Saturday, November 22, 2008

Notting Hill Gate( Central Side), 9" x 7", mixed media, 2008

After my recent experiment with watercolour in the last Afro Series, I am beginning to become a bit more comfortable with the medium and I seem to enjoy its unpredictability.

Anyway being inspired by the current wonderful site of urban sketchers I have produced this piece to catch a certain place with some atmospheric effects my goal.





I have used watercolour, gouache, white charcoal and coloured pencil on Bockingford Economical thick watercolour paper, 300gsm(not surface)

4 comments:

Making A Mark said...

I think you're really capturing the Autumn urban colours in this one.

How did you find the Bockingford? Have you ever takEN a whole sheet of good quality paper (like Saunders Waterford OR Arches) and then cut it down to several sheets @ sketchbook size? It's quite an economical way of working. Plus I used to find that the way the paper is sized used to make a HUGE difference to the way I worked when I used watercolours (waaaaaaaay back when!). Just taking one sheet at a time of different types of paper means you can soon find out which one works best for whatever you want to do.

adebanji said...

Thanks for your advice, I didn't really enjoy this paper, it took a long time before it absorbed the colour and maybe I have to do something like what you said about trying different types of paper, I'll continue my discovery. Thanks once again!

There's a lot of beauty out there at the moment that sometimes I just find myself painting in my head when pass by. So much to paint!

vivien said...

this is lovely - I'd agree with Katherine, I don't particularly like Bockingford either.

I love to work in the kind of mix of media you've used here - though I haven't yet tried the white charcoal pencils - seems a contradiction in terms! but they sound interesting

oil pastel as a resist is great with watercolour as well

adebanji said...

Thanks Vivien!

I use these mixed media techniques with watercolour just because of my impatience. So, if I can't get a white paper shape left or retained while working with w/c I just use the white charcoal to make the mark or shape.Try it, it's also good for texture and atmospheric effects too.