Improving on my figures

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Since last winter I have kept in the back of mind my desire to improve the figures that I paint in my watercolors. It has taken a while but I think I may have found a watercolor sketchbook that I can take with me to places such as a cafe or the library where I can capture on the spot, people and their postures. 

Most little watercolor journals from my experience are too cheap as the paper will buckle once you get it wet. This mixed media sketchbook by Stillman & Birn has much thicker paper which can absorb more moisture and lays flat with it's ringed binder which I find essential. In addition, my approach is to paint wet on dry as this seems to be the quickest drying method that I know of.

As I have mentioned in prior posts, once you put a person in the picture they become the focal point so it really is important to get the figure right. This requires getting the scale correct along with positioning the figure so that it reveals the activity they are doing within the atmospheric qualities of the time in question.