Ottorino De Lucchi

Paul McCormack

No, these aren’t oil paintings, amazingly enough! These are examples of a very exciting and satisfying watercolor drybrush and glazing technique (though it can be a bit meticulous). The two artists represented here are two of the premier masters of this technique and for a fuller enjoyment of their work check out their websites.

Ottorino De Lucchi

Paul McCormack

The technique is simple to describe but takes practice as does any mastery of watercolor. Thin glazes of pure watercolor pigment in an almost dry application are laid down layer upon layer until the desired value and color is attained. The brilliance and luminosity that can be achieved through this technique I never thought possible with watercolor. Glazing with oils has long been known to achieve this brand of jewel-like luminosity. Oil painting masters going back centuries have used it as their staple. Watercolor, on the other hand, has the reputation of being easy to overwork and muddy in repeated layers of application. A reputation that’s well earned and I can testify to first hand. But with the right approach this is not always the case. I’ve tested and pushed the drybrush technique myself on a few occasions and it works. I am having to relearn almost everything I know about watercolor painting and layering. My previous paradigm dictated that simple one, two, or three layer applications at most achieved the best results and kept the watercolor painting fresh, unmuddied and watercolor-like. There are, of course, many notable masters that excel at this traditional watercolor approach, which, in its own right, is beautiful to behold and can be very exciting. But apparently watercolor has more to give as a medium than I ever knew. I’m anxious to learn more.

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Freebie: Stone and Concrete Textures

We can argue later about whether predigiosity is really a word (don’t think it is) but for now lets talk about life changing stuff. Few things can be called life-changing. Fewer still can claim to have changed the world as we know it. Things like automobiles, airplanes, the telephone, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups come to mind (yeah ok, that last one’s a stretch, but its close). Photoshop falls into both categories but maybe not in the way you think. While it may not have changed your life per se, it has changed the way you view the images of life whether you realize it or not. You may have never made one single click inside its considerably powerful interface, but you view its effects every single day, and as a result you frequently view an altered reality. Photoshop has changed everyone’s life, their world, or, at the very least, some degree of perception of that world.

For the artist/photographer (like me), it has also changed my professional life and my personal enjoyment in ways I could not have predicted. As a teenager with a budding art talent pushing to set itself free, I also pursued photography as an outlet of artistic expression and creativity. With no money or place to have a darkroom, I had to content myself with slides or dime store prints from my negatives, sending off to a lab only occasionally for that special enlargement and leaving the nuances of custom printing and retouching to pros. My talents eventually morphed into a career in graphic design, illustration and a continued interest in photography. Photoshop is the most important program in a whole suite of programs that has completely changed my professional life. Not a workday goes by that I don’t open Photoshop for some reason or another. It has put money in my pocket, food on my table and clothes on my back. It has also afforded me hours of pleasure as a darkroom, the likes of which I could never have imagined as a teenager. It has become the retouching and illustration tool only imagined in science fiction only 20+ years ago when Photoshop was just a gleam in some programmer’s eye. So, there it is. Photoshop’s cool! ‘Nuf said. And on its twentieth birthday I’m more than happy to give it a little love.

Photoshop 20th Anniversary Event – Celebrate with Adobe and NAPP

Below is an example of a digital watercolor painting recreation. Again this is hand painted using digital software and not a filter conversion of any kind. Watercolor is a bit more difficult to simulate digitally than oils but an artistic, loose, wash effect can still be achieved. A style such as this couples well with printing on watercolor paper.

So brush off those old photos and contact me for an estimate today.

Full Portrait – click to enlarge

Detail – click to enlarge

A painted portrait from Steve Mitchell comes with these features:

• A hand-painted, digital portrait by a professional illustrator with over 25 years experience
• Generally created at a much larger size and at a higher resolution than the original photo making it a great way to preserve and enhance treasured photos
• Choice of various media simulations such as oils or watercolors
• Choose your preferred degree of loose impressionism or tight realism.
• Choose to get just the digital file and make your own prints or order a print of your painting from me printed on a variety of media such as watercolor paper or canvas.
• Choose to customize your photo before its painted with enhancements such as removing unwanted elements, combining people from separate photos, changing colors of particular elements or even have your subject placed over a completely different background.
• Reasonable, competitive pricing usually much lower than a photo studio can provide. Pricing from $120 and up depending on factors such as size, number of subjects, background elements, retouching and prep, etc.

Get in touch today for a free consultation and quote.

Note: Most portrait prints taken by a professional studio cannot be submitted for reproduction due to copyright laws. You must only submit photos that you have complete reproduction rights to.

Full Portrait – click to enlarge

Detail 1 – click to enlarge

Detail 2 – click to enlarge

Full Portrait – click to enlarge

Detail – click to enlarge

A Sketchy Past, The Art of Peter de Sève.