who are your favourite watercolour artist heros?

xin li · 1 Dec 2018, 13:52

I am going to work on painting with water colour in December. The holiday session reminds me traditions, and I remembered that many of the traditional children's book illustrations are done in ink and water colour :-).

I want to find water colour masters to study. Currently I am looking at Quentin Blake, Anita Jeram, Matthew Cordell and Vera Brosgol's art. I am also going to re-watch Lee White's water colour tutorial on SVS Learn.

Do you have recommendations on which artist I should be studying?

Teju Abiola · 1 Dec 2018, 13:20

@xin-li Great choices, and some names I don't know and get to look up! Off the top of my head, I absolutely love Lisbeth Zwerger, Jerry Pinkney, Chris Hong (an indie artist, not published) and classics like Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Jessie Wilcox Smith, and Beatrix Potter. I also like Freya Blackwood. There's loads more but can't think of/list them right now.

You should honestly just study the ones you really admire and resonate with you. There are lots of different techniques with the medium, so some might not be what you are looking for personally. But it's also good to try different things out because you never know when it could be useful! If you want to look at very traditional/classic stuff I would check out Golden Age stuff like Rachkam, Dulac, Potter, Greenaway, and Caldecott etc. The giftbook/fairytale type stuff. Those are absolute masters of I've ever seen them. There are loads of other great artists who did that stuff too. Zwerger is contemporary but she was very influenced by them and big fave of mine.

I love talking about this stuff ️

Whitney Simms · 30 Nov 2018, 17:43

I adore Esther Gili. She’s from Spain. I love how she handles the figure. Her color layers are just clean. I think I’ll do a master study of her work in January. I love a good color blend with water, but those layers take patience. They’re amazing.

rcartwright · 30 Nov 2018, 17:45

https://www.josephzbukvic.com/

Joseph Zbukvic

Whitney Simms · 30 Nov 2018, 18:03

Lee’s class was awesome btw. I need to watch it again. He should probably do lots more of them!!!

xin li · 30 Nov 2018, 20:00

@teju-abiola wow. Thank you so much for the recommendations. I will look thought the list and see what resonates me. It is always hard in the beginning to know what works for me. I will try a few different techniques, and see what sticks. Very excited!

xin li · 30 Nov 2018, 20:07

@whitney-simms thank you. Love her colors and her drawing of children.

xin li · 30 Nov 2018, 20:16

@rcartwright really amazed by how loose Joseph uses water colour, yet his paintings feel very realistic.

rcartwright · 30 Nov 2018, 20:57

@xin-li Yes I personally don't enjoy watercolors that are too detailed to me it is the looseness and the way some artists let the water do it's thing that impresses me.

Phil Cullen · 1 Dec 2018, 02:17

Carcamo is an amazing watercolor artist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CL2GPa906w check out this vid, it has a lot of his work.

Sarah LuAnn · 1 Dec 2018, 02:48

Why has nobody mentioned P. J. Lynch yet? But now that I think of it, I'm not positive he does watercolors... maybe it's gouache?

davidhohn · 1 Dec 2018, 10:33

@sarah-luann PJ Lynch is the best! So good and such an nice guy! He uses a combination of watercolor and gouache, but only a bit of gouache.
Check out his process here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d_9KkSKIzo
(be sure to follow up with part 2 for the painting part)

In the vein of recommending watercolor illustrators, I gotta mention Holly Hobbie. I was just eyeing her Night Before Christmas https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316070181/ref=sspa_dk_detail_5?psc=1
She is really good!

Teju Abiola · 1 Dec 2018, 13:21

@sarah-luann Love his work!

Teju Abiola · 1 Dec 2018, 13:24

@phil-cullen I absolutely love Carcamo!

Phil Cullen · 1 Dec 2018, 13:26

@teju-abiola watching him paint is amazing, he's crazy good

Jonas Zavacky · 1 Dec 2018, 13:31

I believe Erich Heinemann worked in watercolor! (sorry if I am wrong) I absolutely love his works. and Carcamo is stunning as well

Teju Abiola · 1 Dec 2018, 13:52

@xin-li If you're also interested in painters in general and other illustrators who don't use ink drawings:

Eudes Correia
Blanca Alvarez
Nuwka Ivanova
Agnes Cecile/Silvia Pelissero
Ewa Ludwiczak
Charles Reid
Craig Lueck
Iraville
Alvara Castagnet
Atsushi Matsubayashi
Kelogsloops
Ali Cavanaugh
James McMullan
Omar Rayyan
Jenny Dolfen
Leo Dolfini
Alisa Vysochina
Nick Runge
Benjamin Bjorklund
Vanessa Gillings (uses thin gouache)
Mary Whyte
Burt Silverman
Dean Mitchell
Mario Robinson
Anne Abgott
Stephen Scott Young
Dylan Scott Pierce

I'll stop before it goes on forever Sorry if it's a long list; I'm very watercolor obsessed and am happy to have the opportunity to discuss it on the forums. I'd really suggest looking around on Instagram. I've discovered so many amazing watercolor artists there!

Teju Abiola · 1 Dec 2018, 13:58

@davidhohn Surprisingly I've found, especially recently after checking out some watercolor books/videos, that a good amount of watercolor artists do actually use some opaque colors. How I didn't realize this sooner, I don't know. But it would've made me a lot more forgiving about my own work

chrisaakins · 1 Dec 2018, 14:06

N.C. Wyeth is a fave if you want masters from the past.

DOTTYP · 1 Dec 2018, 17:09

@teju-abiola Thanks for writing this list I love finding new artists especially watercolour