Watercolour Painting

Sitges: the Painting so far

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Sitges Interim

I don’t normally publish halfway through a painting if I can help it, but I have several family commitments over the next few days, so doubt if I will get away to the easel for a while

But the painting is underway, and with the usual reservations about my photography, I am reasonably happy so far. If you remember the photograph from a previous post, there is bright sunshine and consequently deep shadow. These are always fun to do, as they give depth and heighten the drama of the picture

i used my usual “Mediterranean” mix for the sky of Phthalo blue and Cobalt and let that run down for the first wash of the sea. I let that run down onto the buildings and let it mix with the Raw Sienna/ Naples Yellow mix I used for them.In the case of the building far left top, this worked quite well as these buildings were white yet in shade, so the effect was ethereal, and I let that stay. The rest I have sharpened up with detailing

The tricky part will be the sea with white foam. I have masked out here and there to give myself a guideline, but will have to do some work with white body paint. Also wet sand with reflections will be challenging too. The dog walking couple I have part masked to provide a sunlit edge coming in from the left, otherwise I can just paint across them

I will cautiously call this “so good so far”, and leave it there

Sitges: the Transferred Drawing plus Preparation for Next Exhibition

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Transferred Drawing of Sitges

This is the drawing now transferred onto watercolour paper. I hope you can make it out. Obviously only lightly pencilled in as I want it to be covered by the painting.

One or two areas are covered by the blue masking fluid, especially the building on the far left which is sparkling in the sunlight. I want a hard edge there, and likewise in one or two other places which are caught by the sun. I have denoted white foam in the sea where I might otherwise lose it, although I shall have to enhance later with white gouache.

I have kept the foreground figures to two plus dog. Hopefully I should get some pleasing reflections on the wet sand from the buildings which will need some space in the foreground

Spaces have been left amongst the buildings too, for large areas of shade and for trees. Soon I shall have to pick up a paint brush and start. I still get apprehensive until I get underway

As well as this I have been trying to finalise my entries for my next forthcoming solo exhibition, which will be in Guildford, a town near me, in one of the town’s best known venues, the Guildford Institute. Always an enjoyable place to show, albeit not especially busy, but nevertheless because of the prestige of the place, I am able to get good coverage in local papers, which is so very useful

I have been trying to get my framing up-to-date and these are two of the latest

Brewery Dray Framed

Brewery Dray on Guildford Bridge

Corfu Shopping Lanes Framed

Corfu Shopping Lanes in Kerkyra

You may well have seen these in earlier posts, but it is nice to see them framed, and ready to be exposed to an unsuspecting public. I am aiming to show between 12-14 pictures in total. I am almost there.Still time to make some revisions, and certainly if the Sitges painting turns out well, I shall want to include that too. The exhibition, if I haven’t said before has a theme entitled “Watercolour Wanderings”, so every picture will be of a place I have visited. Not just faraway places that I have been to on my travels but also local scenes as well, which are just as relevant. The name is a little bit corny, I know, but you are expected to give your exhibition a name, which I admit does give the show some sort of structure, rather than a motley collection of miscellaneous paintings.

The exhibition runs from 3rd to 20th May, so just under three weeks. We shall hope for a successful show. I shall be following up with another exhibition at the Royal Surrey Hospital starting on the 27th May and running for one month, so two bites at the cherry

Just while it goes through my mind, I get many “visits” to this art blog from all corners of the globe, and I am very grateful for your interest. It is so nice to feel that you are talking to someone. Comment if you want to. Thanks

Sitges: the Tonal Sketch

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Tonal Study

Probably the messiest sketch that I have done in a long time, but nevertheless it will do the job.

I have scratched out the figure in the bottom left corner, as he just was going nowhere. There were two dogs with him and they looked like pigs. I am going to substitute the figure on the far right, man and dog. They are strictly speaking in the margin, for as you can see they are out of proportion to the main picture. I sketched them from the screen which is rather like drawing from life, and which I had wished I had done before, instead of trying to scale from the photograph.

When I attempt to transfer this sketch onto watercolour paper I think I will trace the figures separately, and slide them round the foreground until they look right. I hadn’t intended to put a figure on the right hand side, but quite like in some ways, the effect of the righthand figure. I know he is out of proportion but nevertheless acts as a balance somehow. I will go through my photo library again and see if I can find someone

figure sketch

This is the thumbnail sketch of man  and dog. I quite enjoy doing these in real life, and they make a wonderful library of props that you can use in composite paintings. Drawing from the screen is easier in many ways as the subject doesn’t move about. I have seen other people do it, but never tried it before.

The tedious bit comes next. Moving the finished sketch or sketches onto watercolour paper. You have to trace some bits, and my conscience is clear as I am tracing my own drawing, but I do not like tracing. Boring and messy work. I wish I could wave a wand. However you can’t erase mistakes from watercolour paper without spoiling the surface so you just have to get on with it. At this stage I always make the point that I am still learning and welcome suggestions, if you have a better solution, please tell me. I use the Frisk product Tracedown which takes some of the tedium out of the job, but still looking for even more shortcuts.

