TECHNIQUE
Stages of a painting
When I’m doing a more fi nished painting,
I tend to work in three distinct stages. I begin
with a pencil sketch, then an ink sketch, and
fi nally, watercolour.
To keep the spontaneity throughout the
creation of an entire piece, I move through each
one of the stages relatively quickly. I want to
keep my pencil stroke light and use it to defi ne
the overall shape. I make sure I’m happy with
the composition, the perspective, and the forms,
but I don’t want to get bogged down in detail at
this stage. I want to move on to the ink stage as
quickly as I can.
When I’m sketching my ink lines, I tend to
think of them as composing the darkest parts of
my composition. Ink is reserved for the deepest
shadows, banister railings, window outlines, and
only the parts of a composition that contain the
darkest of darks.I don’t use ink to outline, for example, every
building or every window. The last thing I want
to do is create a drawing that I then colour in.
My philosophy is that each one of the stages- pencil, ink, and paint – should play off each
other and play well together.
In order to not create a piece laden with
details, I will put my pen down before I feel I’m
fi nished. It’s easy to get bogged down in detail
with a pen and portray too much. Ink can make
things too heavy. So, for the style that I have
developed, there will be very few ink marks on
my page before I reach for my paints. It’s much
easier to add details later, but harder to take
them away.
Because I love painting light and the way light
defi nes and shapes structures, I fi nd if there’s
too much ink, it gets in the way of the light. Ink
starts to fi ght with the light and compete with it.
I want all these elementstoworkinharmony.
HangingBasket,
watercolouronpaper
Usedarkinksforthe
deepestofshadows,
leavingthewhiteofthe
paperforbrighthighlights.
Detailscanremainloosely
sketchedin.Paper,ink,
andpaintallworktogether
tocompletetheimage.