Leisure Painter - UK (2019-06)

http://www.painters-online.co.uk JUNE 2019 21

Liz Chaderton

Liz runs regular workshops

near her home in Berkshire.

Visit http://www.lizchaderton.co.uk

for details. In October she

will be tutoring an exciting

drawing and painting trip to

Uttarakhand, India with the

chance to see tigers, sloths and

a wealth of spectacular birds

(www.paintingineurope.com

for details).

Step 6

Having left this to dry, it was time for the

eye and the beak markings. Again, I tried

to vary the mix by dropping in colours wet

into wet so it did not appear too solid.

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Step 7

The finishing touches included a little

lifting to create highlights and splatters

and printing with a bottle lid to create

more textural marks. At this point I

realised I had made the classic mistake

of painting what I thought was there,

rather than what I had seen. I had

treated the blue area as the cornea

of the eye and extended the highlight

into it. In reality, this blue is skin and

the glossy eye is black. Luckily, I could

make a quick adjustment. It goes to

show you have to observe constantly!

Watercolour ground is quite fragile

so if you are not going to frame the

artwork and protect it with glass, it

is worth spraying it with a fixative

or varnish. Look for one that is

archival and offers UV protection.

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Watercolour plus

Step 5
Moving on to the body, I used a rich mixture
of Payne’s grey being mindful to paint in the
direction of the feathers and to leave flashes
of white to show some structure. I used dry
brushing in places to add visual interest.

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I mixed in French ultramarine and pyrole

orange to stop the Payne’s grey going flat.

It is a colour to use with care as it can

deaden a painting. I also used a small

spray bottle to soften edges in places.

The finished painting Toco,
watercolour on collage,
14 x14in. (35x35cm)

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