How to Paint
A Diver (Paper Pool 18) by David Hockney
Difficulty: 2.5/5
Colours: Cool blue, white, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, black
Brushes: Large brush, medium flat brush, small round brush
To understand the process behind how Hockney created the entire Paper Pools series using the paper pulp medium, I’d recommend reading this article. Getting to know how the original was made will give us clues for how to best recreate it using our medium of choice (e.g. acrylics!). The key here is in layering shades of blue, so that our pool appears to shimmer.
The colour palette is relatively small, with only the blue of the pool requiring at most 4 values (tones). Take a moment to figure out where each layer sits in a 3d space – and this will tell you which colours to paint first. From the bottom up:
- (Bottom) Lightest blue, representing the base of the pool
- Dark blue, shadows from the diving board, diver and pool edges
- Sky blue, reflected light at the base of the pool
- The diver (not blue, but belongs in this sequence!)
- Green-blue, surface of the water
- White, the splash
p/s If the slider below looks weird – try refreshing the page!
