As you will have noticed, I am deeply ensconced in an exploration of gouache on kraft paper which involves finding out how tidy my drawing can be, which sorts of things make for good quick-painting subjects and how to combine colour and line. In this post, I want to focus on the last point. In a future post, I must say something on drawing.
See, I’m not really sure I know what the lines are doing for me these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love them! I love doing a little pencil sketch, taking out my gouache paints for the main part (ahhh, the main part – love it!) and going over the finished painting with a fine marker at the end. That’s my method at the moment and that’s what surprises me: I love those lines and the difference they make to a painting! Somehow they make the little scenes look more unreal and abstract. Sort of as if a comic character might pop up out of the tea cup which pleases me, or would please me. It’s more artificial with the lines and maybe therefore, to me at least, also more art-like (which is not the same as artsy, mind you). Because the lines add contrast, too. They make the entire scene look crisp and clean.
Or so it seems to me right now…I am really just guessing where this fascination with the line might derive from. What do you think? Looking at the two images below: the one on the top is before I added the lines and the bottom one is the finished painting (from my sketchbook), i.e. including the lines. What is your feeling about what the lines do for the painting? I’m curious and intrigued.
I’m enjoying your explorations with gouache on brown paper too. They are great. Have you seen Roz Stendahl’s blog? She paints almost exclusively with brush pen and gouache.
Thank you for the thumbs-up, Ros, and also for recommending Roz Stendahl’s blog. It’s a dangerous blog – before I knew it there was half an hour of my work-day gone 😉 Thank you!