Sommaire pour November 2023 de Leisure Painter

Learning objectives ■ How to work with simple perspective, eye level and vanishing points ■ How to simplify your subject ■ Easy colour-mixing solutions Although many artists are attracted to the subject of buildings in the landscape, there are one or two factors that often put people off. The first is capturing the detail – all those bricks, windows, chimneys and roofs. The answer here, as with many busy subjects, is to simplify what you see, which I will come back to later. The other reason why artists avoid painting buildings is to do with angles and lines or, in other words, the dreaded perspective! It would be a shame to shy away from painting buildings simply because you feel you may be let down by your understanding of linear…

Learning objectives ■ Follow a pastel-painting process ■ How to handle your pastels ■ Use alcohol to liquify the pastels This month I will be sharing my process in creating an iconic view of Old Harry Rocks in Dorset. It's the perfect image for us to explore pastel painting. This stepby-step process is designed to build your confidence and explore working with a specialist sanded surface in soft pastel. I used neat alcohol to liquify the pastels in this painting (see last month for more details). I use the wetted pastels as a paint-like paste to create a painted base layer. This allows me to create colours that are luminous; they are layers of colour that work together to create vibrant artworks. One reason I enjoy tutoring beginners to use…

Learning objectives ■ Pack the right equipment ■ Tips for handling different weather conditions ■ Choose the right scene to paint Painting outdoors is simply the best way to immerse yourself in the landscape and connect with your subject. When you paint outside you truly experience the natural colour, light and tonal values of any given landscape, and learn how to see them. I work outdoors to paint these values into an oil sketch, as well as trying to capture the essence of the moment. It will get me ‘in the zone' quickly, and it forces me to paint fast as everything is continually changing. I will also take photos for later use. Then back in the studio I will use my plein-air oil sketch as reference for colour, tone…

Learning objectives ■ How to mix and work with autumn colours ■ Practise wet-in-wet and weton-dry techniques ■ Practise dry-brush technique When we think of autumn, we imagine the lovely reds, browns, yellows and yellow-greens that appear in our woodlands and landscapes and I am one of the first to admit that capturing those autumn colours using watercolour is a challenge. Once the colour is on the paper, in most cases it's best not to remove it as you will lose that fresh, transparent look that watercolour is renowned for. Using the right colour mix, first time is the key to creating that perfect autumn landscape. Reference photo 1 (right) shows a row of autumn trees. Their colours range from bright greens through to yellow greens, orange yellows and browns.…

Visit www.painters-online.co.uk/store and click on the link to books to buy the latest practical art books available from LP's online bookshop. Vibrant Botanical Painting Award-winning botanical artist, Jarnie Godwin specialises in painting realistic and vibrant flowers in watercolour and in her new, lavishly-illustrated book, Vibrant Botanical Painting, she shows you how you can do it too. From emerging buds to fading blooms, Jarnie provides clear step-by-step examples of how to capture flowers of all varieties. There's plenty of practical instruction, personal insights and helpful tips including advice on drawing and composition and the practical considerations of working with watercolour. The important aspect of colour is given its own chapter and each stage of the plant's life, from buds to decay, fruits and seed heads is covered. This is a bright and…

Best in show Altrincham Society of Artists This year's annual exhibition by the Altrincham Society of Artists took place at Altrincham Girls' Grammar School. This was a new venue for the society and was so large that it allowed members to enter four paintings this year as opposed to three. Visitors to the exhibition voted Sue Allen's collage Sentry Duty, made with her original gelli plate prints, as their favourite. Altrincham Society of Artists was established in 1937 and has its own studio which members may use at any time. Informal sessions are held in the studio on various days of the week and there is a programme of workshops and demonstrations, mainly at the weekends. Outdoor painting sessions take place during the summer months. A newsletter is published regularly…

There are so many ways of working with pastel, all of them personal choice, and I'll be sharing my favourite techniques in the demonstration below. You will need Surface • Fisher 400 11¾×15¾in. (30×40cm) ■ Unison soft pastels See colours (below) ■ Conté sticks See colours (below) ■ Faber-Castell Pitt pastel pencils See colours (left) Miscellaneous • Alberto thin flat bristle brush, hog • Liquid: I use alcohol as it evaporates quickly. I prefer cheap neat vodka or gin, but you could use white wine or water…

Inspiration Learning objectives ■ Essential colours in a watercolour palette ■ Techniques for sketching in line and wash ■ Inspiration for filling your own sketchbook Ink line and watercolour wash is one of my favourite ways of recording in a sketchbook, and certainly the quickest way of getting a full account of what I am seeing. It needs a little more kit than just using dry media, like pencil and my fine liners, but there's a lot of enjoyment to be had when your markmaking capacity is extended in this way. I carry a Winsor & Newton sketchers' box with me on sketching expeditions (or just generally; you never know when something might call out). There are 12 colours, which I top up regularly with Student quality paint from Winsor…

