SPEED FIGURES

EXERCISE

Ideally this exercise should be done from life, but a studio session is just as useful to boost your confidence and will prepare you to paint figures directly from life.

Choose a selection of photographs illustrating people in different poses and clothing styles (standing/walking/leaning, suits, sleeves, T-shirts, skirts, shorts etc). Select a large sheet of Rough watercolour paper, a size 8 to 10 round brush and a palette of watercolour pans.

Mix a warm brown suitable for the skin colour of your figures, here I have used Schmincke burnt sienna with a touch of cadmium red to make it more opaque. Dab in the head shape (a brushmark equivalent to the pressed width of the brush tip), neck if showing, and the positions of any exposed limbs. If limbs are covered, use a dilute blue (I used ultramarine) to shape the whole pose (middle figures in reverse).

Aim for damp, not-too-wet mixes (the wetter the paint the less ragged the edge to the brushstroke). Add the clothing before the flesh/blue tint dries and let the colours blend without any interference. To represent highlights on limbs and clothing, leave out slithers of untouched white paper.

Allow yourself a maximum of two minutes to make a swift rendition of each figure, and resist any temptation to correct. Note how the blobs, bleeds and inaccuracies in the examples illustrated do not impair the results but add to the vitality of the pose.