This week I cover some great practices for acrylics, oils and watercolour. A foundation is often a fine start in any medium and for oil and acrylic, I develop an image with low tones and high values. Watercolour can often be intimidating, particularly at the start and I’ll be talking about how I like to get an image to work with some straightforward watercolour effects – beginning with a drawn image,adding wash and darks. For those more focused on dry media, this week I add wash to a drawn image. All very safe, robust and adaptable approaches!

Laying foundations

The initial foundation (in oil and acrylic – sometimes called an underpainting), can be the most important stage of a painting. It’s the place to refine the composition, work through the value equations and evolve ideas. Maybe there will be a Eureka! moment, when the painting starts talking and you learn where it has to go.

Foundation blocking can be completed in any (typically subdued) tone: blues, browns, greys and greens can all work. Each will assert a certain feel into the final work – sometimes dramatically so, where the foundation forms an integral part of the final image.

The principle is common to all images, regardless of medium – it’s the application that may be somewhat different. In watercolour for example, I would always retain some white space and typically use low-tone greens, blues and browns that would feature in the final work.

In oil or acrylic, I might start with a mid-tone base in any colour. I generally favour using a brown and a blue as a limited palette variation of a pure monochromatic underpainting. The thing I like, is that it allows for a variation of warms (browns) and cools (blues) that can almost complete a painting…without adding much colour at all. Don’t be frightened of blues in the shadows and features, you need them!

My general rule in any medium is: the darker the value, the bluer it must be. Mid-tones and lights in brown, with darks all having a deep blueish tinge. Warm tones advance and cools recede, giving the viewer all the right messages.

I’m known as a bit of a colourist, but typically evolve my images in a very limited palette, applying colour after previously established values. It’s difficult to deal with colour and value at the same time and adding colour is never a substitute for a lack in the value department – you can’t solve a value problem with more colour!

Laying out a painting in Acrylic and Oil

In the following video I develop a foundation, in this instance painting in acrylic.

My process with oil would be very similar, being careful to keep my paint thin to facilitate following stages – painting thicker into the still wet base, the following example showing the evolution of a plein-air oil study:

Exercise

• From the reference of your choice, plein-air or the Reference Gallery develop a low-tone painting using a brown and a blue. That is, make the primary focus the  lights, mid-tones and darks (3 zones). The additional opportunity in this study is to make the darks cooler (that is, bluer) than the lights, plus you can use white to reinforce lights (although I like to wipe out the lights whilst the paint is still wet).

Laying out a painting in Watercolour

In the following video, I apply the same principles in watercolour, this time retaining some white of the paper for future flexibility.

I often start by getting the overall spatial arrangements in dry media: pencil, charcoal, sometimes ink and then model mid-tone washes and darks with a limited palette (in this case Cerulean blue, Ultramarine blue and Hansa yellow). Depending on subject, I might use a single blue, yellow and a brown (however rarely a full red). For landscapes, yellow and blue make my greens and sometimes I use only a brown and a blue and then paint green onto already established blue-darks.

Notice that I leave quite a bit of white space. That’s because I’m defining my shadow areas with the initial washes and I want to leave myself plenty of bare paper for some chromatic washes later on.

 

Notes on staining and non-staining pigments.

At this stage, I use exclusively non-staining colours to enable some local removal (lifting) of pigment: you can test for this by applying brush and water to some dry swaths of pigment.

Here’s the list of non-staining pigments on my palette: Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Ochre and Hansa Yellow (lightly staining).

The staining pigments I avoid at this stage are: Alizarin Crimson, all purples, Pthalo blue (like the plague), and Lemon Yellow. I don’t use green, however many are staining: pthalo being an often-used constituent.

Exercise

• From the reference of your choice, plein-air or the Reference Gallery develop a limited palette painting. Proceed in a similar manner to the above, using your own style.  Make the primary focus the  lights, mid-tones and darks (3 zones), reserving white space for the future! The additional opportunity in this study is to make the darks cooler (that is, bluer) than the mid tones.

Drawing and wash

One idea that repeats throughout art, as it does elsewhere in life, is the juxtaposition of two equally-weighted opposites…a combination that very often naturally reinforces and emphasizes the qualities of both.

Explore the juxtaposition of the sharp definition of line and the ephemeral, amorphous quality of wash. The key is to let one complement the other, generally letting the wash pass behind or in front – it does not matter. Try not to stop wash exactly at the line, thereby reinforcing a boundary – maybe not in a good way!

In the following video, I focus on drawing as the prime medium, adding some wash to enhance:

Ink is my preferred medium for line and can be applied before or after the wash – using a permanent, light-fast pen, the effect is often very similar and the choice is as much about how the artist evolves the image and the intent. I would say that most drawings can benefit from a little wash – there again, I’m a painter at heart!

Exercise

• Take any drawing, plein-air or studio and add a little wash!