Tonal Study and photograph

This is the sketch against the photograph. What I hope to capture more than anything is not so much an architectural study, (so many of you will do that better than me), but more the effect of the strong light on the buildings with those delicious deep shadows.

After the tedium of transposing the drawing, comes the fun bit of deciding on the palette. The building far left which is bright white will need to be preserved with masking fluid. So will some of the details along the top edge, and so too will the sunlit edge of the walking figures.

Choice of colours? Well, my favourite base colour of raw sienna mixed with Naples Yellow which always looks sunlit as a base colour for buildings and beach. Some of the buildings, burnt sienna glazed with either permanent rose or cadmium orange. Phthalo blue in the mix for sea and sky, with maybe indigo along the horizon line. I bought Quinacradone Red the other day and am looking for an excuse to use it.

Once I have decided on the palette, I will publish it, just in case it is of interest. In the meantime, I will have to crack on. There is much to be done!

Few days in Spain

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Just back from a few days in Sitges, not far from Barcelona. We hadn’t been there before so something of a treat. Still cold at night but during the day an agreeable 17-19 compared with our British 6 at the moment. There is nothing like winter sunshine to revive the spirit

As you can see from one of my pictures, all the ingredients for some really good paintings are there. Mediterranean sky, active sea, old churches, strong light, deep shadows with figure drawing thrown in. Some interesting side streets with iron window grilles and some strong colours should make for interesting material to work from.

I have just saved about 50 pictures so should get 2 or 3 at least, worthwhile compositions out of that lot. My next exhibition “Watercolour Wanderings” looms large. That starts on May 3rd and takes place at the Guildford Institute. That sounds a long way off but in painting terms is very close, and certainly Sitges needs to be part of my “wanderings”

Time to get started

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Popular with Hippies at one time I believe. Understandable

Blue Mosque: the finished painting

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Blue Mosque

Alas once again a good painting spoiled slightly by a bad photograph. The camera has diffused the depth of colour in the trees etc in the foreground. This is the best photograph of all those that I took, so will have to put up with it. Shame because the colours of foliage etc are much richer than shown. The mosque is not too bad though, even though the shadows on the building are really much deeper.

Palm trees are tricky. They were done with a dry brush, just hoping that the bristles open out to give that feathery effect. They seem to have done.

For the trunks of the palm trees, I mixed permanent rose with burnt sienna to give, hopefully, the effect of bright sun highlighting the wood. That was the base coat. I used a very dark brown as a shadow over the top as a glaze, just leaving a little of the red showing on the sunny side. Likewise the park benches which were brightly lit in some cases, I used the same mix of rose and burnt sienna. I felt that that had worked

The other trees, some of which were obviously tidily clipped, I had to sort out, otherwise in a painting they would have been indistinguishable. I painted some lighter than they appeared against darker trees in the background so that one defined the other

Small figures, some of them in red, led the eye through the trees, and I hope have given a feeling of distance

The enjoyable part of the exercise was the mosque itself. A lovely drawing exercise hopefully getting the domes and minarets right, and then the subtle shading, which I built up over a period, hoping to get the depth of shade correct. Hard for you to judge, I know, as the camera has bleached everything. So frustrating!

I had to do quite a lot of masking out in order to catch the bright spots where the light fell. So there we have it, the finished result

What to do next. I have some pictures taken on our local canal, which I would like to try. Also going to Spain in the not too distant future, so could be plenty of inspiration there too.

Thanks for reading, if you have done. Hope you enjoyed the result

 

Blue Mosque: First Wash

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Blue Mosque First Wash

Just as an interim, and whilst I think of it, I have masked out several items on this picture before putting down a base wash

The scene was brightly lit from the left and there is interesting sparkle on the trees, on the tiny background figures and on the mosque itself. Whether or not I will be successful in capturing these remains to be seen. I have always found them elusive and welcome any tips.

I have masked along the left-hand edge of the minarets so as to get a hard edge against the blue sky. Likewise some of the domes and the sides of the tree trunks. The colour of the palm tree trunks is brown going towards red in the bright light, so will probably mix some permanent rose in with the burnt sienna, hopefully to catch that richness of colour. Also the park benches are that colour too.

I have put a band of Indian yellow wet-in-wet where the flower beds are so hope that works

The rest is detailing and building up the darks to encourage the brightness of the brights. We shall see. This may well take me a while

Blue Mosque, Istanbul:Tonal Sketch

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Blue Mosque Sketch

I mentioned a few posts back that I wanted a smaller picture for the exhibition as they are popular sometimes. I will repeat the photograph later, which was one that I took when we were there in October

The light was very good and the shadows were long and distinct. I couldn’t make my mind up, whether to use the local colours or whether to try a sunset picture. I think as the shadows are good that I will stick with the local colours, with maybe a mental note to do a sunset picture another time. As we were driving from the airport to pick up our ship,the day before,  the sun was setting over Istanbul, and especially over the Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent, another beautiful building.  The sky was orange going towards pink and the buildings were violet. Sadly my camera was still packed in the luggage hold. Maybe I will try that shot from memory one day.

