Left: Quick sketch of Chef Stefan Richter ("Top Chef") with a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Calligraphy Pen and gouache washes on Richeson Recycled Watercolor Paper, 8.5 x 11 inches. (Name misspelled on the drawing.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.
So the other night I was watching "Top Chef" and I decided I'd better get some sketching in before the end of the day. (Bouts of coughing had kept me from doing any sketching.) I stopped the action (which you can do with a DVR) and quickly sketched with the Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Calligraphy Pen. Then I painted immediately right over those lines with various light washes of gouache. I used light washes because I didn't want to obscure the ink lines.
I was having a lot of fun glazing different colors onto other colors and mopping blue all over the place. I don't typically use Raw Sienna in my palette, but I had some put out before I was sick and it was still sitting there on my china plate.
I like the roughness of the sketch. I went to scan it and then when I was cropping it I coughed and my fingers hit the wrong keys and I ended up inverting the image.
I thought it looked so fun inverted that I saved a copy to show you. I love the way the ink lines all become white. I thought about combining them in some way, but I started to cough again, so that ended my experiments.
Left: Inverted version of the opening sketch. In this version you can see the little note I made to myself about correcting the shape of his nose. It is emerging from the background on the left. Click on the image to view an enlargement.
I've been working quite a bit on the Richeson Recycled Watercolor Paper lately and I have to say it's pretty tough. I don't scrub at it like I might scrub at Arches (which is so heavily sized it would take a Brillo pad to rub through it) but the sizing on this paper keeps performing even when I go back to add additional layers or to pick up and blot out.
I enjoy using Schmincke gouache in light washes like this because it has so much punch, and sometimes I just don't want to let go of my ink lines.
I was disappointed to see Stefan bumped from the show. I would have enjoyed more opportunities to sketch him.
