Leisure Painter — June 2017

Watercolour

I

n the last issue I shared the first three

of the six reasons I love painting in

watercolour. In addition to the colour,

bonuses and brushwork aspects, I enjoy

harnessing the capricious character of this

medium, exploring the different painting

surfaces available and, finally, the way it

responds, if you, the artist, work as a

partner in, rather than taking charge of

the process.

You need to play with watercolour to

discover what sends shivers down your

spine and by trying to control it too much

you may miss the surprises it has in store

for you. How do you tap into this most

rewarding and frustrating aspect of the

medium? I believe it is by just

experimenting with the water, different

surfaces, brushes, spray bottles and

28 JUNE 2017 http://www.painters-online.co.uk

Part 2Learn more about the nature of watercolour with Ev Hales. This month,

experiment with colour and different paper surfaces to develop your work

Wat ercolour rules!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

n Work out your own style of

painting

n Draw into random colour

experiments

n Understand how different

surfaces can work for you

Victoria Dock, Hobart, wash and pen on Hot-Pressed paper, 15x11in. (38x28cm). In this

image I have splashed colour expressively on a sheet of paper (a gestural happening my

students know as a splodge) then superimposed a pen drawing upon it. The energy of the

colour is a great foil for the pen drawing. The end result is a more energised image than can

be achieved by painting a wash over a drawing. This is because the colour has a complete

entity of its own, separate from the drawing.

t

TRY THIS!

Using no more than two or three colours,

try wetting the paper with a spray bottle

and dropping colours randomly into the

wetness, or try making expressive random

brushmarks. Do not stir the colour on the

paper. Ensure you have a variety of hard

and soft edges and leave plenty of white

space. The colour design should look good

from any angle. Let it dry then see what

you can discover in the colour you have

used. This exercise can be used as the

basis for a painting or you may draw over

the colour with a black waterproof pen.

Resist the urge to cover everything.

This process allows you to start looking

at what the medium can do without any

preconceived notions about subjects.

Learn to look at what the paint is doing

and think about how you can use the

results. If you are going to draw with pen

then the Hot-Pressed or smooth paper is

easiest to draw over; a textured paper is

not kind to the pen tip.

Drawing into a splodge is the beginning

of an artistic partnership between colour

and pen. Other media, like oils and

acrylics, do not require such thoughtful

immediacy because you can keep adding

layers until you achieve a desired result.

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