Emulating – Chris Forsey

April Colour and Light
Copied from Chris Forsey
Mixed Media On Paper
26cm x 18cm (10" x 7")

Copying paintings is a good way to learn about the thought processes and techniques of other artists. Traditionally, you copy the works of the old masters, but I chose a painting by Chris Forsey because I have a few of his DVDs which gave me a head start towards understanding his approach.

I didn’t want to make a slavish copy, so I picked one of his acrylic paintings which is much bigger and a different format to the paper I am working on. You can see the original here:

http://www.claremontantiques.com/chris-forsey/2414-chris-forsey.html

Elaine and I spent last week walking around Brecon and Abergavenny and staying in some lovely hotels – this view could almost pass as a view of the river Usk.

I started by making a tonal sketch – which wasn’t very accurate and which I didn’t use much in my preparations.

April Colour and Light - Tonal Sketch

What really helped was breaking the scene into shapes and layers and working out how to paint each element.

April Colour and Light - Shapes and Layers

I enjoyed this exercise and learnt a lot from it, so I will repeat it with more pictures by some of the older and contemporary masters of watercolour and mixed media.

The colours in the picture at the top of the post are not completely true to the original. Our scanner seems to be having problems with red and cyan. I’ve corrected it as well as I can, but I’m wondering if a scanner can develop colour blindness and what I can do to cure it.

The Old Mill on Kneeton Road

The Old Mill on Kneeton Road

Mixed Media on Paper

26cm x 18cm (10" x 7") 

This view of the mill is based on a sketch I drew in December (see December 2015 Sketches). Before starting the picture I drew some thumbnail sketches to explore possible compositions.

The Old Mill on Kneeton Road
Thumbnail Sketches

The colour scheme and approach were influenced by the first demonstration on Chris Forsey's Pushing the Boundaries of Watercolour.

St Agnes Lighthouse

St Agnes Lighthouse
Mixed Media on Paper
28cm x 18cm (11" x 7") 

The lighthouse on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly no longer contains a light, but is still the most prominent landmark on the island. St Agnes is a wonderful place to spend an evening. Elaine and I have twice celebrated my birthday in Hight Tide Seafood Restaurant. The food, wine and views are excellent, but it has to compete against the Turks Head - which is a great pub. What a choice - you just have to spend two evenings on the island.

I started the picture using oil pastel to add some colour and to resist the watercolour - as suggested by Chris Forsey in his DVDs. The scribble in the centre of the picture is a bit unnecessary, but the blue flowers in the left foreground have worked well.

The painting also makes use of a technique I am learning from regular sketching in watercolour – don’t fiddle or correct. It’s a difficult lesson to learn, but I'm finally beginning to realise that you rarely improve a watercolour painting by trying to correct things. You are best to leave your original marks because they at least look spontaneous and heartfelt.

New Skies

Sky Wash 11 (Late Afternoon on the Garrison, St Mary's)
Watermedia and Oil Pastel on Paper
28cm x 18cm (11" x 7")

Back in 2012, I did a number of exercises to practice painting skies. See:

• Sky Wash 1
• Sky Wash 2
• Sky Wash 3 and 4
• Sky Wash 5
• Sky Wash 6
• Sky Wash 7
• Sky Wash 8, 9 and 10

The skies on this post are a couple of recent experiments I painted as warm up exercises.

Both skies started off in the same way. I painted the main area of blue on to dry paper and then painted the rest of the sky around this with water – trying not to get the paper too wet.

As the blue pigment diffused, I dabbed the cloud shapes with paper towel. This can cause hard edged clouds, so to avoid this:

• I was gentle with the paper towel – I didn’t press too hard, 
• I always used clean paper – I didn’t dab with a piece of paper that already had paint on it
• If a hard edge started to form, I either dabbed it again or softened it with a damp brush

For the picture of Saint Martins, I added extra shadows to the clouds after the initial wash had dried.

The main intention of both of these pictures was to experiment with using oil pastels to resist the watercolour. This is a technique Chris Forsey uses in his “Pushing The Boundaries Of Watercolour” and “Beyond Watercolour” DVDs.

Sky Wash 12 (St Martin's)
Watermedia and Oil Pastel on Paper
28cm x 18cm (11" x 7")

So far, the technique is not working for me. The oil pastel dissolves into the paint and makes a watery oily soup. I suspect I am applying too much pastel and not pressing heavily enough to push it into the paper.

A Break in the Clouds

A Break in the Clouds
Watercolour on Paper
28cm x 18cm (11" x 7")

Last Saturday, I went for a walk in the Peak District. This is the view from above Castleton towards Win Hill. There is a patch of blue sky above Win Hill and an area of bright sunlight underneath it.

The sky is based on some of the sky washes I experimented with in 2012. First, I painted the blue patch onto wet paper. After this was dry, I added the clouds.

The red patch on the hillside is oil pastel. Elaine gave me Chris Forsey’s “Pushing The Boundaries Of Watercolour” and “Beyond Watercolour” DVDs as Christmas presents. He uses oil pastel as a resist to the watercolour in his paintings. This is my first small trial of the technique.