Wtrclrpntin Ronransom PDF
Wtrclrpntin Ronransom PDF
Wtrclrpntin Ronransom PDF
JS**N*
IVi" j(?Sfa:i;i_*i'
\
*
Watercolour Painting
F&m aH
<**6r\ ~T
WATERCOLOUR
PAINTING
The Ron Ranson Technique
BLANDFORD PRESS
POOLE DORSET
f BRIGHTON
First published in the U.K. 1984 by Blandford Press, Link House,
West Street, Poole, Dorset, BH15 ILL.
Copyright
1984 Ron Ranson
Reprinted 1985
Ranson, Ron
Watercolour painting.
1. Water-color painting Technique
I. Title
751.42'2 ND2420
ISBN 0-7137-1396-8
Acknowledgements 6
Introduction 7
Materials 12
Wet-into-wet techniques 26
Dry brush 30
Colour 33
The studio 38
Pencil sketching 48
Tone 52
Composition 54
Aerial perspective 57
Counterchange 59
Linear perspective 61
Painting buildings 81
Boats, harbours and beaches 88
Mist 100
Presentation 146
Marketing 151
Index 159
Acknowledgements
I would like to offer my grateful thanks to Julia Evans and
Megan Harris for typing the manuscript from my almost unintel-
ligible scribble, and to Ray Mitchell for taking all the photo-
graphs. Being determined to design the book myself, from cover
to cover, I would like to acknowledge, gratefully, the hours of
patient collaboration that Sue Lovatt has given me in this
direction.
Finally, I am indebted to my patient and understanding wife,
Audrey, who as well as providing thousands of cups of coffee at
all hours, has supported me loyally throughout this long task.
Introduction
Please don't skip this bit!
Over the years a false mystique has been built up around the
subject of watercolour painting and the practice has seemed to be
weighed down by rigid rules, dogma and ritual. This has had the
effect of scaring would-be watercolourists and filling them with
so many inhibitions that some never get around to the sensual
pleasures of loose washes and risky wet-into-wet techniques but
pick their way carefully and slowly through tight little pictures,
fearing to make mistakes, preferring safety to flair.
the painting game late in life. Having been told at school that no
one could ever make a living out of art, which was my only good
subject, I went into engineering and then publicity.
Finally, losing my job in middle age through takeovers, and
without any formal art training, I decided to try and make my
living by painting. No one had ever told me it was too difficult so
I chose watercolour
the best decision I ever made.
Once the die was cast, I had to learn fast. I hadn't time for a
leisurely progression through art school, or even local evening
classes, some of which seemed to me to be nothing more than
social gatherings, with little attempt to teach or learn positively.
No, I had to find my own way to turn out reasonably pro-
fessional work in as short a period as possible. Work, not for in-
dulgent friends and family to coo over, but which would, I
it. It's really, I suppose, a fear of failing. Finally, there's the fear
to get the essence of the scene, cutting out superficial detail and
putting down on paper a distillation to transmit to the audience,
be morning mist on the river or a hot, sunny, cafe scene. This
it a
actuallymeans taking the audience into partnership, treating
them like intelligent people and letting them use some of their
10
own imagination too. It is the same as in a radio play where the
listener creates his characters from the voices. To me, that is
impressionism in watercolour.
I've found one way of helping people to loosen up is to give
them do a painting and then to stop them on the dot.
a set time to
It really makes the adrenalin flow and they have to go for the
essential things first. By the time they reach the usual fiddling
stage it's too late and the result is a fresh, lively painting try it
yourself.
Remember, in watercolour confidence is essential and that
brought about by being in complete control of your tools
it is
11
Materials
more abandon and panache. Rowney's Georgian range is equiva- My complete collection of
lent in price and quality. colours.
12
In descending order, the rigger, The Brushes. Again, these are deliberately chosen to force
the two flat brushes, and the hake. students towork more and economically. My main
directly
weapon is a flat 2 in traditionalJapanese hake brush, which
wears to a knife edge with use. It is often regarded with horror by
newcomers at first but quickly becomes an inseparable compan-
ion once it has been trained. I do 90% of my painting with it.
In complete contrast, I use a No. 3 long-haired rigger the
Dalon series 99 is ideal. This is for all the delicate 'calligraphy'
like branches, grasses and figures.
Finally, I have a 1 in as well as a j in fiat Dalon brush for
painting in such things as buildings and boats crisply with the
minimum number of strokes. This is a total of four brushes.
As for the palettes, I find those normally sold in art shops are
far too small and pokey, so we use white plastic butchers' or
picnic trays, light in weight and with masses of space for moving
large washes. They're cheap too about 1 from most local
household shops.
13
Materials
I don't know why most traditional watercolour easels are so Opposite page, left: An extremely
complicated. I've seen so many elderly ladies holding up limp, simple, metal easel for outdoor
use.
dangling examples with the plea, 'Ron, do help me. I can never
find how these things work.' The
wing nuts don't help either
tiny
Right: The photographer's tripod
because if they're not tightened up really well the whole thing together with a home-made plate
can collapse. screwed on the chipboard.
The simplest thing I've found so far is the metal easel
Below right: A plastic box with my
illustrated and is the one I use for outside work. The adjustments
few assorted materials including
are far easier to manage and it has even got a proper lever for
water bottle.
changing the angle of the board much better than the dreaded
wing nuts for elderly hands to operate, and with suitable hooks
built on to hang the water-pot. Incidentally, a piece of suitable
hardboard cut to fit your normal size paper is light and stiff
enough for general use as a backing.
Another idea is to buy a good, simple photographer's tripod
these are made of aluminium and are very light. A lot of work
has gone into the design of tripods by the Japanese, probably
because there are more photographers than artists in the world.
They are more compact than easels and very easily operated,
with cams taking the place of wing nuts. However, you will need
to have a little plate made locally that fixes on your board, with a
threaded hole the same size as that on the standard camera.
My water-pot is plastic and collapses like a Japanese lantern.
I carry everything in a fisherman's plastic box with trays which
fold out when the box is opened. Naturally, the art materials
manufacturers have used this idea and you can now buy them as
'art bins' but at about twice the price.
When I'm out on a painting expedition my needs are so few
that I carry everything under one arm without much effort.
However, one sees so many people staggering desperately across
fieldswith masses of equipment and materials, most of which
they never use but bring along 'just in case'. Some seem to have
so much they have to pull it around on trolleys. No I'm
convinced that the equipment you have to worry about, the
less
clearer your mind will be when you actually come to paint.
The only adjustments I make when I'm painting in the studio
is to use a butcher's white enamelled tray rather than a light
plastic one, and I have a goldfish-bowl sized container for my
water.
I also bought a very old, draughtsman's adjustable board,
some I covered with Formica so I can make as
years ago, which
14
01 V
*
f\
1
ife^
f
O65
15
Materials
16
much mess as I like and wipe it clean afterwards with a damp
cloth. The angle adjusts easily, and I even use the parallel motion
gadget to grip my paper at the top.
17
The hake and how to use it
This is a traditional Japanese watercolour brush, 2 in wide, in Opposite page, top left: The brush
natural wood, with the pony hair stitched into a slot in the top of holds a deceiving amount of water
which can weaken your mixtures
the handle. When you first use the hake you may find loose hairs
too much unless you first squeeze
appear on the side but these wear off after a time and, believe
it out, as shown, before mixing.
me, the brush gets better and better the more it's used. I have
one that has been in continuous use for about four years and the Opposite page: The hake and a
hairs, although short, have worn down to a knife edge. But why typical 10-second doodle, showing
use the hake at all? It looks crude and unwieldy when one first its capabilities.
sharpened over the years, to a lady (she was very pretty!). Within
an hour she had managed to pull the hairs out and it was difficult
to explain that the new one she offered at once to buy me was
18
The hake and how to use it
compensation
little I was heartbroken. One comes to regard a Below: The portion of the brush
brush almost like a faithful dog and secretly dreads the thought generally used for foliage.
*3 fev^k$ *
21
Using the flat brushes
Basically, these brushes are used for everything that has a sharp Below and opposite: The 1 in
edge. The ones Imade by Daler and are nylon. The big
use are brush and some quick examples.
advantage is that they form a knife-edge when they are wet and
can be used with the utmost economy of stroke to indicate such
delicate things as railings or the masts of distant yachts.
I show a few doodles here, done entirely with these flat
question of practice.
When portraying the architecture of buildings you can give a
general impression of accuracy and detail without actually doing
much work at all. The windows and railings in the picture of the
Highgate street in the colour plates is a good example.
Don't try to use the fiats for indicating soft edges when
painting trees, for example, as the hake is much better.
The \ in brush, of course, is used in exactly the same way and
it's very useful for putting in smaller windows and roofs.
I MaJwi
22
23
Using the rigger
This brush is in complete contrast to the hake and is one that has Below left: Typical brush strokes
become almost indispensable to me now. The secret is that it has made with the rigger.
very long hair which enables you to produce, with practice, an
Below: Two views showing how
enormous variety of widths of stroke depending on the pressure the hand is kept still and the
on the brush. You can go from j in wide to the width of a hair. fingers are moved to produce an
The name 'rigger' goes back to sailing ship times when the arc.
brush was used for putting in the rigging. The one I usually use
is a number 3 and is a Daler series D99. The range runs from to
Opposite page: Some of the results
which can be achieved by the
6 and, being nylon, is relatively cheap.
brush.
To control it properly and to use the brush to its fullest extent
needs a fair amount of practice and can I get most of my students
to practise? can I hell! They all want to produce finished
masterpieces without the tedium of exercises, so I have to resort
to subterfuge and make them paint winter trees for half a day.
These need gradually tapering branches and what better brush to
do them with than the rigger.
I hold the brush not in the middle but right at the end of the
There's no experience more exhilarating than dropping rich Opposite page: A good example of
colour on to wet paper and watching things happen. However, the use of wet-into-wet,
reproduced actual size. Quite
wet-into-wet is a bit of a misnomer because if you do actually
strong paint was used to get the
drop wet paint on to a wet surface you then get two lots of water dark trees on the left whilst the
and the result is weak, runny and out of control. It's so difficult distant hill was still damp. The
to convince students that since the paper is already wet they can branches were put in with the
then use the paint thick, almost straight from the tube. It will rigger slightly later but before the
mix with the water on the paper and soften but will stay rich and surface had completely dried. The
contrasting corner of the bank in
controllable. No matter how often I demonstrate this they still
the centre was painted dry. The
seem to go back and add that disastrous second lot of water. river was then painted over with
Apart from describing the main pitfalls, there's no way I can clear water and the reflections
really explain the technique. You just have to experience it and dropped in. The streak was done
experiment yourself. Try it out with just one colour first, say with one quick flick with a finger
wrapped in a handkerchief, and
Burnt Umber, and be prepared to waste a few sheets of paper.
the foreground grass was put in
Let yourself go fearlessly, don't be timid. afterwards when everything else
Always have the painting on a gentle slope and use gravity to was dry.
help you, which can be rather like swimming with the current.
