HOW TO PAINT IN WATERCOLOUR

Corgis Flying in Hot Air Balloon (like they do) ACEO Art Card in Stages

‘Way up there, in the air’

Not only is January 9th ‘Hot Air Balloon Ascension Day’ but I live in Bristol, South West UK, home of the ‘International Balloon Fiesta’.

So, naturally doggos are thinking about taking flight. No doubt with snacks. Lots of snacks.

On my ACEO art card blank I use a round thing to draw around to get a round thing — I can’t see the point in struggling to draw a round thing freehand.

Then I pencil in the ropes etc — I don’t know my way around a hot air balloon so I pull up some examples on Google and get a general idea so that at least it’ll look like a hot air balloon even if it wouldn’t, strictly-speaking, ‘work’ as a hot air balloon.

I decide on four corgis in the basket and a view of distant hills.

I already know that in the actual picture I will not include the ropes that go in front of the dogs. That might not make engineering this-balloon-has-to-work sense, but it makes pictorial sense.

Of course, now I’ve explained my working-thoughts you’ll never be able to look at this picture again without thinking: “Cripes -there’s a basket of doggos about to plummet to the ground” — but that’s a risk I’m taking so that you know how I’m working. People who haven’t read this won’t think that — their subconscious will put the ropes in the right place without even seeing them.

I ink in the picture and rub out the pencil — I used something to draw around for the balloon but then I pencilled over the ink freehand just to give it a little less of an ‘engineered’ look.

I can’t decide what colour(s) scheme to use on the balloon.

I like the colour combination of green pink/maroon — it works for many things.

So I try it out on scrap paper. And I just now realise you can see typing through the paper which shows I’m re-using one of my old manuscripts!

I try the green/pink combo three different ways with thinner or thicker swatches of colour.

It’s pencil on paper on the left of the illustration, and that pencil has been ‘painted’ with water so the colour mixes on the paper, on the right.

I ended up not liking any of them.

This is why it’s good to get in to the habit of trying everything on scrap paper first.

I decided in the end to choose a main colour, and then use a colour to indicate light falling on it, which also means needing a colour for the shadows that will then be cast.

This decision was partly because I felt I’d spent long enough trying to decide on a colour scheme. Enough’s enough!

So I’m going for a dark browny-red with yellow to suggest light falling on it, and purple to show shadow. Sometimes just leaving it to the paint makes it work. (And sometimes it doesn’t …)

I do, though, still check on scrap paper to make sure that the shine, the colour and the shadow colours work together. See above — pencilled on the left, painted with water and mixed on the paper on the right.

As above — more light colour on the top of the balloon because light will shine from above in this picture; more shadow colour on the bottom because the balloon casts shadow on itself.

So I’ve gone with that for now, but will inspect it closely when there is some colour over the whole picture because it will look different then, and I can adjust if I don’t like it.

The dogs and basket have to be painted in colours of equal ‘tone’ or ‘heaviness’ because they’re at the same distance from us, the viewers.

The sky and hills and fields are painted with colours that are less ‘dense’ than the balloon and its occupants because they are further away from the viewers.

Having got this far I check over the balloon again and have decided to leave it as it is.

I shall stay, feet firmly planted on the ground and wave to doggos way up there, in the air!

Just a note to say the first pictures look yellowy and the final one does not, because all of the pictures in this article were photographed except for the final one which was scanned. It does make the colours appear quite different, too, but you can still get the gist.

All photos and paintings are by Susan Alison 2022

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