Painting methods and brushwork
Opinions differ about technique and style. This depends very much on your personal character as to painting style. If you are a quick worker or have an impatient character there is no way that you are going to be capable of detailed, minute,and intricate work. Your free flowing style makes it difficult to take on the task of a miniaturist. Whereas, if you are fussy, take pleasure in fine detail, need to make a perfect representation of the article in front of you, then you will shun the broad spectrum of the free spirit. However, don’t be put off. Your style is as good as the next man’s, it’s just that it’s different!
Drawing
This difference will show in your approach to the drawing. If you are a free spirit then a loose sketch will suffice, for those who delve in detail and perfection a tight drawing, giving all the fine detail is necessary. There is a place for all. But once you start whichever style you adopt then you must keep it constant throughout the whole painting. You can still make the near foreground and skyline less detailed but it should not be added to with colours overlaid and mixed up. The object is to apply the paint with as few strokes as possible, not leeching into each other... but if necessary, applied ontop, when the undercolour is perfectly dry.
Think of the drawing as the foundation of the painting which will dictate the whole expression of the piece. To make a fine painting the structure has to follow ridged rules of perspective, eye line, foreground and distance. This applies to landscapes and portraiture within these constraints you follow your own style of cartoon, caricature and imaginative depiction. Much of this skill comes from drawing from nature and life describing your impression in line and shade. This is taught and comes with practice and dedication.
Artists do need to know something about the shape of tree canopy and skeletal form to appreciate what it is they are drawing. Lines do not go nowhere they have a beginning and an end. They follow folds in the ground and creases on a face. The ground is shaped by its geography, the face by age and sex, and the building by perspective, scale and architecture. Be a devotee of a Master, follow his work and become an expert. Look carefully at the way he suggests a shape see how he uses the flow of paint to give interest and form. Peer intently at how detailed he is and what parts of the painting are in fine detail. Be able to describe and inform others of a style of work which interests you. It is only by being sufficiently good at drawing that you will become a satisfactory water colour painter… for drawing is the key. Painting is a craft and should be treated as a discipline that needs perfection, diligence, and discipline.
Painting
It is quite impossible to paint confidently if you are in doubt how to begin. As with all crafts your approach to the job has been formed over many years. You prepared your board; you stretch your paper, and make your drawing. Eventually this will become a good habit. Each of these tasks sets you up for the next step. Paint your sky having mixed up the blue or grey and have any other colour variation prepared beforehand. Perhaps you intend to create cloud formations allowing grey to leech into the blue or you are going to dry off a portion with a paper tissue. You will know how you are going to perform these tasks because you have done them so many times before. To perfect a sky requires you to paint a sky a day… to know what reaction each colour has upon itself and others.
For the beginner, art colleges have their students paint a coloured wheel, the spectrum of light: R, O, and Y, G, B, I, V, painted in segments on a disc… each colour occupying an equal space. Across the disc, on opposite sides, the colours are complementary; that is to say, if they are mixed together they make grey, or a neutral colour. At their strongest, using neat colour, they form a very dark grey/black. The mixing of one colour into another contaminates both. Colours are described by their: ‘hue’ (colour), ‘saturation’ (strength), whiteness, or brightness (lightness). visible spectrum
The style we are trying to emulate ‘The English Style’ requires a dry surface and each part painted, if at all possible, in one application of paint. That is not always possible but that is the aim. By filling the brush with premixed paint, applying it full, not sparingly, allowing it to dry naturally, the result is referred to as having a ‘bloom’ – appears transparent, with the pigment drying out in the centre of the blot pushing the tiny particles of pigment to the edges – giving the shape an unsharp masking effect – or edge. If you make the same weight of colour, but you take several stabs at it… building up the weight… the colour will appear flat and opaque.
Over a period of time you will discover for yourself how satisfying it is to accomplish the picture in as few strokes as possible but achieving the right degree of shape, detail, and interest. Your picture will be alive and vibrant not dull, flat, showing where you have obviously struggled to achieve an effect. Do not try to make your shape perfectly flat – covering every part, but make it appear incomplete – showing tiny holes or slithers of white paper showing through. This will give sparkle to your picture. Perhaps the dried colour will not be exactly the tone, or hue you wish it to be, that is because you did not try it out before hand. Test all you colours before you apply them, this should be a habit. It is best to leave applied paint alone, or if you must do so in part only.
