Pen, Ink and Watercolor Sketching 2 - Temples of Cambodia E-Book

Deshpande Shirish

• Herausgeber: Shirish Deshpande
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Let’s re-create the lost world of the ancient kings through pen, ink and watercolor sketching.

Cambodia is a land of a rich heritage, ancient mystique and a tragic contemporary history. Nevertheless, as peace returned to Cambodia since the last two decades, the ancient temples in the city of Siem Reap found themselves back on the world’s tourist map.

Siem Reap is home to many ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples. These temples are an example of some of the most breathtaking architecture and incredible artwork.

I travelled to Siem Reap in 2019 to visit these temples and experience sketching them on-location. The trip proved to be an enriching and meditative experience for me. I also realized that drawing and painting the illustrations of these ancient temples was equally a delightful and a challenging experience.

In this book, you will learn to draw and paint 10 illustrations of various temples in Cambodia using pen, ink and watercolor through step-by-step demonstrations. All the illustrations use the reference photographs that I clicked while visiting the temples. Every demonstration describes the thought process behind and description of every step. Wherever necessary, I have discussed compositional considerations and perspective, materials used etc.

You will learn the art of pen, ink and watercolor sketching via the following ten demonstrations. Scenes from three of the most famous temples of Cambodia are used for these demonstrations.
-Ta Phrom (also known as The Tomb Raider temple) – The Roots
-Ta Phrom – The Main Gate
-Ta Phrom – The Ruins
-Angkor Wat – The Stairs
-Angkor Wat – The Inner Ruins
-Angkor Wat – The Library Building
-Bayon Temple – The Entry Gate
-Bayon Temple – The Faces of the Kings
-Bayon Temple – The Buddha Statue
-Ta Phrom – Some More Roots

For many wannabe artists, the main hurdle it to begin the initial line sketch and getting the perspective right. To get rid of these hurdles, the reference photographs, rough sketches, compositional sketches and the final illustrations are given as free downloadable resources. You may use these resources to trace over the linework or use these references to give your unique spin to your artwork. The book will guide you about using these free resources to quickstart your drawing process.

As a bonus, many sketches/paintings that I did on-location in those temples are also given. I have also shared some unique and interesting experiences I had while doing the on-location sketches.

So, get ready to embark on an exciting and fulfilling journey of sketching with me.

Leseprobe

PEN, INK AND WATERCOLOR SKETCHING 2

TEMPLES OF CAMBODIA

Learn to Draw and Paint Stunning Illustrations

in 10 Step-by-Step Exercises

Shirish Deshpande

Copyright ©2020 by

HuesAndTones Media and Publishing

Author: Shirish Deshpande

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

All artworks presented in this book are copyright of the artist, regardless of whether they bear the artist’s signature or not.

Table of Contents

Title Page

INTRODUCTION

What This Book Is Not

What This Book Is?

Bonus Material – Live Sketches and Sketch Stories

Free Resources

Monochrome or Color? Watercolor or Ink?

Repetition of Instructions

Mistakes and Happy Accidents

Some 'Ground Rules' While Reading This Book

Materials Used

COLORS AND VALUES

Warm and Cool Colors

Complementary Colors

The Colors Used for the Various Illustrations in this Book

The Curious Case of The Color Black

EXERCISES

Ta Phrom – The Roots

Ta Phrom – The Main Gate

Ta Phrom – The Ruins

Angkor Wat – The Stairs

Angkor Wat – The Inner Ruins

Angkor Wat – The Library Building

Bayon Temple – The Entry Gate

Bayon Temple – The Faces of the Kings

Bayon Temple – The Buddha Statue

Ta Phrom – Some More Roots

BONUS MATERIAL – ADVENTURES OF A SKETCHER

The Giggling Gang of Ladies at the Bayon Temple

The Guide of Banteay Srei

The Shiva Linga at the Preh Khan Temple

BEFORE WE PART...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GRATITUDE

ENJOYED ‘PEN, INK AND WATERCOLOR SKETCHING – TEMPLES OF CAMBODIA’?

INTRODUCTION

Once again, let’s get immersed in that magical experience of pen, ink and watercolor sketching.

