Читать книгу Painting Expressive Watercolours - Mike Chaplin - Страница 17

Techniques

However excited you are at the prospect of making a painting that says important things about your subject, you have to begin by considering how you are going to approach it technically. This chapter offers advice about handling watercolour and other associated media that will give you plenty of choice as to how you express your feelings through paint.

SHEPPEY MARSHES

66 × 96.5cm (26 × 38in)

Contrary to popular belief, watercolour is a medium you can manipulate in a number of ways and this large painting gave me plenty of scope. The paint has been put down, lifted back and reworked using a variety of techniques.

Putting down paint

Once you have chosen your subject and made decisions about size, format and colour range it is time for those first attempts at putting down paint. Nothing is more daunting to the artist than an immaculate sheet of clean paper, and your first washes will ease you into the painting process and give you confidence as well as laying the basis of your picture.

Whether you are working from a pencil drawing or going in fresh, your first colours will probably be concerned with covering quite large, loose-edged areas. The most obvious way of achieving these first washes is to use large brushes, for which you will need to mix up plenty of paint. Experience will tell you how much, but if you are not yet sure of quantity the best rule is to prepare a good deal more than you think you will require. For these big washes it is a good idea to add a few drops of ox gall to the mixing water to improve flow and increase drying time, allowing you a longer period in which to work with the wet paint.