I think the sketch will be very helpful. I have moved some trees away from the front of the building, and I think I have sorted out the shaded areas. I didn’t use ink this time for the sketch. Instead I used Paynes Grey watercolour, which I quite like for sketching. You can’t tell from the photograph, but the colour is a blue-black shade, which is quite pleasing. I sometimes think that I prefer the sketch to the finished painting. There is something about a sketch, perhaps because it is done quickly and without inhibition, that the work retains spontaneity and freshness. Easy to lose this, when working carefully on the actual painting.

I now have to transfer the sketch to the watercolour paper, which is the uninteresting part and then start the painting. Colours to be decided, so I will be a little while

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As you can see, some unnecessary stuff left out, and I have moved closer to the building itself

I am hoping on Saturday to get up to London and go to another exhibition at the Tate Gallery. The exhibition is entitled Art and Empire which should be interesting. When we were there for the Frank Auerbach exhibition, we looked in quickly, but this is quite a big exhibition so we left it for another day. If it is good I will write something about it. Certainly it will be as different to the Auerbach collection as chalk is to cheese

Textured Finishes in Watercolour:Rust

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A while back now, I touched on the subject of accurately representing texture in watercolour. The particular texture that I mentioned was rust, and the patina of aged metal

The little study above, I did some time ago, and I followed an instruction from a reference book called  “Painting Country Gardens in watercolour, pen and ink “. This was written by Claudia Nice. This little painting was done in watercolour only, so no ink was used. I have had this book for some time now, and have found several of the techniques in it to be very useful indeed.

The rusty barrow does look very convincing, and is achieved through a straightforward glazing exercise. That is to say, one coat on top of another that has been allowed to dry rock hard. This is how she tells us to do it, with the following wash glazes in this order.

  1. Burnt Sienna (base coat)
  2. Cadmium Orange
  3. Either red muted with green or red violet muted with yellow green. I seem to remember using the first one
  4. Final glaze of Violet with Payne’s Grey

I must repeat that it is imperative that you allow each coat to dry rock hard. I usually leave each coat to dry overnight as I prefer natural drying. Some people speed the operation up with a hairdryer which is fine, unless the paper has cockled, in which case it won’t dry flat

With a damp brush, and there are specialist brushes on the market for this, but if you don’t have one, no worries as one of your detail brushes will do fine, just lift out highlights or sheen areas. If you are careful you can also use razor scrape on very dry paint, of course. Next image is a close up to give you a better idea

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Not done as well as the Claudia Nice version but I hope that gives you some idea

Her picture had the barrow full of flowers, hence the garden theme. I was only interested in the metal finish at the time

I hope you find that helpful. Every now and then, I stress that I am not an art teacher, just a painter whom you can follow if you want

 

John Constable Exhibition

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Our local and comparatively new art gallery, the Lightbox in Woking is staging an exhibition entitled John Constable:Observing the Weather. No pictures from me, I am afraid so suggest the following link  thelightbox.org.uk. The exhibition opened yesterday and runs until May. We went today and will no doubt go again

Yet another triumph for the Lightbox, a provincial gallery with national recognition. Paintings, prints and watercolour sketches on loan from collections all round the country, tell us of Constable’s fascination with meteorology. Many sketches are from the years 1820-22 when he rented a house on Hampstead Heath to be near his studio in London, and these record cloud formations from different angles. They are really scientific observations which he drew from later when producing his oil paintings, such as Salisbury Cathedral from across the meadows which is the highlight of the show. This is one of nine giant oil sketches that he made which have become famous in their own right

Dismissed by the art world at the time, for not sticking to classical subjects painted in a studio, Constable stuck to painting en plein air, landscapes as he saw them uncontrived and true to nature. He was certainly an influence on the Barbizon School, with painters like Corot and Rousseau, and I always felt too, on the French Impressionists later on

Magnificent prints of Constable’s work by David Lucas are on display, such as The Drinking Boy and The Lock. This was about the time that printmaking moved away from the linear print to a representation that appeared like the painting, even down to brush strokes.

Obviously small by national standards but cleverly put together, and worth a visit, if you are able

Langstone Mill Reworked

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Langstone Mill Reworked

Once again, the colours are deeper in the actual painting, but this is the reworked version, which, I believe, to be a great improvement on the first version. But, of course, that is my opinion

I have deepened the shadows enormously, which exaggerates the light coming from the right-hand side. The effect, I feel, is much more dramatic.

In the water, I have introduced more of the orange brick colour to look like reflections. Also I have added some current swirls and some flecks of white to look like movement in the sea.

The red posts and flag have been refreshed with Cadmium Red. I think they come forward now, which is good, and take the eye towards the mill

More seagulls add some life, plus too some distant rooks over the tall trees. The birds are spooked by that bad weather coming in from the background!

I keep looking from the screen to the painting. The colours are richer in the painting, of that there is no doubt, but little more that I can do about it

Time soon to move back to Istanbul, and work on that small painting of the Blue Mosque which will be fun to do, I think