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I ’M
VISIT…
A &
NEW LANDSCAPE PAINTING SERIES

I L L U S T R A T O R S
TIPS • TECHNIQUES • IDEAS • inspir ation May 2020 £4.75

SP R I N G
IMPRESSIONISM PROJE CT
Pa S
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7 painting lessons from and blo scenes
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Wi l d l if e
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Animal portraits
How to...
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with imagination •Learn from your mistakes
 AFFECT THE EFFECT

Moha-Mod by Arindam Gupta, 20" x 26", Nitram Charcoal & Nitram Liquid Charcoal

NITRAM LIQUID CHARCOAL

“I have used many well-known charcoal products but have found none that ensure the artistic
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Nitram – easy to use so I can work on my work.”
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Water soluble

Arindam Gupta is a contemporary artist currently residing in Kolkata, India, with his roots firmly embedded in rural Indian society. After completing
a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts from Kolkata University, Arindam spent a considerable amount of time with the Sadhus, Yogics and Tantrics from
the Himalayas and other regions of India. He prefers to create artworks which express his thoughts about these aspects of his Indian heritage.
Through his artwork, we can experience these unique cultures with a new, expansive and compelling perspective.
www.arindamgupta.com, instagram: @arindam7286

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As the V&A gears up to stage Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser, it felt

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Carroll's Wonderland, fantastical visions of candy-coloured worlds.
There’s an underlying message to the work too, with endangered
animals marked by targets, a sign that the fun won’t last forever.
COVER IMAGE ANTONIO SEGURA DONAT Antonio is also a reminder that it doesn’t matter where you start
with art, it’s where you end up that counts. He was drawn to street art as a
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Artists & Illustrators 3

Barnett Freedman:
Designs for Modern Britain

14 Mar
–
14 June
2020

pallant.
org.uk

The pioneering artist whose designs

brought art into everyday life.
Barnett Freedman, Theatre, Go by Underground, 1936, Lithographic Poster
©TfL, detail of a poster/photograph from the collection of London Transport Museum

66
regulars
6 Letters
Write to us and win a £50 voucher
8 Exhibitions
The five best to see this month
10 Sketchbook
Tips, tricks and bite-size advice
16 Fresh Paint
New works, hot off the easel
29 The Working Artist
With our columnist Laura Boswell
37 Prize Draw
Win a £449 Schmincke paint set
82 10 Minutes With...
Collage artist Maria Rivans
featureS
22 Big Inter view
Antonio Segura Donat talks about
his fantastical wildlife portraits
Contents
38
30 Art Histor y
Seven lessons we can learn from
the art of the Impressionists
38 In The Studio
Award-winning portrait painter
Ania Hobson shares her methods
practical
44 Masterclass
Seasonal blooms provide a lesson
in painting without a sketch
48 Landscapes
Grahame Booth's new series looks
at a single landscape in detail
52 Colour Theor y
Why planning imaginative palettes
can add style to your painting
70
Pa in t sp ri n g
s c en es w it h re a l
d ep t h
One of the jobs of an artist is
to be selective and decisive,
emphasising certain elements
and discarding others
– LEARN LES SONS FROM THE
IMPRES S IONIS T S ON PAGE 3 0
L e a rn h o w
56 Project
A simple guide to varnishing
to d raw sk in
your latest masterpiece a n d h a ir
61 Figure Drawing in to n e s
Jake Spicer's series looks at how – pa ge 61
to draw the body's surface: skin
66 How I Paint
Wildlife artist Gary Stinton reveals
how he captures the majesty of
big cats in his pastel paintings
70 Demo
How to create a sense of
depth in a bright spring scene
74 Technique
Rob Dudley shares his six-point
plan for learning from your
mistakes when painting

LET TER OF THE MONTH
CHILD’S PLAY
I’m writing this as my daughter Dais
sleeps. It’s quite apt because this
drawing was also completed whilst
Daisy was sleeping. Drawing used
to be a huge part of my life when I
was younger. Until Daisy came
along, I’d forgotten the simple joy
you get from picking up a pencil
and making marks on paper. In an
era of social media and digital
screens, especially in my job in
advertising, it offers escapism.
This particular drawing only
happened because my daughter
was drawing and now asks me to d
out as a simple sketch turned into something more and sparked a
renewed interest in art. This picture represents the start of a new
adventure for Daisy and me.
Your magazine has also helped me to start looking at new techniques
and improve further. Long may it continue!
Sean Cullen, via email
SNAP HAPPY
I’m a regular reader of Artists &
Illustrators and, although I am not
able to draw or paint figuratively,
I do enjoy abstract work including
photography. So, I was very
interested to read the email from
Carol Preston [Letters, Issue 415].
I also use photos I’ve taken of all
kinds of things, and I layer and
blend them in an app called
Procreate. I can digitally paint on
the layers with brushes I can create
myself. This digital process is
inspiring me to explore real paint
and brushes – probably the wrong
way around to approach things!
I’m semi-retired and I am
loving this creative process –
and your magazine. Thank you for
publishing Carol’s email. It’s good
to know of other, like-minded
photographic artists.
Sharon Eynon, via Facebook
We’re glad you are enjoying your
creative journey, Sharon. The beauty
of art is that there is no right or
wrong way to approach things. We’d
love to hear from other readers who
6 Artists & Illustrators
Letters
g d isolation. I didn’t realise at
are creating artworks in new and
different ways and media.
FOCUS ON CREATION
As a mental health practitioner with
a particular interest in the
therapeutic use of the arts, I find
your magazine to be compulsive
reading. However, I wish that more
attention could be given by your
contributors to the benefits they
experience as a result of the
process of art creation rather than
simply focussing on the outcome of
this process.
Elaine Argyle, via email
Thanks for your email, Elaine.
Would other readers be interested
in more artists talking about mental
health and the therapeutic benefits
of the creative process?
BRIGHTER DAYS
I love reading the letters about
creativity being rediscovered and
the joy it brings to the artist, which
can’t ever be understated. When
my husband was diagnosed with
dementia, the consequences were
devastating and road ahead
too bleak to contemplate.
Like many others before me,
I began to paint again having
packed away my brushes
20 years ago.
Initially I went back to
watercolours and tried my luck
with acrylics. Recently I looked
back at my paintings from a
year ago and noticed how much
ime and art had influenced
my wellbeing. One painting,
ementia [below right], was
ade soon after the news.
s bleak, lonely and empty,
ll of dark seas, mountains
the time how much everything had
affected me, and I hadn’t set out
to paint about dementia or feel
sorry for myself.
A year later, things have changed
so much. I paint just about every
day and now wholeheartedly
embrace the magic and power of
colour dreams and family. I read
and learn so much every month and
get so much inspiration. Thank you
for the best medicine ever.
Sonia Cracknell, via email
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UNTO Two Hundred Years of John Ruskin
10 March - 31 May 2020
THIS Including works by J. M. W. Turner, John Everett Millais,

LAST
and Edward Burne-Jones. Produced by YCBA.
Book tickets online at wattsgallery.org.uk
 Exhibitions
MAY'S FIVE BEST ART SHOWS
Raphael: Prince Albert’s Passion
6 May to 6 September
As part of the worldwide celebrations marking
the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, this
exhibition also tells the fascinating story of
how the great Renaissance master captured
the imagination of Prince Albert.
In 1853, the Prince Consort embarked on a
8 Artists & Illustrators
Renaissance Watercolours:
from Dürer to Van Dyck
16 May to 20 September
We tend to think of the Renaissance period
as being dominated by virtuoso drawings and
masterful works in oil, whereas watercolours
from the era are largely overlooked thanks to
their more fragile nature.
Cue this exhibition which pulls together
200 rarely-seen watercolours, divided into five
separate sections. It will begin with a look at
the origins of the medium, then take in rare
Da Vinci maps and Dürer’s exquisite Stag
Beetle, before concluding with a section titled
“The Wider World” that looks beyond Europe
with paintings from Asia and the Americas.
ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST © HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2020
V&A, London.
www.vam.ac.uk/renaissance-watercolours
pioneering research project that collected
some 5,000 prints and photographs of all
known works by the Italian.
As well as exploring the methods of these
reproductions, there will be a chance to see
some of the artist's original drawings, as well
as Queen Victoria’s own sketch after Raphael.
The Lightbox, Woking. www.thelightbox.org.uk
Making an Impression:
Prints by Manet, Pissarro
and their Contemporaries
27 April to 11 July
This touring exhibition drawn from the
Ashmolean’s collection explores the ways
in which the Impressionists embraced
advances in artistic technology in the late
19th century to capture fleeting glimpses
of city life, people, weather and more.
Highlights include an Auguste Rodin
© VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
portrait of the writer Victor Hugo [left]
and an Édouard Manet etching of Berthe
Morisot, which was a copy of a famous
oil portrait of his fellow artist.
Kirkby Gallery, Kirkby, Merseyside.
© ASHMOLEAN
www.prescotmuseum.org.uk/kirkby-gallery
 Lynette
Yiadom-Boakye:
Fly in League
with the Night
20 May to 30 August
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was
shortlisted for the Turner
Prize in 2013 but don’t hold
that against her.
This enigmatic London
artist specialises in fictitious
portraits in muted colours,
which invite viewers
to project their own
interpretations on to them,
© COURTESY OF LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE. PHOTO: BRYAN CONLEY

while raising important

questions of identity and
representation.
This first major survey
collects together around
80 works created since
she graduated from Royal
Academy Schools in 2003.
Tate Britain, London.
www.tate.org.uk

Charles H Mackie:
Colour and Light
16 May to 11 October
Charles Hodge Mackie was born in
Aldershot in 1862, but soon moved to
Edinburgh and can lay claim to being
one of Scotland’s finest artists of the era.
A stint in Paris saw him study Japanese
prints and Gauguin paintings, before
returning to Edinburgh to become the first
© CITY ART CENTRE, MUSEUMS & GALLERIES EDINBURGH

president of the Society of Scottish Artists.

This exhibition marks the centenary of his
death and underlines his great versatility
via sculpture, prints and paintings such as
There were Three Maidens pu’d a Flower
(By the Bonnie Banks o’ Fordie) [left].
City Art Centre, Edinburgh.
www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk

Artists & Illustrators 9

 sketchbook

May TIPS • ADVICE • IDEAS

FIGURE IT OUT
Six leading f igurative ar tist s are
joining f orces f or f or thcoming
exhibition, Now We Are Six .
They each share their keys f or
creating b et ter p or trait s

1. NEGATIVE S PACE
Inma Garcia-Carrasco: “If there is
one tool that gets overlooked, it is
the use of negative space as a
compositional element.
“Look at the abstract shapes
of negative spaces and concentrate
on representing those, rather than
the positive ones. 1
“Like a puzzle that comes together, 2
you will see how the addition of those
negative shapes means that the wet-in-wet mixing, which is especially
entire painting becomes the subject problematic with mixes that contain
to be represented.” a lot of Titanium White.
“For another, it erodes passages
2 . PAINT REMOVAL that have become too resolved.
James Bland: “Periodically scrape This makes a space for fresh
back the paint on your canvas. I use a observations and ideas to take hold.”
palette knife for this, and sometimes
my fingers or a cotton rag. 3. VALUE SCALE
“Doing this has many benefits. For Anastasia Pollard: “Understanding
one thing, it cuts down on unintended value and its relationship to colour is

3
4
essential. Pre-mixing your colours
and arranging them into a value scale
starts the process of organising tones
and saves precious time when a
model arrives. I organise these value
steps into columns on my palette and
mix my colours across the rows, which
keeps the mixtures synchronised.”
4. S IMPLIFICATION
Andrew Hitchcock: “Look to simplify
what you see, starting with large
shapes and planes. These can be
resolved later on or left in a more
abstract state. Figure painting is
about the whole figure and how parts
relate to each other, it is not just
about getting the ear right. If you have
difficulty in one area, move on and
revisit it later with a fresh eye.”
5. COMPOS ITION
Simon Davis: “An important part of
portrait painting is composition:
a successful painting is one that has
a presence even from across a room.
“Before starting a portrait, make
thumbnail sketches in watercolour
first – this can be incredibly helpful
when planning a composition. Try to
make simple shapes within a portrait
as these are generally what the
human eye naturally seeks out.”
6. VARIET Y
Suzon Lagarde: “There’s no one way
to paint. Try to vary your marks, the
pace at which you work, or even your
position at the easel.
“You’ll see how it can impact the
paintings, enhancing their liveliness
and sense of fluidity. I like to feel that
I’m dancing when I paint!”
Now We Are Six runs from 8-13 April at
Newington Gallery, 155 Walworth Rd,
London SE17. www.artacademy.org.uk
Artists & Illustrators 11
 Aesthetica
Art Prize
submit
your work
Win £5,000 & Exhibition

All Media. Any Genre.

