It Feels Like We Only Go Backwards – Personal Research

It Feels Like We Only Go Backwards – Personal Research

by turquoisecho

Inspired by Lucy’s colour theory workshop, I experimented with colour in creating a watercolour illustration. In creating the work, I also learned a lot of other things.

The inspiration behind the illustration was personal: a couple of weeks ago, I was in Pebworth with Freddie, Jamie and Lily. Lily and Freddie smoked out of his window, and we were having such a good time I wanted to illustrate it. I worked almost entirely from memory.

Lucy encouraged us to use images as inspiration for colour schemes. I started by quickly drawing out the bright outfit I remember her wearing that night, because that was the statement image I wanted to base the whole illustration around. In further colour bar practice, you can see I added a few different colours – like a yellow for her bleached hair, or a pink and peach.
Here you can see I copied out a sketchy thumbnail 4 times and experimented with colour. I started by religiously using colours from the scheme before, but it wasn’t making me so happy. Establishing tones in a greyscale version was me trying to think outside the box. You can see it’s quite different to the top two and I preferred it.
This is a progress picture. One of the biggest problems to solve was in using my masking fluid: it’s in an annoying bottle and every time I use a brush with it, it PERMANENTLY ruins the brush with all the scraps that roll up deep inside the bristles. Here, I used a dip pen with a wide nib. I’d seen an illustrator on Instagram (Sibylline Meynet) do it.

In lining and subsequently using the masking fluid, I learned a few things.

  • The dip pen was a little unpredictable and difficult to use. You can see it bleeds large blobs of fluid sometimes, and sometimes runs too thin.
  • The Windsor and Newton Sepia lining ink I use to line bled underneath it, which is a big issue. I might want to try using Indian ink next time … but I’ve fallen in love with the sepia ink and its water insolubility. I might just be more careful or precise next time.
This is the final illustration. Colours referenced from the thumbnails. You can see I changed the picture frame to the left into a music poster because I thought it was more interesting, and Freddie really does have it in his room so it resonated with me.

I chose the brightest red for Lily’s coat, coupled with very pale skin, in the hopes that that’s where the eye will naturally fall.

Colouring the piece presented fewer difficulties than using the masking fluid did – simply because I’ve watercolored so many hundreds of things that I’ve pretty much trialed-and-errored my way into a practice I’m happy with.

Something I would like to try is stretched paper! Working with such wet medium means it does warp a little. I dream of that really thick, fibrous, cold-pressed watercolour paper that’s really expensive in art shops.

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