The Artist - UK (2020-03)

http://www.painters-online.co.uk artistMarch 2020 29

PRACTICAL



it loose

EXERCISE

NEGATIVE SHAPES

I ask my students to do this – i t ’s quite

fun and good practice. Paint any shape

• a  gure or tree for example. Then
  envision that object as a light shape in
  front of a dark doorway or hillside, and
  recreate it by painting a dark shape
  around it, leaving a white negative shape
  behind. I t ’s surprisingly di cult if you
  haven’t done it much, but wonderful
  practice. I have many oil painters who
  take my classes and this is a revelation
  for them, as they’ve never had to worry
  much about it before.

 STAGE ONE

Value study, 8 10in (20.525.5cm).

My  rst step was to prepare a value study of the light and

mid-value shapes, using Payne’s grey

 STAGE TWO

I wet my watercolour paper with a natural sponge and laid

in a light wash of local colours – these will be the lightest

areas

wash. I’m not worried about details at

this stage. It’s amazing how much of the

scene is evident at this point. Even with

very little actual detail, the silhouetted

shapes reveal the scene. Often times

my students will say ‘you could stop

now and have a painting’. That’s such

a good lesson, as we tend to obsess

about things of little consequence.

Adding the darks

At this point I revisit the value study,

adding the large obvious darks that will

help to reinforce my area of interest.

Also I’m still painting shapes. One

aspect of watercolour painting is that

you become a good negative shape

maker – objects are created by painting

a darker shape around them as often

as actually painting the positive shape

itself.

Once again, the value study is good

practice for the actual painting. The

age-old question of when to stop can

be worked through on a study instead

of your colour work. It’s fun to put in

details such as fi gures, windows or

animals, but if you’re not careful all the

work you did to simplify can get lost

in a sea of small darks. If your marks

aren’t helping the painting, it’s probably

time to stop. There are also many times

when you have to ask yourself if it’s

wise to put in a tree branch or shadow,

for example. Having a value study to

work on prevents you from making a

potentially disastrous decision on your

actual painting.

If I’m confi dent in the value study,

I place those same dark shapes on

my colour painting without being too

careful. I want to maintain a freshness to

the work, and a lot of those dark details

are best if put in quickly to prevent the

painting from looking like a rendering.

This is especially true when putting

in fi gures and animals. Unless they’re

sitting on a bench or lying down in a

fi eld, they should appear to be moving

about, so small gestural strokes are

best. This is also surprisingly diffi cult,

because we obsess about getting those

particular elements just right and they

end up stiff and overworked. I tell my

students that the longer they work on

them, the worse they get. Give the

viewer enough information to convince

them of the shape, then stop.

If you’re having diffi culty infusing a

loose feeling into your watercolours, I

recommend working on small, three-

value studies for a while and using them

as a template for fi nding compositions

based on large shapes with a

combination of lost-and-found edges.

DEMONSTRATIONFriend and Protector

‘Having a value study to work on prevents

you from making a potentially disastrous

decision on your actual painting’