HOW I PAINT
golf clubs won’t make you a better
golfer. Practice and intellectual
thought will make you an artist.
I hate sketchbooks, I don’t own
one. I paint predominantly on full
sheets of paper, both in the studio
and en plein air. In the field I paint
near vertically which adds challenges
such as coping with runaway drips.
The paper will dry differently outside.
In the studio, I paint mainly full sheets
on a slightly raised board and use a
hairdryer to speed things up. I enjoy
the challenge of full-sheet painting but
more paint, thought, planning, rescue
techniques and energy is required.
I use a spontaneous, alla prima
technique, which involves doing the
painting in one go, without much
correction, and in under an hour and
a half. Any longer will cause you to
overthink and over-correct.If I lose the energy and the initial
captured spontaneity, it will cause the
painting to fail. I also never paint at
night because again you can ruin a
painting that looked perfectly alright
at lunchtime.FIVE-STEP PROCESS
My new DVD by APV Films is called
Tonal Watercolours. It was filmed at
the end of 2019 by Antony, Oliver and
Caroline Parker. This very talented
family are all artists in their careers
as cinematographers, film makers,
directors and editors. Their films are
exceptional and as well as being
instructional they tell an interwoven
story which allows the artist they film
to become involved with their
audience. The Parkers also filmed my
first DVD, Five Steps to Watercolour,
which is set around Lake Como.My five steps are as follows. Step
one is composition. It is necessary
to compose your painting so that it
balances, by omitting unnecessary
items and repositioning others. If you
get the balance correct in the first
place, you are one-fifth of the way to
a successful painting. Step two is
colour. Choose your colours and don’t
necessarily use the ones presented
to you by the image. If the sky is grey
and you prefer it blue or pink, that is
perfectly reasonable. The third step
is tone. Begin to build up your painting
with the blocking in of tones, going
over them if necessary when they
fade back with a darker tone of the
first layering. Remember that
watercolour always dries lighter too.
Step four is about “magic”. Create
the light by placing shadows over
certain parts of the painting. Observe
where the sun is, and you will always
find shadows – even flowers on a
windowsill shade each other in the
vase. And the final step involves
pulling it together: adding all the
details and extra bits like masts,
streetlights, fences, grass, people...I am a tonalist... I abhor primary
colours unless they are very subdued
and knocked back with a base colour
Artists & Illustrators 45