After the success of Pen, Ink and Watercolor Sketching, Learn to Draw and Paint Stunning Illustrations in 10 Step-by-Step Exercises, I planned to write several follow-up books to explain my process of pen, ink and watercolor sketching.

A few days after the ‘Pen, Ink and Watercolor Sketching’ book was published, I travelled to the quaint city of Siem Reap in Cambodia. The goal of this solo trip was to draw and paint the illustrations of the famous temples of Cambodia on-location.

This trip proved to be a very personal meditative experience.

I spent every day during my week-long visit sketching. I sketched and painted all day long in several temples in Siem Reap. You will see many of these on-location sketches in this book.

The temples of Cambodia have a surreal charm about them. These ancient structures are full of different textures. They pose an exhilarating challenge to a sketcher.

That’s how the idea of this book that you hold in your hands was conceived.

This book is about pen, ink and watercolor sketching. But for this book, I have chosen the temples of Cambodia as the main subject. We will learn how to sketch ancient structures like these using our favorite tools, pen, ink, and watercolor.

I have varied the topics and used many different techniques. This variety will keep you interested in the book and introduce you to many options.

For each demonstration, I will begin with the basics. Anyone with a basic sketching knowledge will be able to paint if they follow the instructions diligently. We will also learn to use the spontaneity and unpredictability of watercolor to our advantage.

This book covers illustrations of the following three famous temples of Cambodia:

Angkor Wat – The biggest and the most famous temple complex in Cambodia.

Ta Phrom – Also popularly known as the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple, this temple offers some stunning views of trees and vines intertwined with the stones.

Bayon Temple – The temple of the many faces. This temple is known for the giant faces of the ancient kings of Cambodia.

Since the real learning happens by doing, we will learn to paint each illustration step-by-step.

With each step, I will explain the logic behind the lines, the colors and how to take advantage of the ‘happy accidents’ that watercolor offers.

If you are one of those fortunate souls to have visited these wonderful temples, I am sure this book will rekindle that nostalgia in you.

If you haven't visited these temples yet, you will definitely add them to your bucket list.

Cambodia Tourism, you are welcome!

What This Book Is Not

This book is not an advertisement for Cambodia tourism (though do not blame me if you feel like packing your bags right away for a Cambodia trip after reading this book!).

This book is not a travel guide to the temples of Siem Reap Cambodia.

This book is not a basic sketch instruction book. The basics of materials and shading techniques for pen, ink and watercolor sketching, composition and perspective are covered in several of my earlier books.

You can find more information about my other books here:

https://huesandtones.net/books/

What This Book Is?

This book is a guide to sketching/painting beautiful illustrations using pen, ink and watercolor through 10 step-by-step exercises. All the exercises in this book use reference photographs from the Cambodian temples.

This book is the successor to my earlier book Pen, Ink and Watercolor Sketching: Learn to Draw and Paint Stunning Illustrations in 10 Step-by-Step Exercises.In that book, I demonstrate several topics to explain the process of pen, ink, and watercolor sketching.

In this book, the topics are consistent (various scenes from the Cambodian temples), but the methods vary.

One concern while sketching multiple illustrations of such historic monuments that we all face is: “How do I differentiate between these places? Won’t all of my illustrations look the same?”

To answer this question, I will share a couple of experiences from my Cambodia trip.

I talked to some of my fellow tourists and some friends who did the one-day tour of all the temples. The tour starts in the wee hours of the morning and ends in the evening, leaving the tourists completely exhausted and visually overloaded.

All of them admitted that the 12+ hour tour left them overwhelmed. At the end, they started feeling that all the temples were the same.

Nothing can be further from the truth, as you will see in this book.

The advantage of being a sketcher:

I was painting this illustration in the Ta Phrom temple, where a woman from Singapore approached me to watch my painting process.

You can observe that there are two human figures carved on the left side just above the doorway. These are the statues of Apsaras (divine beauties). I was sketching these statues when the woman asked me: “Where are the human figures that you are drawing on that temple building?”

When I pointed out these human figures, she was amazed at how she had missed them completely despite having taken dozens of photographs of the same structure only a few minutes ago.

This is the power of sketching.

Sketching makes you laser focused. You learn to observe and celebrate the tiniest of details that you otherwise miss when taking photographs.

