Sky Washes 3 and 4

Sky Wash 3
Watercolour on Paper
26.5cm x 19cm (10.5" x 7.5")

These are another two demonstrations from John Lovett’s Splashing Paint DVD.

The skies are atmospheric and direct the eye towards the centre of interest rather than accurately portraying a specific skyscape.

In both exercises the bulk of the foreground is painted first, the sky is painted around it and finally some details are added to the foreground.

Sky Wash 3 is painted as two wet in wet washes. The first wash is a light pink wash in the centre of the paper. Once this is dry, the blue wash is added, leaving a patch of light pink in the middle.

Sky Wash 4 is painted as a single wet in wet wash. The indigo is painted first - leaving a space for the white gouache. When this is added, it spreads out and fuses with the indigo.

I had a couple of goes at both these skies and I am tempted to repeat them again, but the Painting and Drawing channel is providing an ever expanding list of skies for me to try.

Sky Wash 4
Watercolour on Paper
26.5cm x 19cm (10.5" x 7.5")

Fishtown

Fishtown
Watercolour on Paper
54.5cm x 35.5cm (21.5" x 14")

Elaine and I visit Brixham whenever we holiday in Dartmouth. It is a small fishing port and holiday town in the south west of England.

Historically, Brixham was divided into Fishtown (on the coast where the fishermen lived) and Cowtown (on the hill where the farmers lived).

Last year Sky Atlantic showed a 10-part documentary about life in Brixham called Fish Town (see http://skyatlantic.sky.com/shows/fish-town). This is where I got the idea for the name, but I’ve called it Fishtown because it is usually written as one word.

This picture has taken ages. I started it at the end of November and finished it today. While I’ve been working on it, I’ve started and finished four other paintings (Blakemere Moss, Beach Huts, Snowy Lane and Ye Old Dog and Partridge).

The little details take forever. Initially, they are quite therapeutic, but as I get closer to the end, there is a nagging desire not to do anything to spoil the picture.

Sky Wash 2

Sky Wash 2
Watercolour on Paper
26.5cm x 19cm (10.5" x 7.5")

This is an exercise from John Lovett’s Splashing Paint DVD.

I painted this as a warm up at the beginning of a painting session with the intention of loosening up and learning a bit more about painting with watercolour (see Sky Wash 1).

The sky is painted with two graded washes.  First, a pink wash is painted from the bottom of the paper and faded out towards the middle. After this is dry, a blue wash is painted down from the top.

The foreground is added after the sky is dry. It is really just a token gesture to put the sky in context.

The sky is quite pleasant but I haven’t made a great job of the washes – particularly the blue. Graded washes should be subtle - there should be a gradual lessening in intensity until the colour eventually fades away. My blue has quite an abrupt transition from a dark to light.

I am going to look for some advice and then try a few more experiments based on perfecting a graded wash.

Modelled Drawing of Drapery



Modelled Drawing of Drapery
Modelled Drawing - 3 February 2012
Lithograph Crayon on Paper
47cm x 34.5cm (18.5" x 13.5")


Section 12 from the Natural Way to Draw features the return of modelled drawing – the subject for the drawings is the model with drapery.

On Friday, I drew the drapery without the model - I thought this would be an interesting exercise and I felt guilty about asking Elaine to pose because she had already posed for a modelled drawing and all the gesture drawings.

This drawing was a challenge because of the delicacy of some of the folds. I fell in to the trap of going too dark too early and reached a point where I was close to giving up and starting again.

This is a familiar experience for me with modelled drawing. I have to pause and remind myself the purpose of these exercises isn’t to create works of art and I can learn just as much from carrying on as from starting again.

It is usually a prompt for me to think less about the paper and to focus more intently on the subject. At the end of the exercise, there are always some positive aspects in the drawing.

The Study of Drapery – Part 2



Long Study of Drapery - 2
29 January 2012
Graphite Pencil on Paper
39cm x 35.5cm (15.5" x 14")


This is the second long study of drapery from the Natural Way to Draw. It took 6 hours - split into 3 2-hour sessions.

I learnt from the first study (see The Study Of Drapery - Part 1) and this time I drew the outline of all the folds before starting the shading.

The result is slightly disappointing because the folds in the middle of the fabric don’t look as three dimensional as the examples in the book. This is because the examples are of more complex arrangements and are drawn from an angle rather than face on. The next time I draw a drapery study I will include both of these factors in my setup.

This is the end of Section 11. It has been a change from the previous sections. They were all about focusing on the subject. The shading of the drapery requires you to spend more time looking at the paper. I wonder what is coming next.

Sky Wash 1

Sky Wash 1
(View from Gunthorpe Bridge)
Watercolour on Paper
28cm x 19cm (11" x 7.5")

Last year, I was inspired by the blog One Hundred Washes to start each painting session by experimenting with a watercolour wash. My intention was to loosen up before stating work on the main painting and to learn more about working with watercolour.

Some of the results were good - the picture on Happy Christmas 2011 started life as one of these experiments, but overall, I realised I have a lot to learn about painting with watercolour.

I've decided to go back to basics and practice some simple sky washes. I have picked 7 or 8 different washes from John Lovett’s Splashing Paint DVD and from programmes on the Painting and Drawing Channel.

This first sky is from Geoff Kersey's Top Tips for Watercolour Artists. The sky is painted using two wet in wet washes (wet in wet means paint is applied to paper that is already wet with water or paint. The paint spreads out and creates soft edges, adjacent colours merge into each other and the edges of the wash merge into the background).

The first wash is a pink wash, which I applied to the horizon and faded out toward the top of the paper. After this had dried, I gently rewet the paper (so as not to disturb the pink wash) and added areas of blue and grey, which merged and mixed together on the page.

After the sky was dry, I decided to  use it as the backdrop for a view of the Trent looking west from Gunthorpe Bridge. I wet the river and the area around the horizon before painting the trees. This gives the reflections and the trees in the distance nice soft edges.

At some point, I will try this again and leave more white in the sky. I will also think more about the foreground I am going to add. This time I left myself with a distinct horizon line at the bottom of the sky, which I didn't need and had to use as the bank of the Trent.

Blakemere Moss

Blakemere Moss
Watercolour on Paper
24cm x 34cm (9.5" x 13.5")

Blakemere Moss is in Delamere Forrest near Chester. This is a view on a sunny but cold spring morning.

The Moss was originally wetland. It was drained in the 19th century, planted with trees and subsequently re-flooded in the late 1990s (see Wikipedia - Delamere Forest). It is an attractive area and a bit otherworldly because there are trees and the remains of trees emerging from the lake.

This picture is my second painting based on the design ideas from a John Lovett workshop. (see Studio Workshop). My objective for this picture was to create depth by using soft edges in the background and hard edges in the foreground. I stuck to my resolution to use thumbnail sketches to explore the subject and compose the picture.


Blakemere Moss - Thumbnail Sketches

My first decision was whether to use a landscape or a portrait format. I then experimented with the position of the horizon, the size of the far bank, the position and angle of the floating logs and the height and spacing of the foreground trees.

I’ve never got on with thumbnails in the past, but now I find them useful and enjoy drawing them. This is a beneficial side effect of the Daily Composition exercise from the Natural Way to Draw (see Daily Composition). I used to be too tentative with thumbnails, but now I dash them off quickly – 203 scribbly daily compositions have made all the difference.

As well as helping with the composition, the thumbnails serve as a rehearsal for the real drawing. By the time I start the painting I have already drawn the main elements half a dozen times, which makes starting the drawing less daunting.