Freedom And Spirituality —Watercolor Figure Paintings

Modern watercolor originated from Britain in the 18 th century, and then began popular in Europe and America, featured and beloved by its transparency and freshness, with perfect blending between water and color.The research subject in this thesis is a series of watercolor figure paintings, a gradation work, named Freedom and Spirituality. Watercolor figure paintings are relatively strict and poorly expressive among watercolors, which require a high qualification for the creator, such as artist’s solid basic skills and enough knowledge about the subject, like human bone structure. The bone structure includes three main parts, head, chest and pelvis, and each part owns its certain height, width and thickness. They interplay with each other through various motions triggered by spine, like balancing, leaning and twisting.Meanwhile, the spine contains a solid chain of joints and flexible round vertebras. Two vertebras have one cartilage in the middle to avoid sport shocks. There are twenty-four vertebras in a spine, one on top of another, slight bending to keep body more flexible. As mentioned above, the theoretical knowledge about the subject plays a very important role in creating a watercolor figure painting with high quality.This thesis mainly states and analyzes the following aspects: source of inspiration, screen effects, personal experience and suggestions for future creation.The masterpiece, Freedom and Spirituality, is based on studies about figure sketching, picture collection and great artists’ drawing technique and approach, and further analyzes author’s personal involvement and artistic conception. Through constant tests and researches, the masterpiece finally settles its technique and value.