A limited palette made up of transparent colours is a preferred start. They are at their very best without contamination by opaque colours. If you are mixing colour try to limit pigments for contamination spoils the blooming effect. It is important to understand about the colour wheel using the complimentary colours - to neutralise their effect. After finishing the sky it is a good tip to add a warmish pale yellow – if you are painting a group of buildings paint the palest sunny side of a house. Do not cover the whole house including the shadow areas but only the lightest wall. Gradually build up your picture trying not to concentrate and finish one particular piece but try a keep the whole coming along together. Don’t be tempted to put in any close detail but leave that till last. If you are painting up to a wet area of paint leave a thin white line between the areas – do not allow paint to leech - run into each other, except in the sky. Even in that instance it really is better not to.Consider how the Chinese paint their wonderful watercolours using a single stroke to suggest shape and form.
Landscapes
Composition is the arrangement of shapes, colours, and detail. It is the factor which make or breaks the picture. The bulk of the picture – the distant sky-line of hills, the under-lighting of the clouds, tree masses, winding river, and heavy foreground… In the middle distance the rays of sunlight penetrate a break in the clouds picking out a group of farm building. Compositions giving enormous effect can often be of a simple nature. A single tree perched on a craggy outcrop of rock. The skyline can be only a quarter way up the picture the bulk being the threatening sky and shafts of light. The stone bridge grabs the eye and the road beyond leads the way to a little cottage with a wicket fence. The purple hills give distance and a poetic feeling set off by the sap green foreground banks of the stream. The shadow under the bridge arch is the pictures darkest part sets off the light on the opposite river bank. The series of dark cloud shadows compliment the opposite darkened foreground.
Painting outside from nature requires an even more disciplined approach. The drawing is most important because you are going to quickly add your shadow areas in one fell swoop using a bluey/purple to give the picture style and airiness’. The bulk of the picture is finished leaving all the shadow areas to be put in nearly at the end of the painting. Do not forget to make your picture balance. This does not mean to say that a dark mass on one side has to be balanced up by a dark blob on the other. The balance may well come from another source or by space between the masses. Colour applied too strongly can be lightened by wetting and blotting alternately. But don’t do this too often you will spoil the effect. The best tip is not to make a mistake in the first place. It is very bad form to make your painting laboured – trying too hard to get it just right. There are a number of tricks of the trade to give latitude. Using a fine sand paper when the paint is dry, to give a stippled effect, scraping with a scalpel, using a natural sponge or canvas, wetting the paper, using a rubber… there are so many. My advice is to 'perfect your art' first. Using a dry brush effect to use the rough paper surface to give texture is about as far as you should go. Your brushing technique is the first thing your peers will take note of.
Still life
There is nothing more important for the trainee artist - as a way to perfect his skills, than to concentrate on still life. The collected objects chosen for shape, colour and interest are set out on a table. Hopefully that table setting can be left until the painting has been finished. If possible it is useful to take a photograph of the finished setting in case they have to be moved. Having the scene prepared and a suitable backing given - to make the outline clearer, the artist can begin to sketch out the key to his work.
There is no need to shade in either the shapes or shadows the object is to give an outline placing the articles in proper relation/perspective to each other. When this has been done the inner detail can be entered to make up the picture. As I have previously written it is the amount of careful detail on your paper which will determine how detailed the picture will be and how close when comparing the painting to the objects. I would hope your aim is to achieve a good likeness that makes the objects sit up off the page and grab the attention of the viewer – so that the fruit can be picked up and eaten and the flowers smelt for their scent.
To be able to choose the subjects, arrange them artistically, select the background and foreground, sit in the warm and dry with all your drawing equipment around you is perfection. Now all you have to do is test your draftsmanship, your painting skills, and colour mixing. Isn’t that enough to challenge you?
Life painting and portraiture
Nothing is quite as challenging as painting the human figure. Before you start size-up he figure before you. Decide where the light is coming from and pencil in an outline with the pencil just protruding from the tip of your first finger around the whole figure… that will settle the picture’s shape in the centre of the paper. Do this very lightly so that you can just see the outline. Now analyse the position of the body and the form it is taking, decide where the principle line is – the action line – that is the line which bisects the head and runs down the spine… then put in where the principle leg leads – the leg in the foreground. Using this centre line create a stick man.
