Leisure Painter - UK (2019-06)

20 JUNE 2019 http://www.painters-online.co.uk

You will need

nSurface

lMountboard

or heavy

paper 14x14in.

(35x35cm)

n Watercolour

lGamboge

lQuinacridone rose

lPyrole orange

lPayne’s grey

lFrench ultramarine

lSevre blue

Watercolour plus

Step 3

I needed

to calm some

of the pattern

down, and

ensure that the

watercolours

would take

and seal the

surface. First

I coated the

entire collage

with transparent watercolour ground then applied white

watercolour ground to the area where I would paint the

bird, feathering in the edges. I used a small roller, but

a household brush would be fine – just don’t use your

watercolour brushes! It’s up to you how much pattern

you want showing through the watercolour. Here

I verged on the side of caution. I applied two coats,

which needed to dry overnight.

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Step 4
Starting with the beak, I painted wet in wet. Painting on
watercolour ground is not the same as painting on paper.
Paint takes longer to dry and the colour can be lifted very
easily so it is best not to layer or glaze unless you have a
very light touch. Mixing colours wet in wet on the surface
is successful. I used the gamboge, pyrole orange and
quinacridone rose. I also painted the strange blue skin
around the eye, using a thirsty brush (a clean damp
brush) to lift areas for soft highlights.

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Step 1

A thumbnail sketch is vital to help plan your

painting and will help save much heartache

further down the line. The toco toucan was very

uncooperative when I tried to sketch him at Bird

World near Farnham. I opted for the ‘over the

shoulder’ pose to capture this behaviour. I wanted

him coming off the page so wasn’t being contained

by the painting. Habitat loss is a real threat to

toucans. Rain forests are being cut down at

unprecedented rates. While planning I decided to

develop a collaged background using a map, leaf

prints and newspaper articles about climate change.

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mountboard instead.

2 When sticking two papers together, you should

always put your glue on the sturdiest surface to

avoid cockling the thinner paper. An alternative for

very fragile papers might be a spray of repositioning

glue, which will keep them in place until they are

covered with the watercolour ground.

DemonstrationToco

n Miscellaneous

lAssorted patterned

papers including

newsprint

lPVA glue

lClear and transparent

watercolour ground

Step 2

1 When preparing a collage background, plan the

elements before gluing. I find that torn edges are

less obtrusive than cut ones. By tearing from the

front or the back of the paper you can achieve or

avoid a white edge, depending on what you want.

Check whether your papers are acid free. Newspaper

will yellow with time, but given the aged effect of

the map I used, this isn’t a problem. Once you are

happy with your design, use PVA glue to stick the

papers in place. As I covered the entire surface, I did

not choose watercolour paper, using an off-cut of

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