Artists Back to Basics - Issue 6 Volume 3 2016

masking tape. I use a small wallpaper

roller as seen here to make sure the

tape is all pressed down; alternatively,

rub it well down with your fingers. It’s

now ready to paint on, but first we

need to get our paints ready. Pre- mix

your colours in individual bowls like

weak tea and experiment with say 4

colours only. I’m using only two for

this article, Cobalt Blue with a touch

of Paynes Gray, but as long as you

pre- prepare all your paints before you

start to paint or wet the paper, they

will all blend together on your paper.

Using your Hake brush, wet the paper

all over, then quickly dip your Hake into

your pre-mixed paint and simply draw

the brush across the paper. If you are

using more than one colour, wash your

brush in clean water between colours.

Have a concept in mind but don’t try

and paint neatly, just let the water do

the work for you. This is a monochrome

painting but if your using more than

one colour you need to apply all the

colours now, in the same way, so they

will merge together spread out and dry.

You don’t have to paint it as it is,

you could brighten the sky or change

things around to suit yourself but

for this demonstration, I’m going

to stick petty much to the photo

taken on a cloudy grey day.

I have bought the horizon down to

help the composition, and with the

paper still fairly wet suggested the

distant shrubs and trees. By doing

this now, the paint will still merge into

the background giving you that nice

soft look - you can always deepen

the tone later. But as before, decide

what you want to do, run the paint in

quickly and don’t fiddle. Let the water

find its own way, and remember it

will be a lot lighter when it’s dry. The

birds, posts and other details were

added with a watercolour pencil.

A Prayer from the outback,

“well almost”

NN SignMonk at NN Gates

My postcard for this Teacher’s Pet

article comes from New Norcia. A

unique Monastic town, two hours north

of Perth on W.A.’s vast Shire of Victoria

Plains, from where the Benedictine

Monks Diocese extends over a large

part of Western Australia. I’ve been to

Teacher’s Pet