THE LADY IN GREY

The Lady In Grey. It measures  19 cm x 28 cm and was painted on Saunders Waterford high white paper, 140 lb NOT. It was painted in watercolour without a preliminary sketch. But I did do a pencil sketch on a separate sheet of paper first just to get a feel for the shapes and lines. Here’s my pencil sketch:

Practicing my drawing in a separate sketchbook helps me to draw better with my paintbrush. The colours for the skin tones were: Buff Titanium, Naples Yellow, Quinacridone Coral and Burnt Sienna. The grey shawl was painted with a mix of Cobalt Blue and Buff Titanium to make a lovely soft blue/grey.

The Blue Ballet Shoes

The Blue Ballet Shoes

The Blue Ballet Shoes – a watercolour sketch on Saunders Waterford High White, 140 lb NOT paper. It’s 19 cm x 21 cm and was painted without a preliminary sketch. I deliberately chose pale, almost ethereal colours. For the skin tones I used Naples Yellow, Quinacridone Coral and Burnt Sienna; for the ballet shoes I used Winsor Blue Red Shade mixed with a little Titanium White; and I used a little yellow ochre with the blue for the shadow colour.

Above and below are a couple of related pencil sketches. Drawing practice is always an ongoing project of mine…

I enjoyed painting The Blue Ballet Shoes and doing the pencil sketches. They are a valuable parts of my watercolour journey and so I have added them to my website with the original post date.