Deadline 31 August 2020
aestheticamagazine.com/artprize
Image: Liisi Eelmaa, Replicate an effort. Courtesy of the artist.
 sketchbook

“PAINTING FROM NATURE IS NOT

COPYING THE OBJECT; IT IS REALISING
ONE’S SENSATIONS” – PAUL CÉZANNE

EXPAND YOUR PALETTE

Neutral Tint
Discover a new colour ever y month
THE COLOUR
This slightly purplish grey was
first sold by colourman
Thomas Reeves in the 18th
century and was originally a
mix of red iron oxide, indigo
and yellow pigments.
THE PROPERTIES
Today, Neutral Tint varies from
brand to brand. For example,
Schmincke, Daler-Rowney and
Winsor & Newton each use a
different three pigments to
make their artists’ watercolour
Neutral Tint. In general, most
brands are semi-permanent,
with Winsor’s being the
most opaque and Daler’s
the most transparent.
THE USES
Neutral Tint is a compound
shadow colour, primarily used
to tone down colours without
muddying them. The changes
to the make-up of each brand
means it pays to experiment
and find which version mixes
best with your current palette.
BOOK OF
THE MONTH
More than a Muse
by Katie McCabe
Former Artists &
Illustrators editor Katie
McCabe’s debut book
looks at creative
relationships in which the
woman has previously been sold short.
While musicians and film editors feature,
the main focus is on fine art, with chapters
on Lee Krasner and Josephine Nivison
Hopper proving particularly revealing.
This is timely stuff, passionately written
and expertly researched. The author’s
exacting eye unpicks complex power
dynamics while her delicious turns of
phrase are works of art in their own right.
Quadrille, £16.99. www.hardiegrant.com

MASTER TIP:
FRANK BRAMLEY
Painting te chniques of
the world ’s b es t ar tis t s
The Newlyn School painter Frank
Bramley cleverly managed to make three
pictures in one with 1888’s A Hopeless
Dawn. This is not just virtuoso painting
for the sake of it though; each element
contributes to the story.
© TATE 2020. PRESENTED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE CHANTREY BEQUEST 1888

A woman has collapsed and is

comforted, the sea outside the window
suggesting her husband is lost. The
altar-like still life arrangement suggests
the consolation of religion, hinted at by
the title – a quote from Ruskin. The
interaction between these elements
makes this a far more engaging painting.
A Hopeless Dawn features in Newlyn School
Interiors, which runs until 6 June at Penlee
House Gallery & Museum, Penzance,
Cornwall. www.penleehouse.org.uk

Artists & Illustrators 13

 10-minute challenges
Tiny slot s of time can still b e enough to
improve, as RO B AN D S IÂN D U D LE Y explain

3. MIXING SAMPLES colours. Try varying the tones as

Objective: To familiarise yourself
with pigments
Seeing colour flowing across the
page is exciting. Use your 10
minutes this month to either
experiment with mixing new
pigments or try out new
combinations of favourite
well as colours. Do not skimp on
the pigments because this
exercise is not a “proper” painting
– use enough to establish the full
range of possible colours and
tones. Use the results to inspire
you when you’re choosing a
palette for your next pa nting

WHY NOT TR
Citrus Essence Bru
Chelsea Classical Studio is a
school that does a nice side
non-toxic art materials. This
is made from 100% pure dis
and has a delicious natural a
leaves your bristles thorough
A lavender version is also av

DAILY PAINTING TIPS www.chelseaclassicalstudio.co

Jeremy Gardiner on layering colour s

Painting a coloured ground (or “imprimatura”) can

create an early unified colour scheme. In the study of
Lulworth Cove pictured above, each layer of paint was
allowed to dry before the next one was applied, each
colour was transparent, and every layer modified any
colour painted over it.
Building up layers enable you to paint forms in
pale washes with additional layers adding richness.
Sometimes the first tentative washes can co-exist
alongside final overlays leaving a record of spontaneity.
I use gum Arabic to slow the drying time of my
watercolour washes, this also increase the transparency
and creates greater luminosity of colour.
Jeremy Gardiner – South by Southwest runs until 13 June at
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall. www.jeremygardiner.co.uk
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Submit by 1 May to enter the Aberdeen Artists Society Open Exhibition.
The theme is “Coming Home”, a nod to the show being set in the newly-
refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery. www.aberdeenartistssociety.co.uk •
Our September issue cover star, US artist David Shevlino, hosts a rare
UK workshop at Raw Umber Studios in Stroud (19-22 May). Learn his
alla prima methods via four days of still life and portrait sessions.
www.rawumberstudios.com • After a successful debut, Draw Art Fair
London (21-24 May) returns with an expanded remit, now featuring
drawings from Old Masters to the present day. www.drawartfair.com

14 Artists & Illustrators

 a dv e r t i s i n g F e at u r e

THE
WIDE ST
CHOICE
Find quality art materials at GREATART’S
flagship store and a full range of 60,000 products
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GreatArt flagship store. Here you can
enjoy browsing art materials from all
of your favourite brands for a wide
variety of techniques.
GreatArt’s friendly team can also
offer assistance with custom framing
for your upcoming exhibition, canvas
by the metre for your bespoke
artworks, or even a recommendation
on which new products to choose
for your next project.
Visitors can also enjoy weekly
workshops in subjects such as life
printmaking, with plenty of family-
friendly activities taking place during
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the option to grab a quiet moment
sketching in the window with a
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 Fresh
Paint
Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel

Emily Patrick
For artists like Emily Patrick, the canvas appears to be less
a place for defining statements and more a visual diary.
Her paintings celebrate the joy and the poignancy of a
poetic life lived to the fullest. And like all truly great
painters, she creates images that seem bright and
effortless, when the reality is perhaps far from that.
Emily’s latest solo exhibition, A Collection of Paintings
2017-2019, is her first in three years and acts as a marker
of what has happened in her life during that time. We join
her at the beach, the breakfast table, and around the
Christmas tree. There is spring blossom, winter snow and
even – in a surreal twist – a blue sky indoors.
Her past life features too. The reverence with which
she paints vases and china cups was no doubt instilled
in her while working in her father’s antique shop while
the abundance of flowers and blossoming trees feels like
a relic of a childhood on the farm where the woods and
fields were her “first art teachers”.
Recent holidays to Japan and the Caribbean also
presented new challenges and ways of seeing. “My soul
abides in England’s soft green mist, so that the islands of
Saint Vincent and Bequia felt like a kaleidoscope of light
and colour, everything within me woken and shaken,”
Emily writes in the catalogue. Rainbow over Wallilabou
captures that sense of wonder perfectly. “In every
direction the views were truly outstanding,” she tells us
today. “The heavy tropical verdancy was totally new to me.
I would love to have painted through binoculars because
the side of the volcano is a patchwork of allotments,
approached up near-vertical footpaths.”
Her chosen materials were born of necessity: birch-ply
panels cut to fit a suitcase; egg tempera chosen because
“you can get an egg wherever you are in the world”. Extra
layers of watercolour were added at home, “remembering
the heavy scent of the ylang-ylang tree”.
A Collection of Paintings 2017-2019 will be Emily’s 15th
solo exhibition and the experience is no less frightening as
time passes. “I think I am no wiser,” she says. “The only
way to stop the panic and fear around exhibition time is to
advance with careful steps. There are so many different
jobs that we have to do. One gathers speed.”
A Collection of Paintings 2017-2019 runs from 21 April to
7 May at 8 Duke Street, London SW1. www.emilypatrick.com

16 Artists & Illustrators

 Fresh Paint

e m ily’s
to p tiP
“For oc ca sional
stroke s
of more intens e
colour,
tr y ad ding water
colour
neat from the
tube”

LEFT Emily Patrick,

Rainbow over
Wallilabou,
watercolour and
egg tempera on
panel, 42x44cm

Artists & Illustrators 17


Frances Bell
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters (The RP) has been
collecting together the year’s best portraiture since 1891.
It started life as a reaction to the selection policies of the
Royal Academy of Arts, yet soon developed into a more
positive statement, gaining royal status 20 years later
and counting the likes of John Singer Sargent and James
McNeill Whistler among the earliest members.
One of the highlights of The RP’s forthcoming annual
exhibition will surely be Frances Bell’s Katie, which has
something of Sargent’s graceful brushwork to it. There’s
a wonderful warmth to the skin tones in particular that
the artist attributes to the flow of light. “If you can follow
the flow of light down the head, so that the form is well
expressed, that is half the battle. As one is painting the
tones and lights and darks of the skin, we need to consider
areas of local colour too, like the pink in a cheek and the
pale cool tones on the neck.”
The painting’s namesake is a close friend of Frances’s
who agreed to sit for the portrait whilst wearing a kimono
Fresh Paint
fr a n ce
s’s
to p tiP
“Avoid u s in
g sma
for the b ac ll b ru s he s
kg
Painting w round.
ith larger
b ru s he s e
nc ourage s
b roader s tr
o ke s”
that belonged to the artist’s grandmother. It proved a nice
challenge to incorporate the kimono’s bright colour and
pattern without overpowering the portrait. “The important
thing to always keep in mind when painting beautiful things
that deserve attention in their own right is that they must,
above all else, fit into the painting,” Frances advises.
“We can’t afford to be piecemeal in the rendering of, even
lovely, items that sit in a larger composition. One must pair
down the painting of extra things so that they communicate
but don’t override the rest of the composition.”
Frances has been a member of The RP for two years, but
the society was also hugely beneficial to her practice prior
to her election. “Being in the annual exhibition promotes
you to the top-flight of artists, commissioning public and
institutions,” she says. “I’m a very vocal advocate of entering
the show, even if most of the time one doesn’t get in. It’s a
show that can push you forward in a very helpful way.”
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition ABOVE Frances
2020 runs from 7-22 May at Mall Galleries, London SW1. Bell, Katie, oil on
www.francesbellpaintings.co.uk canvas, 70x80cm
Artists & Illustrators 19
Fresh Paint

Every month, one of our Fresh Paint

artists is chosen from Portfolio Plus,
David Whitehead home. He had time for a quick our online, art-for-sale portal. For your
Since overhearing his work described as “watercolour with sketch before having to retreat chance to feature in a forthcoming
balls”, Portfolio Plus member David Whitehead has adopted to his car to avoid a heavy issue, sign up for your own personalised
the remark as his own creative mantra. Now the self-taught downpour. Here, while the Portfolio Plus page today. You can also:
artist, who took up painting after early retirement, brings scene was still fresh in his • Showcase, share and sell unlimited
it to mind whenever he’s out capturing the remote British mind, he made another artworks commission free
landscapes he has always been drawn to. sketch using fibre-tip pens. • Get your work seen across Artists &
It’s this “sense of connection” that David aims to replicate A few days later, David Illustrators’ social media channels
in his watercolours. “I always try to capture how it felt to be completed the picture in a • Submit art to our online exhibitions
in that place at that time,” he says. “And I love painting 90-minute sitting using his ink • Enjoy exclusive discounts and more
outdoors. For me, when you stand in the middle of a field sketch as a guide. He started by Sign up in minutes at www.artistsand
and get stuck into an artwork, the world ceases to exist.” painting the sky and foreground, illustrators.co.uk/register
The watercolourist finessed his style by watching art followed by the distant trees,
tutorial DVDs and cites 20th-century watercolourists James near hedgerow and broken
Fletcher-Watson and Edward Wesson as his two biggest fences. Finally, he perfected the tree that had inspired
influences. Yet the best tip he’s ever received came from the painting. Another key aim for the artist is to recreate
fellow artist and friend Andrew Pitt. “I work with the most “the glow” that attracted him to the medium. With Flooded ABOVE David
difficult medium, in the most difficult circumstances,” Path near Kettleshulme, he says this has been achieved Whitehead,
explains David, “but after Andrew told me it’s all in the in “the light, transparent washes in the sky, distant trees, Flooded Path near
control of the water, I haven’t looked back.” fields and puddles, contrasted with the dark washes in Kettleshulme,
The focus of Flooded Path near Kettleshulme was an oak the oak tree and hedges.” watercolour on
tree David saw while walking in the Peak District near his www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/davidwhitehead paper, 30x20cm

