The morning was a downer.
I took the day off and spent the first few hours at the studio, mainly working on a study for a new watercolor. It didn’t go so well. Nothing I tried seemed to work. Nothing.
The best thing to do in times like these is to just clean off the paint brushes, pack up the papers, and take a break. It would be great to learn to identify these cursed periods much sooner. It would sure save a lot of time and grief.
Running errands, doing dishes, and visiting with mom were the head-clearing activities of choice. They did the trick. Returning to artwork – – this time at home on the computer – – a few successes accumulated before too long.
One of them was this little picture, which began as an ink drawing last week, and which got computer colors today:
The drawing was a take-off on a painting by Henry Scott Tuke called “August Blue”, fittingly. The coloring was done without the influence of the painting.
The composition in my version is rather simplified from Tuke’s. Two kids have been removed from the vessel, and a number of other boats had been present in the distance, but seemed like clutter, so they got nixed.
What’s left is a nice little vignette.
I like the way the boys and the boat turned out. The ink-based line work on the clouds and the waves is too sloppy for my taste. The addition of the second boat adds interest and balance.
Who would mind a nice lazy day on the water this time of year? Well, the boy in the boat looks bored out of his mind, judging by his body language. Maybe you can get too much of a good thing!
Gabriel Garbow | Artworks 
You make me want to visit the lake! Nice work, as always.
Sounds like a good idea. I wasted my opportunities to visit any bodies of water this weekend.
I like this, Gabriel. Well, I like water scenes, so I’m bound to!
The boy on the boat looks to me as though he’s getting his breath back after a long swim!
And I like the clouds; they give the impression they lead of far into the background.
Cool. That’s receding effect is just what I was going for, but wasn’t sure it came across.
Oh, very very nice. The gesture of the boys is perfect, composition great with the clouds diminishing. I really love the feel of the relaxed but curious figures. The darks in the water really convey the mass of the boat and the tilt, it’s buoyancy.
Thank you. Sometimes, I feel apologetic working from photographs or other source works this closely. However, the gestures of the figures turned out so nicely, I refuse to back away.
watercolour is evil. lovely sketch. is it all digital?
My original reply to your comment appears not to have posted. Anyway: 1) I’m down with evil, how about you? 2) thank you. 3) the ink line drawing (and some faded swirls of cloud) are hand-drawn in ink in paper; all the color was added in photoshop with the original drawing on the top layer set at ‘multiply’ so that the subtle value shifts and texture of the original show through.
very nice. i like the technique
Why, thank you.
I like the sketch at the top a lot – it has a very sure feel, and captures a lot with a few fluid marks. (I now realise it is the distant background of the main drawing – its the part I like best!)
Thank you.
Much surety went into the making of this picture. The parts highlighted in the feature banner probably benefited in this regard due to their not being the focus of the drawing: it didn’t occur to me to stress out over these lines 😉