Watercolour with photograph of subject
Completed watercolour of Rivington village
An unusually early morning start for an art group meeting 09.030,with around 50 people making up an enthusiastic and anticipatory audience at Blackrod, I set up to paint a familiar landscape of Rivington Village in watercolour.
As is the case with these events, there isn’t enough time in 2 hours to complete a painting so I had my ‘Blue Peter one I did earlier’ placed on an easel in order that everyone could see what I was aiming to achieve.
Naming colours throughout the demonstration and explaining their particular properties especially for mixing purposes, was I understood afterwards, a very valuable tip.
In fact talking throughout the demonstration mentioning relevant points as they occur helps enormously as does taking questions as they crop up with answers again relenant to what is happening at that moment
Another vital tip for when you need to mop out colour which might have run the wrong way, always use a damp cloth or tissue not a dry one otherwise you can leave hard dry edges that will interrupt the next flow of colour….not what you want in wet-in-wet watercolour.
Showing that the first washes of colour which fill the paper and rid you of the white space is a lovely though scary time when colour is flowing about and the board is tilted this way and that as needs be.It can also look messy but take heart, when that dries down and you begin to paint in a more careful and deliberate manner, firming up shapes with stronger tones and shadows, the painting begins to take shape.
All exciting stuff and the big message is to engender confidence,have a go, don’t be overly precious and if it’s lost, then ask why and learn from the experience.
Everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable morning and I received a lovely email to that effect from the groups’ secretary.
