Figure Drawing: Water Color Figure Painting

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Water Color Figure Painting

A figure artist whose work I did not know of and I suspect many others did not either is William Reginald Watkins. A number of his water color paintings are for sale on Ebay right now, though some have been sold. William Reginald Watkins was born in Manchester, England and later studied at the Maryland Institute in Baltimore Maryland. There he studied under artists such as Hans Schuler, C.W. Turner and Maxwell Miller. He was a member of the Baltimore Watercolor Club, the London Royal Society of Art, Baltimore Art Director Club, National Art Director and the Maryland Institute Alumni Board. His work was exhibited both nationally and internationally. He was best know for landscapes, snowscenes, still life, portraits, and marine paintings. These are figure studies executed to keep up his craft. There is a listing at Askart.com.

His figure studies are carefully observed and show an understanding of anatomy and the human form. Noitice the careful rendering of form and notice also the care that went into these paintings. Watercolor is a tricky medium, that is you can't go back and correct your work so the care that went into these paintings is evident in the unity of color, nothing seems overworked or out of place in the finished work.

Two ebooks on drawing the figure are available at Figure-drawings.com, Figure Painting in Watercolors, which shows the technique of British figure artists from the beginnning of the twentieth century and Lessons in Figure Painting in Watercolor which has basic lessons illustrated with prints made to resemble two stages of a water color painting in a book originally published in the 1880s.