20 Artists & Illustrators

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Artists & Illustrators 21

 I N T E RV I E W
a
n e
self-procl
il p su painter
ANTONIO SEGURA DONAT is putting a fantastical spin
on wildlife art as MARTHA ALEXANDER discovers
A
leopard with a unicorn
horn thunders through a
cloudscape of burnt oranges
and moonlit blues, pursued by an
emancipated big top, its guy ropes
dangling and far from terra firma.
Birds circle the leopard, who has
a bullseye target on one side of its
face, and a bell around its neck.
It’s an arresting scene, so far from
conventionality, but this extraordinary
cast of characters, objects and motifs
are par for the course for Antonio
Segura Donat, the painter behind this
dreamlike scene. All of his paintings
are dramatic to behold, radiating a
jewel-like kaleidoscopic quality and a
menagerie of exotic creatures, from
elephants and parrots, to big cats
and rhinos.
Antonio Segura Donat’s work
can be found under his pseudonym,
DULK. This is, of course, not his real
name, but he started his career as a
graffiti artist and DULK was his tag.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” the
Valencia-born and based artist
LEFT Ephemeral, explains in perfect English, cloaked
acrylic on canvas, in a melodic Spanish accent. “I just
80x80cm like how the lettering looks.”
ide
He has shown work all over the
world with solo shows as far afield
as Rome, Los Angeles and London.
In that modern measure of success,
he has more than 236,000 likes on
Facebook and his Instagram page
boasts some 86,000 followers, many
of whom heap praise on his paintings
in the comments beneath. And yet
Antonio maintains a quiet modesty
about what he does. You get the
impression that he doesn’t take
his success to date for granted.
“Painting is difficult because you
work not knowing if it will sell or
not,” he confides. His portfolio also
encompasses commercial illustration,
sculpture and murals. The latter
are huge, bright beacons of colour
decorating the sides of buildings and
other public spaces in everywhere
from Shanghai to Honolulu.
While some of Antonio’s inspiration
comes from his dreams, much of it
comes from photography – both other
people’s and his own. He loves taking
his own pictures and travels two or
three times a year, camera in tow.
“My ideas are from both dreams and
reality,” Dulk explains, “Years ago
Artists & Illustrators 23
I N T E RV I E W

I paint
animals who
are either
extinct or
in danger of
extinction… I
use bullseyes
to represent
the threat

my style was more cartoonish but

now it seems more realistic, I think.”
Antonio may have begun his career
as a street artist, but it is no surprise
that he admires the work of surrealist
artists such as Rene Magritte
and Salvador Dalí, as well as the
fantastical scenes of the Early
Netherlandish painter Hieronymus
Bosch. The young Spaniard was
particularly excited by the chance
to see works by the latter up close
while on a recent trip to Milan.
Like the work of his heroes,
Antonio manages to create a strong
sense of theatre in his paintings,
where imagination meets reality.
Magnificently realistic polar bears are
lifted by hot air balloons, Punch and
Judy theatres are suspended from the
branches of trees, and a beautifully
detailed blue whale dives out of the
chest of a toucan.
Written down, these scenes sound
nonsensical impossibilities, but the
paintings are beautifully crafted and
visually cohesive. They also boast
hidden depths that offer subtler
messages and symbolism designed
to make audiences think.
Big tops, glowing hearts,
doors opening into bodies, unicorns,
skulls, bells and bullseye targets are
recurring motifs in Antonio’s painting.
If they feel childlike, it’s because the
artist admits he approaches his work
by looking as if through the eyes of a
child so that there is seemingly an
innocence and purity about the
scenes. But underneath these

24 Artists & Illustrators


ABOVE Welcome, seemingly innocuous, colourful
acrylic on canvas, objects is a tragic underbelly, waiting
100x70cm to be revealed. The paintings are,
in fact, a conflict at the heart of
Antonio’s work. “I normally paint
animals who are either extinct or
in danger of extinction,” he says.
“I use bullseyes all the time to
represent the threat to the creature.”
Many of the animals in the
paintings also have doors in their
LEFT Polar Express, chests, a device he uses as “a way
acrylic on canvas, of opening into another world”, like
100x70cm Alice stepping through a door into
I N T E RV I E W
Wonderland. Other symbols of
celebration, festivity or merriment are
plentiful but serve as red herrings.
“I love the atmosphere of the
circus,” Antonio explains. “As a child
for me it was a very magical thing but
at the same time it is a real threat for
the animals. I like to mix both
concepts to explain that this is
something I love but I don’t want.”
Antonio’s priority is wildlife.
He has been fascinated by animals
since childhood, when his interest in
painting began. His father kept birds
Artists & Illustrators 25
I N T E RV I E W
If you do a painting in a street
everyone can see it and it becomes
part of a neighbourhood
ABOVE Fragile, and horses, and the house was
one of Antonio’s full of pets, as well as a library of
murals in Jacó, encyclopaedias filled with pictures
Costa Rica of wild animals that provided further
inspiration. The young artist would
draw from these books, honing his
skills and sowing the seeds for his
later career.
Antonio would go on to study
illustration and then later graphic
design at the University of Valencia,
but when it comes to his painting, he
is entirely self-taught, something that
accounts for his distinct style.
His Valencia studio is spacious and
organised, divided into different areas
for different disciplines. There’s a
library with sofas, desks with
26 Artists & Illustrators
computers for his digital work,
and then there’s his painting zone.
Antonio has two assistants – one
for the administrative side of his work
and the other with painting prep. It is
a necessity for an in-demand artist
who often works 12-hour days in the
studio. His illustration clients have
included everything from Giorgio
Armani to a tourist information office
in Cuba. Luckily his enthusiasm for
his craft remains strong.
Antonio’s process for both
canvas paintings and murals is
similar. It begins with research, which
he says is the most difficult aspect of
his work. He looks at plenty of wildlife
photography – including some of his
 I N T E RV I E W

LEFT Observatory,
acrylic on panel,
50x40cm

own snaps – to come up with ideas.

Next, he sketches on his computer,
pulling together reference imagery
and laying out a collaged mock-up of
what the painting might ultimately
look like, before drawing it out
properly with a focus on certain
areas. This stage takes around three
days, then the actual painting itself
can take anywhere between a week
and a month. Antonio is supported
by Liquitex and he uses their Heavy
Body Acrylics.
“I love light and bright colours,
and these are the best I’ve found
since I started painting with acrylics.
I started with oil paintings and I like
them, but I don’t have the time to
work with them because they take so
long to dry – and I like to paint fast!
Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics give a
result that is like oil but dries quickly.”
The Spanish artist is currently
in New Zealand working on a mural
before he plans to take himself
off exploring for a couple of weeks,
taking in the country’s famously
breathtaking landscape, flora and
fauna. “I like being with nature
as much as I love painting,”
he says simply.
Happily, his job allows him to
combine the two. The former graffiti
artist is bringing fine art to the
masses with these very public mural
commissions, often initiated by
councils, festivals or other art events.
“The best thing is when people
thank me for doing what I do,”
he says. “People say, ‘Thank you
for giving this as a gift’. If you do a
painting in a street everyone can
see it and it becomes part of a
neighbourhood, something for the
people and that is very special.”
www.dulk.es

Artists & Illustrators 27

 A beautifully illustrated magazine showcasing
imaginative short stories, flash fiction and poetry.

E n j oy
4 issues
a ye a r f ro m
just £20

Includes FREE access to our digital

archive containing more than 500 stories

Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL reveals why her
colour obsession got her banned from a shop
I
must have studied colour theory at
art school, but I never developed
any love for it. As a student, hard
finance taught me far more about
colour mixing than any class: printing
ink was expensive, and I was skint.
I learned very fast how to mix all my
colours using the primaries with as
little wastage as possible. To this day,
I mix new colours from leftover inks;
a habit I developed to save precious
materials, but one that gives my work
a cohesive and subtle range of colour.
BELOW Laura
My grasp of colour may not be
academic, but it is something I work
Boswell, Gap in
the Hill, linocut,
on all the time. I am very careful to
look at colour not only in the context
34x22.5cm of the landscapes I work with, but
also in as many circumstances as
possible. Often a combination I find
jarring at first turns out to make sense
later and crops up in a print. Have a
good look at your clothes and your
home for starters – you will find a lot
of clues about your true preferences.
Understanding how one colour can
affect its neighbour is a challenge at
first. This knowledge will come with
experience, but you could speed
things up with a trip to your local DIY
store. The paint section will have a
huge array of options that can be
compared. Just be reasonable about
what you take and the time you spend
looking. I was eventually banned from
the store in my university town!
COLUMNIST
The best advice for choosing
colours came during a conversation
with a paint manufacturer who said
that artists should trust their gut.
He advised that, when facing that
bewildering and seductive wall of
colours, artists should choose the
ones they liked, not the ones they
thought they should buy. It sounds
absurdly simple but worrying about
getting colour “right” makes it easy
to forget that colour choices and
combinations are a part of what
makes every artist individual.
So – aside from the primaries –
follow your heart, not your head.
Laura co-hosts a podcast, Ask an Artist.
Listen to new episodes at www.artists
andillustrators.co.uk/askanartist
Hard finance
taught me far
more about
colour mixing
than any class
Artists & Illustrators 29
 A R T H I S T O RY

7 Lessons
from the
Impressionists
The Impressionists revolutionised painting in the 19th century,
but what can they teach us today? RAVNEET AHLUWALIA looks at
a rare collection of their work to find out
30 Artists & Illustrators

1 USE WARM GROUNDS
For many, the birth of
Impressionism marks the dawn
of modern painting as we know it.
While the approach of these late
19th-century French painters has
several precedents, not least in the
work of pioneering British artists
John Constable and JMW Turner,
Impressionism nevertheless marked
a turning point after which the
prevailing trends in classical painting
changed for good.
One of the most notable changes
was the decision to paint landscapes
en plein air in a bid to capture a
fresher, more accurate impression
of the changes in weather and light
conditions. This was aided by a switch
from the darker grounds (the base
layer of a canvas painting) of classical
painting to the lighter base coats of
the Impressionists, many of whom
often used Lead White tinted slightly
with a colour.
That ground would also play a more
visible role in the finished paintings.
ABOVE Alfred Sisley,
Unloading Barges
at Billancourt,
1877, oil on
canvas, 50x65cm
© ORDRUPGAARD, COPENHAGEN. PHOTO: ANDERS SUNE BERG
RIGHT Camille
Pissarro, Plum
Trees in Blossom,
Éragny, 1894,
oil on canvas,
60x73cm
Alfred Sisley’s Unloading Barges at
Billancourt – featured in the Royal
Academy of Art’s new exhibition,
Gauguin and the Impressionists – is
a good example of this. Look around
the edges of the painting to identify
the warm, almost flesh-coloured
ground on which this 1877 landscape
was painted, then look closely at the
sky. That same ground shows through
in sections of the clouds, providing a
warm contrast to the cool blues and
whites, as well as helping to tie the
painting together.
2 AVOID EXTRA DETAIL
The term “Impressionism”
derived from Claude Monet’s early
masterpiece Impression, Sunrise. The
meaning of the word was instructive
– the aim of these artists, perhaps as
a reaction to the developing medium
of photography, was to convey an
impression of a subject, rather than
recording everything in great detail.
Unloading Barges at Billancourt
neatly demonstrates this approach.
A R T H I S T O RY
Sisley was clearly intent on showing
the colours and shapes of the various
elements, without dialling down into
too much detail. Note how the artist
suggested the figures using
brushstrokes of the same size and
weight as those used for the sky or
the riverbank – no extra marks were
made here so the treatment is
uniform throughout.
As artists, the temptation is to add
more detail to the more intricate
parts of a subject, yet doing so can
result in the expressive feel of a work
being lost.
3 MAKE EQUAL MARKS
One of the defining features of
many Impressionist paintings is the
visibility of individual paint strokes,
each applied quickly and thickly,
working alla prima. Camille Pissarro’s
1894 painting Plum Trees in Blossom,
Éragny shows this particularly well.
The development of artists’ materials
during the 19th century helped in this
respect, with tougher hog bristle
A R T H I S T O RY

32 Artists & Illustrators

 A R T H I S T O RY

brushes (useful for loading with paint)

becoming more common.
That wet-into-wet technique had
an important bearing on some of
the stylistic traits of Impressionist
painting. Firstly, those luscious,
impasto strokes remained visible
on the finished canvases, giving
a mottled texture in which every
element was painted in the same way.
It meant that something ephemeral
like a reflection of light on blossom
was rendered as substantially as a
more solid object, like a thick tree
trunk or the garden wall. Likewise,
those broken marks meant that hard
edges were less clearly defined too.
Replicating this democratic approach
to mark making is a key feature of
recreating the Impressionist style.

4 MIX YOUR DARKS

In 1905, Claude Monet revealed
that his palette was a matter of habit.
“I use Flake White, Cadmium Yellow,
Vermilion, Deep Madder, Cobalt Blue,
Emerald Green, and that’s all,” he
said, adding that the important thing
was knowing how to use them.
Earlier in his career, Monet had
also used Ivory Black, although he
soon dropped this in favour of mixing
shadow colours from a combination of
two or more complementary colours.
So, for example, the rich scarlet of
Vermilion sits at the opposite side of
the colour wheel to the lush Emerald
Green, meaning that when the two
colours are mixed, they create a
complex range of darker shades.

