A Return To Watercolour Painting

You know how it is, as an artist you want to be able to use all those wonderful media that are available and thrust at you from all directions. However, when you try a different medium, you have to learn how to use it. Of course, all it takes is practice. But to use more than one medium succesfully is difficult.

Moving from one to another often feels difficult. Just as you start to feel happy using say, pastels, you feel compelled to try another. You take out your watercolours, which you may not have used for a few weeks and horrors ... it feels like starting out all over again.

Even swapping more frequently, it feels like one step forward and two steps back. At least that is how I find it.

Now it has been a couple of years, possibly, since I did any real watercolour painting; I did try a little pen and wash but it was a very short experiment. I have been pastelling and even then painting mostly abstract and semi-abstract works. Coming back to watercolours and using a brush rather than my fingers (well thats how I feel with tiny pieces of chalk in my hand) and I am finding it difficult to make the paint do what I want it to.

I hated my first effort so much I actually threw it away - tore it up and put it in the rubbish bin. That is what I felt about it, and I have made a point of keeping almost everything I have done over the years I have been painting. The second was a little better, BUT not much, and I include it here as a point of reference, just to show that I am improving.

Those buildings look awful, and that tree - horrid!!! On the whole though in the background there is something about the brushwork which I felt was moving in the right direction. The next painting is starting to look a little better.

I even felt good after this attempt, and whats more several members of the art group were quite appreciative of it. Just waiting for next week now. Can I keep the improvement on course?

Pastel Painting, A Ray Of Sunshine

BAck to landsscapes this week. I happened to see a piece that I found grabbed me. The cnmposition, and that patch of sunlit just clicked with me. Of course, As ever I have not copied the original but created my own interpretation. The colours especially are my own, although the composition owes a lot to the original. But even the old masters repeated the same images to learn.

A Ray Of Sunshine

I was very pleased with this one, I usually am when I have a strong urge to paint something. Its those times I have to search for inspiration that I turn out the duff pieces.

I thought I would add a couple of images of the work as it progressed, to give an insight into my process.

This was after I had added the "first" colours for the background. As I do, I had built up to this point by layering colours (each layer fixed to avoid disturbing the former) to get that wonderful texture that I love from my pastels. This did not quite feel right though. I had the sunlit grass at thte top of the rise but was not happy with the sky.

Here I had added a darker blue to the top of the sheet and blended it into the very light blue sky to create that recession.

The next step was to put this aside and take out a sketch pad. I selected my colours for the bushes, etc and practiced what I was going to do. Using the side of some very soft pastels I then came back to the background (which had been lightly fixed) and painted in the bushes, as I had done in the sketch book. The last step was to take a few conte sticks and add the linear effects to the foreground.

I work dark to light mostly although some later details may be in dark tones. And I work from hard pastel to soft, again fixing layers as I proceed. The final details are not fixed to maintain their vibrancy.

A colourful sky, a pastel painting

Painting has been taking a back seat recently as I have been very busy and also decided to start my very first novel. But I still manage to get to my art group, once a week for a couple of hours so it is great that I can usually complete one of my landscapes in that time.

This one for instance, one which I really like and received some very good comments from my colleagues at the art group.

But painting it was more involved than it might appear.

Starting with an A4 sheet of black general purpose art paper (cheap!), I covered the paper with a layer of black pastel. Simple linear strokes with the side of a softish pastel stick (origin unknown). This was then blended all over using circular strokes with the tips of three fingers and then fixed using an inexpensive hair spray.

I repeated this procedure twice using a mid-blue pastel and then a dark violet pastel. This was the background.

The next step was to use a mid-brown, again on its side, to paint in the top of the horizon at the bottom of the painting. below this a dark green was wiped across the painting. These colours were blended where they overlapped, and then grass-like strokes were added at the extreme bottom in a lighter green and other colours.

Cloud shapes were the next step. A light and mid-violet were used to create the main shapes and then a red to top off these shapes. A mid-blue was then added to create texture around the clouds.

Next, a red-brown was used -on its side- to create the colouring on the horizon. This was blended in a single direction (up) using the side of the thumb to create the spiky appearance. More colours were added at the horizon to ground this colour. I am not sure what it represents, make your own mind up but it does help the composition.

And finally, some dark brown was added and blended along the lighter brown of the horizon.

Here is a shot of the original from a book :-

it is in Ron Ranson's Painting School Series, PASTELS by Diana Constance.

Mine is not meant to be a reproduction of the original, I always aim to create a  painting from a reference which inspired me without copying. 

Perhaps this is more involved than you thought after all.

Two Pastel Paintings, Mace Reeds and The River

I have completed two pastel painting this week, both were paintings which I was not sure of and left them to mature before adding final touches.

