ARNSIDE: OYSTERCATCHERS FLYPAST 2

I've made some changes to the group of Oystercatchers in the first picture.  The original arrangement of the birds divided them into separate lines. I thought it might help if they were linked in some way. So I’ve raised a wing on two of the leading foreground birds to break into the open space between the two lines. I think this has improved the composition.

I’ve shown the picture double mounted ready to frame. I had to crop the image to get it level in the photograph. So now the mount is too narrow which looks a bit mean

For a half-sheet watercolour I use the following dimensions for the inner mount widths –Top and sides 8cm. Bottom 8.5cm. The outer mount window is cut larger to leave approx 0.8mm of the inner mount showing all round.  I use a 2.5cm wooden moulding for the frame.

RECOVERY 2

This is another old watercolour which has been restretched after having had the ‘bathtub treatment’.  It was painted on a half-sheet of 300gsm Arches NOT and Arches sizing never allows complete lifting off of colour.  I’m not sure what colours were used now but it’s well known that some synthetic colours are strong strainers notably Alizarin and the Pthalocyanines used to make a range of blues and greens.  Arches has a nice surface so it would be possible – using – light washes to bring up the colour again. I’m going for some major changes to enable me to add interest by including birds.

The original location was the Dovey estuary but although Herons and Egrets nest further up the river at Yns Hir the RSPB reserve I’m going to allow the tide to come in to show birds I saw at Minsmere and Aldeburgh last autumn.

ARNSIDE: OYSTERCATCHERS FLYPAST

This is a recovery of one of my ‘Possibles’ It is a watercolour I did several  years ago after a visit to Arnside on Morecambe Bay.  I tried to include a flight of Oystercatchers lifting off the sands, they were some distance off and they were badly placed and too small to make an effective compositional motif.

The landscape area worked well so looking at the painting afresh with a more experienced eye I thought it worth trying to repaint the birds. I restretched the painting and sponged off the oystercatchers.  It was impossible to remove all traces but by making the new group of birds larger I was able to cover up the old ones by making use of Chinese White as a body colour.

The paper I used was Fabriano Artistico Rough. I had a friend who swore by this paper and he produced some lovely watercolour landscapes on it.  I have to admit I never got on too well with it and generally took better to a NOT surface.

NEVER DESTROY ANYTHING

I read somewhere that Edward Seago instructed his executors to destroy 30% of the work left in his studio after he died. I’m not anticipating dying but as I was sorting through my stock of old paintings I remembered Seago’s instruction and started to consign things to the rubbish bin.

That was a mistake because my wife said; “Have you still got that painting of Glen Walford’s production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ ?”   Glen Walford directed several plays for the Ludlow Festival  she’d just received an email from Glen and she thought it would be nice to let Glen have it as a reminder  – if she would like to see it.  Disaster! I’d torn it in half and consigned the pieces to the waste bag. 

I used to go to Ludlow Castle and make sketches during rehearsals so I was able to turn some drawings in an old sketchbook. Then, fortunately I was able to retrieve part of the painting which had two of the main characters. Titania (Cathy Tyson) and Bottom (Matt Devitt). So my wife was able to scan them and add the copies to an email when she replied.

So no more destruction.  I sorted the work into two sets ‘Possibles’ and ‘No hopers’. I’ll maybe reclaim the Possibles and leave my family to decide what to do with the others.

STONECHAT REDISCOVERED

This painting of a Stonechat was one of the first serious bird paintings I did over 10 years ago. Quite why I never continued exploring the genre then I can’t fully understand now.  Watercolour landscape was the chief preoccupation of most of my friends. The watercolour turned up again when I was sorting through some old work.

My wife and I suddenly spotted a pair of Stonechats on a drystone wall when walking over the low hills on the south side of the Mawddach estuary in Wales. We  and watched them for 15 minutes or so as they flitted along the wall occasionally darting from one side to the other. 

