Artists_amp_amp_Illustrators__July_2016_

Artists & Illustrators 49

MASTERCLASS

3 PUT THE PAINT IN MOTION

Avoiding the lemon at this stage, I move onto

the chilli pepper, using transparent Pyrrole

Orange to block in the shape and a large

sable brush loaded with very liquid pigment.

In the early stages of this style of painting,

The paint should be in motion, and again, for

more depth of tone, I drop in pigment with a

brush, this time loaded with Perylene Scarlet.

2 INTRODUCE WATER

I drop in clean water from a dropper bottle in

areas I want to be a little lighter; this has the

effect of pushing away the wet pigment which

leaves the area lighter and creates

interesting textures as it dries. There’s the

possibility of ‘caulifl owers’ here (an effect

that occurs when water, or wetter paint, is

added to a semi-dry area of paint).

1 START WITH A SKETCH

After a light pencil sketch to place my lemon,

I begin with the aubergine. Using a mix of

Phthalocyanine Blue and Magenta, I drop in

more paint by loading the brush and lightly

touching it across the already wet paper.

You can then liven up this area by dropping in

your constituent pigments both pure and in

various ratios once the main shape is

blocked in. >

kate’S TOOLS

• BRUSHES
  Size 12 round sable from Rosemary & Co,
  Chinese weasel hair brush from Oriental Arts in
  Brighton (one extra large, one large and one
  medium) and a Prolene Sword Brush


• COLOURS
  I have used a palette of ten colours:

Winsor & Newton Phthalocyanine Blue (green

shade), Schminke Hansa Yellow and Hansa

Yellow Deep, Daniel Smith Quinacridone

Magenta, Opera Pink, Perylene Scarlet and

transparent Pyrrole Orange, Graham’s Cerulean

Blue and Qor Permanent Alizarin Crimson

• PAPER
  Saunders Waterford off-white 850gsm paper

(dark purple), deliberately juxtaposing the

lemon and the aubergine as the two ends of

this spectrum.

I’m working on Saunders Waterford

off-white 850gsm paper, you can use a

lighter weight but it may be best to stretch it,

as working so wet will cause a fair amount of

buckling. Anything lighter than 300gsm will

buckle even when stretched, leading to

‘channels’ of paint across the page (though it

will dry fl at) and this may not be the effect

you want.

http://www.kateosborneart.com

I

f you are working with very wet watercolour

washes, you may run into problems when

using a light tone against a deep one; it

requires some timing and here I’ll be

demonstrating how to control these washes

and get the timing right.

Impatience is the enemy, as it nearly

always is with watercolour used in this way;

you can’t afford to get too distracted and

miss that magic moment when your painting

is just wet enough for the next brushstroke.

Nevertheless hanging over it – like the

proverbial watched pot that never boils – can

lead to premature intervention, and we all

know what a cup of tea made with tepid

water is like!

Little test strips done on scraps of paper

are invaluable for learning to gauge those

optimum moments and to see how different

pigments interact.

Here I have set up a still life of an

aubergine, a lemon and a chilli pepper to give

a range of tones from the lightest (yellow)

through mid tones (red) to the deepest ones

‘channels’ of paint across the page (though it

48 Masterclass.indd 49 10/05/2016 14:58