Welcome to my Blog

I am pleased to welcome you to my blog and though I am a complete novice when it comes to blogging I am excited by the possibilities it presents and look forward to showing you my work, the work that some of my students produce and to answering any questions you may have about aspects of the work, techniques used or just discussing painting and drawing.

Thursday 29 January 2015

River Yar Stage IV

Stage IV

Using various mixes of Cobalt Blue, Cad Yellow Pale, Raw Sienna and Zinc White highlights were added to the distant trees along the back edge of the wheat field. Next the barn was put in (mixes of Z. White and Raw Umber) and then the wheat field itself was painted with mixes of Z. White, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber and Alizarin Crimson. This was applied so that a certain amount of streakiness was created in the direction of the lay of the land i.e. slightly uphill from left to right. Next the hedges and small trees were put in using the same combination of colours as the distant trees only with slightly darker tonal values, this is the hedge that follows the old railway line from Yarmouth to Freshwater. The next stage is to paint in the marsh land between the hedge and the water of the Yar itself.

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Stage II & III


Stage II 

An Acrylic wash of Alizarin Crimson, White and a touch of Raw Umber was applied over the initial drawing after the oil painting proper was started. A simple sky of Cobalt Blue, and Zinc (mixing) White with a touch of Raw Umber starts the sky at the top adding a little more white as I paint down the sky and in the lowest third of the sky a little Alizarin Crimson is added to warm the sky a little. The downs are painted next with various mixes of Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light (thank God the EEC didn't ban the Cadmium colours from production) Raw Umber, Raw Sienna and Zinc White. All of the greens to this stage are produced using these same basic colurs. Next is some light details in those distant trees, not too much at that distance.

Monday 19 January 2015

My Current Project

The Western Yar from Yarmouth Bridge


Stage I

This is a medium grained stretched cotton canvas with the initial drawing sketched in with a minimum of detail, in fact the drawing of the masts is for your benefit now as I will just paint over them when putting in the water but it gives you an early idea of the composition which I suppose technically is best described as an 'S' or 'Z' composition, note the line of moored yachts leading in from the foreground and then sweeping around the middle distance and I will use a few artistic tricks to lead back across the distance and into the sky from right to left. The next stage is to put an acrylic wash over the whole canvas to kill the white, seal the graphite pencil lines and make tonal value judgement easier, or at least, less deceptive, tonal value can be easily misjudged on a stark white ground (the bare, white primed canvas). It is difficult to erase errors in the drawing on a canvas texture so I shall simply paint over them; I have adjusted the height of some of the mooring posts.