It's so much less effort and you'll need less strokes always a Below: Wet-into-wet doodle
using hake, rigger and fingernails.
good thing.
Wet-into-wet technique
28
Top right: Squiggles on a damp
surface with a hake and rigger.
29
Dry brush
The first thing to say about dry brush technique is not to overdo
it. It's very useful to produce textures and to suggest detail. The
paint put on with the brush quickly skimming over the surface
is
of the paper, leaving the colour only on the ridges of the irregular
surface. The colour and the brush itself is kept very dry and
appears on the paper with hundreds of gaps which allows the
paper or underpainting to show through. This dryness can be V
controlled by keeping a rag or paper towel handy to give a quick
sweep to reduce the moisture before you work on the painting.
You should experiment to discover all the many textures
available.Push, stroke, or even pat the brush on the paper. Try
holding the brush almost parallel to the paper so that the hairs
barely graze it. The dry brush has many uses
to suggest the
bright shimmer of the sun on water, the texture of pebbles on the
shore, the rough bark on a tree trunk or the weathered surface of
a plaster wall.
Do it probably won't come
practise this technique, although
off at first. Inany case, it's always a good thing to have a spare
piece of paper by your side so that you can try the effect to see if
you've got just the right amount of moisture in the brush before
you put it on your finished painting.
Finally, let me warn you again. Use this effect with discretion.
*!>
2V
-'
t--
t^J \
u* wn **-
""*"
T?
*F**<"*-* jif
Im^-* *^ *j
1
fs*
30
Combining all the
techniques
overdone, as can dry brush, but when used with restraint it can
provide sparkle.
All these techniques when combined in one painting provide
a whole armoury of textural contrasts. The combination over-
comes the inherent limitations of each and they all complement
one another.
In my own paintings I endeavour to contrast the character of
stroke made by each of the three types of brush that I use the
enforced simplicity, softness and directness of the hake brush
against the crisp, hard-edged precision of the flats and the fine
delicacy of the rigger.
The first stage is to put the
You could say it's rather like an orchestra with the big, bold,
wet-into-wet sky and the main
tones in with the hake, using dry
rich brass contrasting with the mellow strings and the clear tones
brush in the foreground to get the of the reed instruments to form a complete and satisfying all-over
effect of scattered snow. sound.
31
Combining all the techniques
32
:
; "'***jijiMjii.?
Left: Scene in a Paxos village
looking over the roofs to the sea.
mb
V
ft* 4
:>'./
H
Raw Sienna Lemon Yellow Ultramarine Burnt Umber Light Red Alizarin Paynes
Crimson Grey
I'm not going to start off this chapter with a talk on col-
our wheels, primary, secondary and tertiary colours, sunlight
through prisms and the basic theory of colour. There are plenty
of good books where you will find all this information. Person-
ally, my eyes used to glaze over when I got to this section and I
My complete palette of seven would turn the pages until I got to the more interesting bits, but
colours.
by now you will have realised that I'm not much of a one for
theory anyway.
First, the question of pans versus tubes. When I began
painting I bought the usual paintbox with twelve to sixteen half
pans. Whilst I was using smaller brushes it was fairly satisfac-
Some of the varieties of green enough mixtures when I wanted them in a hurry. The palettes
obtainable by using raw sienna, attached to the boxes were also too small so I soon moved on to
lemon yellow, and ultramarine.
tubes, and a larger palette to go with them, which gave me a
completelynew freedom. I'd never go back to pans again.
The next vexed question is the difference between the very
best and expensive artists' quality paints, which most books
insist that you buy, and the cheaper students' quality ranges. I
found that so many people had the idea that the cheaper quality
paints would somehow fade away that I went to the manufactur-
ers, who of course make both ranges, and asked them about the
difference. They said that provided you kept to the permanent
colours (which I do) they would both last equally as long. The
main difference in the two ranges is the time taken to grind a
colour and, of course, some of the more expensive pigments in
the artists' quality are replaced by reliable, modern substitutes,
but your colours, under normal hanging conditions, will still stay
A few typical colour mixes. bright and clear long after your great-grandchildren have gone.
The important thing is to buy from an internationally known
firm as it is unlikely that such a manufacturer would ruin their
name by selling poor quality fugitive paint.
Let me say emphatically that I've nothing whatever against
using artists' quality colour, except for that initial inhibiting
factor which prevents so many people from actually squeezing
out enough paint. However superb the quality, it's not doing any
good in the tube. If you haven't got this problem use artists'
colours by all means. However, I do enjoy using my colours with
complete abandon and love squeezing out plenty of paint, some-
33
Colour
times using it almost neat on wet paper to get exciting soft, rich
effects.
Raw Sienna
This is one of the most important as far as I'm concerned. I
certainly use more of it than any other. It's an earth colour made
from the mineral oxides found in natural soil and is one of the
oldest pigments known. Artists have used it throughout history.
It looks a bit like Yellow Ochre but I prefer it because it's more
transparent.
I use it in all sorts of mixtures and I feel it helps me to get a
sort of unity in my pictures. Ihave got into the habit of using it
very weakly as a first wash on skies. For a clear blue sky I would
brush on Ultramarine at the top, while the Raw Sienna is still
very wet, and graduate it almost to nothing at the skyline. For
fluffy, partly clouded skies it gives a basic creamy colour around
which I paint my blue. Surprisingly they don't combine to turn
34
green on the paper I've never been able to explain why.
Ultramarine Blue
So many people say 'How do you manage without Cobalt or
Prussian or Cerulean Blue?' The fact is I do, and stick faith-
fully to my Ultramarine which is a permanent, warm, intense
blue with excellent working properties. Mixed with Burnt
Umber it gives a very wide range of greys by varying the
proportions of each. It's sometimes inclined to granulate but
personally I rather like the effect.
Burnt Umber
This is a permanent earth brown, on the cool side. Again it is an
earth colour. The only other colour which I might add to this
brown is Burnt Sienna, but I find I can approximate to this by
adding a touch of light red to the umber to warm it up.
Alizarin Crimson
I don't use very much of this colour. It's a cool, intense red and
a little goes a long way. It's the only one of my colours that is not
really permanent. Used with plenty of water it makes a good
pink, or mixed with Ultramarine a rich purple. With Lemon
Yellow it will make orange.
Light Red
This is another earth colour and is extremely permanent. A sort
of brick red which mixes with Raw Sienna to produce a lovely
terracotta for tiles. With Ultramarine it makes a subtle mauve
which is excellent for warm shadows.
One colour I haven't got is Chinese White which, of course, is
wet.
35
Colour
my palette and I think it's very important that you should master
them once and for all. Some otherwise experienced painters seem
to fall down here. I had one gentleman who was sound in every
other department, his drawing was good and his painting was
fresh and pure except for his greens which always came out in
various shades of khaki. It took me a week to sort him out.
Another time, quite famous group of professionals, who
a
specialised in portraying the Thames and its barges, wharves and
warehouses, visited us for a week to use my home as a base while
they painted the Wye Valley. They came back the first evening
with long faces and said, 'How on earth do you manage all those
greens?' It took another couple of days before they were happy.
feet, then at about 200 yards, and again at two miles away; you
will see that not only is the green paler in tone but much bluer as
it recedes into the distance. Of course, exactly the same thing
happens to grass as well. That is aerial perspective, and is just
36
commonsense, but is so often ignored once the painting starts
and a rich, dark tree is portrayed two miles away on the horizon,
sticking out like a sore thumb. It's of little use learning to mix the
various greens until you first learn to separate them visually.
Put four colours out on your palette in a spaced out row;
Ultramarine, Lemon Yellow, Raw Sienna and Paynes Grey. Put
your brush into Ultramarine and make a patch of it in the
middle. Then add just a minute touch of Lemon Yellow and
you'll get a very cool bluey green. Paint that on some scrap paper
then add a touch of yellow and the green starts to get brighter. By
repeating it three or four times you've already produced a range
of greens.
Try starting at the other end with a patch of Lemon Yellow
and add a touch of Ultramarine. You'll get the green of sunlit
vines and by gradually adding more and more blue you'll get
back to the place you started. If you now add a touch of Raw
Sienna to the mixes you'll richen them up, as opposed to making
them brighter or cooler.
Now to the deep, rich olive greens that so many students are
wary of because it's so easy to produce mud in the process.
First, try various combinations of Raw Sienna and Ultramarine
without the yellow. To Lemon Yellow
get a really dark green try
and Paynes Grey together but not too much of the latter. By now
you should have produced a vary large range of greens on your
paper. Now do it all over again. Learn to grade them down too,
for misty scenes, by adding a touch of red.
Of course, if you use a different range of colours to mine the
mixes will be different but the principle is the same. Learn to
enjoy your greens rather than dreading them.
As far as the big palette itself is concerned the whole idea is to
allow you more room to mix and move your paint around with
complete freedom, whilst still leaving plenty of virgin space for
other mixes. Some students sometimes complain that the colours
run together but that's a sign that they're using too much water
and, as I've probably said before, the cause of ninety per cent of
all the troubles of amateur watercolourists.
Of course, you'll need plenty of water for the first washes but
as you progress through the painting you should need less and
less water. When I see students' palettes swimming with water I
know even before I look at the painting itself that it's going to be
weak and lacking in punch.
37
The studio
get so much more satisfaction doing that then ever I could from
buying something new.
My studio started off as a large dining room but seemed only to
be used once a week for Sunday lunch. Then we found dry rot
there. Months and hundreds of pounds later we decided to turn
it into a study/studio where at least it would be used and lived in
most of the time.
From that point it has taken about four years for the room to
grow gradually as the ideas have come and the various needs have
dictated changes. It's a purely personal arrangement, tailor-made
to my daily lifestyle. I spend many hours of the day and night in
it so it has areas for writing, painting, duplicating, filing, also a
library and lots of flat areas for just spreading things out.
The purpose of giving you a guided tour is that there may be a
few ideas in it that you can adapt to suit your own requirements.
