The Only Way is Up

This isn't the whole picture; you'll find that further down this post, next to the unwashed line drawing. This climber was at Winspit in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, on the day that we were visiting the former quarry and cove during our summer holiday in Dorset. I took a photograph from a fair distance away; strong light and good fortune gave me a clear enough image to work from.



It was a colour photograph - taken with a digital camera - but I worked from a monochrome inkjet print (our printer ran out of coloured ink). Of course, I had seen the colours on my computer screen, but the colours of the wash are from memory. Including the yellow top, which I thought looked very striking half way up a cliff face... in reality, she hadn't got this close to the top. I took some artistic licence and shortened her ascent so that I could show her destination without running out of paper or drawing her very small.

Left: ink drawing (sepia acrylic ink); right: completed painting (with watercolour)

Wash colours:

Quinacridone Gold
Permanent Rose
Phthalo Blue
Lemon Yellow
Cadmium Yellow

The Only Way is Up (Winspit Climber)
Line and wash, cropped from A3