5 USE BROKEN COLOUR

Rather than completing paintings
to an even, smooth level of finish, the
Impressionists broke with tradition by
leaving gaps between some of the
marks in each layer, which allowed
the previous layers to show through.
This use of “broken colour” creates
a vibrant surface to a painting. More
importantly, it allows a degree of
© ORDRUPGAARD, COPENHAGEN. PHOTO: ANDERS SUNE BERG

optical mixing to occur. When viewed

from a distance, strokes of different
colours placed beside one another will
appear to fuse slightly; a perceptual

LEFT Claude Monet,

Waterloo Bridge,
Overcast, 1903,
oil on canvas,
65.5x100.5cm

Artists & Illustrators 33

RIGHT Berthe
Morisot, Young
Girl on the Grass
(Mademoiselle
Isabelle Lambert),
1885, oil on
canvas, 74x60cm
effect that occurs in the viewer’s mind.
Monet’s Waterloo Bridge, Overcast
is one of many Impressionist works
in which this takes place, particularly
in the river section. Warm pinks and
dark greens dominate, while strokes
of pure Vermilion and Cobalt Blue
can also be picked out. Together
they combine in interesting ways to
replicate the dappled Thames waters.
6 FOLLOW THE FORM
One trick used by artists for
centuries is to make brushstrokes
follow the form of a subject. While
those marks were less apparent in
tightly-rendered works by the Old
Masters, they could be seen more
clearly in Impressionist paintings.
In Berthe Morisot’s Young Girl on
the Grass, the usefulness of this
34 Artists & Illustrators
technique is seen in the young girl’s
clothing. Rather than “colouring in”
the hat, the strokes follow the circular
brim and the broken colours help
to indicate form and texture.
Likewise, the shape of her dress is
clearly described, sweeping around
the collar, along the shoulders and
around the sleeves. Whether your
brushstrokes are clearly defined or
not, this technique can add a greater
sense of three-dimensionality.
7 REFLECT COLOURS
One of the primary jobs of an
artist is to be selective and decisive,
emphasising certain elements and
discarding others. The Impressionists
were masters at this as they chased
that elusive suggestion of a subject.
In terms of techniques, however, one
© ORDRUPGAARD, COPENHAGEN. PHOTO: ANDERS SUNE BERG
of the most important yet often
overlooked aspects of this comes
in their handling of reflected light.
Look again at that Morisot portrait.
Notice how the pinks of the young
girl’s face are echoed in the parts of
her red top that are angled towards it.
Now look for the slight green hue to
the underside of her chin and brim of
her hat, each faintly suggestive of the
grass below. These dabs of colour are
rendered perhaps more prominently
than they would have appeared in real
life, yet they are still rather subtle and
help to tie together disparate
elements of a painting.
Gauguin and the Impressionists:
Masterpieces from the Ordrupgaard
Collection runs until 14 June at the
Royal Academy of Arts, London W1.
www.royalacademy.org.uk
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 P R I Z E D R AW
A £450 SCHMINCKE
WATERCOLOUR SET
Enter this month’s prize draw for a chance to win a
luxurious set of Horadam watercolours from SCHMINCKE
There’s nothing quite like perfecting your
colour palette and that’s why we’ve teamed
up with Schmincke to offer one reader the
chance to win a luxurious collection of 50
watercolours worth £449. This amazing set
contains everything you will need to get
painting right away.
The watercolour half pans come packaged
in a handsome embossed oak box, alongside
a traditional Schmincke x da Vinci series 499
watercolour brush, a large porcelain mixing
palette with 19 wells, and two porcelain
bowls for mixing larger quantities of colour.
Schmincke has been producing paint since
1881 and its Horadam watercolours, bound
with Kordofan Gum Arabic, stand out for their
high levels of lightfastness, re-solubility and
stability. The lucky winner of this month’s
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ISTOCK
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And while we have this fantastic
watercolour set up for grabs, don’t forget
that Schmincke also makes beautiful oil,
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the historic company’s full range of paints
and products at www.schmincke.de
THE PRIZE
One winner, chosen at random, will receive
a Schmincke Horadam watercolour set
containing the following:
• 50 half-pans of Horadam watercolours
• One large porcelain palette
• Two porcelain mixing bowls
• One Schmincke x da Vinci 499 series
watercolour brush
HOW TO ENTER
Enter our prize draw online by noon on
15 May 2020 at www.artistsand
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Artists & Illustrators 37
 IN THE STUDIO

Ania Hobson
With a BP Portrait Award before her 30th birthday, this young Suffolk artist
has already created a distinctive style of her own, as STEVE PILL discovers

T
he studio has been a second
home for Ania Hobson of late.
CLOCKWISE FROM The talented young portrait
ABOVE Ania in the painter is currently preparing for her
studio; A Portrait first London solo exhibition and the
of Two Female deadline is looming. “I’ve been in here
Painters, oil pretty much all week, from 8am to
on canvas, 5pm, and I’ll be standing all day,”
160x120cm; Not she says. “It’s really intense, I think
Your Perfect Blonde, I’ve made myself ill a few times.”
oil on canvas, Of course, you’d never tell from
120x170cm the bright, breezy way in which Ania
recounts all of this. If she is stressed,
it doesn’t show. She works at Asylum
Studios in Suffolk, a co-operative
based at the former RAF Bentwaters.
Her own space is tidy, high-ceilinged
and filled with plants. “I love the space
so much, I just want to make it like my
home because I spend a lot of time
there. It’s the one place where I’ll go
even if I’m not doing much painting,
and I’ll relax there. It’s nice to look at
your own work and take it all in.”
The downside to being bound to
the studio seven days a week, she
says, is that it makes it harder to
come up with ideas for new paintings.
“You almost hit a point where you
get… Not a painter’s block, but you
need to feel things and experience
things, so it is really good to take a
step back, go outside. You don’t even
have to be researching, it could just
be going for a walk or seeing your
friends and new ideas will pop up.”

38 Artists & Illustrators

 IN THE STUDIO

This show has

really opened
my eyes... I’m
tackling things
in a completely
different way

One such idea that Ania intends to

paint soon came when she happened
to walk past a bingo hall and became
captivated by the glowing neon sign
and the happy women congregated
outside. Not only did she photograph
the exterior for use as reference, she
also went back to play. “I thought I’ve
got to experience bingo if I’m going
to paint it – and it was actually really
great. You’ve got women sat there by
themselves, all dressed up with their
pints of beer, and that’s really
confident because I wouldn’t do that.”
“This show has really opened my
eyes to doing things I’d probably never
really paint before and I’m tackling
things in a completely different way,
so it’s exciting for me at the moment.”
With ideas for paintings in place,
Ania will then work with her sitters to
test out potential compositions. The
pose of a person or an unusual angle
can usually provide the starting point,
before other elements can be
introduced, like a chair or a plant.
Clothing is very important too.
The artist is quite prescriptive with
her sitters, selecting coats and boots
for their colours and angles. “It’s all
just about shapes really,” she says.
“I don’t [chose to] paint a figure
because I’m trying to capture that
person, sometimes it is just about the
composition or the perspective or the
colours that I am using. I never really
think ‘that’s a great face to paint’,
I could sort of paint anyone.”
It’s a surprise that Ania views her
subjects in such an abstract way, not

Artists & Illustrators 39

IN THE STUDIO

ABOVE Ania pre- least because the majority of her

mixes skin colours sitters are close friends and family.
in piping bags Yet they are chosen, she says, not
because of a more meaningful
TOP AND FAR RIGHT connection, but rather that she is
Inside her Asylum more comfortable asking them to do
Studios workspace things. “I don’t want my sitters to feel
awkward at all,” she explains. “I want
them to be relaxed while I’m painting,
it’s quite important. With my family,
I can make them do a really awkward
pose and they totally know why.”
It helps that her family is
particularly creative and supportive.
Ania was born in Kidderminster in
1990 and as a child she remembers
TOP RIGHT Untitled, there always being a tin of pens on
oil on canvas, the table for drawing. Her parents
160x180cm were both creative – her father
painted watercolours of birds, her
mother made traditional Polish folk
designs on cabinets – and she is
proud to be following in the footsteps
of her great grandfather Edward
Trojanowski, a famous painter and
designer from Krakow. Closer to
home, her older brother Thom and
his wife Stevie Dix are also artists and
the couple share a studio together
at Asylum. They regularly pop by for
encouragement and critiques.
“Their opinion doesn’t hurt as much,”
Ania says with a smile.
In fact, Ania’s sister-in-law features
in her best-known work, A Portrait of
Two Female Painters, which won the
Young Artist Award at the BP Portrait
Award 2018. It’s a fresh and stylish
depiction of two artists at rest, the
angles of the rug, the daybed and the
two artists’ many limbs all adding to

40 Artists & Illustrators


Happy portraits are quite
cheesy... I don’t want to be
so obvious. A Mona Lisa
smile is as far as I will go
the composition’s satisfying
resolution. “By painting us in a natural
way rather than a stereotypical
feminine way, I wanted to celebrate
female painters today with a feeling of
determination,” Ania told the National
Portrait Gallery at the time.
Ask if she finds it harder to paint
herself and she politely says no
several times before continuing.
“I love painting myself because I don’t
see it as me. It’s more that if I want to
do something really quickly, I’ll just
use myself as the model. And I’m
really not critical about myself either,
I can paint myself however I like.”
Other people have read a lot into
the fact that Ania looks “really sad” in
her self-portraits, but she isn’t about
to paint herself smiling any time soon.
“I find it quite cheesy,” she says.
IN THE STUDIO
“Happiness is one emotion that
everyone can read. I don’t want to be
so obvious. Occasionally I might have
a little Mona Lisa smile but that is as
far as I will go.” She prefers a more
ambiguous facial expression to add to
the intrigue. “I like to keep it low-key
and get people involved in the story,
maybe picking up on an emotion that
they’re feeling. They might be feeling
down and contemplative and they
might see themselves in that.”
Her latest paintings have begun
with a charcoal drawing directly onto
the canvas, the thick black lines
helping her to visualise the final
piece. Once she’s happy with the
drawing, she will dust off the canvas
with a dry brush to avoid dirtying the
subsequent paint layers. A faint line is
left behind in the grain of the canvas.
Artists & Illustrators 41
IN THE STUDIO

RIGHT Untitled Before the painting begins, Ania

(Small Face), oil on pre-mixes large amounts of six
canvas, 30x30cm different skin tones, ranging from
shadow colours to pinkish whites. She
FAR RIGHT scrapes each of them up and stores
The Meet-Up, them in piping bags more commonly
oil on canvas, used for icing cakes, ready to squeeze
160x180cm out onto her palette and modulate
subtly with dashes of different colours.
Colour mixing hasn’t always come
naturally to Ania. After graduating in
fine art from Ipswich University and
studying briefly at the Prince’s Drawing
School, she spent three weeks at the
Florence Academy of Art in Italy in
2014 with the aim of improving her
skills in this respect. “I just felt that
my portraits were quite dead looking,” own. Yet despite having already won
she explains. “I wasn’t really using the National Portrait Gallery’s Young
any pinks or greens or blues in the Artist Award and exhibited at the
right sort of shades, I was just literally Venice Biennale, the 29-year-old is
improvising as I was going along.” reluctant to talk about ambitions.
Ania favours Winsor & Newton and “I like to take things step by step,” she
Michael Harding oil paints, reserving says. “I don’t really want to sort of set
the latter for her faces due to their this huge goal of being in the biggest
high pigmentation. She adds Beeswax museum of contemporary art or
Impasto medium to thicken the oils something. That’s everyone’s dream I
and create a matt finish. She applies think, it’s just a case of slowly does it,
them with hard bristle brushes that take your time. If you set yourself up
she has been trying to look after for a goal and you don’t reach it, you’re
better. “But now I’ve been really going to think everything is not worth
cleaning them, they’re almost too soft it.” While her modesty is admirable,
for me to use. It’s a battle.” the works in her forthcoming
By breaking stereotypes, honing exhibition suggest Ania has every
her skills and working hard to devise reason to start dreaming big.
new perspectives, Ania has managed Ania’s next exhibition runs from
BELOW Park, oil on that most tricky of feats: developing a 14 March to 4 June at Catto Gallery,
canvas, 90x140cm distinctive style that is uniquely her London NW3. www.aniahobson.com

