Have you ever painted a wash and found that it looks a bit blotchy and granular? That is the phenomena of granulation – loved and hated in possibly equal measures by watercolourists. I am a big fan, as I think it adds interesting marks and textures which are unachievable in any other way. Granulating paints …
What is granulation in watercolour? Why does it happen? Read More »
Watercolour ground is the magic potion which allows you to paint in watercolour on lots of things, rather than traditional paper. It’s what I use on canvas and usually, it is an opaque white absorbent gesso-like substance. Sure, it doesn’t make other surfaces quite like a beautiful rag paper, but it makes it absorbent enough …
I love Tombow dual brush pens for urban sketching or nature sketching, but they are REALLY expensive. So when I spotted that WHSmith do a dual brush pen, I wondered if they would be any good. They are half the price, but are they half the quality? Two artists I really admire, Ian Fennelly and …
I started the year with this painting of a jay, which had been living in my head for a few months. It needed to fly free! I like to learn more about each animal I paint. Did you know I studied zoology at university for a while? So I learnt about its acorn stashing habit …
Here we are in the middle of the third lockdown (if you are in England – different in Scotland and Wales) and it’s a toughie. The first we had the gorgeous spring weather, the second we had Christmas to look forward to, but this one is grey and cold and damp. Well, I need to …
Providing a diversion – beginners’ watercolour course Read More »
I set myself a New Year’s resolution to launch my own online courses….for all those people who couldn’t come to workshops. Scroll forward and COVID happened. It made online courses even more necessary, but gave me less time to develop them. Too much fire fighting! Scroll forward and finally I have done it! To coincide …
Yesterday, I lead a workshop with ShopKeepArty.com to paint a stag in watercolour. Isn’t it amazing that you can be painting with people in Canada, USA, across Europe and into Australia all at the same time? ShopKeepArty runs free taster sessions each week at 2pm GMT on a Tuesday and Thursday and also paid for …
On Thursday I did something new…. an online class with over 200 people. Shopkeeparty.com run free sessions twice a week, so I did I did one all about painting animal eyes in watercolour. It was not without drama. Having done the tech test on Weds, I woke up to find that the telephone wire which …
I’ve been busy writing a series of articles for The Leisure Painter about watercolour portraits. After all if I can paint a cow I can paint a person. Right? The challenge is to train your hand to do what your eye wants and secondly, to learn to believe what you see. We all have so …
Exercises to stretch your portrait drawing muscles Read More »
I painted a dodo a while back, which is going to a new home as soon as the lockdown finishes. But then my sister piped up that she really liked it and could I do another. I’ve filmed the whole process, so if you hop over to YouTube you can see it in two parts: …