In my hillwalking days my sketching kit consisted of a pad of A3 cartridge paper and some sticks of charcoal. Sufficient to capture jizz – that is pose and movement – but I was able to supplement the sketches with detail from colour slides later.  I did watercolours of a male and a female intending to show them together at one of our LAS exhibitions. Surprisingly the female sold leaving this colourful lively chap without a mate.

Yes it's on Fabriano5 which I mentioned on Wednesday's post.

A LUCKY FIND

Tidiness was never my strong point so I've been putting my studio store cupboard in order. One aspect of tidiness I am meticulous about though is storing  paper. Watercolour paper is so expensive that any sheet with an Arches or Waterford watermark is placed carefully flat on a shelf to avoid at all costs any damage to the surface.

I've always used papers with a Not Pressed surface for the quick free splosh style that once had me in thrall for landscape work. Having now taken a serious interest in painting birds I've found that a more precise approach  required. It needs a paper with a less pronounced grain. I was anticipating having to buy some Hot Pressed sheets which which would be more suitable. Then I made a lucky find when checking some sheets of Arches. There were some papers in the packet which were a different size - curious!

They were sheets of Fabriano 5 a paper that I haven't used for over 10 years. It has a smoother surface than NOT papers and I'd been convinced that watercolour landscape needed NOT surfaced papers. The widely used Bockingford  paper only has a NOT type surface developed to suit Edward Wesson.

Fabriano5 is a 50% cotton paper and a web search revealed that Ken Bromley Art Supplies stock it. I think it should be fine for my purposes so I'll be giving it a go.

TRIVIAL PURSUITS

I rarely post to Artists Forums these days though I occasionally drop by some of the ones I once visited regularly.  Mostly they’re just chat with very little substance.  Last week I came across a post from a lady asking if it was OK to use watercolour in pans.  The paint from tubes was too runny - she preferred using pans but the paint dried and it was hard on brushes when you had to rewet the surface.

This generated a string of replies about how to solve this difficult problem!  Ever since my student days I was always told to use tubes and I would have thought that tutors running recreational classes would be giving the same advice.  So why does anybody need to discuss such a trivial matter?

Keith Noble RSMA – our current Ludlow Art Society President – came to one of the members’ plein air sketching days last year. He took out a pristine clean watercolour box looked at his subject and squeezed out the colours he needed. I was most impressed.  It was a Craig Young Watercolour box – he assured me it was not brand new –that  was the way he worked.  His watercolours sell for as much as it would have cost him to buy it.  Lucky man – I’d have to consider taking out a mortgage to purchase one.

I have a Holbein Box with a thumb hole in one half enabling it to be used as a palette.  It has a row of shallow wells to squeeze out colours . I’m not such a fastidious craftsman as Keith though – mine is rarely completely pristine clean.

NESTING KITTIWAKES

This painting started on a visit to the Farne Islands off the Northumbrian coast. It’s a well managed nature reserve and the cliffs are a haven for several species of sea birds. The boatman who ferried us over steered slowly under the cliffs to give good views of the birds.

This painting in – acrylic on canvas – was composed from a preliminary mixed media study which is on the Wildlife Page on my website. The cliff skyline was populated by gulls, Cormorants, and Puffins. Such a choice but I’ve just included a single Puffin who looks as if he’s curious about what’s going on.

A DIGITAL EXPLORATION

I think the most difficult problem with painting a group of birds is to place them in a convincing composition. During the cold weather of last winter flocks of Fieldfares and Redwings were attracted to the holly berries and over ripe crab apples in the garden. I attempted to paint a watercolour of four Redwings in the branches of our crab apple.  It wasn’t working so I enlisted the help of Painter XI.

I started the painting by making an outline watercolour drawing directly with a No. 6 Sable. Next a scan of two of the birds  was opened in Painter.  The outlines of the birds, tree branches, and the watercolour wash used for the sky are visible.  The digital additions were done on two layers The first was used to add a transparent background fill and the second layer was used to add the berries.

