Читать книгу Painting Expressive Watercolours - Mike Chaplin - Страница 16

Having the luxury of a studio is not given to everyone, but if you do have spare space in your home it is your good fortune that no one but you will want a north-facing room. North light is consistent and quite cool, and the colour balance will not change while you are painting. The disadvantage of a south-facing window is that you may get strong shadows moving over your painting, which is very disturbing. Try to put some sort of diffuser over the window, even if this is just a sheet of tracing paper, to avoid the sun causing very dark and very bright areas which make it difficult when you come to paint with colour and tone.

The light changes colour towards the end of the day, so as soon as you are aware it is getting dark turn the lights on. Do not rely on normal bulbs, which have a red bias to them that will affect the colours you are mixing. Invest in some daylight bulbs, which have quite cold blue light that emulates the north light – you should be able to find these in a craft shop. They are more expensive than ordinary bulbs but, given that you may paint in artificial light for half the year if you work during office hours, well worth the money.

Paint, paper and brushes will repay every penny you spend on them, but there is no need to pay art shop prices for other items such as drawing boards and sponges. MDF (medium density fibreboard), available from a DIY shop, is perfectly adequate for a drawing board if you roughen the surface with sandpaper, as is Formica – but beware of using wood that may stain your wet paper. With a supply of cheap boards you will be able to spend time stretching numerous sheets of paper which can be stacked up ready for days when you are itching to paint.

In this photograph you can see part of the etching press in my studio. Ranged around are a variety of found objects such as the peacock feathers on the windowsill that I like to have in view simply for their interesting line, tone or colour.