry transporting Pumpkins

Exploring mark making with ink.

In this video I show examples of my work in sketchbooks and the kit I use while out working. I explore the use and making of a dip pen from a twig and show how I use Japanese ink stick and brush to create tone.

Boats and Buoys

I have been working to include collage into my ink sketches. Trying to use the collage element as a colour to make the ink stand out. This boat is from my Lockdown sketchbook when we spent a week in Weymouth. What I like about Weymouth is the boats and the buoy’s that hang off of them.

I am using sugar paper as backgrounds as I like the idea that the paper will fade over time revealing the gouache painting.

The big question in this painting is do I use the dog cut-out or not!

Bournemouth Pier in Collage

Following on from my experiment in Collage I have recorded my process for creating collage and line art.

Weekend Collage Experiment

I tried following an article from the Artist magazine (Create a collage of costal life, Mike Bernard, Summer 2021issue) to help me understand the process for collage.

I’m not sure that the result was what I intended but I love the use of the word Wellbeing in the clouds and you can see text throughout the image.

Mike Bernard uses acrylic inks and lighter layers of paint in his images and I am going to try some smaller works using this technique.

My application of acrylic paint was heavier than I intended and I had to wash back into the paint to expose the text and collage beneath. Originally I had kept the colours to a minimum but I added a green towards the end as the image felt too cold and grey.