John Clapp
Illustration
(8k), large version (25k)
Seen in Society of Illustrators Annual #37
Personal project.
Watercolor on paper
Problem:
This was inspired
by an overcast winter visit to the Santa Monica Beach in
Southern California. I had been shooting some B+W
photographs as an experiment, and one of them jumped out
at me. I liked the atmospheric effects I had on the film
and wanted to try it in watercolor.
Solution:
Painting in
watercolor is really about controlling the amount of
water in your brush and on your paper. You learn to let
the water do the work for you.
This is a very early piece of mine, the oldest in the portfolio. It literally took only 15 minutes to paint. What I didn't realize until later, trying it again, was just how lucky I'd gotten with this one. It taught me a lot.
Now, when working on an assignment where this kind of image is the goal, I might end up with a half-dozen bad ones before I get the image to work,...but when it works it's worth it.