Yesterday's post about the barn got me to thinking. What a great page for Strathmore's art journal workshop!
Pennsylvania Barn
8" x 10"
Watercolor and Pen and Ink on 140lb. cold pressed paper
I took a few photos for you as I worked.
I began with a light pencil sketch. I washed in the first layer on the barn with a mix of alizarin crimson and burnt sienna. Using a crumpled tissue I blotted to create some underlying texture.
I deepened the wash on the window side and under the eaves. I mixed in a little raw umber and paynes grey to suggest shadowing. Using a masque pen, I masked out some blades of dead grass and then washed the ground in raw sienna plus DaVinci Mauve (a deep purple). I deepened the wash in places and placed touches of burnt sienna, raw umber and burnt umber. I also splattered some of the ground mixes and also did some stippling with a dip pen and sepia ink. I mixed darker washes for the ground below at the level of the foundation. The evergreens were tapped in with hookers green and sap green. I mixed a bit of burnt sienna in with the greens to tone them down a bit. It was overcast that day, so I used a weak wash of Idanthrene Blue and Davinci Orange to get the muddy gray color of the sky. I further deepened the area to the left by adding a bit more blue and some burnt sienna to the sky mix to add a little bit of drama.
I wanted to show you a close up of the grass before I removed the masking fluid.
The masquepen is a great way to block out fine lines for things like grass. It preserves the lightest tones and whites while you complete the details, such as repeated washes, splattering and deeper strokes for the blades of grass. When you're finished with those, a clean white eraser rubbed over the dried masking fluid will remove it easily. Just don't leave it on for more than a day or so. It might be tough to remove.
I did the roof in Paynes gray, bruised the paper with the end of the brush to simulate the grooves in the metal and then deepened parts of the wash further. For the wood siding at the top of the barn, I washed in a mix of sepia and payne's gray. I followed with varying mixes of burnt umber, burnt sienna, paynes gray, raw umber and raw sienna, stroked in with a size 2 round brush. I inked in the details with a fine nib and sepia acrylic ink. The dead tree branches are a weak mix of raw sienna and paynes gray. I did some inking with sepia ink.
I love this old barn. I hope it's around for another one hundred years. If you would like to see the original photos and read about it's history, you can click here. That's all for now!
Until next time,