The first was from a photograph which had been posted by a friend who graciously gave permission for me to use as a reference for the piece. It is basically a photo of a mace reed bed and I was attracted to it because of the multitude of colours which became obvious as you looked at the photo. Very simple on the surface but became less so as you looked hard at it. Here is the painting:-

The range of greens and yellows/browns is actually impressive. The top border consists of reflections of dead and dying foliage at the edge of the pool. In fact I have tried to put some movement into the reeds by snaking the leaves rather than leaving them stiff and straight.

The second pastel is in fact taken from a watercolour painting I did when holidaying at a small village (three houses and a pub) called Cwym Cych, in North Wales close to Abersoch. The pastel is very high key (for me) and reflects the watercolour. The origjnal was a wet-into-wet piece with very few hard lines, so I was unsure whether it would translate into pastel, but here it is:-

If you look carefully at the piece you may see horizontal lines through the top of the LHS trees and across the sky. It appears that the paper was faulty as I have rubbed out the lines and when adding back the pastel the llines have reappeared. These things are sent to try us.

Painting a pastel landscape from a watercolour

I have been a little lazy recently in terms of my painting, and looking over some old watercolours decided to try one or two of them in pastel. Should be easy! However watercolour has features very different from pastel in many respects and the feeling of a watercolour could be difficult to achieve.

So I set myself this little challenge. Take a watercolour and repeat it in pastel to create a painting with the same feel.

This was the first painting I would try:-

This had always been a favourite of mine and I felt that for the puposes of this challenge it would be ideal. The earth colours gave it a very definite autumnal feel. Also, the light background spoke of mists and early morning.

The image I actually used as a reference for the pastel was actually cropped, I don't kbnow why, to remove some of the area from each side. But never mind, here is the pastel:-

Not quite as much detail, especially in the foreground, but nevertheless I am quite pleased with the outcome of this experiment. I am of a mind to do it again using the full sized original and concentrate more on the foreground but I will try one or two others before I do that.

I feel that the feeling of the original watercolour has been captured, success!

New Pastel Landscape Painting

I have been so busy lately that I have found it difficult to find time to paint. Fresh back from holiday in the Canary islands, I attended my art group tonight and came away with another painting, hope that you like it.

My colleagues saw this and though it had been painted using a dark/black paper. However, it is done on a white ground. I do create a background using dark colours before I start painting. I do this by layering several colours which I choose based on the effect I hope to achieve.

This painting was started with a covering of purple pastel, this was loosely rubbed in and fixed to avoid mixing with subsequent layers. the next layer was a dark blue. A less intense covering this time, but again rubbed in using the tips of my fingers and well fixed. A final background layer od black was then layed down.

Someone said, "why not use black paper?". The answer is that I find black paper too flat, I prefer the dark colour obtained by building up two or three layers.

In this case the black layer was not fixed and I painted the foliage into a soft black layer. There was some mixing but I kept it to a minimum and constantly wiped the pastel sticks used for the foliage to avoid any over mixing.

The final steps were to draw in the grey tree trunks, and add a shadow to the nearer trees; and then to add some linear marks to represent reeds, etc, by the bank of the water.

Reflections were added very simply by drawing down with the same colours used on the top part of the painting.

Red Sky at Night, a pastel painting

My latest creation was completed last night at my regular art group meeting, I have to admit is was from an idea in an art magazine advert. I usually make far more changes to my work when I use another piece as a reference but most old masters have copied works by other old masters since time immemorial, and in a spirit of learning, I have painted my own version of this image.

The colours were the main atttraction for me, but the variation in the tints and shades within the large flat areas was something that is new to me. I know all about variation as a principle of composition but I mostly use texture to provide it. Here it is a use of a those differing colours that I have trie to understand and copy.

Here is a version of the painting as a work in progress:-

It is very nearly completed but lacks details. Also, I took the photo late at night in a room lit by ordinary light and did not use flash, so the colours are "wrong". A problem with not using the right light, photographers and artists will be familiar with this problem.

The completed work is show below:-

Having taken a photo in better light, the colours are much truer to the original, but still long way out. I am going to havae to take another in bright daylight before I start posting to places like Zazzle. I will also post the newer image here for comparison.

Note the additional details including the beansticks (support for climbing vegetables found in many UK gardens). More contrast in the sky and trees.

Watch out for the improved photograph soon.

New Pastel Landscape Painting

I was so pleased with last weeks "Tree and Sky" painting that I found another similar photo to take a shot at. This time a sunset, or maybe a sunrise with loads of colour in the sky and trees sillouetted against the sky.

This has been slightly edited in photoshop to try to achieve the feeling of the original painting.


Do you have problems with photographing your art work. The light can affect the look at your work, as you may have found out and it is almost impossible to edit the piece to get back to the original colours. Vitally important if like me colour is an important aspect of your art. The original photograph had a much more insipid appearance, and I wanted to  nudge it in the direction of the original painting.

I always try to photograph the artwork in daylight and then to edit as little as possible. visit my photography blog, Photography For fun, to see a few examples of what happens or can happen, using this piece as an example.