My main easel was a drafting table rescued, very rusty, from a
scrapyard. Rubbed down, painted and with the top covered with
laminated plastic, it's perfect. It can be easily wiped down at the
end of a day and is instantly adjustable so I can work at it
standing or sitting. I do all my demonstrations here as I've got
space in the middle of the studio for about fifteen people to sit
and watch. Above it is an 8 ft long fluorescent tube. I've got a
second-hand plan chest on the right, the top drawer of which
houses all my paints, brushes and framing materials, like hooks,
tape and cord. The drawers below hold all my paper, mounts and
sketchbooks. On top is the guillotine for trimming. On the shelves
in front are allmy other materials, inks, pastels, camera, hair
dryer, art bin, etc.
Towering over the easel is the 'Optiskop', supported on a steel
pole which stretches from floor to ceiling. It's Swiss and looks
very impressive but it's posh vertical epidioscope.
basically just a
By putting a sketch in the instrument and fiddling the knobs it
will blow up optically to any desired size on my drawing board. I
use it mostly in my other capacity as a graphic designer.
found a very useful plastic-topped table in a furniture shop
I've
recently for holding my palettes and waterpot. It's just the right
height and has castors so that I can push it around easily. The top
38
A view of the painting corner with also serves as an extra palette when I run out of space.
my faithful assistant, Simon. On the left of the easel is a strange storage unit made out of a
door, part of an old dressing table and a bathroom cabinet. I've
painted them all the same colour, put some modern handles on
them and covered the whole thing with a large sheet of glass. The
end even holds my TV and hi-fi equipment.
What I've tried todo is combine reasonable comfort with
makes such a difference to your painting
essential practicality. It
if you're relaxed in a warm, well-lit studio with everything at
39
The studio
In another corner are my desk, filing cabinets and library of art The writing corner showing the
books, which seem to be growing all the time. Again the units are art book library.
still in their plastic bags and waiting for pictures to fill them.
On the floor I've got those rather hairy carpet tiles called
40
A corner showing the 'Heuga'. I think they're quite important because, although they
photo-copier, year planners and look quite luxurious and I'm not ashamed to take potential
stock of empty frames below.
customers into the studio, they're also incredibly hard wearing
and forgiving. My students wince when I flick my brush onto
them, however, over the last few years they haven't shown any
sign of a mark at all.
Let your studio, like your paintings, express your personality,
however small and modest the room may be.
41
Painting out of doors
There's no such thing as perfect conditions for watercolour Right: My complete outdoor kit
painting out of doors at least not according to all the com- under one arm.
plaints and excuses I get from all my students. These include;
42
Seriously, though, I think I've painted outside in most con-
ditions and I thought perhaps a few tips on how to cope with
some of them might help.
First and foremost, keep your equipment simple. Over and
over again I've been amazed at the enormous quantity of ma-
43
Painting out of doors
means that I try to have everything as close to the paper as A complete outdoor kit of
possible so I'm not always bobbing up and down as this disturbs hardboard backing, watercolour
pad, palette, easel, and box of
concentration. The water-pot is hung on a hook on the easel with
assorted materials.
the three brushes in and I hold a plastic palette, with plenty of
it
44
much cooler before ten or after five but the lighting and shadows
were more interesting.
Talking of shadows, with a partly clouded sky the sun is
alternately going in and coming out, so wait for a period of
sunlight, leave the rest of the painting and concentrate entirely
on the shadows. Once they're settled then you can continue the
rest of the painting unhurried. The big difficulty with water-
colour in a hot country is the speed of drying, even in the
shade, and students are always moaning about this. After a time
one learns to paint in a more staccato fashion, tackling smaller
sections of the painting at a time. Luckily, the subjects often lend
themselves to this technique, and if you're painting a misty river
scene in England at five o'clock in the morning the fact that the
paint almost refuses to dry can be a definite advantage in
handling the scene before you.
Probably the easiest condition to work under is a bright but
overcast light. There are no hard shadows or extreme points of
glare yet there is plenty of contrast. Another advantage is that the
light usually remains constant over a long period and you have a
much longer painting time as the sun can travel for hours above
thin cloud without any obvious change in the landscape. Of
course the same light on the paper so you don't have to make
falls
any allowances, and the painting will look right under any
illumination.
One problem that there is no answer to is rain. It can ruin a
watercolour in ten seconds flat so don't try to brave it, turn the
painting over the moment you feel the first spot. I don't know
why but it always seems to happen just as I'm in the middle of
an exciting sky.
Painting snow seems usually to mean numb fingers but you
can help by painting the main washes with gloves on and just
taking them off for the detailed work. Because the days are
shorter an early start is important. The time I find most exciting
is when the snow has finished falling and I wake up to a cloudless
an aunt that paints,' or they run home to fetch you their chil-
drens' work for approval. However, I've developed a technique
for producing the occasional polite grunt which seems to keep
the most talkative onlookers happy while at the same time
reserving my entire attention for the job in hand the painting.
Animals in the country are rather less trouble, they don't
chatter, but cows, especially the young ones, have an insatiable
curiosity and as soon as one of them starts to investigate they
all come along, blowing loudly and wetly at you through their
noses. Don't be scared of them though. One quick gesture from
you will usually make them scatter for their lives and they soon
become used to you and carry on eating.
Just a word or two about painting manners at home and
abroad. The main thing to remember is that wherever you are
you're almost bound to be on somebody else's property. Painting
is a language that needs no translation and can easily jump any
46
abroad try and learn the customs and taboos of the country,
especially those based on religious beliefs. Some Middle Eastern
people get very hostile if you try and portray them in your
picture or, again, they may be delighted. One of the worst faux
pas I ever made was in Paxos. My students and I asked
permission to hold an informal exhibition of our work in the
and it was a great success with the crowds. Then
village square,
the village doctor came up to me and asked if he could buy one of
my paintings. I, of course, agreed and he handed over the money
BBCr- '
ffl
quite openly. That did it! One of the shop keepers got jealous
and went to the police reporting that I was a foreigner selling
pictures without a permit, the police arrived in force, the show
was immediately dismantled and I was marched off to the police
station, vainly protesting my innocence in English, which they
couldn't understand anyway. I was very frightened and got into a
lot of trouble all through my ignorance of their particular laws.
Just a few general rules. Anywhere in the world, when in the
country, always be courteous and ask permission to set up and
paint. Youdon't even have to know the language, your equip-
ment your passport and a few gestures and smiles will do the
is
47
Pencil sketching
48
The basic materials which include
a putty rubber, a soft, carpenter's
pencil, a view finder, and showing
the method of holding the pencil.
It will also teach you to select the essentials of a scene and reject
the superfluous. As a bonus, it will provide you with a countless
source of material for your future finished paintings.
The materials are cheap enough. All you need is a pad of
cartridge paper, a 6B pencil and a Stanley knife blade to sharpen
it.
49
Pencil sketching
masses. Screwing up your eyes will help because then all you'll A sketch of the little village of
be able to see are the essentials without the clutter. This will also Logos on the Greek island of
Paxos.
help you to find the main highlights and dark areas.
Once you've chosen your view through the card, feel free to
shift things improve the composition. Simplify those
around to
buildings, put some clouds in, take out that ugly fence and the
rubbish, move the tree a little to the left. Remember, the picture
has to stand on its own feet, perhaps ten years later and a
thousand miles away, without you being there to make excuses
for it.
A lot of the above things I've said elsewhere in the book about
watercolour painting itself, so you can see what good practice it
is. The pencil, as with the brush, should be used with as few
strokes as possible, making each one count, and without covering
the paper with meaningless scribble.
50
A 6B pencil has enormous power and intensity when used with
emphasis. Don't hold it like a pen but sideways as shown. It's
51
Tone
Painters often get confused between the terms colour and tone.
Tone is the lightness or darkness of an area irrespective of its
colour. You might have two balls on a snooker table, one red and
one green, but both would be exactly the same tone. In fact,
probably the best way to explain the difference is to turn the
knob of your colour television set until the picture goes black and
white and you've converted everything into tones.
A normal landscape is composed of scores of tones ranging
from white to black. What you must do is to try and simplify
these into just a few. Screw your eyes up until you can only just
see through them. You will then eliminate nearly all the detail
and colour leaving you free to distinguish better the various tonal
ranges.
If you can then break down what you see into four tones,
you've more or less solved the problem. These tones extend from
what in watercolour is the unpainted paper, to the darkest
pigment. The middle tone is local colour, while highlights and
52
Right: The actual scene with some
rather confusing tones.
*
MUBfcr
Composition
54
1 Too many horizontal forms in
a painting are liable to look
monotonous so compliment them
with some vertical feature. The
same goes for too many verticals
without a horizontal.
55
Composition
VT
Aerial perspective
58
Counterchange
59
Counterchange
60
Linear perspective
Now we come to the boring bit, but bear with me, please, don't
hurry on to the next chapter.
I've heard so many students say, almost defiantly, 'I don't
know anything about perspective', somehow implying they don't
want to either. They seem to feel it's a subject that will always be
beyond their comprehension. I think the word itself puts people
off.
61
Linear perspective
tive which is where all the parallel lines seem to converge to a Opposite page, top:An example of
single vanishing point. This occurs mainly when you're painting one point perspective outdoors
interiors but the drawings will show you what I mean. where one might be looking at a
garden from a bedroom window.
Two point perspective is the most common, which is when the
parallel lines seem to converge on two points on the horizon, as Opposite page, below: This shows
when you're painting a house and can see two sides. Again, the a two point perspective with
drawing explains it. objects above and below eye level.
Last is three point perspective but not much used unless you
happen to be painting a sky-scraper from above, or a church
tower from close to its base. This is when parallel lines seem to
converge on two points on the horizon and another vanishing
point either above or below the horizon line.
A useful thing to know is how to divide a plane in half, for
example, you want to find out the position of the top of a gable
if
63
Linear perspective
64
A cottage seen at the eye level of a
child. Notice the eye line halfway
up the door.
The placing of figures on the eye there are figures in the foreground, middle distance and in the
level. You will need to draw them so that the horizon cuts
distance.
them at eye level with sitting figures a little lower.
Do try to think of perspective not as an adversary but
something that's always with you so can be studied at any odd
moment. You don't even have to have a pencil in your hand.
From where you're sitting look at the line of the wall where it
meets the floor and the line where it meets the ceiling then try
and place in your mind the spot where the two lines meet. The
perspective lines at the top and bottom of the window would also
both meet at the same spot, so would the top of the shelf.
