Tabla de contenidos para November 2022 en Leisure Painter

Events Marine artists The annual exhibition by the Royal Society of Marine Artists, featuring work by members and those selected from open submission, goes on show at the Mall Galleries in London from 22 September to 1 October. To coincide with the exhibition, society members will be sharing their knowledge and techniques at workshops and demonstrations. For more details go to www.mallgalleires.org.uk or contact the Royal Society of Marine Artists at www.rsma.org NEWS Tadworth Art Group winner This year’s Leisure Painter subscription prize chosen at the Tadworth Art Group’s annual exhibition has been won by Nava Ahmed. Nava runs weekly art classes for children and adults and says that joining the Tadworth Art Group ‘has provided me with a unique opportunity to be inspired by experts and to showcase my…

JOHN’S TOP TIPS • Take a step back to view your drawing from time to time. This helps you see that it is going as it should. • A sharpened electric eraser is great for taking out small areas without removing the surrounding colours. • Keep a piece of sandpaper to hand for making sharp points on your pencils. • Clean your eraser on a piece of scrap paper before using it on your drawing to avoid unwanted marks. LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Learn top tips and techniques to get you started ■ Understand the working process ■ Try underpainting with gouache or acrylics When I first picked up coloured pencils many years ago, I couldn’t do anything with them. My drawings were always patchy and childlike so I left them…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Spatter, spray and scrape gouache ■ Add texture to your paintings ■ Apply gouache using a variety of techniques One of the lovely things I enjoy about painting is the hands-on nature of the process. I suspect that many of us spend too much time living virtually on a smartphone, tablet or laptop. I am not denying the wonder of these gadgets and there are some amazing programmes for painting digitally, but they can never replicate the pure pleasure of physically putting paint to paper. In this article I want us to experience some of this not only by painting with brushes, but also by digging into the paint with a credit card, and by sploshing on droplets of water from a brush to see what happens,…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How to find a strong composition within a photograph ■ Follow five exercises to prepare you to paint the scene You will need ■ Surface • Bockingford NOT 140lb (300gsm) watercolour paper 9x13in. (23x33cm) ■ Cotman watercolour tubes • Ultramarine • light red • Raw sienna • Lemon yellow Brushes • Stephen Coates Mini Hake by Pro Arte • Stephen Coates Spearhead Rounds Nos. 8 & 6 • Pro Arte Prolene Round No. 2 Miscellaneous • Palette or tray for mixing • Soft pencil & eraser • Kitchen towel • Masking tape • Hairdryer Welcome to the penultimate article in my 12-month watercolour course for beginners. It is hard to think that there are only two left. Where has the year gone? If you have been following…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Loosen up your approach to painting with acrylics ■ Top tips for keeping your colours clean ■ Ideas for setting up and painting still lifes with flowers KEY 1 Black 2 Lemon yellow 3 Cadmium yellow 4 Viridian 5 Prussian blue 6 Purple/violet 7 Emerald 8 Cadmium red 9 Yellow green 10 Alizarin crimson 11 Cadmium orange 12 Sap green 13 Turquoise 14 Ultramarine 15 Cadmium red deep 16 Yellow ochre 17 Magenta 18 Burnt umber 19 Cobalt blue 20 White 21 Burnt sienna 22 Raw umber 23 Cerulean blue Over the next couple of months, I will be introducing the techniques I use to paint flowers, both en plein air and when I’m back home in the studio. I will be working with heavy-body acrylic paints,…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Ideas to try before you go away ■ Top tips for sketching and painting effectively on holiday ■ Suggested art materials to pack Planning on getting away anytime soon? Travelling light with a small set of watercolours and a sketchbook, rather than oils or acrylics and the paraphenalia that’s attached to them, means you can paint and draw hassle-free on the go. The success of your holiday paintings can be put down to the work you put in before you travel so try a few tips to give yourself a head start. Model other painters Establish the kind of paintings you’d like to make by looking at the work of watercolourists you admire and model their approach. Explore their working practice and use of materials, and try…