42 Artists & Illustrators

IN THE STUDIO

Artists & Illustrators 43

44 Artists & Illustrators
 MASTERCL ASS

“No sketch”
painting
Kate’s materials

•Watercolours
Cadmium Yellow, Green Gold,
Opera Rose, Perylene Green
Watercolourist KATE OSBORNE shows why working without and Permanent White
a preparatory sketch can be liberating and result in a more (gouache), all Winsor &
spontaneous approach to colour and mark making Newton; Transparent Pyrrol
Orange, Ultramarine Blue and

F
or this masterclass, I painted
an assortment of flowers and
vegetation from the garden,
including alliums, ivy and
epimediums, which I love for their
slightly other-worldly air. It was
mostly an arrangement in green, and
I wanted to show what you can do
with ready-made greens, modified
with blues and yellows. I used three
greens – Green Gold, Perylene Green
and St Petersburg’s Green – and
modified them by dropping in
Cadmium Yellow and Cerulean Blue.
I often leave out the background
for the sake of being more
ORIGINAL PHOTO
expressive with the main subject, so
I decided to introduce blue into the
vase instead. I’ve also introduced
yellow by adding a couple of narcissi
at the centre to give it a focus. I have
played very fast and loose with the
various elements in general, not
worrying about being too descriptive.
This piece was mostly watercolour,
but I’m less of a purist these days
and like introducing other media into
it, including Inktense blocks and
pens. I also worked without
a preparatory pencil drawing, a
method I initially developed to stop
myself “colouring in” and to allow for
more spontaneous mark making.
www.kateosborneart.com
Cerulean Blue, all Daniel
Smith; Raw Umber, Daler-
Rowney; Green, St Petersburg
White Nights
•Brushes
Chinese brushes, various
sizes; Daler-Rowney flat wash
brushes, sizes 1/4”, 1/8” and
1”; ProArte Prolene Series 9A
Sword Liner, medium
•Paper
Saunders Waterford 640gsm
Rough watercolour paper,
51x36cm
•Inks
Derwent Inktense Pens and
Blocks, various colours
•Water spray bottle

1. Start at the top 2. Drop in pigment 3. Work with the water

I start the painting on the top left-hand side.
I’m using Green Gold and Green, mixed into
large puddles on the palette, with a large
Chinese brush. I painted onto dry paper and
sometimes used the side of the brush to
create broken textures – this technique
works much better on the rough paper too.
I moved across the page, working swiftly and
keeping the leading edge wet, adding foliage
in Green Gold and Green, and narcissi in
Cadmium Yellow. While this initial layer was
still wet, I touched a loaded brush to the
wet areas where I wanted to add more tone,
and added clean water from a bottle where
I wanted to lighten an area. I was aiming to
get some tonal and textural variation into
this early stage, as it creates a dynamic
underlayer and will underpin the later stages.
I described the negative shape of the vase by
painting the blue background with a mix of
Ultramarine and Cerulean blues, using a 1”
flat brush. I then soften the hard edge of the
vase using a water sprayer – a hairdresser’s
spray bottle works well for this.
I’ve also added more Cadmium Yellow to
the centre of the arrangement and, as the
paint continued to dry out a little, I added
more water and more (wet) pigment to the
areas I wanted to lighten or darken.
MASTERCL ASS

6. Be a bully!

5. Take a break Once the painting dried, the textures

4. Get the wrong end of the stick
I used the wrong end of a brush dipped in a
puddle of Green to start drawing the stalks of
the epimediums (you could use an Inktense
block for a mark such as this). The long
stamens of the epimedium flowers were then
painted using the medium sword liner brush.
You can see just how wet areas of the
painting were at this point, and though it’s
tempting to start mopping up and controlling
things, it is better to resist the urge and let
the paint and water work its magic.
While the blue area was damp, I painted the
vase pattern using a Chinese brush and a
sword liner brush with the same mix of
Ultramarine and Cerulean blues. I left it to dry.
It’s easy to keep going and look for more
“fixes”. With experience, however, you learn
to recognise when you’re looking too hard for
the next thing to do and when it’s a good time
to have a ponder or a break. I’d like to say
that experience has taught me never to
overwork a painting but sadly that’s not true.
If you’re pushing things or exploring, a little or
a lot, there will always be “failures”, but they
are the kind we can learn from.
(such as the cauliflowers) and the varied
tones became apparent and I had a nice
dynamic first layer of the painting to work with.
Using a rich but still very wet mix of
Green, I started finding the negative shapes
of leaves and stalks. I also described the
corolla (the circle of petals in the centre) of
the narcissi with a gorgeous tomato-coloured
mix of Cadmium Yellow and Transparent
Pyrrol Orange.
I added Cadmium Yellow to the bud while
the paint around it was still wet. I wanted the
bud to stand out, and Cadmium Yellow acts
as a bully, pushing other pigments away and
creating more interesting textures.

To p t i p
Take ad
va n t a ge
fluidit y of t he
o f ve r y
wa t e r c o dilu
lour to c te
l o ve l y s reate
u rp ri s in
g
re sul t s

8. Enjoy the fluidity

I continued painting both positive

7. Enrich the colours
I continued to add a bit more detail to the
open narcissi and started to find more
negative shapes on the left of the painting.
I used a very wet, richer mix of Green and
Green Gold for the allium bud and its stalk,
allowing the colours to blend on the page.
I also added a rich mix of Cadmium Yellow to
the small flower in the centre to make it pop.
and negative shapes, adding the
darker tones with Perylene Preen
where the stems disappeared into
the neck of the vase, and dropping
Cerulean Blue and Cadmium Yellow
into these areas while they were
still wet. I allowed the colours to mix
on the page – one of watercolour’s
many advantages is its great fluidity
and unpredictability when used very
dilute. I also added a wash of Opera
Rose to the long allium bud on the
right, and the more delicate flowers
and stalks to the bottom left.

46 Artists & Illustrators

9. Experiment with marks
The vase shape wasn’t quite working, so
I drew it again, making it rounder and wider
using the same mix of Ultramarine and
Cerulean blues. I printed the painted pattern
with my fingertip and added the curling stalks
with the swordliner brush.
Using fingerprinting as a way of making
marks works well alongside brushwork and
adds another dimension to the picture; again
it takes a little of the control away and adds
something more unpredictable. The same is
true of using your brush a little differently,
whether using the side of the bristles or the
handle to draw marks. It’s fun to experiment
alongside more traditional brush work.
11. Find your focus
I still wasn’t quite happy with the vase; it felt
a little busy, and distracted from my intended
focus of the painting, which was the flower
and foliage arrangement. To rectify this,
I used Permanent White gouache, tinted with
a (very) little Cadmium Yellow watercolour
in order to match with the off-white paper,
to block out areas of the pattern.
Once this had dried, I added more depth to
the background to distinguish it a little from
the vase by painting a wash of Raw Umber
across the area, and finally added more fine
stalks with Inktense pencils and blocks.
10. Balance the image
I felt the two sides of the painting
needed to balance better, so
I added a couple more leaves and
a glimpse of another one behind the
vase to help define its left edge.
I also added a couple more of
the buds and stalks, a little detail
to the centre of the open narcissi,
some definition to the top of the
unopened narcissi bud, and final
details and shadows to the allium
bud and stalk on the left.
Despite these touches, I tried to
avoid getting too fiddly, so I stopped
working on the greenery after this.
12. Finishing touches
To finish, I decided to crop the image to focus the attention on the top part of the
painting. I also wanted to make the ratio of vase to plants more like 70:30, rather
than 50:50, as a division through the middle of a painting can render it rather static.
Working in watercolour with no preparatory drawing means that my compositions
sometimes won’t work. As a result, cropping becomes an important tool that can
make the difference between a painting that really works and one that doesn’t.
 L A N D S C A P E S I N D E TA I L

1.Olhão,
Portugal
Every year, GRAHAME BOOTH travels the world teaching art workshops. In his new
series, he shares tips and advice for adapting your approach and capturing local colour

I
am in the lucky position of
travelling, tutoring and painting
around the British Isles, Europe
and beyond for about six months of
each year. One of the most interesting
aspects to this is that I get to see
subjects that are different – but
generally not completely different –
to what I see back home in Northern
Ireland and it is always a challenge to
work out how to tweak my techniques
in order to tackle them.
One fundamental lesson I learned
many years ago was that if you have
a good, varied and basic palette of
colours, these will be suitable for
anywhere in the world. The mixes may
need to be slightly different, but the
pigments remain the same.
In this series of six articles I will
be visiting locations near and far,
showing you the local landscape and
the ways to capture that sense of
locality. I’ll also look at the
practicalities of being a travelling
painter and pass on some of the
tips that I have found can help to
ease the journey. In the spring, the jacaranda has a I always aim to capture the feel and
One of my first destinations of glowing purple mantle of flowers with atmosphere of a subject, rather than
the year is Portugal, where I tutor dark branches that appear almost attempting a literal copy. My memory
a workshop for Art in the Algarve. black against them. The flowers of the day was that the purple colour
The holiday is based in Olhão, close bloom before the leaves appear. was much more dominant than the
to Faro. Although a coastal town When I am confronted by a subject photograph suggests, and I must
and port, it lacks a beach which is I’ve never seen before, I always try to have moved to the right to paint as
probably the reason for the lack of relate it to something that I have. well. I often do this. It is amazing just
development that is apparent In the case of the jacaranda, it was a how a few steps to the left or right
elsewhere on Portugal’s south coast, relatively normal tree but dominated can dramatically change a scene.
ABOVE RIGHT and also why the old town still retains by purple flowers rather than green Another benefit of painting en plein
Grahame’s chosen much of the traditional flavour of leaves. As you’ll see in the step-by- air is that things will happen as you
scene to paint in the country. step demo on page 49, I painted it paint. In this case, the sun came out
Olhão, Portugal – Over the page you can see my just as I would a tree at home, using giving me some useful shadows and a
turn to page 50 to painting of a scene I found there, a variety of tones and hues of purple couple of elderly men sat on a bench
see how he chose which is close to the railway station interconnected with branches that to put the world to rights – always a
to paint it and features two jacaranda trees. were slightly darker than usual. welcome addition to any scene.

48 Artists & Illustrators

 L A N D S C A P E S I N D E TA I L

HOW TO
PAINT…
JACARANDA TREES

1 Using a mix of Quinacridone

Magenta and French Ultramarine,
I began by applying some random
blobs, roughly suggesting part of the
tree shape. Don’t paint all of the tree
at this stage – we don’t want the
wash to dry.

2 I’m painting this in much the same

way I would for a green-leafed
tree, but I’m using purple for the
jacaranda. Variety always adds
interest – here I varied the mix by
adding a slightly different colour to
the still-wet wash.

3 Using a 1/4” sword liner brush

with a strong mix of Burnt Sienna
and French Ultramarine, I added
KIT CHECK
The good news for watercolour
and acrylic painters is that
simple suggestions of branches into everything you use to paint is
the purple wash. Doing this while wet considered safe to take on an
ensures that the areas blend together aeroplane, either in the hold or
and that it isn’t clear where the taken on as cabin baggage.
branches stop and the flowers begin. Unfortunately, things are not
quite so straightforward for oil

4 I repeated the first stages for the

other side of the tree. If your tree
is very large, split it into three or more
areas and tackle them in turn.
painters. Most oil paints are
permitted but solvents,
mediums and varnishes (apart
from those that are water based)
are generally forbidden and you

5 I continued the branches to the

trunk and followed that down to
the ground. Add further flowers as
required to get a good balance.
may also have a problem with
palette knives in hand luggage.
Most manufacturers have very
comprehensive advice online.
Tubes of paint carried on

6 Splattering is a good way to add

random splashes of colour and
avoiding things looking tight. I also
added a few marks on to the earlier
flower wash – as this was now dry,
these marks had harder edges and
suggested flowers in front of other
flowers, adding a sense of depth.
board must be no more than
100ml capacity and fit into your
zip-lock bag along with your
toiletries. Easels or tripods are
also permitted in the cabin,
provided they are small enough.
A 12x16” (30x41cm) block of
paper will fit comfortably within
almost all airlines’ cabin
baggage regulations too.
I have flown with paints in
hand luggage and have never
had a problem, but the caveat
is that the interpretation of
otherwise clear regulations is
often left up to an individual
security officer and their
decision is final. If in doubt,
put everything in the hold.

Artists & Illustrators 49

L A N D S C A P E S I N D E TA I L

FINAL PAINTING
GRAHAME BOOTH,
JACARANDA TREES, OLHÃO,
WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER, 35X26CM The background building was
quite unattractive. I could have
simply left it out but keeping it
in helped to provide context
and suggest we are in a town.

Leaving a white wall as completely

blank paper can be very boring.
A few splashes of light colour add
interest without losing the idea
that the wall is white.