COMPOSITION There is nothing more fundamental to a successful landscape painting than good composition, and a digital camera is particularly useful to me as a compositional aid. It can also help capture a moment of inspiration and record details, but often there will be aspects of the light effect or atmosphere particularly, which do not come across well from a quick snap, or even several photographs. I think this is probably a good thing, because it leaves more for you to interpret as an artist, in partnership with your chosen medium. Out walking on a grey spring morning in Carmarthenshire, there was little light and shade, but it was beautiful nonetheless and, looking back as I walked down the lane, I was particularly struck by an interestingly old tree (seen…

Water-mixable oils Learning objectives ■ How to paint from photographs ■ Top tips and techniques for painting realistic-looking clouds ■ Practise your brushstrokes MURRAY'S TOP TIPS • Watercolourists coming to water-mixable oils instinctively want to make the paint very wet. This medium is much easier to work without lots of thinning, but takes a little getting used to. • I generally only use water to wash brushes especially whilst painting skies in water-mixable oils and dry the brush thoroughly on a piece of rag before recommencing. • Experiment with the techniques. You will be surprised at the subtlety achievable with oils. • Much of the skill in painting with oils is about brush handling, lightness of touch, the amount and positioning of paint on the brush. This all comes with…

Learning objectives ■ Draw and paint boats ■ Take time to observe and plan ■ Use artistic licence TONY TOP TIP It's easy to overdo finishing touches; the more you add the less effective they become. So be selective and think ‘less is more'. As I live inland, I love the opportunity and challenge of drawing and painting boats when I'm on holiday. Show me a small harbour or a local boatyard and I can't wait to get started. But, because I don't draw boats very often, I prepare by wandering around to reacquaint myself with their shapes then work out what it is I most want to capture about them and how best to do that. Normally that involves finding the right vantage point and thinking through what to…

Watercolour Learning objectives ■ Paint in a loose and lively watercolour style ■ Apply masking fluid ■ Practise techniques using brushes and sponges Silver birch trees have always been one of my favourite things to paint as they are so painterly, which resonates with many artists. In the past I have painted them in autumn, winter, spring and summer colours. The reference image (right) I used for this project is actually mid-season but has a lovely contrast of the fresh greens to the bright orange and reds, making the birch tree trunks really stand out. This kind of painting is very versatile; you can include or leave out as many trees as you wish, creating your own composition. Make sure you have some trees in the foreground, which will be…

Learning objectives ■ Learn Old Master techniques ■ Practise completing a painting alla prima ■ How to paint the effects of twilight If you have been following my articles here in Leisure Painter you will know that I set great store by making studies of Old Master paintings. You can learn techniques and technical processes by imitating great paintings of the past. You can discover what their themes were, and how artists discovered their own style, what sets them apart from other painters and makes their work instantly recognisable. I first discovered the work of Edouard Cortès (1882-1969) in an upmarket antiques fair. His paintings are fashionable, very commercial, and highly sought after. Cortès painted idealised views of Paris. He showed the city as it was in the late nineteenth…

WWW.PAINTERS-ONLINE.CO.UK Inspired by the effects of light, Jane Bell describes how she painted her subject in watercolour from a photograph taken while on holiday. To see more of Jane's work, post a comment or upload your own image, visit www.painters-online.co.uk ‘I was born and raised in Derbyshire and, having completed a BEd, moved to Northamptonshire 40 years ago to take up an art teaching post. Work, marriage and family left little time for personal artwork, however, as I approached retirement I began painting in watercolour. I love the transparency and fluidity of watercolour and the challenge of planning the painting process as it doesn't give many chances to correct mistakes. ‘I met the subject of Curious Cow a few years ago whilst holidaying in the Derbyshire village of Tideswell. Taking…

PERSPECTIVE Asense of atmosphere and distance is achieved by the thoughtful use of aerial, or atmospheric, perspective. If you have a scene stretching out before you, you will notice that nearer objects will appear different in tonal value and colour temperature to those in the distance. In other words, objects may appear warmer in the foreground and cooler in the distance. It's not as obvious or clear-cut as linear perspective, but aerial perspective creates an emotional response to what you are viewing. It's more of a feel for the mood of the landscape, and can be a decisive factor on whether we think a scene is worth painting or not. The role of colour If you were to stand on a hill with rolling fields as far as the eye…

FOCAL POINTS Whilst the viewer is enjoying the various objects of interest arranged within the composition, the role of a focal point is to provide a visual magnet to draw his or her attention back from the periphery, and so preventing the eye from wandering out of the picture. A composition without a focus allows the viewer's eye to wander aimlessly through a picture and swiftly out of it. Finding the focus The conventional recommendation is that the visual centre of focus should be placed within the middle third of the picture, preferably at any of the four corners of that central rectangle. Avoid placing it right in the middle of the picture – a dead central focus is too obvious, makes the picture symmetrical and boring and fails to…