Brusho

Secrets

Line & Wash Figure

Demonstrations

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Line & Wash Figure

Line and Wash Figure

One of the things I love about Brusho is the ease you have in creating stunning images. After only your first wash, sometimes youre left with something that is so beautiful you could frame it there and then! Overworking can really take the life out of your Brusho paintings. Instead of vibrant colours youre left with something dull and a little disappointing. In this demonstration were going to work on the less is best philosophy. Were going to use the line and wash method to do a beautiful figurative study. As you know from the previous chapter, we can afford to be more abstract in our painting when we already have our line established. So not only is this is a really effective way of painting loosely, but it will also help you to take the fear out of figure drawing.

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1. Drawing your outline

You can have a go at sketching the figure if you like, or you can download my sketch and trace it onto your paper. This isnt a complex drawing. Ive kept out a lot of detail because I want this to be about bold colours.

2. Add some wax highlights

When you have your outline drawn, take your wax (either a crayon or a piece of candle) and put in some highlights. Im going to have the light coming from the left hand side, so Im going to pop in some highlights on the corner of her left shoulder, on the folds of the fabric, and a little in her hair. Remember you can use the wax on its point, or on its side. Im also going to make some marks to break the shape of my figure. These can be any sort of mark linear, dots and dashes its up to you! Remember that once the wax is applied it cant be taken away so less is best. With a line and wash, the line will always be there, so we can afford to be a little more abstract with our painting.

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3. Inking in the line

Were using our thick marker to ink in the line, so like we said before, this cant be a detailed drawing. We want to make a bold statement, but Im keeping the line quite sketchy or else our young lady will look too cartoon-like! Try and restrict yourself to linear marks that will describe the shape and form of the figure. We can suggest the folds of the fabric with quick sketchy strokes of the pen, and a light touch on the paper.

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4. Flesh tones
Were going to add in the Brusho washes now and it

really wont take much effort to make this picture look stunning. Well put the flesh tones in first. So of our limited palette of three colours, were going to use the Brilliant Red and Yellow. Sprinkle the colours on the top half of your drawing. Tap your pots very gently we dont want too much Brusho on the paper. Though we wont be able to recreate her exact flesh tones, we dont want her to look like shes spent a little too long in the sun! Dont worry about the Brusho not staying within the lines of the drawing. If you dont want this effect and would like to be more careful youll have to mask off the area around the figure, either with your hand or a piece of paper.

With this picture we dont need to preserve a great deal at all the line is giving us our shape and the wax is giving us our highlights. Get your atomiser and spray gently. Im using my hand to mask the fabric area and Im encouraging the Brusho to flow over the drawn line. 136

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Line & Wash Figure

See how effective this is with only a few sprays! You could leave the flesh area as it is, but I want to bring in my brush and move the Brusho around so that I can create a smoother wash.

So Ill touch a little on the lower part of her back, and some in her hair, moving the powder around with the wet brush.

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5. Painting the fabric

Next lets take our Ultramarine and paint the fabric our model is holding. Im going to be brave and work on the fabric while the skin washes are still wet! I might get some happy accidents, but thats the unpredictability of Brusho! You could of course let your painting dry first. Im going to sprinkle in some of the blue onto the fabric area. Again Im being really careful not to put too much powder onto my paper. Instead of spraying, Im going to move the Brusho around with my brush. So taking a clean brush Im going to touch in the shapes of the fabric. The line is always there to reinforce the painting, so all I need to do is apply some linear marks with my brush to add some colour and shadow. Im going to encourage the Brusho to extend over the ink lines and create some soft edges. Lets also pick up some of this blue pigment and drop it in her hair and the side of her face. It adds some form to her head, showing it to be in shadow. Weve managed to mix an extra colour too because the flesh tones arent dry yet! But before we move on again, I think its time to let our lady dry!

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6. Negative painting
Isnt this an effective way to produce a figure with very little effort! Already shes looking beautiful. Its loose and textured and weve hardly had to paint anything ourselves! Im moving on to the finishing touches of my painting. If you are happy with your figure as she is, you can leave it there. Im going to bring in some darker tones just to create that contrast between light and dark.

Im going to take my Brilliant Red diluted in the palette and use it to paint the areas around her back and arm. Its your choice where you put these final touches of colour.

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Im not going to soften this area with my brush, Im

going to spray it. So Ill cover the rest of the picture with my hand and spray the edges of this wash to create a soft, textured area. Lets take some Ultramarine and drop it into this area. Im using both colours on the palette now, but theres nothing to stop you sprinkling on the wet paper.

This has given us a really strong colour to stand out against the more mellow tones of the figure. Im going to carry on painting these negative shapes. Dont forget to soften off these edges with a clean, damp brush. 140

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See how she begins to stand out more from the background. This has given my composition much more of a balance. I want my picture to stay quite loose, so Im going to leave the background here for the time being, letting it dry fully, before I move on to my final stage!

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7. Adding shadows
I think our figure is still a little flat so Im going to add a couple of shadows that will give her more form. So taking the Ultramarine diluted in the palette, Ill paint one shadow behind her left elbow, and one in the small of her back. Soften these marks with some clean water to avoid hard edges. Using the same blue mixture, Im going to darken her hair and face a little now and create some folds in the fabric by adding some dark shadows there too.

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There we have it, a beautiful figure study in Brusho using the line and wash method and wax to create highlights. This is an easy and effective way to create stunning figurative paintings. For something more complex, why not try painting a figure and preserving highlights with bleach like Ive done with the following two figurative studies.

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Aphrodite, Brusho, bleach and wax

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Daydreaming, 146 Brusho and bleach