Robert Watts, gouache painting demo of an old church

Artist: Robert Watts (Painter)

6 Comments - 1,099 Views - 4 Likes

Robert Watts, gouache painting demo of an old church Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	Robert Watts, gouache painting demo of an old church
Artist:	Robert Watts (Painter)
Media Type:	Paint - Watercolor
Art Type:	Illustration
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	1,099
Likes on CAF:	4 5
Comments:	6
Added to Site:	3/28/2022
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Bob Watts is a great architectural and aviation artist who has been teaching at his son Jeff Watts's Atelier in greater San Diego for quite a few years now. His knowledge and facility with composition, color, and value control is truly amazing. Here's a beautiful gouache demonstration he cranked out at a fun social event at the Atelier a couple decades ago. My wife and I won the raffle; best 5 bucks we ever spent.

I just love how he turns the form along part of the tower with almost no difference in tone by using warm transparent washes in the shaded area to contrast with the more opaque and cooler white areas in full sunlight. In other spots, at least to my eye, he seems to reverse this warm-cool relationship, like in the belfry, and somehow still manages to naturally evoke the same three-dimensionality; I guess the reflected light from the rusted/lichen covered roof warms the shaded side of the lower tower, while blue skylight fills in the upper shadows.

He made a few judicious modifications from the scraps of photo reference he occasionally glanced at to create a much nicer composition, and he added just enough kinks and curves to the various ostensibly straight lines to achieve a rustic, but solid feel to the buildings. At the end he quickly dashed in a flock of birds to bring it to life.

I thought to post a couple pieces of Robert's to my CAF even though they're not strictly comic art when I saw a couple of his originals show up on Sean Gordon Murphy's wall in the background of a recent CAF video with Bill Cox. It's no surprise that SGM has good taste in art...

Thanks for taking a look!

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	artless artmore ( 1 ) Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	October 2013
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
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Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

Posted on 3/28/2022

Well if Sean Gordon Murphy sees this, he's going to incorporate Batman The Mad Monk into his universe.

Mark Howland
Member Since 2004

Posted on 3/28/2022

A great study in shapes and tones! I need to start collecting five-dollar bills.

Duke Fleed aka #1 Groo Fan
Member Since 2013

Posted on 3/28/2022

Fine Art! Very nice. Love the colors and calm mood. congrats!

Ruben DaCollector
Member Since 2008

Posted on 3/28/2022

How great to see a rare piece of fine art like this here on CAF. Really nice values and a beautiful composition!

Andr� .
Member Since 2015

Posted on 3/28/2022

Great piece. Any idea the location of the reference photo?

artless artmore
Member Since 2013

1 - Posted on 3/29/2022

Andr� . wrote:

Great piece. Any idea the location of the reference photo?

No idea. Just a few scraps of B&W photos he ripped out of an old magazine, probably. He taught a lot of plein air painting classes in which we'd stake out locations around San Diego, such as Balboa Park with similar architecture to this piece, and it was fun to watch how he'd simplify or just make stuff up out of whole cloth that would capture the feel of the building before him without taking inventory of all the actual architectural details.

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