watercolorist
with a difference
Judi is happy to share her techniques in
dry-brush
watercolors
.........an in-depth look at how Judi Wild paints her watercolors
Following you will find a digital documentation of one
of Judi Wild's recent paintings entitled "The First Outing"
Please excuse the color inconsistencies between each of these digital photo shots
Judi works on a high quality hot
press illustration board. She begins
with a detailed pencil drawing
of the main focal point of the painting
The artist will then gradually
add several layers of transparent watercolor over
the pencil work, until the desired
affect is achieved. She uses very fine brushes
and with great patience may spend
many hours working on just a small area -
She will work on one area of the
painting at a time - pencil followed by dry-brushing.
This is to prevent the carbon pencil
work from smearing and making a huge mess.
After completing the 3 chicks,
Judi continues to work on the foreground of the painting.
This area shows the nesting area
of the loons - composed of intertwined dried grasses-
which was especially challenging.
Watercolors is normally a very transparent medium,
so the artist is unable to apply
thick layers of opaque paint. Each strand of grass
or leaf must be individually
painted and the spaces between are all back-painted.
This area took Judi at least 35
hours to complete - a lesson in patience.
Notice the positioning of the father
loon in the background. Judi decided that this
was a mistake as it conflicted
with the chick on the mothers back. If the color
has only been lightly administered
it is possible to wash this out and allows for
a correction as shown in the next
picture. I'm sure that you will agree that the father
loon is more appealing in the new
position - partially hidden by the bushes.
This shot shows the background
bushes half finished. The leaves were e
specially challenging as each one
has to be painted with several layers of
transparent paint with just a hint
of moisture on the brush, gradually
achieving the desired effect. It
cannot be rushed - it is a very slow process
unlike the normal wet-on-wet
watercolor technique
This is the finished product. Well
over 100 hours of dry-brushed watercolors
went into the making of this small
26" X 9" painting
Detail of nesting area
TO TRULY APPRECIATE THE FINE
DETAIL IN HER WORK
JUDI INVITES YOU TO SEE HER WORK DISPLAYED IN ONE OF HER
GALLERIES
back to Judi's studio
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on the drawing board