Sketch inspired by Toni Burt's style of painting
Day Eighty-Five of Sketching People
Day 85 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. Two different versions of a sketch, using a photo I took whilst I was in London. The first version was a quick sketch to fill a gap in time, and the second version was inspired by Toni Burt’s loose ink lines and expressive approach to applying watercolour.
Loose Lines and Dynamic Colour
Ever since I first started Urban Sketching all I wanted to achieve was loose lines and dynamic painting. I tried to do both at the onset of my urban sketching adventure, but I wasn’t technically ready for it. I realised I had to master the basics and learn stuff like perspective and tonal values – basically it was all about learning to walk before I could run.
Now that I’ve got a load of years of experience sketching people, I have enough of an understanding of the foundational elements of sketching in ink and painting in watercolour. I’m now in a phase of learning, where I can break all the rules and explore the outer edges of my fascination with developing a looser and more dynamic style of painting.
Discovering Toni Burt
Today while I was out sketching at the cafe, I took at break to surf Instagram for some creative inspiration, and I stumbled upon Toni Burt. Turns out I already follow her, but the way those bloody algorithms work, I don’t always get to see her art. She was prompting one of her online classes, and I found my way to her website to explore them (she has loads!), but she also offers a few free lessons, so I watched her one about urban sketching an imaginary house, called Sunshine on a Cloudy Day. In this video Toni shows us how she uses a loose line and flowing watercolour style with a few splashes thrown in for good measure.
As I was watching it, I liked what she did, but thought “it’s not my thing – I don’t think I want to paint like that, it’s too messy”. But then I threw caution to the wind and decided to give her ink line and watercolour technique a spin.
Photo Inspiration for my Sketch
During my trip to London I took a photo of a girl in a white coat and pink leggings pulling a Hello Kitty suitcase at the train station. I was getting off the train as she was getting on, so I didn’t have time for a quick sketch and took a photo instead.
Everyone else in the photo was in black and grey clothes, so she really stood out in the monochromatic crowd.
The first version of my Sketch
I had a few minutes before my Portuguese class this morning, so I pulled up the photo and did a quick sketch in my A6 sketchbook.
I really just wanted an excuse to use my new Twisbi Vac700 fountain pen. So I did a quick sketch directly in ink and then added watercolour. An ok sketch, but the lines aren’t loose enough and the watercolour is blah and boring!
The Second version of my Sketch inspired by Toni Burt
I used my A5 sketchbook to draw some loose ink lines, and then added some flowing watercolour in the style of Toni’s video class. She alternates between adding or removing colour, and adding or dabbing off water. It’s an intuitive approach of assessing what to add and what to take away until you’re happy with the result.
I decided to boost up the colour combination a bit more for dramatic effect, and gave the lady a yellow coat (which is actually the same colour and style as my new jacket that enjoyed a trip to London with me!)
There’s no colouring within the lines, and it’s all about letting the colours bleed together. Making sure to having a balance of white, pale watercolours, and more saturated areas.
Once the watercolour way dry, the next step is to go in with an ink pen that has soluble ink, and using water to encourage it to bleed. I used a fine liner with a gentle bleed, but in her tutorial her ink bleeds more.
The last layer is emphasising some of the ink lines with more wobbly bits. Toni’s approach is to add a few squiggles and dashes along the existing lines to make them more dynamic. I overdid this stage and there’s too many double lines.
Although there’s a few things I wish I’d done differently, I actually really like the end result. When you compare my first and second attempts – the second one really is way more dynamic and interesting.
This style of loose watercolour has really piqued my interest to discover more artists who paint in this expressive style, and see what elements of their technique I’d like to develop.
What I like about Toni Burt, is not only does she use loose and wobbly ink lines, and has an expressive approach to applying watercolour, she’s also a big proponent of painting with a palette of bright colours.
