Watercolour WorkshopWatercolour Workshop 113VISIT JOHN LOVETT ONLINE http://www.johnlovett.com http://www.johnlovettwatercolorworkshop.comGiven the choice of just one
brush, a hake might not be the
brush you wish to be stranded on
a desert island with, but once you
get used to a hake, you would feel
very lonely without it.GRADED SIDE WASHES
I often use graded side washes to
concentrate light around the focal area.
This requires big wet washes graded
over a thoroughly dry underpainting.
The washes are applied, with as little
agitation as possible, using a bristle or
taklon brush, and then gently adjusted
with a dry hake. It is important not to
stir things up too much or the under
painting will be disturbed. A soft hake,
gently applied is ideal for this.
A number of warm grey
washes were applied to the top
right and bottom left corners
of this painting, as was a thin
layer of gesso. All these washes
were gently feathered out
with a dry hake brush to make
subtle adjustments to the
intensity of these areas. This
encouraged a band of diagonal
detail through the work,
focusing attention down in the
focal area.
In this painting a cool grey wash was
graded over both sides of the painting
to intensify the contrast in the focal
area. Smoothing the wash with a dry
hake brush avoided any disturbance to
the underpainting.