This is a sheet of studies in watercolour. I completed it several decades ago while a student in Fine Arts at the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University). I’d been using watercolour, very cautiously, as a teenager but hadn’t had any formal training in the medium. Art College didn’t prove to be much different. There were only a few watercolour instructors and it wasn’t always easy to fit them into my timetable.
I definitely couldn’t find anyone who taught this type of illustrative rendering in watercolour so I had only one option. I sat down and stared at various objects (the ceramic figurine and the ink bottle) and photographs (the Bald Eagle). My ignorance of watercolour technique was a virtue. It forced me to analyze and experiment with the medium. I worked light to dark and I was very careful to preserve the white of the paper as my lightest light. I’d been working hard at my drawing and that was a major plus.
Never resist a challenge. Not all of my efforts proved to be as successful as this sheet but I learned something from each attempt. The things you teach yourself will always stay with you.
Tags: Barry Coombs, Canada, Ontario, Ontario College of Art, watercolor, watercolour, watercolour painting
Barry Coombs Art Workshops 
12/12/2012 at 11:08 am |
This post only shows that you were gifted from the very beginning … doesn’t bode well for the rest of us! Fun to see your early stuff.
08/01/2013 at 11:42 am |
Very valuable insight. Thank you for reminding all of us.