The EY Exhibition: Cézanne The EY Exhibition: Cézanne at Tate Modern focuses on the tensions and contradictions in the artist’s work and seeks to understand him in the context of the world in which he lived. Many of the works will be on show in the UK for the first time. Guided tours of the exhibition take place every Saturday from 8 October to 11 March, 10.15-11.15am. The exhibition is at Tate Modern from 5 October to 12 March 2023. For more information visit www.tate.org.uk LONDON ■ Bankside Gallery 48 Hopton Street SE1. 020 7928 7521; www.banksidegallery.com ‘International Original Print Exhibition 2022’: annual Royal Society of PainterPrintmakers’ open exhibition, 21 September to 2 October. ‘RWS: Less is More’, annual exhibition by the Royal Watercolour Society, 7 October to 5 November.…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Use four different brushes to create a variety of effects ■ Mix and use greens in a predominantly green landscape ■ Work from light to dark In last month’s article I showed you how I prepared to paint from a photo of one of the favourite painting locations (below right) and showed the compositional sketch (below). This month, I will demonstrate how I created the painting from start to finish. You will need ■ Surface 140lb Cold-pressed watercolour paper 12x14in. (30.5x36cm) ■ Winsor & Newton Professional Water Colour • Ultramarine blue • Cobalt blue • Cerulean blue • Cadmium yellow • Yellow ochre • Cadmium red • Alizarin crimson • Burnt sienna ■ Brushes • Medium flat watercolour brush (such as a Pro Arte hake) • Medium…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Practise painting fat over lean ■ Add form to a small study of autumn leaves ■ Follow an oil-painting process If you want to build up layers in an oil painting, you need to follow one of the golden rules, known as working ‘fat over lean’. This technique helps guarantee a painting’s longevity; not following the process can result in the surface of your painting cracking in the future. Oil paint dries and hardens gradually on exposure to air (oxidisation). Initially, after a few hours or so, the paint will be a bit tacky but still workable. After a day or two, the oil paint might be ‘touch dry’, meaning that, although the surface of the paint feels dry, the paint beneath is still wet. After six…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Understand the different levels of protection you can give your artwork ■ Choose different styles for your type of artwork and surface A good picture frame will allow your artwork to be seen to its best advantage and protect it from environmental hazards. It is worth getting the most up-to-date expert advice therefore the aim of this article is to help you establish a working relationship with a picture framer and know what to expect from them. Levels of protection Some of the hazards that your art can be exposed to include UV rays from the sun, dust, chemicals, fumes and impure materials used in the frame. A picture framer can now offer you four levels of protection, defined by the Fine Art Trade Guild for framing…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ A study of the important relationship between structure and form ■ Improves dexterity with a fine brush ■ A relaxing subject for practising sketching skills Feathers make a great subject to paint, as there are so many different types to choose and you can always find one to suit your ability and mood. If you like order and precision, for instance, you might prefer to work with tail or flight feathers, which have rigid and powerful shapes, unlike traditional down feathers, which are fluffier and more unpredictable in nature. Feathers also come in many shapes, colours and sizes, allowing plenty of scope for artistic interpretation. Add your own personal style to your paintings with dramatic colour choices and embellishment. Structure and form A basic understanding of the…

WWW.PAINTERS-ONLINE.CO.UK Self-taught artist, Lynn Parkins, enjoys painting most subjects in a range of media.Here she explores a scene she came across while on holiday in Devon. To see more of Lynn’s work, post a comment or upload your own images, visit www.painters-online.co.uk Lynn took up painting many years ago, learning techniques by observing other painters, watching videos, reading books and attending courses. ‘Belonging to a club is a great way to get inspiration and try out different ways of painting,’ she writes. ‘The club I belong to has a topic for each meeting, which means that sometimes you tackle something out of your comfort zone. My favourite subject is animals. I have painted many pet portraits to commission and for friends, for which I use soft pastel on velour paper…