The colours in the painting are much warmer

than they are in the photograph. The shift
towards yellow furthered the contrast with
the purple trees (think complementary
colours), making them appear more vibrant.

50 Artists & Illustrators

 L A N D S C A P E S I N D E TA I L

The background trees were simplified to

focus the attention on the jacarandas.
Notice how in the photograph the jacarandas
almost disappear into the background trees.

In the photograph, this area

was a little too open. Instead
I kept it quite vague, stopping
the eye from drifting away
from the figures.

I’m not sure about the

grass. It is right in the
corner (something I try
to avoid) but putting it
in helps to avoid an
awkward horizontal line.

GRAHAME’S PALETTE
Cadmium Red
Oh dear. I have positioned the lamp post Winsor Yellow
almost dead centre. It is best to avoid Winsor Blue (Green Shade)
something so obvious going there. French Ultramarine
Beware of the danger of placing Quinacridone Magenta
something in a poor position in your
painting just because it is there in reality.
Be prepared to move it – or remove it.
Artists & Illustrators 51
 C O L O U R T H E O RY

Cohesive
palettes
Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours member CHRIS FORSEY reveals
his palette choices and how he combines them to create dynamic paintings

52 Artists & Illustrators

 C O L O U R T H E O RY

T
BELOW St Michael’s he choice of colours will have a real impact on the
Mount 1, acrylic on mood of a painting and also the dynamic, exciting
paper, 28x40cm the eye with the visual impact. A basic knowledge
of colour is essential to achieve successful mixes and
combinations – a lot of time and paint may be wasted
otherwise. Artists usually develop their own selection of
colours that they prefer and then choose from them for
specific paintings. My own basic palette is based around
the three primaries: Cobalt Blue and Prussian Blue for
blues; Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Lemon
Yellow and Quinacridone Gold for yellows; and Cadmium
Red, Quinacridone Magenta and Cadmium Scarlet for
reds. In addition to this, I also use the following colours:
Titanium White, Payne’s Grey, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna,
Yellow Ochre, Dioxazine Violet, Cadmium Orange,
Turquoise and Pale Olive.
From these colours, I then select a “family” of usually
no more than four or five colours that I mix together and
juxtapose to create the desired effect in a painting. I have
examples of tried and trusted palette combinations in both
acrylic and watercolour on my studio wall; sometimes the
names are a little different, but they are basically
the same hue with the same colour characteristics.
My oil pastel selection is also very similar.
A representational combination of colours in a painting
to describe the world around us can be just as exciting
as using a more personal or heightened colour choice.
For the former approach you will need to spend a lot of
time observing the exact colours of the scene and thinking
how to achieve them on your surface. Painting the scene
on location is an advantage as you can constantly assess
the hues to arrive at an accurate representation.
If you are going to make your painting at home, accurate
and specific note taking on location can help a lot. The
camera is also a very useful tool, and most artists use
them, to a greater or lesser degree. They can, however,
apply a little distortion to colour, sometimes altering the
colours to appear sharper in sunshine or greyer if there
is cloud. The eye is a better tool for seeing subtle colours
that the camera doesn’t read. Perspective can also be
altered: most smartphones, tablets and compact cameras
distort to a degree as the lens, usually 35mm, doesn’t

Cobalt Blue Cadmium Orange Payne’s Grey Lemon Yellow Dioxazine Violet

+ Titanium White + Titanium White

MIXING COLOURS
A simple, straightforward mixture
of two or three colours can provide
a surprisingly large range of hues.
Cadmium Orange and Cobalt Blue,
for instance, can create a brown,
which, with white added, gives you
a wide range of colours.
Likewise, Dioxazine Violet mixed
with Lemon Yellow makes a brown,
and Lemon Yellow mixed with
Payne’s Grey creates a very useful
green. These few colours can easily
provide enough colours and tones
to paint many a landscape.

Artists & Illustrators 53

C O L O U R T H E O RY

BELOW Wooden Bridge, acrylic and ink on canvas, 50x60cm

I chose a small group of harmonious colours for this autumnal scene: Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow
Deep and Raw Umber. These three hues work together to create a peaceful mood, with a few additions
of Indigo to boost the darker shadowy areas and mixed with white to show the sky and lighter shadows.
Brown acrylic ink was applied to describe the bare tree branches and foreground grasses and stalks.
I dipped the edge of a palette knife into the ink and pressed it onto the support, then spattered a few
drops of water onto the ink to break up some of the harsh lines and create a slightly more natural look.

Great creative fun can be had by

heightening the colours in a landscape

read the scene in quite the same way as our eyes.
However, a certain amount of artistic licence is almost
inevitable, and a considered interpretation of the
landscape colours gives the work extra creative content.
Below are two of my strategies for colour.
IMAGINATIVE COLOUR
The language of colour is endlessly fascinating, and it is
possible to change an ordinary landscape into a real tour
de force by using an imaginative combination of colours
to describe the scene. Great creative fun can be had by
heightening the colours that are already perceived to be
in the landscape; greys can be interpreted as violets and
blues, browns as reds and russets, greens as yellows and
oranges, and so forth. An understanding of colour is
helpful, and combinations can be derived by looking at
a colour wheel. You may want quiet harmony or vivid,
startling combinations; it is for you to decide which palette
of colours to use according to your plan of the painting.
NON-REPRESENTATIONAL COLOUR
Being experimental with colour can give rise to one of
the most exciting and creative journeys in painting.
Understanding colour and how to use it to its full potential
to extend your work beyond the purely representational
may be a lifelong but endlessly fascinating process.
A study of the colour wheel principles will help you
to get started.
The colour wheel is a guide to your choice of colours
to include in your palette. For example, using an orange
oil pastel under or over the top of a green/blue such as
Phthalo Blue uses some of the impact of complementary
colours, that is choosing two colours from opposite sides
of the colour wheel. The scumbling of the pastel on top of
the paint allows the other colour to show through, creating
an interesting area of texture and colour.
This is an edited extract from Chris Forsey’s new book,
Mixed Media Landscapes and Seascapes,
published by Batsford (RRP £19.99).
Artists & Illustrators readers can buy
a copy for only £16 including free
UK P&P, by calling (0141) 306 3100
and quoting the offer code CH2045.
www.batsford.com

54 Artists llustrators

ABOVE Late Sunshine, Bedruthan Steps, acrylic
ink and oil pastel on board, 25x35cm
This painting relied heavily on the juxtaposition
of two complementary colours, yellow and
purple. I let the Dioxazine Violet and yellow
mix in some areas to produce a brown, which,
mixed with the purple on the paper, created
excellent dark passages for the cliffs in the
near distance. A touch of white paint was mixed
with it to lighten the tonal contrast of the cliff
stacks in the middle distance in comparison to
the foreground. I also added a Prussian Blue to
the palette, which was useful for describing the
distant headland, golden clouds and blue-tinted
C O L O U R T H E O RY
cliff. I couldn’t resist adding a broad stroke of
yellow pastel to the foreground grasses and
also to the sunlit edges of the cliffs.
I wanted to produce a dramatic rendition of
this scene and, using both aerial perspective
and complementary colours, I pushed
representational colours to the extreme.
Artists & Illustrators 55
56 Artists & Illustrators
 PROJECT

sh A
i ting
You’ve painted a beautiful picture and you are ready to
varnish it. But where do you start? LIZET DINGEMANS
explains your options and shows you how it is done
Lizet’s materials

•A finished painting
•Michael Harding
Dammar Varnish

W
LEFT John Singer hen it comes to varnishing
Sargent, Lady a painting, there is a huge
Agnew of Lochnaw, range of options available:
1892, oil on canvas, exhibition varnish, retouching varnish,
127x101cm matte varnish, spray varnish…
So, what do all these names mean?
And are they really that different?
Varnish is a transparent layer
meant to protect your painting from
dust and grime, make it easier to
clean (for both yourself and any future
restorers), and deepen the colours,
especially the darks. Depending on its
composition, a varnish will dry to
varying degrees of sheen, toughness
and flexibility. In this article we will
explore the different options as well
as guide you through a step-by-step
tutorial of how to varnish a painting.
The most common type of varnish
is the traditional, resin-based varnish.
These are made from combining a
natural resin and a solvent (usually
turpentine) to make it easier to apply.
When the solvent evaporates, it leaves
the resin on the surface of your
painting. Common examples include
dammar (or damar), a favourite of John
Singer Sargent. It is very hard but may
yellow over time. One common type of
dammar-based varnish is exhibition
varnish (or retouching varnish). This is
designed to be used on a painting-in-
progress to bring out dull spots and
protect touch-dry paint. It is not
meant to be a final coat, as it is much
more temporary than normal varnish.
Other resin-based varnishes include
shellac, which is obtained from trees
and dries to a very hard, clear film.
However, it can be expensive and isn’t
suitable for vegans. Mastic is another
sap-like substance which dries into a
brittle resin with a semi-gloss finish.
The other main type of varnish is
cellulose-based. This includes most
•A 2” flat bristle brush
•Soap and water
•A clean jar or dish
•Disposable gloves
(optional)
acrylic varnishes. They are a more
recent invention and don’t dissolve in
common paint thinners, so need to be
removed using specialised solvents.
When buying varnish, always check
it is listed to be used for your chosen
medium (oils or acrylics) and avoid
anything not labelled “for artists” or
“artist’s quality”, like a normal wood
varnish, for example. These varnishes
don’t have the same longevity and
therefore will yellow much sooner.
One last thing to note: I recommend
waiting for at least six months, or until
the thickest part of the painting is dry,
before varnishing your artwork.

PROCESS varnish to give more control over

1 CHOOSE YOUR VARNISH

First decide on a type of varnish.
If you like the surface quality of your
picture as it is, I would recommend a
matte varnish over no varnish at all,
as it will protect your picture from the
environment better.
The choice depends on several
factors: the application (spray can or
brush?), the desired
permanence (retouch or
normal varnish?), the level
of shine (matt, satin or
gloss?) and the medium (are
you varnishing an oil or an
acrylic painting?). In this
demo, I wanted a brush-on
the application. I was looking for a
permanent varnish, so I discounted
retouch varnishes. Mine was an oil
painting and I wanted a medium
sheen to bring out the deep darks,
so I chose a dammar varnish.
2 PREPARE YOUR
SURFACE
Before you start the varnishing
process, make sure you are working
in a dust free, well-ventilated area.
Prepare a place for your canvas to sit
undisturbed when drying. The varnish
will take a while to dry and it is a good
idea to ensure that no dust or hairs
can attach to the varnish while it’s

Artists & Illustrators 57

PROJECT

drying as they can be hard to extract
without removing the varnish
altogether. Wipe down the surface of
your picture with a lint-free cloth to
remove any dust.
direction: either up and down or left
and right as you wish. You can go
over it again to get rid of any streaks
created by your paintbrush, but don’t
worry about a perfect finish, as the
varnish will level when drying.

3 APPLY A FIRST COAT

Pour out some of your chosen
varnish into a shallow dish or jar. This
makes it easier to control how much
varnish is on your brush. With all
types of varnish, less is always more.
It is better to realise you have to add
another layer of varnish than it is to
have it dripping down the picture!
Apply a coat of varnish to the front
of your picture using a large brush,
with the strokes all going in one
If you feel the varnish is too thick,
dilute it a little with a bit of Sansodor
or turpentine. The consistency should
still be thick, like cream.
The goal is to ensure the whole
surface has an even coat. Two coats
can help with this, though wait for
one to be touch dry before adding
another. If you make a mistake, use
a cotton bud soaked in Sansodor
or turpentine to remove small spots
of the varnish.

Top tip
To remove a layer of
dry varnish, wipe it
off with a rag soaked

4 5
LEAVE TO DRY
Now that the first layer of varnish
is on, it is important that your picture
can dry somewhere safe and dust
free. I usually leave it facing the wall
or cover it with a dust sheet. Make
sure the dust sheet doesn’t touch the
surface, however, as the varnish can
act like glue and stick to your dust
sheet. Leave it for at least 24 hours.
APPLY A SECOND COAT
After coming back to your picture,
it may seem as if the varnish has
“sunk in” to the canvas and the darks
have dulled down. In this case, your
picture will need another coat.
Repeat step 3, but be sure to
change the direction of your stroke.
For instance, I started up and down
on my first coat, so I went left and
right on my second coat. Working in Sansodor or
at right angles in this way further turpentine
avoids any strokes being visible
when the varnish dries.
Depending on the absorbency of
your paint surface, your picture may
need a third coat. If so, be sure to
leave the picture to dry for 24 hours
again before applying.
www.lizetdingemans.com

58 Artists & Illustrators

 Presents Five Day Workshops for 2020

Fernando Freitas Ewan McNaughton&Lea Vaughn

A workshop in the style of A workshop in the style of
Caravaggio. Hosted by Bouguereau. Hosted by
Fernando Freitas, Principal Ewan McNaughton & Lea
Instructor at the Academy of Vaughn, Principal
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Atelier of Fine Art.

