WASH DRAWINGS

WASH DRAWING
BY this time the reader will have discovered that, although the pencil and white paper can produce a great variety and a wide
range of effects, there are decided limitations. To make a complete detailed tone drawing is a slow process, unless the drawing is very small. He will realize the absurdity of covering large areas with flat, or nearly flat, tones by means of thousands of strokes when the same effect can be produced much more quickly and easily by a few washes. In sketching speed is often an essential condition, particularly when the effects are fleeting. This chapter, therefore, is devoted to methods of sketching in wash.
Broadly speaking, there are two methods,
(1) by transparent washes on white paper, and
(2) by opaque washes on white or tinted paper. The first method can be applied in several ways ; the one explained here is not necessarily the best, because the selection is largely a matter of personal temperament. But it is certainly the simplest, and arises most readily from the previous studies.
If the reader has had no experience in laying washes, a little preliminary practice, before attempting direct sketches from nature will save much fruitless failure and needless irritation. Make a clear outline drawing of the sketch shown in Fig. i on Plate XIX. Mix a very pale wash
of black. Damp the paper with a small sponge and dry lightly with blotting paper. Carry a flat wash over the whole of the paper. Mix a slightly darker tone of black and when the first wash is dry cover the whole surface, except the sky and the water, with a still darker wash, and paint a portion of the trees, railings, and plank as shown in Fig. z. Continue the process with a succession of darker tones till the sketch is like the final stage, as shown in Fig. 3. This is called a tinted drawing, because the outline remains as an important part of the sketch when completed.
Now take a more completed subject, Fig. z, Plate XX, and draw with a faint outline. In this case some of the washes are not flat, but gradate to a fainter tone or fade away altogether. Gradation can be most easily effected by using two brushes. Paint the darker portion first. If the wash needs to be slightly gradated, mix a paler wash, before commencing, and add it with the second brush, as quickly as possible. For more sudden gradations use a clean damp brush, and drag the colour already applied as far as is required. Or, begin with a fainter wash and add the dark. In some cases it is necessary to begin with clean water and add the tone. Speaking generally, it is easiest to gradate from dark to light and from the top downwards, but sometimes the opposite plan is compelled by circumstances. Examples of each occur in Plate XX, where the picture is shown in two stages.
Transparent wash drawing has one serious disadvantage : it cannot express, except by extraordinary skill, small patches of light surrounded by dark tones, such as flashing ripples in dark water, light flowers in a meadow, and glistening wet leaves on a dark tree. When the effect of a sketch depends largely upon some such features
Plate XXII
Univ Calif - Digitized by Microsoft
Univ Calif - Digitized by Microsoft
Plate XXIII
the use of opaque washes is called for ; for when transparent pigment is mixed with sufficient Chinese White, it will be unaffected by the tone on which it is painted. Plate XXI shows a sketch in two stages which could not be done with transparent wash only ; and the reader is recommended to paint this or some similar subject as an experiment.
Mix four washes in four saucers. Make
mixture No. z with Chinese White and a touch of Black. To mixture No. 2 add a little more Black ; to mixture No. 3 a considerable amount, and to mixture No. 4 only a small quantity of White. Paint a patch of each colour side by side on a spare piece of paper and let them dry. Each will appear slightly lighter than when painted. Use these as guides while making the sketch.
First cover the whole surface with a flat wash of No. 2 and allow it to dry. Or, if obtainable, use a grey paper of this tone. Then paint the sky, lights on grass, water, etc., with No. x. Next paint parts of the trees, lock, etc., with No. 3 as in the first stage. When this is dry add the highest lights with White, the darkest parts with Black, as well as various details needed to complete the picture as in the second stage.
This is the most elementary form of opaque wash drawing, because each wash is quite flat. The graduating of opaque washes by adding White or Black is a far more difficult matter and needs a good deal of practice ; and until a considerable amount of facility has been gained it would not be wise to attempt the method in direct sketches from nature.