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.










Introduction to Painting the Nude

at Amazon.com.
Interpreting the Figure in Watercolor at Amazon.com.



Classical Painting Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice also at Amazon.com.




Here's a website devoted to W. R. Watkins: WR Watkins - Nude Portraits :: 1930s — 1960s

How to Draw People at Figure-Drawings.com

How to Draw Proportions at Figure-Drawings.com

How to Paint in Water Color

A Course of Sepia Painting, A Course of Painting in Neutral Tint, and A Course of Water Colour Painting by R. P. Leitch are three interesting books for anyone working in water color.

They each follow a similar format. There is an introduction which specifies the materials to be used followed by 24 individual plates each of which has a description of the method employed.

Sepia Painting and Water Colour Painting both have examples of a first stage water color lay-in followed by a completed watercolor painting.

The plates in each case are continuous tone lithography which is similar to the process modern printers use in silk screen printing because the printer puts down successive layers of color to make the print rather than the half-tone  process of a dot-matrix using red, yellow, blue and black inks used in photolithography.

What the continuous tone process gave

 the artist and the printer was a very specific and managable way to make the plates look exactly like the artist wanted.

  It was a fairly difficult and labor intensive process and probably made for a lot of discarded pages when the plates were off register.

The publisher, Cassell, Peter & Galpin, was obviously good at it, there are a lot of books in 

their catalogue listed in the back of these books and other sources from the time. and Mr. Leitch was also a master of the form.  He was particularly expert at the second book of the series, A Course of Painting in Neutral Tint.  He gets a great deal of atmosphere out of his plates combining the warm sepia inks with the other 

cool blue/grey ink.

R. P. Leitch was a accomplished watercolorist and designer of prints active in the middle of the nineteenth century.  Here is a sampling of his work:

Leeds Town Hall

Drawing by R. P. Leitch

Tete Noire and Trient

Richard Principal Leitch. watercolour heightened with body colour

Other Books of his include:

A DREAMER'S SKETCH BOOK. With 21 Illustrations by Percival Skelton, R. P. Leitch, W. H. J. Boot, and T. R. Pritchett. Engraved by J. D. Cooper.

EASY STUDIES IN WATER-COLOR PAINTING, by R. P. Leitch and J. Callow. Nine sketches from nature in simple tints.  

AN ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD - Thomas Gray
Sampson Low, Son & Marston, 1869. Monochrome portrait of Gray on title pages and 16 colour plates from drawings by R. Barnes, R.P. Leitch, E.M. Wimperis, and others.

This is an engraving of Victoria, Vancouver by Leitch.

An engraving of a La Belle Prairie winter cabin.