It would be possible to develop detail and modify colours on subsequent layers with the aim of producing a digital print. With the file saved that’s an option that could be tried later. After this initial exploration I’m more attracted to taking the watercolour to a finished state with the use of  body colour.

STAR GAZING WITH A CAMERA

Prof. Brian Cox' TV programmes have stimulated a lot of interest in Stargazing. A Facebook friend is showing a photograph of the Plaeides taken with a Canon 1000D and a 200mm telephoto lense. The technique seems to be to take a set of 1.5min exposures and stack them presumably using Photoshop. He used 33 digital photographs to get a bright image. Registering them and dropping them onto a single base layer must be quite tricky. A fascinating and ingenious procedure for a digital camers enthusiast though.

SHORT EARED OWL: a digital study.

This is another digital study taken further by the inclusion of a coloured background. I began with a ‘pen’ drawing on a white ‘canvas’. First a monochrome sepia drawing on a slightly textured ‘paper’ then further developments were made by changing the pen colour. 

The background was created on a new layer by adding freely drawn transparent ‘washes’. Photoshop users will be familiar with the use of layers to make additions to digital photographs.

The source was a photograph I took on a visit to Mary Arden’s House at Wilnecote near Stratford Upon Avon. 

DIGITAL DRAWING

Seeing David Hockney last week-end sketching with what looked like an iPad has motivated me to try some digital techniques again. I encountered   harsh criticism on one artists’ forum when I tried to start a discussion of the new medium by posting some digital paintings. There is a lot of ill-informed criticism of digital art by amateur painters. But the world has moved on - David Hockney a successful professional  seems willing to consider what digital methods have to offer.

Remembering John Ruskin’s drawing of the head of a Golden Eagle referred to back in December 2011 I chose to study a Ludlow Museum specimen.  This was a fine Golden Eagle which once flew locally.

 I've used one of the 'pen brushes' in Painter XI to create a quick freehand  line drawing working from a photograph I took using my iPhone.

I could have tried adding washes on a new layer - maybe next time. In the past I've made a pen sketch on paper and imported a scanned copy into Painter.

Then digital washes can be laid over it to simulate a line and wash technique.

THE AMAZING MR HOCKNEY

I’ve always had a soft spot for David Hockney even though I’m not a keen fan of his paintings. There’s no doubting his talent though he was noticed early on during his later student years at the RCA. Sir Hugh Casson said ‘he drew like a dream.’ For me his best work is to be seen in his pencil drawings – confident linear statements that take your breath away.

He also talks a lot of sense when interviewed about his work or indeed art in general. The BBC apparently quoted him as being critical of artists who employ assistants to essentially do the practical work for them. He denied that he had Damien Hurst in mind but Damien like Jeff Koons  and Anthony Gormley belong to a class of artists who call in skilled trained craftsmen to make their constructions. Of course artists have always had apprentices and trained artists in their studios.While working on the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo employed a fresco painter to lay the intonaco in preparation for him to apply colours to the final layer. Henry Moore in his later years employed carvers to assist in roughing out the basic forms of his large stone sculptures.
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In contrast David Hockney gets out to paint in front of the subject the canvas carries his marks not those of somebody else. A feature on the BBC Countryfile programme showed him at work. I was surprised to see him making use of an iPad as a sketching tool – it’s an expensive bit of kit to use outdoors in bad weather.  It may have been a bit of showmanship but digital painting is being increasingly taken up by artists for fine art as well as graphic work  and it was interesting to see him using the iPad in a country lane.

GREY HERON: MINSMERE

The last day of 2011 and it’s a time for looking forward. I had a sketchbook from my daughter for Christmas to I decided to ‘christen’ it with a quick watercolour sketch. The primary subject is a Grey Heron which was standing near some rocks. I added in a few ducks to complete the composition.

I think I’ll be developing this way of working where the drawing is allowed to play a part in the final watercolour. Plein air painters like Michael Warren and Robert Greenhalf – both SWLA members – are accomplished exponents of the method.