You see, the whole thing is mainly common sense and the
more familiar you become with it the less mysterious it seems.
65
Skies and clouds
With skies the chief fault is nearly always timidity. I'm so often An example of wet-into-wet
shown a painting with a weak anaemic looking sky and the usual nimbus clouds.
excuse is 'It looked quite strong when I first put it on but it
seemed to fade back.'
The answer is that when it was first painted, the rest of the
paper was white and the contrast gave it a false value, then of
course the rest of the landscape was put in, with perhaps a few
dark trees, and as a result the sky looked half strength. Although
the same thing happens time after time the student still seems
surprised and disappointed.
The only way is to start by taking your courage in both hands
and paint it that much stronger and richer than you think it
ought to be
then it will probably be about right when the
whole picture is finished.
It's amusing to hear the gasp that often goes up from my
audience when I'm painting a sky. They're sure I've ruined it but
by the time the whole picture is finished everything has dropped
into place tonally.
Another thing people tend to do is play about with their
skies pushing the paint around too much, sometimes painting
a blue sky all over and then jabbing out their clouds with loo
paper. I don't like using loo paper in painting not even the
Opposite page: Part of a painting,
super soft kind! My own feeling is the less you touch and torture reproduced actual size, of a scene
the surface the fresher and more professional the painting looks. at Southwold.
66
9P
Skies and clouds
H^^^
68
A sky with a mixture of cirrus and
cumulus formations.
the area and drop some darks in, trusting to fate and luck that
they will look like some sort of clouds and fool somebody.
I'll try to show you in the next few pages some of the ways of
tackling the various conditions.
In general, painting skies is rather like going off a high diving
board, it looks scary before you do it. But take a deep breath,
paint quickly and decisively; after a few successes you'll begin to
enjoy that mixture of skill and luck that combine to produce a
fresh watercolour sky that works.
Here are a few basic facts about skies which will make them
look more convincing. First, clear blue skies should never be flat
but are darker above, and lighter as they approach the horizon. I
always put a very weak wash of Raw Sienna all over my sky just
to give a creamy tint, then paint my blue strongly acrossthe top,
while the first wash is still very wet, and then graduate it so that
too, in as much as the big ones are always at the top of the picture
and they gradually get smaller and weaker as they approach the
horizon.
69
Skies and clouds
Going back to the high diving board simile, the more you A dramatic sky with threatening
practise themore confident you'll get. Try doing at least one sky nimbus clouds. Notice the
opportunities for counterchange.
every day. You don't need to do the whole picture, just look out
of the window any day of the year and work out quietly in your
mind, before you actually get the brush in your hand, what
sequence of washes you're going to use. Select the essential
features and simplify by using the big brush only and working
quickly and decisively you can even give yourself a time limit
of say, ten minutes you'll be amazed how quickly you'll be
working with increased authority and pleasure.
70
m
A strong and vigorous sky with Another simple rule to remember is that if you have a
cumulus which needs to have a complicated landscape give it a simple sky, but if you want to
simple landscape as contrast.
paint an elaborate sky, set it against a relatively simple landscape.
Being very simplistic, as this isn't a book about meteorology,
there are three main families of clouds: cirrus, a thin, wispy high
cloud; cumulus, a white, woolly type which has a light top where
the sun catches it, with a shadow underneath; the third type is
71
Trees and foliage
I'm convinced that most of the faults that so often occur when Opposite page: Part of a painting
painting trees are not basically because of a lack of skill but a lack reproduced full size showing the
treatment of a foreground tree and
of observation. In so many cases it's a quick glance at the actual
other trees at various distances.
tree and it's eyesdown to get on with the painting, with scarcely
a second look. The result is often a stereotyped cardboard cut-
out of a tree with little thought of light and shade, and branches
that are silhouetted in front of the foliage rather than feeding
up into it.
72
is, . i
mr
/
f.l
1%
$u
Sttf
ik ll P^ **?
1
IV ;v*a
i
tkt . v ***V '
^11 1
:
I
v.
0f'
.
.'.**'
able to take the pressure off gradually, until you get to the really
fine twigs at the edges. Again, because of this lack of control, the
branches even seem to taper and grow thick again, something
that couldn't possibly happen in reality and looks very amateur-
ish, so do practise with that rigger!
In all cases when you're painting trunks and limbs, start from
the base of the tree andwork up, after all, that's the way it grows.
Each species of tree has its own characteristic silhouette or
basic profile. Branch structure is different too; elm trees branch
in a characteristic 'Y' fashion, oak branches in an erratic sickle
shape. Willow often have a 'U' where the branch joins the trunk.
Pine branches leave the trunk at right angles and the lower,
heavily weighted down ones even bend under their own weight.
74
Right: A typical tree produced
with a hake and added rigger.
__^^.
75
Trees and foliage
Branches should generally be seen only through 'sky holes' as shown on the right.
Look for the pattern of growth in the various trees. Above is a pine, weeping willow, oak and
horse chestnut.
Painting of foliage in two washes. Strong sunlight can produce the effect of caverns in the tree, (right).
76
Above: A quick impression of You don't have to remember all this, it's more important that
trees in my village. The trunks are you get into the habit of looking at trees analytically with these
produced by a succession of side
points in mind before you even get your brush out. On my own
strokes with the hake.
courses, after I've made sure they can handle their brushes
properly, especially the rigger, I send students out into the gar-
den and get them do half-a-dozen 'tree portraits,' each of a dif-
to
ferent species. The object is for them to observe carefully for at
least two minutes then work quickly and simply, not bothering
with fiddly details but focussing on the peculiarities of that
particular tree. It should be possible for someone to go back and
identify each tree among all the others afterwards.
Do try to get into your mind that a tree is three-dimensional,
it's not flat as it's so often portrayed, its branches not only spread
from side come towards you and go away. This
to side, they also
is just as important but more difficult to portray in a winter tree
with all its leaves removed.
I'm often asked, 'Do I paint the foliage
first and add the trunk
77
Trees and foliage
78
basic masses. The direction of the strokes depends on the basic
character of the tree itself but a glance at the illustrations will
show you what I mean.
I find the rigger indispensable for putting in the branches and
twigs. By pressing hard down on the paper it spreads enough to
portray quite large middle distance trunks of trees. By gradually
taking the pressure off the brush it will draw tapering branches,
and by flicking it lightly off the paper fine twigs can be shown.
Another potential problem is that of painting a light tree
branch against a dark background. The method depends on the
width. For fine branches I usually flick my finger nail into
the damp paint. For wider branches or trunks one can paint
the background in vertical strips leaving the trees as white paper
where possible. I've even carefully pushed the end of the hake
gently through the still damp background. Another way is to
use a kitchen knife or a Stanley knife blade. Timing is im-
portant though. If the paint is too wet the stroke will fill in and
itwill finish up darker rather than lighter. The lesson is to
experiment on scrap paper with all these ideas to see which suits
you. Do things lightly and directly and don't torture the paper.
Another solution of course is the use of masking fluid (see
page 123).
If you get a tree with light foliage in front of a darker tree, put
the light tree in first and then paint the darker tree round it.
79
I
..
>^r~"
/
Above: A sunlit snow scene in the
woods with an extensive use of the
paper surface itself and wet-into-wet
distant foliage.
still wet.
Left: A quiet scene on a French river
with distant trees in a wet-into-wet
technique, and the foreground tree
in dry brush.
?
""-^WufllrW
=S>^
You cannot avoid buildings for long if you are painting land-
scapes. You must learn to make them look convincing and be
able to portray the texture of their materials stone walls,
thatch, tiles, bricks or clapboards. One of the most common
faults with texture is overworking. Students often believe it
81
Painting buildings
83
Painting buildings
84
Opposite page: A few thumbnail Another interesting and potentially is house
lucrative sideline
sketches showing architectural portraits in watercolour. I remember a period when
was almost
I
detail painted with the flat brush.
inundated with requests from various country gentlemen to
portray their residences, and great fun it was too. It all started
when the managing director of the company I was working for at
the time asked me to paint his place, a beautiful Georgian house
with a grand curved drive sweeping up to the front door. I did a
full 'imperial' of it and it came off well. He was pleased with
it and decided to put it over the fireplace in his entrance hall
and to ask all his friends to a cocktail party to see it. That did
A painting of Wyeholme done for
it almost immediately I was invited to country seats and
the front cover of our brochure,
painted in the late afternoon
mansions in the surrounding counties and had a brief unaccus-
showing the strong shadows cast tomed taste of la dolce vita. Again, I learned a lot from the
by the trees. experience and perhaps I can pass on a few tips.
85
a
Painting buildings
The setting and the lighting are very important. Have a good
preliminary walk around and find the best, most flattering view
of the house. If it's house don't come in too close, and
a country
show some of the surrounding scenery. Use your imagination
strong dark sky behind will dramatise a white house by counter-
change. House owners, like yacht owners, can be sticklers
for detail. Not that they want a tight picture most of them
don't they just want the roof angles to be right and the pro-
portions correct. Of course, not being artists themselves they
don't understand some of the difficulties. I have been faced with
drawing a large house from about 20 ft away because it was
impossible to get any further back. One interesting commission
was to produce an artist's impression of a house before it had
actually been built, using the architect's drawings and a lot of
imagination!
A loose painting of a rather I'm often asked what colour I use for a Cotswold stone wall by
neglected Greek villa. a student seeking a ready-made formula. The answer is that there
is no such colour. I know you can get it superficially with a
watered down Raw Sienna but as you progress along the wall you
should add touches of blue, light red, burnt umber just tiny
amounts but enough to take away the monotony and give it life
and warmth. When it's more or less dry you can add the texture
of the stones
not all over but in various areas. As soon as the
effect becomes apparent stop!
One common mistake made by students is to try and build a
wall stone by stone with fiat strokes. Always put the general
overall tone in first. The same applies to roofs. Put in the general
tone first and then add the minimum of texture. You can get into
a lot of trouble trying to paint in every tile or slate.
One thing I urge you to do with textures is to try them out on
spare pieces of paper first. This way if you're not sure how to
tackle a certain surface, and if you find a potential technique
doesn'twork you haven't ruined your precious painting. Re-
member, golfers practise strokes before putting a club to the ball.
One watercolourist I feel was supreme in his treatment of old
textured buildings was Sir William Russell Flint, perhaps best
known for his nudes on the shore and scantily clad Spanish girls.
