 Peter Atkins |
7 August
2009 This is Peter's 3rd visit. This time he was demonstrating in Acryilic Gouache (which he felt should be pronounced "GohArsh"). Much easier than watercolour because it is opaque - and better than designer gouache which stays water-soluble and is picked up by subsequent coats.  Pencil, he says is an excellent
starting point because it is good not just for drawing but also for "painting"
- look here, for example, at a picture "painted" entirely in
pencil."Buy my pencil sharpener" |
| Peter used a fairly cheap Homebase paper sold by the metre in
various colours - this evening the pinky fawn you can see in the unpainted
areas, because that colour was to appear in several parts of the picture. He
stretches his paper. With acrylic gouache you can use watercolour techniques but it's better to put down large flats of colour and overpaint later. It dries more slowly than normal acrylic and so (i) he was using the hair-dryer very frequently and (ii) it was not necessary to keep brushes in water when they were out of use for even tens of minutes. |
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He spoke of mixing to a double cream consistency but was careful
not to let runs develop. He likes to establish the lightest lights and darkest darks as soon as possible and then fill in the middle tones. "Buy my red glasses to see tonal values". A surprise was that he not only advises mixing the colours you want on plates but also likes to use black gouache, not by itself but as a very dark blue to mix with yellows to make dark greens. Throughout, he kept fairly meticulously to the very feint pencil drawing he had pre-prepared - see how he was able to leave the finials on the bridge as negative spaces. |
He referred frequently to the photo but he had also
prepared this smaller trial version of the same scene (also in acrylic
gouache). |
The demonstration painting is more refined : better
(less lurid) grass; more patches of colour; a more interesting fence and some
extra details. |
The end of the demo (still not quite
finished). |
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5 August
2005 Peter had problems. Our directions to St. Pauls were not clear and it was approaching His painting technique has changed little. He had washed a staining pale ochre-ish ground onto Watman paper to define the painting area (not tea bags, but they are OK!). He had followed this by faint pencil marks to guide the colour. He stressed the importance of making many light marks when you draw, so as gradually to build up the right lines (if you draw long continuous lines and erase errors you can't see where you went wrong and are quite likely to repeat the error). |
| He uses a palette not quite as limited as before (he now adds an emerald green, an ochre and a burnt sienna). All mixing is done on three large soup plates - fresh paint round the rim and the next brushful in the bottom. | |
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Cold blue was knocked back with a little magenta
for the sky and water (with a strip of masking tape to control the white
water-horizon). Clouds were dabbed back to the ground colour (the lightest
tone). The same basic mix was worked down the picture, gradually adding more
magenta and then the third primary for the nearer hills. Skipping over the
surface starts to give texture and form to the hills. Once the broad shapes were defined (without going darker than mid-tone), green was mixed, with differing touches of red for different greens, to start the trees (top picture ) and rocks. (Note: Rocks can go wrong - he likes to do a tonal pencil sketch first, to make sure the shadows are mutually consistent) |
| In the final minutes he got into the
"darks" and "darkest darks". The brush went back and forth, strengthening
everywhere, even distant hills. Where the balance was not right even more darks
were added until it was right. He even went to a smaller brush, one with a
point, for the final details. Peter used Turner as a theme throughout, starting and finishing with some interesting and amusing writings about his life. He had made several partial copies of Turner paintings to try to understand the master's technique. |
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28 May
2004 Peter is a regular contributor to "Leisure Painter". He is currently part way though a series of 12 articles (started April 2004) on the Golden Age of Watercolour in which he studies some of the greatest exponents of watercolour and shows how their styles can influence us today. Peter's chosen subject was a timbered house at Dixter together with its garden. He started with quite a detailed pencil drawing, which he explained meant that he got the perspective and detail correct. Doing so at this stage allowed him to be much freer with the application of the paint. This initial drawing was covered with a pale wash of yellow ochre to take away the white of the paper and to give a unity of colour to the whole painting. Peter left a border of a couple of inches round the drawing and the yellow ochre rectangle to give a white frame to the finished painting. |
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Peter explained that he was going to use Miameri
watercolours with a limited palette of just three colours - lemon yellow,
phthalo blue and magenta. We often hear the expression "limited palette" but it
is rare to see this actually done at a demo. With the board at an angle of about 45 degrees, Peter spent about 20 minutes putting the basic colours onto the entire picture. He explained that he was dropping on the paint and allowing it to run and mix on the paper. This was not something that he could do successfully at a near vertical angle. In this way he filled the main shapes without over-worked brush strokes. With the basic ground work complete, Peter put his easel to a near vertical "demonstration angle" to complete the painting. First he painted the timbers of the building and added the windows followed by the shadows. |
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Then he went over the same three elements, increasing the density
of the paint and increasing the contrast. Attention next turned to the gardens. First the greens - all from the same basic yellow and blue mixture with the addition of magenta to modify and darken the colour. He added areas of colour to indicate the flowers. |
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Just as with the house he then went over the greens
adding yet more depth and contrast Finally, he worked on the hard landscaping - the garden walls, paving and steps. A little dog added life to the foreground and if he had more time Peter would have added the figure that he had included in the drawing The final piece was quite stunning. In conclusion, this was a very interesting evening from an entertaining and informative speaker - a definite must see again - for those of us who work mainly in watercolour. Peter Johnson |
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