Le Regal – Watercolour and ink

Last week, the whole family was in Ardeche in Le Regal, a hamlet near Antraigues-sur-Volane (France).

Le Regal - Watercolour and ink by Benoit Philippe (Click on the image to enlarge)

The access road to the house was so narrow that you could only cross another car at a few points. We had to reverse more than once…

The garden looked beautiful and I sat under a tree, at the beginning of the afternoon, to make this painting.

The process is different from the usual ink drawing with colour washes (that I also like to do). I followed this order:

1. Pencil outline
2. Masking fluid to reserve some areas
3. Watercolour painting (on day one)
4. Ink drawing on top of the watercolour (on day two)

This approach gives interesting results:

• I don’t need to draw everything because the colours are already building the image. The ink drawing is more “open”, add some accents or bring out the focal point.

• The ink drawing does not need to coincide precisely with the painting. I could add details with the ink drawing that were not in the watercolour painting, or even draw aside from the brush stroke, creating some interesting tension. A photograph of a detail (see below) will show you what I mean.

Le Regal - detail (Click on the image to enlarge)