I've heard some art snobs sneer at his work but like theatre critics
they're often, thankfully, ignored by the public. I've yet to see
Opposite page: A demonstration
painting of the River Ardeche in anyone who could portray both exteriors and interiors of build-
France with the ancient village of ings with greater authority and skill. You will do well to study
Aiqueze in the left foreground. the many prints of his work
you'll learn an enormous amount.
87
Boats, harbours and beaches
always try and arrive a few hours beforehand so that I can explore
and sketch.
After thirteen trips running painting holidays on the Greek
island of Paxos, I've developed a great love of their fishing boats
called caiques and the visiting yachts.
One is that so many people have a
of the things I've discovered
deep fear of drawing boats, their normal intelligence seems to
desert them and they produce some awful monstrosities. 'I can't
draw boats', and 'I don't know anything about them', is such a A Greek caique or fishing boat,
common cry from students, especially, I'm afraid to say, from reproduced actual size, painted
mainly with a 1 in flat brush.
the ladies, who seem to think that, as females, they should be
excused.
If you go about it in a logical way, boats are no more difficult to
draw than anything else. First, get to understand the basic form
of the boat, which is the same whether they're big or small.
Right:The village of Lakka
painted before breakfast.
**-
Boats, harbours and beaches
Learn to draw the basic form of the hull and do think of it as a Opposite page: Low tide at a
'shape'. Keep looking at your drawing and back at the boat itself, mooring in Cornwall.
over and over again. I've often watched students drawing boats,
one glance and it's eyes down. They just haven't got this habit of
constant critical comparison, which the only real way to draw
is
90
On my Greek island I used to play at being Gauguin and keep
myself in food and wine entirely from selling boat portraits to
visiting yachtsmen. It taught me to be very observant though,
there's no one more critical of the exact angle of a bow, the shape
of a stern or the exact curve of a deck than the proud owner of the
boat himself.
As usual, don't worry yourself with small details, concentrate
on the proportions. How far is the mast from the bow? How long
is the cabin roof compared with the length of the boat? Just use
Try to draw the main essential curves of the boat, using your
whole arm rather than little jerky lines with a tightly held pencil,
it gives more of a flow and rhythm.
91
Boats, harbours and beaches
The other hazard is that boat owners are sometimes very incon-
siderate to the needs of the artist and want to sail off in them,
usually in the middle of a painting. When painting waterfront
scenes with a row of yachts, one learns to keep half an eye open
for signs of preparation for off and quickly paint the potential
absentee in first before returning to the rest of the picture.
In and around the harbours you'll find boats of all shapes and
sizes divided roughly into two classes, working boats and pleas-
ure craft. I love the old fishing boats, which have character and
dignity, and the yachts with their graceful curves. I avoid the
plastic dinghies and the big cabin cruisers, uncharitably known
as floating gin palaces.
more than one boat, make sure that they're
If you're painting
not all the same
Nothing looks worse, compositionally, then
size.
two boats of the same importance both vying for your attention at
opposite sides of a painting
make one more dominant than the
other.
There's always something going on in harbours, figures doing
all sorts of interesting things like painting boats, lowering
buckets, carrying oars, climbing ladders or just standing around
in groups gossiping. You must learn to put them in simply and
directly without any detail. Get the essential movement or sil-
houette of an action.
Maintenance seems to play a disproportionate part in the life
of a boat owner. I'm sure I spent a lot more time with a paint
brush in my hand than I ever did with a when I was
tiller sailing.
However, it makes a very good subject for painting when the
boat is pulled up on the hard, you can see the whole boat not just
the part that is above the waterline. The keel of a yacht, for ex-
ample, is given an entirely different and more dramatic appear-
ance out of water and in the yards there is so much fascinating
junk to paint, rusty oildrums, piles of rope, old propellers.
Little harbours are always much more interesting and paint-
able when the tide's out. The boats are tilted on their sides and
the harbour bottom exposed, with its fascinating texture of sand,
rock and seaweed puddles of water making good opportunities
for reflections, and there is an assortment of anchor ropes and
coloured floats.
92
The waterfront at Gaios on the stones here and there the viewer's imagination will do the rest.
Island of Paxos. Unless you really know how to draw them don't ever try to
put in a boat quickly from memory in an otherwise empty lake
or seashore I've seen so many otherwise well painted scenes
ruined by badly drawn boats, obviously done without knowledge
or reference material.The problem is made worse because it
usually becomes the object of interest, that's why you put it in.
Work from a good sketch or photograph and then draw it in with
care. The most common and glaring mistake is to draw a yacht
sideways with its mast in the dead centre. It should always be
well forward towards the bow otherwise it looks as if a child of
five has drawn it.
93
Boats, harbours and beaches
:>|^fi&#*
Don't forget that when they're flying around they often overlap A beach scene with wet-into-wet
each other in a group so don't always do them as separate birds. and dry brush in the foreground.
When you're painting beach scenes the main thing to avoid is
easy for the viewer to enter your picture and be led to the centre
of interest.
Don't clutter your beaches with too much fiddly detail. Clean
up the beaches and put in the changes of tone with wide swinging
sweeps of paint using your whole arm; put on the paint with
authority and leave it fresh and transparent. As for pebbly
beaches, for goodness sake don't try to paint the individual
stones,it's impossible. Suggest them with a little touch of dry
brush or spatter but the important word is 'suggest'.
94
Boats, harbours and beaches
than clutter the whole thing up. Put in the main lines of the
rigging very lightly, the usual fault is to put in the ropes too
thickly because of lack of brush control. With boats at a good
distance away, forget about rigging lines altogether rather than
ruin your painting.
I'vebeen asked so many times, 'How do you paint rocks?' The
first remember is that rocks are solid, they have bulk and
thing to
weight. The top of the rock faces the sky and gets the most light,
the sides are darker and the part of the rock that faces away from
the light source is darker still.
There are all sorts of tricks you can use to texture the rocks,
like dragging a fiat razor blade or the edge of a fiat card over the
damp wash but beware of overdoing these. None of these things
will help you unless you understand the basic tonal values which
give a rock bulk.
establish your source of light and stick to it, making sure that all
the shadows lie in the same direction, but I've seen very confused
paintings where the student has forgotten this halfway through.
97
Shadows and reflected light
trunk is that the darkest area of shade is not at the back edge,
where you would logically expect it, but about two thirds of the
way towards the back. At the back edge in shade can be seen a
lighter area with some of the light and colour reflected from the
ground surrounding the tree.
Again, on a wall in shadow there is a lighter area at the base
where the light from the surrounding ground has bounced up
into it. This happens on the underside of rocks too and under the
eaves of houses. Notice the actual colours of the shadows. A
green tinge in a shaded wall would probably be caused by colour
bouncing off the tree nearby; glass windows reflect light and
colour from objects opposite them so don't always portray them
as dark holes or they'll look very dead indeed. In a sunny street
scene, particularly, you get a ricocheting of light and colour.
Shadows on the street itself will have some of the blue of the sky
reflected in them. A shadow cast on a white house on one side
of the street will be warmed by the colour of the pink house
opposite.
Of course, it becomes even more pronounced in sunlit snow
scenes where the sun's light makes the snow appear a creamy
colour and the shadows are really quite a distinct blue, again
reflecting the sky above.
Train your eye to search out these things the more you
practise the more exciting subtleties you'll discover. Get out of
the habit of thinking of your shadows as just grey things to be put
on at the end of a picture. I hope this chapter has made you realise
how subtle and important they can be.
98
Light bounces off the water
surface and illuminates the
shadow side of the boat.
99
Mist
Start your picture from the furthest point you can see. There's
probably no horizon visible and the sky will be brighter and
lighter at the top than at the bottom; this is the opposite to a
normal sky. Paint from light to dark. Moorland mist.
$ :
, i
100
A misty morning in Porthcawl Mist has a distinct colour of its own which may be a cold grey
Harbour South Wales. or even have a yellow tint. The local colours of individual objects
will take on some of this mist colour. For example, when the sun
is struggling to break through a morning mist everything in the
picture is in various tones of this golden colour. Nearly all
101
Figures and animals in landscape
Why does everyone always draw the heads too big? All right, Below and opposite page: A few
I'm exaggerating, but I've seen so many otherwise satisfactory examples of simplified figures,
drawn mainly with the rigger.
landscapes ruined by what looked like little gnomes wandering
about them. It is by far the most common fault when putting
figures into landscapes.
Figures can make or mar a landscape. So many people know
this and are afraid to take the risk far better to assume that the
street scene is painted at five o'clock in the morning before
anyone is up.
We've at pictures where the painting of the land-
all looked
scape is and direct but the figures are stiff, awkward and
fresh
tight. They might even have been done by another person.
It's always a big decision as to whether to put figures in a
102
103
Figures and animals in landscape
W%>
*Sfi^5
V
"^
104
Opposite page: A few examples of Nothing can quite indicate the vastness of a cathedral or open
animals and birds for judicious country quite so convincingly as a tiny figure dropped in the
use in landscapes. The figure with
right place.
the donkey, for instance, might be
But how can we be sure it is going in the right place or even if
useful in a Greek scene.
itimproves the painting or not. I always draw a figure first on a
piece of tracing paper and then push it around on my landscape
until it looks completely in scale with its surroundings. Then I
trace one or two location points on the tracing paper, and turning
it over scribble some soft pencil behind the figure. Replacing it
105
Portraying water
all about what is the most common fault, it's over-elaboration, reproduced actual size. It was
painted very quickly on a damp
trying to put in every ripple and patch of light that momentarily
surface, simplifying the scene as
catches your eye, most of which move around with the breeze
much as possible. Note the harder
anyway. It's even worse with flowing water. It's easy for me to reflections of the hut and tree on
say 'simplify' but much more difficult to know where to begin. the right.
mm
wm kniJi i
Let's start with the river. Imagine you're standing with me on
the banks of my beloved Wye. smooth river and the
It's a fairly
One thing that has dawned on me over the years is just how A simple river technique with a
littleyou need to do when you are painting a river to make it look light patch 'round the bend'.
108
Below left: The wrong way to There are a always find most effective
couple of tricks which I
the old Brooklands race track used to. The trouble here of course
is the lack of observation, they don't draw what they see but what
they think they ought to see. I've shown in the illustration the
right and wrong way of putting in a river bend.
Reflections in general obey certain laws. It is much easier to
understand them if you try this simple experiment. As I've said
before, smooth water acts like a mirror, so put a mirror on the
table and put a box of matches upright at the furthest point of the
mirror at right angles to your vision. Now, look at its reflection.
