This article is about watercolor house portrait #264Z, of a property sold by Broker/Realtor Ray Wade, owner of Legacy Texas Properties in Houston, Texas, and written by artist Stephen F. Condren, BFA-SAIC, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery ~ the house portrait is done first as a pencil drawing and then a pen & ink, which comes with JPEG & PDF scans for making note cards. Congratulations Ray Wade!
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Property Sold
4015 Aspenwood, Richmond, Texas, 77406
Realtor
Ray Wade, CRS
Broker/Owner
Legacy Texas Properties
Phone: (832) 531-2011
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.legacytexasproperties.com
Pencil Drawing For Watercolor House Portrait #264Z
- Clinker Stylus Sketch
The pencil drawing, which is a clinker stylus sketch, is the foundation of a house portrait and it can be seen under the pen & ink in the image below under Pen & Ink Drawings. It is against aesthetic practice to erase any work done by the artist, no matter how small. The same holds true for house portraits, which are Fine Art as they are private commissions. Each house portrait is a work of Fine Art and must be treated with utmost respect. In the case of pencil sketches that I do for my clients, I only erase the writing of the note. So if you look at the note in the pen & ink below you will see my hand writing.
Because I am going to write the note in ink, the pencil is merely a guide and not part of the work of art. If you look at the watercolor below you an see that my pencil notes are gone. However, if you look closely you can see the pencil sketching under the house and the landscaping, that is good artwork!
Pen & Ink Drawing
- Stylus Sketch
The pen & ink drawing, which is a stylus sketch, is the blood and guts of the house portrait. Nothing can be hidden from the all might pen! Because the pen & ink lines are so bold and clear you have to make sure that they are correct from the start. Most importantly, pen & inks are very demanding and very unforgiving. If you make a mistake it is there forever. There is no use in using “white out” or other slick patches to “fix” the error, for when the watercolor come it will expose all of that folly! When you do pen & ink you have to do it correctly.
Picture Plane
The picture plane is the paper, or the TV screen, or a movie screen. This is the surface that everything that your eye sees rests upon. In the rendering below you can see that I have left space for the trees. Thus, when I drew the eave lines I stopped and made a pause and then continued, leaving room for the tree trunk. This hold true for the bushes and other objects in front of the house. The use is that any object in front gets priority seating. Thus, the bushes in the front of the yard get the highest priority as they are in front of everything.
Shade & Shadow
Because the nature of pen & ink is linear, they express form and motion through hatching and cross-hating. If you look at the front porch you can see a series of short vertical lines going along from the left to right. Please note that I have left space for the columns. If I had just kept making the vertical lines through the columns then it would have ruined the depth of field for the porch, flattened the image, and ruined the drawing. Hatching makes a pen & ink drawing strong!
Watercolor
- Painting
The watercolor of the rendering is the final step in doing the house portrait. Watercolor like pen & ink is very demanding and very unforgiving. When the brush hits the paper there is no turning back, what you see is what you get! And since your client has paid for this commission it had better be good!
Freshness
The most important element in a watercolor is freshness. You should be able to smell the roses! When you try and work the brush over the paper the drawing will immediately fall into ruin. You have to be fresh, clean, and clear when applying watercolors. You cannot undo what is wrong. It is better to live with error than ruin the work of art over a detail. Every work of art in history, form Leonardo Da Vinci to Picasso has errors in every single work that they have done, and I have as well.
Sunset
The time of year in the watercolor is winter and the time of day is sunset. I have put a suggestion of crimson in the yellow sky to give the warmth of the evening sun to the rendering. A bit of lavender sets the tone of the evening sky and a touch of green in the trees gives hope for spring that is almost here.
Scans
- JPEG & PDF
As a follow-up after the closing, every good Realtor know that you have to stay in touch with your clients. A good way to do this is to come offering something. So at a later time that the Realtor deems appropriate he or she can call upon their client with a nice box of note cards or stationery with the watercolor of their home!
All house portraits come with scans in JPEG format. You can email this scan to any local printer and they can make note card or stationery at your request of watercolor house portrait #264Z.
Condren Galleries Ltd.
- Fine Arts Gallery
Condren Galleries is my place for art and it is here that I offer paintings and watercolor of any subject. Because I have done house portraits and architectural rendering for my entire career and I am pleased to offer this to all of my clients.
Stephen F. Condren
- Artist
As an artist I can do figure drawings and paintings as well and portraits of people, the range is great and I love my work. I am honored to do watercolor house portrait #264Z for Ray Wade.
Alt Image Tag
Watercolor house portrait #264Z, pencil drawing, pen & ink, JPEG & PDF scans, Condren Galleries.
Related Links
Watercolor House Portraits #261Z