9-13 May 2020

Cuong Nguyen Oliver Sin

Portraiture workshop in A workshop focused on
pastel. Hosted by Cuong Portraiture in pencil. Hosted
Nguyen, member of the Oil by Oliver Sin, Professor at
Painters of America and the School of Fine Arts and
International Guild of Realism. 2D Animation, USA.

11-15 September 2020 22-26 October 2020

info@thesinclairgallery.com Visit thesinclairgallery.com 126 High Street

01923 944 074 for more information and to book. Rickmansworth
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 ARTISTS’
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A Celebration of the Arts in the North Cotswolds
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Workshops & Demos including:
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Paintings l Sculpture l Ceramics l Textiles
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60 Artists & Illustrators

 F I G U R E D R AW I N G

4. Surface
In the penultimate
article of his five-part
series on the building
blocks of life drawing,
Draw Brighton tutor
JAKE SPICER turns his
attention to the skin

A
s we seek to better
understand the figure,
we often direct our attention
to the deepest anatomy – those
hidden masses that define the
structure and rhythm of our
model’s physique. In our haste to
understand the interactions of
bone and muscle, we bypass
the one thing that every life
drawing should reference:
the largest organ in the
body, skin. In this
penultimate article of a
five-part figure drawing
series I’ll be focusing on the
skin and the marks we use to
record our observations of it.
The surface of skin defines the
practice life drawing – when we
draw a clothed model, we are
drawing a character draped in the
trappings of their selected identity.
Clothed only in skin, a life model
becomes essential, universal, and
the trust implied through the model’s
nakedness allows artists in a life
class to be vulnerable and take
creative risks.
In a life drawing, the skin of the
model becomes our inevitable
subject. When we draw the contour
of our model’s figure, it is the horizon of our models’ lives played
line of skin that we are recording, out – from the stretchmarks
wrapping around the body and out of childbirth and the creases of
of sight. Shapes of shadow are cast repeated expressions, to the
onto skin, darkening its surface stubbly suggestion of a day
whilst highlights pick out specular without shaving and a toothbrush-
reflections. It is upon this uniting flick of freckles, still fading from
protective layer that we see the story a recently passed summer.

Artists & Illustrators 61

F I G U R E D R AW I N G

SKIN
In a long sitting, when the reactionary
process of intuitively drawn short
poses gives way to the ebb and flow
of a sustained drawing, you have time
to turn your attention to skin.
A life drawing is always, in part, an
exploration – if we already knew what
we were drawing, why would we need
our model to hold still for so long?
Through making a drawing you
discover new things about the model,
from shapes and textures that you
hadn’t noticed before to characterful
details on the skin’s surface – your
drawing becomes a map of this
uncharted territory, describing the
topography and landmarks.
Your drawn marks can speak about
many things – from hatching or blocks
of tone that might describe the
shapes of light and shadow, to
cross-contours that can feel around
the form, to marks that describe the
texture of hair. To tap into the tactile
nature of the surface you can use
lines of skin tension to inform the
direction of your marks. They were
initially mapped by the 19th-century
Austrian surgeon Karl Langer and the
directions of tension can parallel with
the anatomical masses beneath the
skin and the creases of wrinkles at
the surface.

Langer’s lines – a map Mark-making informed

of skin tension by lines of tension

62 Artists & Illustrators

 HAIR
Second to the skin, hair covers
a significant portion of the body,
creating a surface with a more varied
texture and direction. Aside from
being anchored to the scalp, head
hair is not restricted by the underlying
STRAYS anatomy that defines the skin’s
The texture of surface – the textural characters of
head hair is the hairs themselves, combined with
most readily the styling choices of the model that
expressed at shape the overall form and flow of
its boundaries the hair; its tone and reflectiveness
define how we see it.
SHEEN Over the rest of the figure, the
Paper can be texture of body hair interrupts the
left light to surface of the figure, creating a tonal
suggest intervention in the surface of the skin.
reflections in Here, the shape of individual hairs
the hair can inform the gesture of the mark
that you use and you can suggest the
DENSITY hair’s overall mass – look carefully at
For pubic or the direction and shape of individual
armpit hair, draw strands and practice a swift,
dense masses repeating mark that mimics its
of characterful character to build up a mass of
curling shapes texture and tone.
Too often lazy observation inclines
DISTRIBUTION
us to scribble an indistinct mass for
The character
the hair – suggesting hairiness yet
of individual
failing to properly convey the
hair comes to
particular type of hair that we are
the fore in
trying to observe.
sparser areas

DIRECTION
With dashed
hairs, start the
mark at the skin
and flick out
towards the tip

IN CONTEXT:
STANLEY SPENCER
Stanley Spencer’s
1912 Self-Portrait in
red chalk is a sensitive
record of surface
texture and direction.
It is the combination
of directional marks
that make this portrait
engaging, with cross
WILLIAMSON ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM

contours indicating the

direction of skin and
hair, sculpting the
paper into a form that
we can almost reach
out and touch.

Artists & Illustrators 63

F I G U R E D R AW I N G

SURFACE TEXTURE
Our awareness of the physical
sensation of touch feeds into
how we perceive the model in
front of us. Whether conscious
or not, the contact that your Scars and stretchmarks Wrinkles and creases Short hair
pencil makes with the paper In a monochrome sketch, scars Wrinkles and creases create Short hair shows the skin below
is analogous of the contact and stretchmarks register as dark occlusion shadows in the and it is a personal choice how
your eye makes with the light shapes on a darker skin – use lines of varying weight you choose to render it. I like to
surface of the model’s body. surface. Once you have to suggest their rhythm and suggest the texture, dashing in
Likewise, your experience established the skin’s tone, use cross-contours to suggest how short hairs to create tone
of having skin yourself will an eraser to draw lighter areas. the skin puckers either side. through textural marks.
permeate the studies you make
of another person’s skin. Here
are some approaches you can
take to rendering surface
details on the skin.

Tattoos Freckles and moles Blood vessels

:
Instead of interpreting the tattoo As dark interventions on Visible blood vessels create

o n t h
e xt m
and drawing it, treat it as an a typically lighter surface, a subtle, raised shape on

N ng i t a l l to g e
th e r !
abstract arrangement of light
and dark shapes. Draw what you
freckles and moles can be
added later by tickling the
the skin, often presenting
themselves as an adjacent
B r i n g i . j a ke s p i c e r
www see, not what you think you see. paper with a little tone. highlight and shadow.
.uk
ar t .c o

Darker skin tends Lighten skin tends

to reflect highlights to show shadows
more clearly more clearly

OBSERVATIONS
Reduced to a monochrome drawing,
skin varies in tone from very pale grey
to near-black. The tonal values we
see in our model are created by the
combination of the local tone of the
model’s skin (how essentially light or
dark it is), combined with the pattern
of light and shadow that plays across
the form of the body.
Broadly speaking, lighter skin tends
to show shadows most clearly as their
dark shapes contrast with the pale
skin tone; for the same reason,
darker skin tends to show reflected
highlights more clearly. Mid-tone skin
exhibits the most limited contrasts,
showing both highlights and shadows
with a balanced degree of contrast.

64 Artists & Illustrators

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Artists & Illustrators 65

 H OW I PA I N T

Gary Stinton
The Herefordshire-based artist tells REBECCA BRADBURY how he portrays the strength,
power and formidable beauty of big cats through his life-sized pastel portraits

B
orn in Herefordshire in
1961, Gary Stinton didn’t
have the most
conventional start to his career
after dropping out of art college
in his late teens. He persevered,
however, and is now one of the
UK’s leading wildlife artists.
Gary has been exhibiting work
with London’s Jonathan Cooper
Park Walk Gallery for 25 years.
He has also used his art to help
raise awareness for wildlife
conservation. In 1996
HRH Princess Anne unveiled a
commemorative painting of his
that was commissioned by the
Gurkha Signal Regiment.
Gary’s work is on permanent
display in the Museum of Hounds
& Hunting North America in
Virginia, USA, and will also be on
show from 25 June to 1 July at
the London art fair Masterpiece.
CAPTURING REFERENCE
Art is about painting what you’re
passionate about, and as nature is
very important to me, I’m instinctively
drawn to capturing animals. To find a
subject, I visit zoos, where I do some
rough sketches to get a general feel
for an animal. My sketching kit
includes Unison Colour soft pastels
and Arches hot pressed (HP)
watercolour paper, which I tint with a
little watercolour. It’s best to work on
a coloured background with pastels
as it brings out the lighter colours.
A camera with a good lens is
essential too. It’s very hard to get
close enough to an animal, so for the
detail, you need to zoom in. I use a
Nikon D60 camera with either an
AF-S Nikkor 50mm lens or an AF-S
Nikkor 200-400mm telephoto lens.
When I’m putting a composition
together, I work from 20 or so photos.
You rarely get a perfect photo and
that’s why it’s essential to know your
subject. For me, the time-consuming
H OW I PA I N T
part of the painting is getting the OPPOSITE PAGE
proportions right, and it pays to study Panthera Leo,
the animal – their bones, their joints, pastel on museum
their muscles, their movements. board, 71.1x66cm
I’ve got replica skulls of all the big
cats, and they’re really useful for
understanding the form of the head.
If you have a good photo of an
animal but want to paint it in a
different position, try making a
plasticine model to get the light right.
I’m working on a painting of a lion at
the moment and I want to pair it with
a tiger portrait I’ve recently finished.
To ensure the light matches in both
paintings, I’ve made a model to see
how the light falls on the lion’s leg.
PLANNING AN ARTWORK
Before I begin a new picture, I prime
a museum board to paint on. I always
use these because the 100% cotton BELOW Study of
surface is very stable and permanent, African Leopardess
just like the watercolour paper I at Rest, pastel and
sketch on. Museum board hasn’t got charcoal on paper,
much tooth though, which is why it 31x48cm
Artists & Illustrators 67
RIGHT Panthera
Tigris Altaica,
pastel on museum
board, 71.1x66cm
I add an odd stroke of blue or green to
the cat’s fur to suggest reflected light
needs to be primed. I use Art
Spectrum’s Colourfix Primer for this.
Similarly, I only ever use permanent
pigments because I don’t want my
paintings to fade. If you want to sell
your work, you owe it to the client
to use the best materials.
For animal portraits, I love the
softness and matt finish of pastels,
and they are really good for fur.
68 Artists & Illustrators
Pastels are chunky and need room
[for the marks], so draw on a full
sheet of pastel paper. If you want to
go tiny, use watercolours instead.
As I create “life-size” paintings,
another consideration is the picture
plane. The frame of a picture is like a
window and a person rarely goes up
to the glass, whereas the subject of
the artwork will always be positioned
further back from the frame. The
distance this creates means if you
paint something a little smaller than
it is in reality, it will still look life-sized.
COLOUR CONTROL
All my major works start in the same
way: I use a stick of charcoal or a
Conté à Paris Pierre Noire charcoal
pencil to loosely draw the subject
before blocking in the general colours
and forms with pastel. Begin with
darker pigments, otherwise you’ll
really muddy the lighter colours. It’s
also easy to over-estimate how light

ABOVE Cheetah – to go without the darker tones down
Large as Life VII, first as a guide. Press down lightly
pastel on museum with the pastels until you have
board, 51.5x31.8cm established what those values are.
Once everything is blocked in,
BELOW Jaguar at you can then go full strength.
Rest, pastel on While drawing the big cats, I have
museum board, grown to love the ochre pigments.
45.7x76.2cm They range from yellow to deep
orange to brown, and all the big cat
species – whether a lion, tiger or
leopard – will require a fine blend
of these pigments, just in different
strengths and with the addition of
white or a straw colour. I often add
an odd stroke of blue or green to the
fur to suggest the reflected light.
To get the colours right, I do a lot of
blending – it’s one colour on top of
another, constantly. I lose count of
how many layers I apply to a single
painting. You must still be careful not
to overwork it. You don’t want to get
to a point where the surface won’t
take anymore pigment. If you do
make a mistake, use a dry brush to
remove the loose pigment and then
mop it up with a damp cloth.
FOLLOW THE FORM
In order to make fur look realistic,
you’ve got to know the direction in
which it naturally runs. There’s no
need to paint every single hair either,
the trick is just a gradual build-up of
colour instead. Using gentle strokes,
blend more colours on top of one
another to create texture. The hardest
thing to paint is a lion’s mane, such as
H OW I PA I N T
the one in Panthera Leo. It’s such
a tangled, random, complex mess,
and it requires endless colours, which
often seem to disappear. Eventually,
however, it all comes together.
After the blocking in, I concentrate
on the details, such as the cat’s facial
features. For the whiskers, you need
to have a sharp pastel – I use Stabilo
CarbOthello chalk-pastel pencils, as
well as a handful of Conté à Paris
hard pastels [also known as carres
crayons]. As I work on such a big
scale, regular soft pastels are
suitable for all the other small details.
As for creating realistic eyes, you’ve
got to know how the light hits them.
It enters the cornea on one side and
illuminates the other, which is where
that white spot of light shows up.
A good example of this is in my
painting Cheetah – Large as Life VII.
Working on my portraits is intense
as there’s a lot of precision involved.
A change is as good as a rest for me
though, so I always have several
paintings on the go at once. It always
helps to return to something and look
at it with a fresh eye.
www.jonathancooper.co.uk
 DEMO