Once you start observing these temples via a sketcher’s lens, you will never see them as repetitive structures.

In fact, you won’t even see the roadside coffee shop near your house with the same attitude ever again. But that is a topic for another book!

Bonus Material – Live Sketches and Sketch Stories

At the end of the book, I have included a special bonus section which describes the various interesting experiences I had while sketching these temples, which includes an interesting story around this photograph below .

I am sure that once you read about these adventures, you will never travel anywhere without a sketchbook!

Free Resources

You may download a guide to materials for pen, ink, and watercolor sketching from here:

https://huesandtones.net/materials/

You may download a ‘cheat-sheet’ of pen shading techniques from this URL:

https://huesandtones.net/cheatsheet/

Monochrome or Color? Watercolor or Ink?

Some artists prefer to use only watercolor, while some prefer to use only ink. Some (for example, yours truly) like to use both ink and watercolor along with pens.

There’s nothing right or wrong with either of these approaches. Each medium has its own beauty.

You may sketch an eye-catching monochrome illustration…

…decide to use only a limited number of colors…

…or decide to go full color.

It’s completely up to your mood, the time on hand, and the tools available. There’s nothing right or wrong in art.

There’s only one rule in art… that there are no rules !

You can see that each medium has its own beauty. No medium is better or worse than the other. However, in my opinion, the expressive nature of the watercolor works wonders with the dark linework of the pens.

Repetition of Instructions

In the Exercises section, you will find several pen-ink-watercolor painting demonstrations. You may come across several instructions in the description of these demonstrations again and again.

This is by design.

You may want to directly jump to any exercise you find the most interesting without following the sequence.

To allow this free ‘jumping around’ for the readers, I have repeated several instructions in all the exercises. This will make sure that you can enjoy each demonstration as a stand-alone exercise.

The final illustrations, rough drawings and some of the original reference photographs are shared on the following web page:

https://huesandtones.net/piw2references/

Feel free to download these resources and use them to trace over while starting out with the illustrations.

Mistakes and Happy Accidents

Making mistakes and learning from them is part of the creative process. Rather than fearing this process, an artist must embrace it. That is the only way to grow as an artist, no matter whether you are a novice or an expert.

Even though pen, ink, and watercolor are perceived as ‘unforgiving’ mediums, there are ways to correct the mistakes and save the day.

The only real mistake you can commit is to stop trying because of the fear of making a mistake!

In fact, making mistakes is an absolute necessity on the path to becoming an artist!

Some 'Ground Rules' While Reading This Book

Throughout this book, you will learn to draw various subjects with step-by-step demonstrations. While you may wish to start imitating the way I do my illustrations, you must know that the ways shown in this book are not theonly correctones.

There’s only one rule for creating art.

The rule is that there are no rules!

Every artist starts his/her journey by copying other artists, and so shall you. But after getting the hang of the tools and techniques, you will want to try different ways of doing things and carve your own path.

This is the same reason you will rarely find me mentioning the tip size of a pen or the brush size while drawing/painting. I will provide general guidelines, but I want you to paint using your gut feeling/judgement/intuition, rather than have me spoon-feed you.

In art, there are multiple ‘right’ ways of doing things. So, experiment a lot, make many mistakes, and you are sure to grow as an artist.

Materials Used

Within each demonstration, I have detailed the materials used.

All the illustrations in this book were painted on Stillman and Birn Zeta series sketchbook paper. This is a smooth paper suitable for pen work as well as watercolor/ink work.

You may use any paper suitable for watercolor painting (250 GSM and above). Thin paper tends to buckle when wet. The paper of 250GSM is thick enough to absorb water and keep its shape intact.

I have used a Sailor Fude fountain pen with Noodler black ink for drawing most of the illustrations in this book. For some illustrations, I have used Sakura Pigma Micron and Faber-Castell fineliner pens and brush pens.

I use a couple of big flat brushes (for broad washes) and a few round synthetic watercolor brushes. Nothing fancy. Recently I have started using a trio of Chinese brushes.

And I have used assorted watercolor and acrylic ink for the painting process.

In many places I have mentioned the color Poster White. It’s an opaque white color. You may substitute it with gouache paint if you wish. Gouache is also an opaque water-based color.