AD33: Van Gogh

The above image is  "Courting Couples in the Voyer d'Argenson Park in Asnieres". As soon as I saw it, I thought I want to try painting in that style. I think it is beautifully executed and kept very tight despite being many little strokes of paint. 

I believe I am going through artistic changes and I think looking at Van Gogh's work will be very influential to my own practice. This style may not be appropriate for illustration, but by taking inspiration from it I hope to apply what I would learn and hopefully improve my work.

When doing the Little Old Lady in my last project, I came to the conclusion that I did not want to work in Acrylic paint anymore due to its impracticality of taking too long. I quickly experimented with gouache and pencil and felt confident that its increased speed was more appropriate for book illustration.

Now the question becomes how to improve this style to make it look professional and more appealing. However, I also wish to make my skills in drawing more involved in my illustrations. I’ve always thought of myself of being more a draughtsman than a painter.

I have done some experimental work trying to draw and then “tinting” areas with colour. Gouache is fairly opaque and so I moved to watercolour. However, I am not happy with watercolour; it granulates and its overall finish leaves me unimpressed. I also tried colouring pencil but this has not worked either. Colouring pencil seemed to cover up my previous graphite work and looks a little lacklustre. However, it must be noted that the paper I am using is a generic mixed media type of paper that may not be appropriate for the media; I certainly felt this way with the colouring pencil as the texture of the paper is not as smooth as I feel is required (I will do a seperate blog post that details this).

This experimentation is where Vincent Van Gogh comes in. It just so happened that I took a book out from the library on him entitled “Van Gogh The Master Draughtsman” and it is funny to think that 130 odd years ago Van Gogh faced the same problem as I am now; wishing to keep his draughtsmanship, but he was urged to move to painting as it is more commercially viable.

His answer is somewhat unique, and more oddly, shouldn’t work. I noticed how he achieved it when I looked at the following images side by side.

It isn’t immediately obvious from just looking at these two images but it becomes clearer as one looks through more of his back catalogue. I think He draws with his paint, in the same way he draws with pen.

I am taking this as inspiration and I wish to find my own solution. I love drawing with pencil and so now I ask myself how can use paint in a similar way to how I draw? 

I tried to take this inspiration and do another illustration bearing that in mind. I did the below illustration in Gouache with a little bit of pencil to fill in missing details and provide an outline - this may be black paint in the future.

I worked fast, trying to keep the paint brush moving as I would with a pencil. It is a rough piece so with that in mind, I am pleased with the results and feel this is a good medium for me to work in - although I want to do some experimentation with oils still.