Beginner’s nerves In response to the letter from Les Halford (Beginner’s nerves, LP October 2022), I would like to assure him that he is not alone. At my first art class I was terrified to put pencil and paint to paper, having not drawn or painted since I was a child, but it soon became apparent that my efforts were well on a par with others in the class. I have been painting with watercolour for nearly six years now but still hesitate when it comes to applying paint to a blank sheet of paper, even more so when I have spent time on a detailed sketch that may get scrapped if the painting does not go well. But that is all in the course of learning, and artists everywhere…

News Banff Art Club Donald Galloway’s cheerful painting, On the Beach, was awarded best in show at the recent Banff Art Club exhibition and received the Heather Slater Memorial Trophy, given in memory of Heather, a much-loved member of the group. ‘I live next to a beach and walk regularly on it,’ writes Donald. ‘I see scenes like this on almost a daily basis, which was the inspiration for this particular painting.’ Forced to give up his business as a chimney sweep following a cancer diagnosis, Donald decided to take up painting to help with his recovery. ‘The Banff Art Club had always been an ambition of mine to join one day when I had time. Now I had time, but Covid arrived so the club wasn’t meeting up. However,…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How to transfer an image with carbon paper ■ Produce a drawing of the subject You will need • Graphite pencils – HB, 2B • Watercolour sketchbook 160 gsm • Pencil sharpener • Putty rubber • 2 paper clips • Pen • Tortillon • Black fibre tipped marker (0.5) waterproof • Water-soluble coloured pencils • Carbon transfer paper – 1 sheet graphite colour • Watercolour brush – medium round • Container of clean water TIP Transfer paper can be used many times and comes in three colours: white, yellow and graphite. For artwork on white paper, use the graphite colour. I congratulate all the readers who have joined me for the challenge of my 2022 drawing series, which is now nearing completion. From January to May, we…

EXERCISE Glazing ‚ Glazing is a technique where a thin layer of paint (made transparent by mixing it with a medium) is painted over the top of an existing layer of dry paint. The paint layer beneath the glaze remains visible and no detail is lost; however, the glaze alters its colour. Make sure the paints you use for glazing are transparent (or at least semi-transparent) – paint tubes state the level of opacity on their labels. The effects of glazing on a painting can be subtle yet luminous, and colours can be made even more vibrant by building up successive layers using this technique. Artists such as Rembrandt and JMW Turner are known to have used glazing in their paintings, and Renaissance painters achieved beautifully glowing reds and blues…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Get to know your materials ■ How to prepare your tools ■ Follow a step-by-step process Dip pens have an old-fashioned reputation — your mind may immediately have gone to the idea of monks scratching away at parchment clutching a quill — but they are tremendously liberating to use and inject character into your work. Pens can be divided into two types — reservoir or dip. Reservoir pens hold their own ink. They might be refillable (think of fountain pens) or disposable (such as Biros), meanwhile dip pens need a separate bottle of ink. Undoubtedly, reservoir pens are convenient, but not all inks work in them. Disposable ones are cheap and easy to find, however you may wish to avoid single-use plastic. Conversely dip pens have a…

Start with very light pencil strokes, to plot where your feather will sit on the page then build up stronger pencil lines when you are confident that you have captured the basic layout. I used a HB pencil initially, followed by a softer 2 or 3B pencil to build areas of shadow that create an impression of three dimensions. I find that I achieve the best sketching results when the graphite tip of my pencil has softened with use. If your pencil has been recently sharpened, I recommend scribbling on a piece of scrap paper to wear the harsh point down a little. TIPS FOR DRAWING FLIGHT OR TAIL FEATHERS Step 1 With a HB pencil (or similar), draw a central shaft that runs through the feather, widest where it…