You will have now a faint drawn line running round the principle picture; a single line giving the position/posture of the body, and an oval for the head, stick arms and legs, and smaller oval for the feet and hands. On the sick man you can place a further couple of ovals one for the chest and another for the hips. Now draw in the angle of the shoulder then the pelvis line… giving a light oblong box shape to the chest and pelvic cage, remember to draw these in perspective.
Throughout all this work keep in mind that the figure is approximately eight heads high making sure the centre of the body runs through the widest part of the hips. The head from the top of the cranium to chin is the first measuring guide, two heads runs through the nipples, three heads the naval, four heads the widest part of the hips, five the middle of the thighs, six just below the knees, and seven the calf. The hand palms reach the middle of the thighs and the distance from the finger tips to the elbow is two heads. The widest part of the body is the shoulders which are two head wide. The width between the outer limits of the hips is one and a half heads.
The sketch is now at its most interesting form. You can begin to feel the body taking shape and texture. The eyes are halfway down the head, the tip of the nose a further quarter and the mouth a third below the nose Give perspective to all those and allow the line to follow round the oval… remembering that if the subject is looking down all the lines fall in company. Keeps your centre line pointing to where the subject is looking. The distance between the eyes is one eye, the corner of the mouth is in the centre of the eye, and the ears are as long as the nose.
Depending on the pose of the subject so the nearest part of the body is foreshortened and the perspective is larger. As those parts fartherest away becomes smaller and foreshortened too. Place in the first large areas of shading to give the body a rounded shape, keeping the shading following the lines of perspective. Give shape and form by darkening the sketch lines on the shadow side.
Paint the figure applying the lightest tones first using the white of the paper as the highest lights. Keep your light tints off the darkest shadows to retain transparency of the final colour. Build up the flesh tints one at a time don’t be tempted to put in any detail but restrict yourself to broad areas still remembering to apply paint to only dry under colours. It is much better to paint too light than too heavy. As with the application of all colours keep in mind reflected light even if you over emphasise the difference for this will give the painting individuality and sparkle. Before you start applying the detail paint in the background which should be sage green which is the complimentary of pink. Naturally for differing skin colours you must change the background colour… your aim is to make your figure sit-up, off from the paper.
Sketch book and photographs
It is a very useful habit to carry around a small sketch pad to retain the memory of interesting landscape detail – the aged tree stump, the broken style and the ancient cottage. So much the better to quickly put in a colour wash. As time goes by this will become a good habit that will sustain many a careworn moment. Do not treat your sketch book as a scrap book of inconsequential scribbles, but of well constructed drawings… that tell a story. Make sure each page is titled, and given a date… add a few comments about the day’s weather and give a sample of a prominent colour.
Continual practice will enable you to place the different items of interest. Study your sketch book, remind yourself of the lightning struck tree and the shattered branch. When you paint the sky you need to be at your best because you need to act quickly and surely. If you are in doubt do not attempt to make the clouds too heavy or to rely upon colours leeching together. Don’t worry too much about having to leave sharp edges to the light clouds. Better that way than to have the whole lot blend in together this automatically lightens the colours. Compliment means to the artist balance which is most essential... it is about repeating one thing with another on opposite sides of the picture. If you are going to leave the sky alone and let the paper do the work make sure the distant hills are not too heavy, and to compliment the white paper somewhere in the foreground.
Use all the modern aids provided by technology. If you have a commission, to paint a picture of a specific subject take a photograph if you can using different lighting effects. Pan the camera to give yourself a panoramic view. Set the exposure meter to different settings. For portraiture and figure painting do not let the matter pass - take a photograph, then you will be able to guide the sitter to take up the correct pose. The photograph will remind how the clothes are draped, where the folds are, and give a guide to the colours worn. Do not be put off by those who decry the aid of the photocopier to enlarge or reduce a line drawing. Give yourself every aid you can think of. Putting in the colour is sufficient practice until you become proficient. Compose your picture by montaging your photographs, cutting out the different subjects and then making a perfectly balanced picture. Many of the old masters also used every means of that day to give themselves a helping hand – whether it was using the camera obscurer, silhouette, painting on top of a faint photograph or using an epidiascope. Eventually with patience and a lot of hard work you will become adept at constructing and executing a perfect work of art, but it will need diligence and persistence.