See how the reflected edges of the box are in a straight line with
the edge of the box itself and if you stand up and move your
head above the box, the reflection shortens. If you replace the
matchbox with a pencil held upright, then lean the pencil at
various angles to the mirror, you will see that the angle of the
reflection of the pencil is always the same as the angle made by
the surface and the mirror.
109
Portraying water
If you imagine the box to be a house and the pencil a pole in Above left: Reflection of a post in
the water you will get a much better idea of how they reflect in completely still water and in
disturbed water. Above: A post
the water. It will also help you to understand how reflections of
sloping away will produce a
things that are leaning towards you extend outwards and become
shortened reflection, while one
longer than the objects themselves appear in their foreshortened sloping forward will produce an
position. Conversely, where the pole slopes away from you the elongated one.
reflections are shorter than the objects themselves seem.
On large stretches of water the surface is made very light Opposite page, top: A typical boat
reflection. The dark reflections
where it's farther away and dark in the foreground. This is
should be done as quickly and
because the horizon reflects the low, lighter part of the sky, but decisively as possible.
close to the shore the water picks up the darker colour from the
sky above. Also, because we're looking down at it, the fore-
ground water transmits some of the colour of the bottom. With a
110
t
Portraying water
112
Above: A mainly wet-into-wet
Abbey on the
painting of Tintern
Wye. Notice how the crisp lines of
the abbey are contrasted with the
general softness.
(W^
Above: A painting of yachts on the
river at Wareham in Dorset.
c^xs
'">*=-
*^
Above: A painting of a Greek
taverna done as a demonstration.
I
Right: Detail showing the foliage
contrasting with the sharp shutters
i
A simple river picture with
wet-into-wet background and
foreground applied with the
rigger.
Above: Snow in the Forest of Have a look at some of Rowland Hilder's work in this area. Take
Dean. the fine branches as far as you can, then finally finish off the lacy
mass of fine twigs, which form the profile of the tree, with very
Below: Sketch of a farm in
light dry brush strokes of the hake, having a definite direction.
February.
Now to snowscapes. These can be a thing of beauty or they can
be nothing more than a Christmas card picture where all you
need is a robin (not that I've got anything against robins). It all
depends on the composition and the balance. Compose your
picture in terms of light and dark pattern and take advantage of
the whiteness of the paper. Don't let the dark and the light be
..
Winter landscapes
Most of the snow surfaces are, of course, smooth but often A rather bleak painting of the
broken up when grass and stony earth shows through them. road between our house and the
village.
Shadows are very important in snow scenes as they describe
clearly the contours of the surface they fall The white of the
on.
paper be very important in
will your pictures, many times you
can leave absolutely untouched and other times you'll have to
it
118
Additional techniques
I've deliberately left this chapter until later in the book because I
didn't want to confuse the issue. These various techniques you
should learn, keep up your sleeve, and bring out at the appropri-
ate time. The real purists will hate them and call them 'gim-
micks'. suppose you could say they are rather like swear
I
words known
about but kept in reserve until you hit your
thumb with a hammer. If you're continually using them they just
become boring.
Take masking solution. I suppose I use it in about one in
twenty of my paintings, when it really does fulfil a useful pur-
pose, like painting it on the intricate white sails of a windmill
to enable me to put a juicy thundercloud behind it without
inhibitions. But to find a use for it on every picture would be, I
119
Additional techniques
the whole painting dry completely, this is very important, then Opposite page: The various stages
put the paper in the sink and turn the tap on gently until the of washing out the foreground of a
painting.
whole thing is immersed and the water is flowing over it.
Surprisingly, nothing happens to the colour until touched it is
Top left: The actual foreground
and then it flows away. I use my
hake brush gently to take away which was too muddy and
the ruined portions. It often happens that distant hills or trees are overworked.
painted in too dark, bringing them too far forward. A gentle
touch of the hake and they gradually fade until they are about Top right: Wetting the whole
paper.
right. Of course, if the whole painting has been overworked and
is muddy you can remove it, just leaving a faint image of the Bottomleft: Gently removing the
original. Lift the paper out of the water and put in on a drawing unwanted colour with a hake
board to dry. When it is dry you can paint over it, but if you want brush.
a wet-into-wet treatment you can recommence the painting
Bottom right: Lastly, the result
before it dries. Some colours leave a stain on the paper that no
with the rest of the painting
amount of washing can remove. unaffected.
Don't wait until you have crucial problems though, get out
one of your old failures and experiment with it. I have found
various watercolour papers respond differently to the treat-
ment I know just how my usual Bockingford reacts but I
might have to treat Fabriano or Arches in a different way. Do try
it
Turner did.
Hair Dryer
This is a very useful tool and I've always got one plugged in at
the side of my drawing board. It certainly speeds up the dry-
ing process if I'm in a hurry or especially if I'm doing a demo.
Students often show me paintings with fuzzy roofs which
obviously should have been sharp. 'I couldn't wait for the first
wash to dry, I got impatient', is the usual excuse. This is where
the drier is the answer. We also use our studio heater and the
wash dries in a few seconds if held about 6 in away from it.
White paint The hairdrier in use.
I never use the stuff myself because it's opaque, I always try to
keep watercolours transparent if possible. I feel its use sticks out
like a sore thumb but many artists I admire use it, like Rowland
Hilder and even Turner himself, so who am I to say? But it must
120
IP
r:
^m *s
z^H- 9
* x\
121
Additional techniques
abrasive quality without damaging the paper if it is used very A clean, hog's hair brush being
gently. It can be used with or without a stencil. For example, if
used to remove paint.
you want a soft fuzzy sun or a misty morning, wait until the main
wash is completely dry and then dip the brush into clear water
and move it around in a small circle, gently blotting the paper
occasionally and your sun will gradually appear. It's useful too
for getting that patch of light at the end of the river which you
may have forgotten to leave.
Sponges The effect of dabbing paint on the
I usually keep a small natural sponge in my painting box for all damp paper with a sponge.
122
Above: The effect achieved by synthetic sponges, which come in coarse and fine textures. I'm
moving a clean, damp sponge over sure you'll find plenty already around the house. Learn all you
a freshly painted surface.
can about sponges and then put them away until a legitimate
use presents itself like texturing a large rock where it can be used
Above right: Using a sponge on
dry paper. on top of a dried brush-laid wash. It's also very useful for putting
in foliage.
Right: Actual size, effect of
sponge for foliage and, on the far
right, with added rigger work.
Masking fluid
One of the problems that watercolour has compared with oil
painting is the white areas. With oil painting you just use white
paint but with watercolour you normally leave the paper blank
and paint round the space. This is fairly straightforward with
large simple areas, but with complex shapes, like white boats,
windmills and houses against dark backgrounds, it's sometimes
almost impossible or at best inhibiting. The answer, of course, is
123
Additional techniques
Masking fluid is a pale yellow liquid you buy in bottles. It is a Top left: Painting the silhouette of
colloidal suspension ofrubber solution in water. You have to a cottage with masking fluid.
decide before you commence the picture where your white areas
Left: The result after the
are to be and then paint them with the solution. The yellow
background has been painted
colour is to show where you've applied it. You can then paint and the masking fluid removed.
over it with confidence and once dry it can be removed by gently
rubbing with the top of your finger and the virgin white paper Above: The finished result.
used this method). Say you want to put a white seagull in front of
a rock or sky. After painting the background normally, draw
your seagull on separate tracing paper overlay, cut out the shape
with a Stanley knife and lay the stencil carefully in position,
scrubbing through the hole with a damp bristle brush or sponge,
and lifting off the moist colour with a tissue. Do it gently and
patiently so as not to damage the paper and don't use too much
water or it under the edge of the stencil. Another effect
will creep
useful for creating white masts on waterfront scenes is achieved
by putting two sheets of paper on the painting with only a narrow
gap between them, a quick rub with a damp sponge and you have
124
I
Above: Cutting out a mask. a mast. The width of the gap of course is very critical to the size
of the mast.
Right: The finished result after
In many ways this method is often better than masking fluid as
sponging out.
it doesn't stick out quite so glaringly, also you may decide near
Far right: The effect of salt on the end of your painting you need something extra, whereas
a wet wash. masking fluid areas have to be pre-planned.
Salt
There are rare occasions when this too is useful. Experiment by
dropping a few salt crystals on a damp wash. A little star forms
round each crystal as the salt soaks up the paint
it looks exactly
like snowfiakes.
Spatter
First the warning don't be led astray and overdo it. It's very
simple and can often be used legitimately to indicate pebbles on a
beach or give interest to a foreground but to see it on painting
125
Additional techniques
ence with students who seem to finish up merely doing tinted pen
drawings so I deliberately take their pen away from them for a
few days, and after this their progress is often quite dramatic.
126
Right: The effect of knuckles and
fingernail flicks in damp paint.
127
Additional techniques
use the edge of the knife laid on precisely to indicate distant walls
or short sideways strokes to paint birch trees. By scraping
already applied paint in a sort of spreading butter motion you
can produce interesting textures. It can also be used to apply
masking fluid either in precise strokes or by dipping the knife in
the fluid and flicking it onto the paper with your finger. Again,
this produces interesting foreground textures.
128
A painting of a misty woodland
scene in the Forest of Dean using
Paynes grey, raw sienna and
ultramarine.
Above: A demonstration painting of
a Greek island villa.
'
Kf
Above: A demonstration painting on
amarket day in the Provence village
of Gourdes. This took about half-
an-hour working very quickly.
J -
**
many people just point the camera and click rather than move
round, getting down low or high, to the right or left, looking in
that viewfinder to get the most exciting composition. My own
basic rule is to try to get a good foreground subject, a middle
distance and a far distance, in other words get depth into it. All
the rules we talk about on pages 54-56 apply equally to
photography. Don't just waste film, use it intelligently.
I feel that painting has helped me to become a better photo-
grapher. I travel about the country by car and I always keep a
camera permanently in the glove box. Countless times I've gone
Opposite page, below: Part of a over a humpback bridge and seen a lovely stream out of the
painting using the photograph
as a guide. By adopting
corner of my eye. Pulling off the road I have run back, climbed
the flat
brushes only for the buildings and down the bank, and composed and taken four or five different
boats I forced myself to simplify views in as many minutes and I'm off again to meet my
the scene. appointment.
129
Above: A straightforward photograph of my barn. Tonally it is
confusing. The sky is too light and uninteresting; the roof and one wall
are too similar in tone; and the field is rather boring.
Below: In the pencilled sketch I tried to make the sky more interesting.
