Artists & Illustrators - UK (2020-05)

A Sense

of Depth

Whenthischarmingscenepresenteditselfto MATTJEANES,

it camewithachallenge:howtopainttheforegroundand

background withoutoverpoweringoneanother

DEMO

S

ometimes a scene strikes you as one

that you would just like to paint. Quite

why that is, isn’t always clear. Some

photographs appear perfect the way they are,

others seem to say: “paint me!” Learning how to

respond to this impulse is an important part of

being an artist.

When I happened across the scene above,

I loved this photograph of it as it felt warm and

bright, relaxed and sweet. The gentle walk, the

conversation between the guy and the dog as

they strolled along, it told a lovely story that

made you feel as if you are right there with them.

So, how to go about painting a scene such as

this? It presents certain challenges, not least

the fields, the figures and the background. The

biggest challenge for me, however, was the

foreground, and the flowers in particular. They

looked simple enough, but it was important to

decide whether to paint them or the background

around them first.

In this demo, I chose to work in reverse

from white to the darker tints. I tried not to

over-complicate the flowers by drawing too much

in order to keep these complicated little blooms

as simple as possible.

Tod’s materials

•Paints

New Gamboge, Winsor Violet,

French Ultramarine, Cobalt

Blue, Cerulean Blue (Red

Shade), Antwerp Blue, Winsor

Green (Blue Shade), Viridian,

Hooker’s Green, Green Gold,

Naples Yellow, Naples Yellow

Deep, Gold Ochre,

Quinacridone Gold, Indian Red,

Burnt Umber, Indigo, Payne’s

Gray and Neutral Tint, all

Winsor & Newton Professional

Water Colours; Permanent

White, Winsor & Newton

Designers Gouache

•Paper

Winsor & Newton 300gsm

cold pressed watercolour

paper, A2

•Brushes

ProArte Prolene Series 007

round brushes, sizes 1, 3, 10

and 20; ProArte Prolene

Series 008 flat brush, size 1”

•Masking Fluid

•HB pencil

•Coloured pencils

1

I normally begin by

drawing my chosen image

onto a separate piece of

paper to get the scale right

before transferring it to the

delicate surface of the

watercolour paper. However,

in this instance, I drew the

general shapes straight onto

the watercolour paper,

judging the positions by eye.

The flowers were so intricate

and delicate, so I wanted to

avoid overpowering them

with complex drawing.

With the drawing in place,

I masked out white highlights

with colourless masking fluid

and allowed it to dry. I then

added washes of French

Ultramarine to the sky, bands

of greens to the fields (mixed

with Hookers Green, Green

Gold and Viridian), and

Naples Yellow and Gold

Ochre to the foreground.

Once dry, I painted pale

yellows for the foreground

flowers, let that dry, and then

masked out the lightest

shapes for the petals.

2

When the masking fluid

was dry, I looked closely

at my reference photo to

decide what to do next.

I decided to add some

darker tones to the flowers.

I did this by layering a little

masking fluid, letting it dry,

painting a bit, letting it dry,

masking a bit more and so on.

When you remove the

dried masking fluid at the

end of the painting process,

it creates a batik-like pattern

which can give a varied and

exciting effect.

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Artists & Illustrators 71

70-72_Matt Jeanes.indd 71 10/03/2020 15:58