Painting on the Edge(s)

Now that the new year is here I have time to indulge myself in experimentation and exploration. I have always admired the work of Charles Reid and Alex Powers. Both of these painters pay particular attention to making a variety of edges  to create depth, movement and focus in their work. Today I started working with Reid's approach to edge control.

I started, as he does, with a loose continuous contour drawing of my subject.

 

As much as possible, draw without lifting the pencil and try to draw shapes not objects. For example, the cast shadows from the figures are drawn as part of the figures and the dark clothing of the more distant figure is delineated only in terms of light and shadowed areas rather than hair, jacket and pants.

I worked from a photo I took on a painting trip with my friend Helen.

                                 A Walk on Brier Island (8 x 8 inches)

This was great fun to paint. I worked on Canson's drawing bristol with a small travel kit of Yarka watercolours. This paper does not allow much reworking or layering of colour. I have kept the light side of the figures hard edged and crisp while the shadowed sides are soft edged, blending in with their surroundings. The result is a loose interpretation of the subject matter and clear representation of the quality of the light and atmosphere of the day.

Look for my daily drawings on the Daily drawings tab at the top of the Blog.