I've just clicked on the sketch to open a larger image in a new window and noticed that the head is out of proportion - too large! Something to correct if I take it further.

‘THE BLUE RIGI’ v THE WATERCOLOUR IMPRESSIONISTS.

I was looking at Barry Miles monograph on Edward Wesson today. I bought the book some years ago when it was first published by subscription. He handled watercolour with great dexterity and like so many others I was an avid admirer. Judging by the accounts of students on his courses – working in front of the subject – he made a few sketchy pencil marks then plunged in with bold gestural washes. These deft demonstrations left his students overawed and full of admiration.

He was able to work this way because he had a ‘good eye’ developed by accurate draughtsmanship. This comes out plainly in the poster commissions which he did for British Rail and the Post Office Savings Bank. The posters are quite different in conception from his impressionist watercolours.

In the early days with watercolour I’m ashamed – looking back – at how I neglected my draughtsmanship. I also realised that being a ‘Wesson follower’ resulted in a lot of wasted paper. By all accounts he said for every four paintings he did only one was any good, most of the others ended up in the waste bin.

Well I’m a hoarder and I’m reluctant to consign work I’ve done to the waste bin. Good watercolour paper is too costly. I had my eyes opened by the Watercolour exhibition at Tate Britain last February. Most of the watercolours seemed to be worked on paper that was distinctly off white. The pure transparent methods advocated by Wesson and his disciples would not be very successful on the paper which Turner used for the ‘The Blue Rigi’. There is though another dimension to the watercolour tradition. It finds expression in the lovely translucent washes of lead or zinc white which Turner has floated across his painting to create atmosphere.

I’m using Chinese (zinc) or Titanium White these days to ‘recover’ watercolours which were painted a few years ago that I’ve become unhappy with. This one ‘Above Grasmere’ dates back to 1987. I’ve made use of white to give atmosphere to the sky and distant mountains. I think that it’s important to make the opaque passages blend in softly with the transparent areas. Don't want to fall foul of Wesson's disparaging criticism by making the painting look as if it's been given "a touch of the whitewash brush."

'The Magic of Chinese Painting'

I'm pleased to see that the coming LAS February is about Chinese painting - I'm quoting the title of the presentation as the heading of this post. The presenter is Moira Gibbs MA and it will be good to meet her again since I was once a student on one of her courses in Ludlow.

I never completely fell for Chinese painting - the preliminary rubbing of the ink stick on a stone then the absorbant nature of the rice paper. A short time later I did a further course at Shrewsbury with a charming oriental tutor Su Ning Bailey. This took me a little further but I failed to become a devotee.

I'm grateful to both tutors though because they taught me to how to use the brush as a free expressive tool and to simultaneously load it with different strengths of ink for graduated strokes. These are methods which carry over to other kinds of work.

Painting birds has renewed my interest in Chinese painting because Chinese painters see them more as subjects to be arranged in a decorative motif. Nevertheless in the best examples the paintings express the liveliness of bird behaviour while dispensing with realistic detail.

I recently discovered Jingua Gao Dalia's blog which has some lovely examples. See brushmagic.blogspot.com.

A LITTLE MORE RUSKIN

After following the 'Search Box' link described in the last post the page whiich opens presents a second link 'The Elements of Drawing' which gives access to Ruskin's teaching collection. The opening page has a slide show with a beautiful drawing of the head of a Golden Eagle.

It'a a lovely example of a graphite drawing developed by adding a watercolour wash - a classic technique. The initial 'search lines' which Ruskin used to arrive at the final form are still there. It's worth making a careful copy of it. By halting the slideshow - right click the image - choose the 'View Image' option in the drop down window.

Alternatively take this link: 'John Ruskin: Head of a Golden Eagle From Life' Click the 'Zoom Button' for a large image.

Enjoy a browse of the whole site there is a lot of material to choose from. The best way to learn is to copy a great master - it's a practice all studio apprentice artists followed.