I lightened the roof to counterchange it against the trees behind and
Right: The finished result. Compare this with the original photograph.
130
131
Using photography properly
Misty mornings and evenings are my favourite times: dawn Above: My camera together with
driving offers endless temptations to stop and capture a mood for an additional wide-angle lens
which covers a much larger area
future reference.
on any given photograph, useful
However, I've found that the camera functions most effec-
for example in a narrow street,
tivelywhen used in conjunction with a sketchbook. The two and a zoom lens which enables me
form a team. The drawing records the composition which I saw to magnify, say, a distant cottage,
and responded to. The camera records the details and fills in rather like a telescope.
in.'
132
133
Painting courses
thousands and I can count on the fingers of one hand the ones I
same with all bridge players or golfers but I doubt it. I only know
it makes my life a lot easier as a tutor. However, for you who
may be contemplating going away on your own for the first time,
perhaps just widowed or divorced, and feel a little apprehensive,
have no fear, I guarantee you'll be welcomed into the fraternity
within minutes.
Now to the choice of course. There's a bewildering array in the
magazines, most offering brochures which you can send for to
study your leisure and gain a better idea of what they each
at
offer. Fromthe way a brochure is written and by reading
between the lines you should be able to get some idea of their
aims and atmosphere.
134
A group of painters on a sunny
beach on Paxos.
course they went on last year. 'My dear, the instructor was divine
but the food was rotten. We had to go out afterwards for fish and
chips', or 'He used to send us off in the morning and we never
saw him again until the crit at night.' I'm not exaggerating, I've
actually overheard both conversations not about my own
courses I hasten to add.
Now, about the instructors themselves. Some run courses
because they enjoy people as much as paint, others see it as
a necessary chore to help them out financially because they
couldn't live on the proceeds of their paintings alone. Yet others
are brilliant artists who seem somehow to be unable to pass on
their enthusiasm and skills, or are inarticulate when it comes to
explaining actual techniques. I have felt as a student that one or
two were reluctant to give away all their precious professional
secrets.
Art tutors sometimes share a fault with other teachers in
that they often tend to concentrate much of their time on the
obviously gifted pupils and neglect the elderly plodders, who
have paid just as much for their course and really need help
more. It's also not unknown for the pretty women in the party to
get more than their money's worth of attention.
Instructors can certainly be divided into two groups: the first
135
Painting courses
136
it usually does. I could write a book this size entirely with
adventures and minor disasters, in fact many of my friends have
urged me do just that. It would make an excellent T.V. series
to
too somewhere between 'Hi-de-Hi' and 'Who Pays the
Ferryman'.
I can't resist giving you a few snippets from my experiences.
trip round an island. I still think it was her fault, and she did
manage to get home by the island taxi. It took me two days to
console her.
from waist-high floods to merry
I've battled with everything
widows and the romantic atmosphere is such that two of my
all.
On a Greek quayside.
137
Painting courses
138
.
and the owner gradually went through them and put about six
aside, not always, I thought, the best of the bunch. They were,
he said afterwards, all reasonably competent, saleable paintings
but those six had had a recognisable quality, they all looked
unmistakeably as though they had been done by the same
person. He also said that when a painter had really arrived you
should be able to recognise his work from across the street. His
words had quite an effect on me and since then, when I've
compared the work of the actual R.I. members in the annual
exhibition with the work of the outside contributors this unique-
ness of approach has always appeared to have been the secret
factor quite apart from their skill with the brush.
Everyone has their own particular star who can do no wrong,
indeed it may be that seeing a particular artist's work may have
sparked you off to start painting in the first place. However, as
you progress you may change your allegiance many times. I went
round a large Picasso exhibition a few years ago and I could
plainly see how during his early years he had been influenced
tremendously by one after the other of the famous painters of his
day until, inevitably, his own strong personality completely took
over.
You have to build on something and there's absolutely no need
to be ashamed of it, a superb artist's work can be a spur and a
goal to keep aiming at. The only danger is that you might be
tempted to make carbon copies of the work of your idol. They
may teach you a little but you'll be dealing with something that
has been seen, selected, organised and painted by someone
else predigested
Even if the painting itself is not copied, we've all visited
exhibitions and seen work which, at a glance, may look exactly
like one of the current nationally known artists. All the manner-
isms are there, the subject matter, the use of this and that idea to
get foreground texture. Everything that is except the talent it's
139
Evolving your own style
a caricature of the great man's work, and nothing more than that.
The wary selection committees at the national exhibitions can
spot them a mile off and usually reject them.
The way to tackle it your own subject and try to
is to find
imagine it through the eyes of the famous man you admire: how
would he have painted it and dealt with the various problems of
colour and composition? Basically, go after the principles under-
lying the work the mannerisms and superficial
rather than
techniques. I try do this myself with Edward Seago in
to
mind he had no gimmicks anyway but his ability to simplify is
a constant inspiration.
How then should you go about acquiring this elusive personal
quality? One thing you can't do is go out and choose a style like
you would buy a new suit. It will evolve slowly, without you
really being aware of it, from your own gut reactions to what you
see around you. Style isn't so much a matter of technique as a
mental attitude. You musn't be self-conscious and up-tight about
it or try to push it along too fast. Think of that unique
thing your signature. When you write it you don't direct it
carefully. Just for a second your own personality takes over and
something completely unique to you appears.
A style is an inevitable growth of both the artist's skill and his
or her own philosophy, if that doesn't sound too pompous. A
style is no good if it is restricted to a very narrow selection of
subjects. We've all been to one-man shows and seen what
appears to be a lot of variations on the same basic theme. 'You've
seen one, you've seen the lot', is the usual reaction from the
public. No, your style should be flexible enough to encompass all
types of subject and different ideas.
Something else you should avoid doing like the plague is
moulding your style too much on what you think will sell,
otherwise you'll begin to make a straight-jacket for yourself. It
will limit you won't rock the boat. You'll feel
to paintings that
you have to put in a figure or an animal everytime to help sell it,
or perhaps avoid bright colours because they might offend your
potential customer's colour scheme.
I know in my own mind that I could probably turn out misty
dawns in the Wye Valley till kingdom come and folk would still
buy them for their sitting rooms. They suit my own particular
wet-into-wet technique but I would probably die of boredom. I
love the challenge of a new subject or even a new country and all
140
its hazards and excitement, even if the paint does dry almost
before it's on the paper.
It's all very well to say that a style will take a long time to
develop but isn't there something we can do to give it a gentle
shove? One way perhaps is to collect all your paintings together,
put them around the room, sit in the middle and just look at
them.
You'll probably find them a pretty mixed bunch, with all sorts
of conflicting attitudes and techniques. In spite of that, try and
find some sort of common theme running through them, some-
thing that keeps appearing regularly. Ask yourself if you are
basically an orderly, tidy painter or a carefree, lighthearted one.
Which paintings did you enjoy doing most and which ones did
you find a bit of a bore? Are you best at moody, atmospheric
work or crisp, detailed drawing? It's often your 'quickies' that
are the most revealing of your work
done swiftly like a sig-
nature; they often show more about yourself than the finished,
studied ones. Perhaps they can show you the way you should be
going in the future.
Whatever style you evolve in the end it will probably be the
product of two opposing sides of your nature, one the inspired,
creative visionary and the other the craftsman/critic putting it all
wrong with it
branches in front
of trees, and I seemed to be
obsessed with scratching the
paper afterwards with a razor
blade; but I thought it might
possibly encourage a few people.
Photographing your paintings
Once you get past a certain stage in your painting you begin to
want keep a record of your work. It is nice, for instance, to be
to
able to show some examples of your skills as an artist to your
friends in a handy form, but later as you progress you may want
to interest a gallery or try to persuade a publisher that your work
is suitable for reproduction. The answer is to photograph your
142
The outdoor set-up. Life is full of decisions and the one you have to make is
whether you want to have transparencies or colour prints of your
work. Each requires a different type of film in your camera.
Transparencies have the disadvantage of having to be shown on a
projector in a darkened room, or used with a hand viewer, or at
worst squinted at against the light, but the colour is very rich
and impressive. Prints are obviously easier to view and can be
exhibited in albums with transparent plastic pockets. They both
have their advantages and your decision depends on the use
you're going to make of them. For example, if your work is to be
143
Photographing your paintings
balanced for daylight. Set the picture up against a wall with the
camera on your tripod directly in front of it and level with the
centre. If it is not level the sides will look distorted. The distance
from the picture to the camera will usually be about three feet
but, of course, this will depend on how it fills the viewfinder. To
get a correct reading for the exposure it's useful to first hold a
grey or fawn sheet of card in front of the picture.
The next danger, if you are taking the picture through glass, is
picking up reflections. These can be avoided with a bit of
thought, for example, don't wear your white shirt, wear some-
thing dark, you may even need to cover up the tripod with a cloth
if it's a silver one. That's about all there is to it. Go out and buy a
by the old dodge of holding a pencil against the picture and if the
two shadows cast from it are equal the lighting is even. As a very
rough guide to exposure with the set up I've described and using
100 ASA film, which I always stick to for simplicity, it would be
about 1/30 second at F8 aperture. Incidentally, you have a little
bit more latitude with your exposures if you are taking prints
rather than transparencies.
you are only taking black and white photographs of your
If
work it's much easier. You don't have to worry about colour
144
The indoor set-up showing the There, I've tried to give a sort of child's guide to the subject.
picture hanging on the wall with wished that more people would write child's guides to
I've often
the two photo-flood lights and, in
politics orcomputers, then perhaps even I could understand
this case, an 80B filter on the
them.
camera.
Don't be scared to have a go. You learn very fast once you've
taken the plunge and may never have to make excuses again
about the quality of your photographs anyway!
145
Presentation
146
As mounts, I have a selection of these in Ingres coloured
for
card. These vary in very soft colours such as grey/green, fawn,
grey/blue and soft brown which I try out on the finished painting
to see which best suits it. I try to match or tie up one of the
dominant colours in the painting with the mount colour. I know
plenty of people will quarrel with this and say that mounts
should always be cream or off white so that the mount is com-
pletely unobtrusive but your own good taste is the only guide
to this. I now use double mounts with what is called a cream
slip, a second board stuck behind with a slightly smaller hole
than the front board giving that expensive stepped look.
I'm not going to try and teach you how to make frames as I
don't do it myself but I have a very friendly local professional
who I've used for years and who keeps a good stock of my
favourite moulding. As I said, I have standardised my mounts
and frames to three sizes and he and I both have dimensional
drawings marked A, B and C. All I then have to do is ring him
and say 'Six A's and 4 B's with the usual mount colours, Brian.'
