6: Sargent and Some Slap-Dash Oxen
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John Singer Sargent
Oxen in Repose, c. 1910
Watercolor on paper, w34.92 cm x h51.43cm
So Sargent, aside from being a mega-famous portrait artist, was also extremely influential in raising the profile of watercolors, damn him and his prolific talent anyway. Since we looked at Price's watercolor-esque wash approach yesterday, we'll round out this week by looking at an actual watercolor work, albeit one that's not intended to look all polished up with detail.
The thing is that Sargent distinctly knew his stuff, so it's always really instructive to look at his fastest, loosest little works to see how little you actually need to convey the necessary information. And look at that up there. That is extremely suggestive, with very little (although you can see he did do some placements ahead of time, because you can see parts of the pencil sketch).
In trying to translate a similarly loose, quick method to acrylic, one thing to keep in mind is that watercolor artists have to work light-to-dark (because light washes in this medium don't show up well/at all over dark washes). Acrylic can go either way, but it might be worth trying to limit oneself to the same light-to-dark buildup; marks/washes may go further in how much they can convey at each step, and you may end up being able to call it finished earlier.