TheArtistApril2016__

42 artistApril 2016 http://www.painters-online.co.uk

Whether it is a pencil, pen or brush you have in your hand

you should always be conscious of the individual marks you are making,

says Judi Whitton

Mark making

in watercolour

E

very painter strives to make

‘good’ marks in their work as this

can often distinguish a merely

competent piece of work from an

exciting and individual one. Distinctive

mark making is probably more

associated with oil, acrylic and pastel

than with watercolour painting.

In traditional watercolour painting the

medium flows onto the paper so it is

impossible to create any physical

depth. Watercolour has a habit of doing

its own thing and does not always stay

where you place it, so it is not always

relevant to show individual marks. One

of the joys of watercolour is the

blending of washes, the lovely effects

of sweeping large brushstrokes across

the paper and allowing the paint to

settle, giving that magical translucency.

Keep it lively

However, a watercolour where you can

see individual marks made with the

brush can also have a special liveliness

and excitement. You can make the

marks work for you. Sitting in the car at

Barley Cove on the Mizen Peninsula,

West Cork, I painted a homestead

nestled in the hillside, Hillside Dwelling,

Barley Cove, West Cork, 1(below).

Assessing the picture later I decided

that the foreground rocks and grass

area were probably acceptable but the

rest of the picture seemed rather run-

of-the-mill and disappointing. I gave

myself a ticking off as, however many

excuses you can muster, it is always

important to make the effort not to

paint ordinary pictures with generalised

marks. Later I drew and painted it

again, Hillside Dwelling, Barley Cove, Cork, 2

(right), but this time tried to breathe

life into the painting with the use of

bold pencil marks and a more

distinctive application of paint where

the marks made with the brush played

a greater part in the finished work.

For example, in Figure 1 (right) the

approach used is the same as that in

my weak effort Hillside Dwelling, Barley

Cove, Cork, 1. The roofs were first drawn

and then the paint washed on to fill in

the shape. Really this is a disaster –

how unimaginative can I be? Compare

this with Figure 2 (right), in which the

mark making is more dominant and see

how, although the roof has been drawn

with the pencil, the paint has been

applied with a dancing brush – Prussian

blue and cadmium orange on the brush

together but not pre-mixed on the

palette – breathing more vigour into

the roof areas.

Hillside Dwelling, Barley Cove, West Cork,1,

watercolour and pencil on Fabriano Artistico

Not, 811in (20.528cm).

This was painted in a generalised manner

with little emphasis on showing individual

marks

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