Two more acrylic miniatures on canvas, ATC size

I really am finding these fun, lost my sense of time tonight at the art group and all the tables disappeared around me whilst I finished the second of the two paintings - in a hurry; can you guess which one it was? I will touch it up later, something that you couldn't do with watercolour.

just a quick post to put up the two paintings tonight. Here they are. One is a generic and the other is from a work in the lake district which I used as a reference.

Running out of the miniature canvases, will have to see if I can get some more.

One of the members at the club tonight was painting a very large oil painting about 10-12 times larger than my miniatures, I very nearly suffered an inferiority complex. However he was kind enough to praise my work so all's well that ends well, LOL

Miniature acrylic landscape painting - Autumn

I have been having fun with the miniature paintings on stretched canvas. being so small of course does mean that there is a very noticeable weave pattern when taking a photograph.

This one is a little disappointing in that the pathway does not have enough tonal contrasts, but see what you think. Of course one of the beauties of using acrylics rather than say watercolour, is that if I am not satisfied, I can of course go back over it, even starting again by painting a white layer over the whole thing. I sometimes forget this as I paint only making the point to myself when it is finished.

I am not sure whether it is teaching me anything but at least I am getting away from the pastels which seem to have taken me over. I do love soft pastels though but I have of late been painting with them to the exclusion of  other media. Therefore, this project is very welcome as it is making me question where I am going

I was looking thru some You Tube videos, acrylic demos in a loose style and came across this one by Jennifer Perez. Caught my attention because she takes a landscape which didn't work, covers it with white and some texture and then starts another painting. Also she is painting from sketches which she does in quiet moments from her mind / memory. Just like I often do. Many times I will simply draw something without using any refernce material. I can do this because my paintings are kept very simple. I do not like to add too much detail as you will have noticed if you have read any of my previous posts. One other point she seems to like colour, and uses colour because she likes it, not necessarily because it is in front of her. Here is the video:-



Loose and colourful painting, just my kind of art. Another artist I noticed was Robert Joyner, one to go back and watch another day.

Painting Art To Sell

I wonder how many artists select themes or subjects to paint because of a wish to sell their art? I have always painted for myself but realise that it is possible for an artist wishing to make a living from their work to wish to paint subjects ( at least some of the time) which will sell and make a living.

A recent pastel landscape

I found a report recently about the top themes for art which sells, I may even have posted about it on this blog, and decided to write a Squidoo lens on the subject. It was not a new report, possibly 2-3 years old but I found it interesting.

In fact my favourite themes of abstract landscapes and local views came out well up in the list. I often wonder whether I should be stretching myself a little more and getting out of my comfort zone once in a while. I did at one time and have some decent portraits to show for it, but skills need practice and these days I do not paint enough to keep up with all the skills I would like let alone find new ones.

Sketches from life, from the past

Take a look at the Squidoo lens and make up your own minds about the usefulness of such a listing, is your favourite theme there and if not why not?

Top ten subjects for art that sells

I would love to know what you think, leave me a comment on the lens or here on the blog

Across the fields in summer

Another pastel painting ffrom that book, "30 minute Pastels". This time a subject I have historically had problems with. I seem to manage well with aerial perspective - colours are my strongest point but put in any recognisable feature such as the fields here and I never seem to satisfy my own standards. I must admit that I tend to shy away from these sort of subjects and perhaps that is why I am still doing the same things wrong.

The new painting is basically an image of fields, distaant hedges, a track and a few dwellings, the red roofs of the buildings amongst all those yellows and greens is what attracted me to it; this is it:-

As I said this doesn't seem to feel right, I have done this type of scene as in this sketch book page of a view from a hotel we use on Cleeve Hill, in the Cotswolds:-

This at least looks to me as if it is drawn to scale, Maybe I shold persevere and do a lot more distant views. Anyway, here are a couple of details from the painting from the areas of the buildings. Did you notice the tiny red roofs at the top of the far hills - in the center of the horizon?

Youo can see in these details the texture I achieve with the side of the pastel, there are at least two greens in the fields in the lower image, with an added touch of a yellow. One point is that the details may be too detailed for distant objects and do not fit in with the overall effects of less detail with disstance. Again more practice and analysis.

Red and Yellow Abstract Pastel Landscape

I find myself continually drawn to abstract landscapes, although I have recently been trying to get "real" here is yet another. I have always found colours to be an integral part of my artwork and feel at home with this style of painting. Who am I to argue?

I like using colours, I like the simplistic style. I do not have to worry about the drawing. So why not get on with doing the thing that seems to come naturally. Well, I don't want to seem to be in a rut and I do worry about learning new techniques and styles. I would like to be a well rounded artist, so I guess I will keep on worrying.

Anyway here is my latest abstract landscape:-

I have used this as an intro image for my Squidoo lens, Popular subjects for art that sells. Seems that landscapes even abstract or semi-abstract landscapes are near the top of the list.