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painting step by step : advices,
tips and tricks by a professional
"Study
of Whites in watercolor"
Author: Cyrille_Jubert,
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Cyrille
Jubert, animal painter and pet portraitist, self taught artist started
to paint in october 1996.
The Dog Museum presents his pet dog portraits painted with a very
unusual realistic style in watercolor.
The artist explains here his technique and tricks, step by step,
while painting a pack of 6 hunting hounds.
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I paint dogs portraits mostly on
commission, but from time to time, I paint something for me. It
allows me to change my style a bit, to test ideas and to feel free.
It is in this spirit that I painted this pack of hounds.
I painted it first in 12"x16" but at its first exhibit,
I got a commission to paint again these staghounds in 28"x20".
Both paintings were very close.
No color was added in the 1/3 bottom of the sheet to show the white
on white study of the paws. The strong darkgreen background on the
2/3 top of the page was chosen to show this work in a contrasted
context.
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The background was a mix of black indian ink, olive
green acrylic ink and sap green watercolor. As they don't mix themselves,
it makes interesting effects. Between these two versions, I played
with the ochre reflects of the light on the ears and the backs of
the dogs, and the blue or violet-blue of the shadows. Globally, these
paintings were rather far off my usual realistic pictures. They were
searches, but the small world of art collectors loved them, so I did
not keep them very long.
Last summer, I painted a new version with a golden background. It
was gorgeous. So much that the other paintings did not exist beside
this one. I decided to paint a new one as a demonstration for you.
I took this photo (seen below) in Chambord where these british staghounds
just won a beauty contest. The name of this breed is "Billy".
It would not be me, if I did not tell you a little story about it.
On the left side you hardly see the huntsman, a woman. It is very
unusual to have a woman to take care of a pack of staghounds. In France,
the master use to give a hunting name to his whipper-in and huntsman
: fern, brushwood, etc...as she had a strong character, her nickname
was "bramble". I have known this master for years, his name should
be "stinging nettle". Anyway, I decided to paint just the dogs. |
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Most of the time, I paint
on Arches Paper 300g (140 lb) Hot pressed. For this piece the size
is 77x58 cm. This nearly grainless paper allows subtle lines and details
for very realistic drawings. If you paint wet on wet, the paper will
drink too much of the pigments. As I am used to this paper and as
I don't paint so much wet on wet, it does not disturb me. I usually
soak my sheet of paper in a bath for a few minutes, let it hanged
to drip 10 minutes before stretching it on my table.
When it is perfectly dry, I draw a very light sketch using a 6H pencil.
My photo does not show the pencil, so don't search for it. |
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I just drew the main outlines, the eyes, ears
and the noses. My palette is always very limited, even for very sophisticated
paintings with a lot of different subject matters and colors. I use
the same 8 tubes all the time. The eyes are so important, that I paint
them first. It helps me to feel the whole painting, which gives me
more assurance and pleasure. |
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These
are basicly painted with a cadmium yellow shaded with ochre and burnt
sienna. I never use black, so the line around the eyes is basically
indigo, darkened with strong complementary colors, alizarin and ochre.
The truffles (noses) give sense to the eyes. At the end, they will
be the darkest part of the painting.
They are lightly painted and not finished, because I know I shall
have to come back later when I will give volume to the truffles (noses)
and bind the whole painting togeteher. For that purpose, the surroundings
of the eyes and their truffles have been dampened, so there will be
a light link in pigments. |
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| My purpose in this demonstration is to paint strictly
unicolor subjects, without playing with the blue and yellow reflects
of the light on the dogs. For this, I tried to make a pigment mixture
as neutral as possible with cadmium yellow, cobalt blue and burnt
sienna. When I found the right mix I kept 9/10th of it in a bollus
(bowl), putting the rest in the plate I use as palette. By keeping
the rest of the mix in the bollus (bowl) it allows me to have a light
and a deep shade of the same color. |
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I use siberian
squirrel paint-brushes size 1, 2 or 3, and I often use different brushes
at the same time. One just to dampen a part of the drawing, the other
one to "drink" or "draw" (or dry) some parts, and one for the different
density color. I start with the heads, from right to left, painting
one head to the end before starting the second one.
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The difficulty was to
paint it wet on wet, without being delayed by details. If you look
at my first head on the right, I was shy. The confidence grew while
I was painting, so the dog on the left is much stronger than the first
one. |
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