This method has got me out of many a panic situation.
We've expanded on this idea to my students and they can now
buy the standard frames and mounts at the beginning of the
courses which is a great incentive to produce something worthy
of takinghome afterwards.
One thing I have done for years, and often still do, is to cut my
own mounts. First wash your hands. When you're in a last
minute rush as I usually am, and eating a sandwich on the side
The Dexter mount cutter and its
carried out on the front surface of extremely sensitive to the slightest trace of grease on the fingers
the mount. and it's almost impossible to remove so watch it!
147
Presentation
The next stage is the cutting and this scares quite a lot of
people. The outside is not much of a problem. Use a sharp
Stanley knife with a steel rule and a thick card underneath and
the job is soon done. The inside hole is more difficult, holding
the knife at a set angle while accurately starting and stopping
takes a lot of experience and not a little nerve. Luckily, little
gadgets are available called matt cutters which make the job so
much easier and with practice you can get a perfect bevel every
time. They're certainly well worth buying.
148
Having got the finished mount, the next stage is to fix your
picture in position. I always leave plenty of space around the
picture for manoeuvring and making sure both that the horizon
is bottom of the mount and that the verticals are
parallel to the
upright. I put a strip of sticky paper along the bottom of the
picture, half of it protruding sticky side up, and holding the
mount away from the strip until I'm satisfied that it's in exactly
the right position, I press down firmly on the strip and it's
it
located. I then turn the mount over carefully and the other three
sides can be stuck down.
After first checking you have signed
it, put the picture and the
the hand gun, which is expensive, by using a steel rule and pliers
as shown.
149
Presentation
the holes. I then use them to make the hole and, finally, by
putting the two arms at right angles I can wind the screw eyes in
with it, like a starting handle, quickly and painlessly I should
patent it!
I use nylon cord for hanging very strong and easier to handle
than wire.
I finish off by putting a sticky label on the back with my name,
address and 'phone number you never know, they might want
to buy another painting at a later date. Below: Using the old pair of
One of my pet hates is non-reflecting glass. To me it makes the dividers to measure the distance,
whole painting look as if it has been done on a milky plastic, so make the holes, and as a lever to
150
Marketing
151
Marketing
chances are the whole thing will be sent straight to the composi-
tors intact. This is usually more effective than an advertisement
and, of course, is free. The usual method is to try and tie the two
up in the same edition.
A good clear photograph of, perhaps, members putting up
pictures helps too. I must admit, a picture of a beautiful woman
adjusting one of my watercolours on the wall has sometimes
publicised one of my one-man shows.
Measure the current width of your local paper and trim your
photograph to fit either one or two columns. Everything you do
to make life easier for the editorial staff pays dividends hand-
somely. Of course, if you can get on christian name terms with
your local editor so much the better.
Now to actually sellingyour paintings. At the beginning I
tried every trick in the book and I found the important things
were opportunism and a certain amount of bravado. The conven-
tional way, of course, is to join an art society and show your work
at their exhibitions but I'm afraid I was a little too impatient for
152
a
The type of pre-exhibition that. If you're painting on holiday other holiday makers are a
photograph that few local good They're usually very willing victims because they
start.
newspapers can resist want a souvenir of their visit, especially if they can tell their
beautiful woman.
friends they actually saw it painted. Of course, everyone is much
more willing to part with their money on holiday, or seaside gift
shops would never survive.
One point, always have a few mounts with you as a mount can
make a painting worth double, especially to the uninitiated. I
hope you don't think I'm trying to teach you to sell by deception,
anyway, the public is usually much more discerning than it first
appears. (My tongue is firmly in my cheek.)
My own most important leap forward was to go to a local pub
with some pictures under my arm and persuade the landlord to
put one or two up on the wall. Luckily, they started selling from
the bar quite quickly and I soon infiltrated my paintings along
the corridors into the restaurant and eventually upstairs into the
guest's bedrooms. I've rather made this sound like dry-rot
spreading but I did finish up with about twenty paintings turning
over at an average of two or three a week and the landlord was
quite content with 10%
at first anyway.
Quite apart from the money it was a useful experience for it
taught me a lot about what the buying public likes and does
not like.
153
Marketing
round quietly to size the place up. If they're only dealing with oil
paintings or abstracts I don't usually go any further but if I see
some good watercolours around I chat to the owner, gently
bringing the subject round to a possible appointment to show my
own paintings.
Always try and show your work in as professional a way as
possible. I can't over-emphasise the importance of presentation.
Of course you can't cover up lack of talent but first impressions
count, and there's nothing worse than trying to undo the knots in
string while the gallery owner looks watch impatiently. I
at his
154
work beforehand and looked at the average prices. The gallery
will soon tell you if your work is priced too high and you can
come down a little but you'll find it difficult to do this in reverse.
I often turn the tables and ask them as professionals how much
they consider the selling price should be, knowing I'll get two
thirds of that.
Now to one-man shows in galleries. These are obviously what
every would-be painter aspires to, but first let's not be carried
away. They are always somewhat of a financial risk, so don't
jump on the bandwagon until you're fairly certain that your
work is acceptable to the buying public in sufficient quantities
and at the right price. The soundest way of doing this is to try
your work out at various galleries in small quantities and wait
for results. As you sell your pictures try and get the name and
address of the buyer, this will enable you to build up a mailing
list for your future one-man show. A good mailing list is essential
to be encouraged.
Let's say then that you've decided your work is well enough
known locally to have your own one-man show and you've
persuaded a gallery to lay it on. Let's look at the outlays first.
are just a matter of painting pictures. But having said all that,
155
Marketing
during this time one gentleman pressed a card into my hand and
said, 'I like your work, would you like a one-man show at my
gallery in Luxemburg?' I of course said 'Yes' and I now exhibit
there every eighteen months usually a sell out, I'm glad to say.
Another chance meeting was on the tiny Greek island of Paxos
where I was on a holiday. As I was painting a church somewhere
in the middle of the island two photographers came along and
said they wanted a picture of an artist in the brochure they were
producing for a travel firm. It turned out the company wanted to
start painting holidays to fill the villas at each end of the season.
Sensing an opportunity, I wrote to the firm offering my services
as a tutor which lead to thirteen memorable and profitable trips.
What I'm really trying to say is that self employment as an
artist means that you have to develop sensitive antennae to detect
opportunities as they present themselves and what is more
important, do something about them quickly.
One meets so many people who 'often thought' of doing this or
becoming that and then perhaps envy the folk who have stuck
their neck out and done them. You need your fair share of luck in
all this, of course, but you need to be ready to take advantage of
156
~,/.'
a
around for hundreds of years. But, apart from the few notable
exceptions like Turner, it's always been regarded through the
ages as a second-class art form, lacking the prestige of oils and
always considered too fragile and delicate in scale to compete in
the same league. The old masters used watercolour a lot but
mainly as preliminary sketches for their big, dramatic oils.
The fragility label has, I think, been disproved. Apart from
the fact that watercolours obviously need glass protection, a
200-year-old watercolour, painted with non-fugitive colours will
probably be in as good condition as the day it. was painted,
whereas an oil painting of the same age will have cracked and
darkened considerably.
From the point of view of price too the gap is narrowing. In
the past, watercolours have never been able to command the
same sort of money as oils. However, very high prices are now
being paid for imperial sized watercolours by the top artists.
157
What of the future?
so that I can pick them out one at a time and enjoy painting
something wild on the back without any qualms. Every now and
again a real winner comes out.
When you're touring an art gallery, you're inclined to look at a
famous artist's work on the wall and assume that they always
come out like that they don't. If he's anything of an innovator
he has his pile of failures at home too. It would have been
impossible for him to have developed so far without them.
Deliberately plan to explore new ideas in the next year or so
and develop your own personal involvement. Don't be content to
mimic someone else, however much you admire them and their
techniques, any more than you would try to forge their signature.
Be yourself.
Personally, I can hardly wait for the next twenty years. Unlike
other professions there's no such thing as a retired watercolour
painter. I'm hoping that my work will change and develop year
by year. At least I'm determined my painting won't become
stodgy or safe.
The future looks exciting and I'm determined to go on
painting (and, hopefully, making a living) until I'm dead it's
159
Pencils 17, 49, 50, 51,105 Sickert,W. R. 129
Pencil sketching 47, 48-51, 105, 132 Skies 28, 66-71
Perspective Sky holes 78
aerial 57-58 Snow 45, 98, 113, 114, 118
linear 61-65, 68, 81 Spatter 125
one point 62, 63 Sponges 119, 122, 123
two point 63 Stencils 124
three point 64 Sticks, pointed 128
Plan chest 138 Studio 38-41
Plastic trays 13, 14, 16, 37
Table easels 17
Photography, using properly 129, 133
Transparencies 142-143
Photographing paintings indoors
144-145 Trees 72-80
paintings outdoors 143-144
Tone 52-53, 101,120
Turner, J. M. W. 57, 102
Photographic tripod 14, 15
Tutors, choice of 135, 136
Press, The 151
Press releases 152 Ultramarine 12, 34, 35, 37, 97
Putty rubber 17,49
Vanishing points 61-65
Rain 45 View finder 49, 50
Raw Sienna 12, 34, 37
Reflections 107, 109-110, 111 Walls 87
Reflected light 98, 99 Water pots, collapsible 14, 16, 43, 44
Rigger 13, 24-25, 31, 74, 75, 79, 113 studio 14, 16
Rivers 106, 112 Washing out 119,120
Rocks 95 Wet-into-Wet 26-29, 113
Rowneys 12 White paint 25, 120
Russell Flint, Sir William 87 Wide-angle lens 132
Windsor and Newton 12
Salt 125
Winter palette 1 14
Seagulls 93-94 Wye Valley 36, 42, 106, 107, 138, 140
Seago, Edward 57, 140
Selling paintings 151, 152-156 Zoom lens 132
Shadows 45, 82, 96-99
160
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
HD2420
.H36
1984X
8b6l0288-22 ER
BRIGHTON
BRANCH LIBRARY
40 Academy Hill Road
Brighton 02135
DRAWING CARTOONS
Colin Caket
Anyone with a sense of humour, an eye for the absurd and a
minimal ability with pen or pencil can create an effective
cartoon. Colin Caket shows you how.
96pages Illustrated
Blandford Press
Link House
West Street
Poole
Dorset, UK
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
2 Park Avenue, New York,
N.Y. 10016, USA
V
Hi