Friday, February 11, 2011

Red onion and tomato

I have always admired art which employs the technique of cloisonné and this is not the first time I have used the style myself. The word, from circa 1863, means “divided into compartments” from the French cloisonné, from cloison “a partition,” and from the Latin verb clausus, “shut”. Anyway, enough art theory, that’s a very long-winded way of saying my black outlines represent partitions that hold seperate colours, like a stained-glass window. A touch of wax on the textured surface of the onion gives the papery surface some texture, whereas the tomato just needed the white paper substrate to shine through. The shadow colour was applied onto an area (water sheen still showing, not waterlogged) of clear water. This ensures a feathered bleed/soft edge. Winsor & Newton watercolour on Bockingford 200gsm paper.

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Illustration for upcoming 'Lake District Map'

Hand-drawn in brush pen with digital colour.  © Peter Gander