2020-08-01 Artists & Illustrators

46 Artists&Illustrators

HOW I PAINT

A tonal painting holds more

mystery, magic, mood and

light, and will always hold a

viewer’s attention longer

Anything that will enhance your
painting, but don’t over fiddle and
know when to stop.
I always use a mirror to see my
painting in reverse as I proceed.
It is especially useful at the end of
the painting as it will show you where
it is incorrect. If any of my five steps
is not done properly, you can pinpoint
what you will need to fix the finished
painting. Another mast? Step five.
A darker tone on the building? Step
three. Why did I paint that orange?
Step two.

THINKING IN TONES
Tone is often misunderstood. Tone
is not “different colours”. Tone is
‘different strengths’ of the same or
different colours overlaid. For
example, wet-in-wet painting requires
a stronger strength of paint to be
placed into the first layer of wet paint
because the paper is already wet.
Many people only see the colour of a
subject and their paintings appeal on
that basis. A tonal painting holds
more mystery, magic, mood and light,
and will always hold a viewer’s
attention longer. As the saying goes,
“tone does all the work, but colour
gets all the glory”.
I manage tone in my paintings by
keeping my palette simple, always
mixing a colour with a base – for
example, with cold tones, I will mix
the colour with Indigo or Ultramarine
Blue, and for warm tones, I’ll mix the
colour with Sepia or Burnt Sienna.
An unmixed colour should only be
used for highlights. I like to use a
mixture of both wet-on-dry paper
and wet-on-wet paper techniques
throughout the painting.
During the en plein air filming of
Tonal Watercolours, every day was
stormy, rainy, overcast or windy but
that was not a deterrent. On the
contrary, I love these days. I love grey.
I never clean my palette and use a
hake brush to mix all yesterday’s
paint together to make grey before I
begin – I call this “palette gunge”.

You can then add any colour to the

“palette gunge” to subdue the raw

colour of paint. “Palette gunge” plus

Cerulean Blue and Perylene Green

makes leaf colours. Add a dose of

Burnt Sienna and you get warmer leaf

colours. Add a dab of Ultramarine

Blue and you get the leaves at the

back of the previous leaves.

Another point about grey days is

that there is always still a shadow.

If not, you can emphasise a shadow

even if you can’t find it. You can

also leave the paper white with no

paint-wash on it to indicate a

THIS IMAGE Reculver

Tower s, watercolour

on paper, 54x74cm

RIGHT Santorini, oil

on canvas, 80x80cm