A Sense
of Depth
When this charming scene presented itself to MATT JEANES,
it came with a challenge: how to paint the foreground and
background without overpowering one another
Tod’s materials

S
ometimes a scene strikes you as one So, how to go about painting a scene such as
•Paints that you would just like to paint. Quite this? It presents certain challenges, not least
New Gamboge, Winsor Violet, why that is, isn’t always clear. Some the fields, the figures and the background. The
French Ultramarine, Cobalt photographs appear perfect the way they are, biggest challenge for me, however, was the
Blue, Cerulean Blue (Red others seem to say: “paint me!” Learning how to foreground, and the flowers in particular. They
Shade), Antwerp Blue, Winsor respond to this impulse is an important part of looked simple enough, but it was important to
Green (Blue Shade), Viridian, being an artist. decide whether to paint them or the background
Hooker’s Green, Green Gold, When I happened across the scene above, around them first.
Naples Yellow, Naples Yellow I loved this photograph of it as it felt warm and In this demo, I chose to work in reverse
Deep, Gold Ochre, bright, relaxed and sweet. The gentle walk, the from white to the darker tints. I tried not to
Quinacridone Gold, Indian Red, conversation between the guy and the dog as over-complicate the flowers by drawing too much
Burnt Umber, Indigo, Payne’s they strolled along, it told a lovely story that in order to keep these complicated little blooms
Gray and Neutral Tint, all made you feel as if you are right there with them. as simple as possible.
Winsor & Newton Professional
Water Colours; Permanent 1 2
White, Winsor & Newton
Designers Gouache
•Paper
Winsor & Newton 300gsm
cold pressed watercolour
paper, A2
•Brushes
ProArte Prolene Series 007
round brushes, sizes 1, 3, 10
and 20; ProArte Prolene
Series 008 flat brush, size 1”
•Masking Fluid
•HB pencil
•Coloured pencils

1 I normally begin by
drawing my chosen image
onto a separate piece of
paper to get the scale right
before transferring it to the
delicate surface of the
watercolour paper. However,
in this instance, I drew the
general shapes straight onto
the watercolour paper,
judging the positions by eye.
The flowers were so intricate
and delicate, so I wanted to
avoid overpowering them
with complex drawing.
With the drawing in place,
I masked out white highlights
with colourless masking fluid
and allowed it to dry. I then
added washes of French
Ultramarine to the sky, bands
of greens to the fields (mixed
with Hookers Green, Green
Gold and Viridian), and
Naples Yellow and Gold
Ochre to the foreground.
Once dry, I painted pale
yellows for the foreground
flowers, let that dry, and then
masked out the lightest
shapes for the petals.
2 When the masking fluid
was dry, I looked closely
at my reference photo to
decide what to do next.
I decided to add some
darker tones to the flowers.
I did this by layering a little
masking fluid, letting it dry,
painting a bit, letting it dry,
masking a bit more and so on.
When you remove the
dried masking fluid at the
end of the painting process,
it creates a batik-like pattern
which can give a varied and
exciting effect.

Artists & Illustrators 71

DEMO
3 Now that the flowers are
masked and protected, it
is time to add in some of the
bigger washes over the top.
If there are brighter yellow
areas of the flowers that are
not required, they can be
easily overpainted with the
darker green tones.
Remember, if a colour is
used in a colour mix (for
example here, where yellow
and blue makes the green
mix used to overpaint), you
can overpaint it easily. I also
add some blues into the
shadows.
4 When faced with foliage
and florals, you may want
to get the look of the
countryside with floating
seeds, buds and pollen.
A neat way to do this is to
use an old toothbrush to flick
the paint. Dip the tip of the
brush into some masking
fluid, pull your thumb back
on the bristles, and lightly
spray over the required part
of your painting.
When the masking fluid is
rubbed off at the end, you
will have a pattern that gives
the impression of tiny details
that you could never paint.
3
4
5 Once I had completed
all of the preliminary
painting and I was happy
with it, I removed the
masking fluid. This shows me
what I have to work with and
now the refining can begin.
Everything will look a little
course and crude when you
remove the masking fluid,
but don’t be despondent –
this is the exciting bit! Take
7 your time and delicately start
to add washes over the
background to gently make
the highlighted areas
reserved by the masking fluid
more subtle.
6 Now comes the detail. I
didn’t want to go
overboard here. I wanted it to
look as loose as I can make
6 saw it gave a good
5
it, so I started on the
branches and stems of the
flowers. A nice technique is
to paint the top half of a
stem and, while the paint is
still wet, drop in another
colour. This can give you
shading or discolouring and
make your plants look more
natural. Also, try to paint one
stem then the next, then the
next. If you flit around your
painting, you can lose your
place and make a mistake.
7 The last bits of detail are
probably the most
important: the dog and the
person. Try to paint exactly
what you see here and not
what you think you see. The
dog was really just a shape
as her tail obscured her a
little, so by painting what I
suggestion of that.
I finish up by picking out
some highlights with white
gouache and sharpening up
a few edges with coloured
pencils. I’m certainly not
subtle with my colour
choices, but it is an
improvement on the photo
and I am pleased with it.
www.matthewjeanes.co.uk
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Artists & Illustrators 73

 TECHNIQUE
Learning
from
mistakes
Not every picture you paint will be a masterpiece, but accepting this fact and studying
what went wrong is very important. ROB DUDLEY lays out his six-point plan for success
I
t is a fact worth accepting that not
every painting you make will turn
out as you hoped. Sadly, some
artworks are destined for the bin, not
the framers. We all want to become
better painters and I’m sure, like me,
you are disappointed and frustrated
when an expected masterpiece
doesn’t work out.
After the frustration has subsided,
the natural reaction is to reach for
another sheet of paper and start over
again, putting the previous failure
firmly to the back of the mind.
However, the paintings that haven’t
worked can often be, if used wisely,
some of our most valuable. Plenty of
useful knowledge can be gleaned
from pictures that haven’t worked
and, instead of throwing them away,
we should take the opportunity to
learn from them. Ultimately the
knowledge gained will make us all
better painters.
This approach is borne of necessity.
As a busy painter, I often can’t afford
to produce paintings that offer little or
no benefit, particularly if I’ve invested
too much time in their creation. If the
painting is unsuccessful, I can still
gain much from it.
Although it won’t be a financial
gain, if I can discover why the painting
hasn’t worked, and learn from that
knowledge, it should improve my
chances of success next time.
When a piece hasn’t worked,
I take time to review and assess it,
attempting to answer the question:
74 Artists & Illustrators
“Why hasn’t the painting turned
out as I wanted?” Sometimes the
mistakes are immediately apparent,
and the painting can be salvaged with
a little work. In other cases, the
reason for the failure is not that
obvious and needs further scrutiny
and investigation.
I often find that the best approach
is to consider the very same steps
that I took when making the painting.
Breaking it down in this way allows me
to consider each stage of a painting’s
development independently, as well
as relating each stage to the finished
artwork. When assessing my work,
I consider the following criteria;
inspiration, planning, format and
scale, tones, colour, pigments,
and techniques.
POINT 1: INSPIRATION
Is your painting fully focused?
Painting is obviously not just about
inspiration but the part it plays in the
creation of a work cannot be
underestimated. The spark of
inspiration can lead to wonderful
paintings. However, if it is not there,
or it is snuffed out too easily, then all
too often ideas can run out of steam
– and the paintings can reflect this.
To prevent this from happening,
I believe it to be essential to take time
to make certain that you are really
inspired. Ask yourself what was it
about a subject that first interested
you: why did you stop at that point
to make the drawing or take the
photograph? Have you strayed
away from the original inspiration?
A half-hearted interest often results
in half-hearted paintings. If a single
tree inspired you, do you need to
paint the entire forest? Or will it serve
only to dilute the inspiration?
By clarifying the original
inspirational focus of the piece,
problems within the painting are
much more likely to stand out for
themselves rather like the proverbial
sore thumb.
POINT 2: PLANNING
Did you think through each stage
before you began?
I’m a great believer in planning a
painting. A few minutes producing
compositional, thumbnail sketches
will always prove useful. Take time to
fully consider an idea, make carefully
considered choices when deciding
upon format, tones, paper,
techniques… Indeed, all the things
that need to come together when
making a painting.
Paintings often fail through poor
planning – or a total lack of it. Try to
get into the habit of considering the
actions required at every step of the
painting before putting brush to paper.
POINT 3: FORMAT
Have you chosen the best size and
aspect for your subject?
Like many painters I produce several
thumbnail sketches when planning
paintings. These are quite often
 TECHNIQUE

CASE STUDY 1
Rob Dudley, Low Tide on the Yealm,
watercolour on paper, 46x30cm
This Devon landscape painting (1) didn’t turn out
as I’d hoped. The design seemed to work and the
inspiration appeared strong enough: my focus was
the shapes and shadows of boats left high and dry
by the receding tide. But something wasn’t right.
On closer examination, I felt the problem lay in
the tonal distribution within the painting. Taking a
black-and-white photo of my painting (2) confirmed
my suspicions. I could see that the tones used for
the boats were too similar to those used on the
shore, and they were not standing out to the
degree that I wanted. However, as the second
black-and-white photo (3) shows, I was able to
rescue the final painting (4) with some strong dark
washes and minor adjustments to the foreground.

done with the aim of selecting the 1

correct format for the work – portrait,
landscape, square or otherwise.
However sometimes paintings will
work within a particular format but
not at a particular size. A brush mark
in one painting might represent a
hedgerow as the scale of mark fits
within the size and format of the
paper used, but on a larger piece
of paper it might have little if any
relevance or meaning.
Try painting on different sizes of
paper, analysing how the marks and
washes are altered by the scale of 2 3
the paper used. Size matters.
An appreciation of the relationship
between image to paper size will 4
likely lead to better choices when
choosing your paper or canvas.
Over the years, I have saved some
old picture mounts that I have cut into
two L-shapes. I find them useful to
move over unsuccessful paintings
and see how potential crops might
look in order to discover whether
I could have composed the painting
more effectively. Sometimes the
crops reveal unexpected and
interesting compositions.
In using the L-shapes on your failed
painting, you may find a successful
image that could be cut from it.

POINT 4: TONES
Have you evenly distributed the
shadows and highlights?
One of my guiding principles when
painting is the old adage “Tone does

Artists & Illustrators 75

TECHNIQUE
all the hard work, yet colour gets
all the praise”. The successful
distribution of tones throughout a
painting will often be the single most
important element in the success
or otherwise of the artwork.
A poor tonal balance can mean that
the eye is not led around the image
as you intended or can even be drawn
away from the focal point.
Less experienced artists often
have a fear of adding rich darks, but
they are necessary to help emphasise
the highlights – too narrow a tonal
range may make an image appear
limp and bland.
Taking a photograph of your artwork
and converting it to greyscale can be
a very useful way to identify areas
that need some adjustment from
a tonal perspective, either through
lifting out unwanted paint with a
damp brush or sponge, or adding
further washes of colour.
I’ve saved many a painting with the
judicious application of a strong tonal
wash in just the right place.
5. COLOUR
Have you chosen the right pigments
to use?
The wrong choice of colours can often
be the downfall of a painting. Colours
that don’t sit well together, or clash
when not intended, might be the
most obvious and visible problems.
However, the wrong choice of
colours can have a limiting effect
on the choice of techniques within
a painting too. A technique that
requires a colour to be lifted to create
the desired effect, for instance, will
prove almost impossible if a pigment
with a high staining quality is used.
When assessing the work of my
students, a poor colour choice is
often one of the most difficult
problems to put right – and quite
often this will result in the painting
having to be remade.
In order to prevent this, it is
essential to know your chosen
pigments. Play with them first,
discover for yourself which colours
stain and which lift easily, get to know
whether a colour is transparent or
opaque, whether it granulates or not.
A better understanding of the
76 Artists & Illustrators
CASE STUDY 2
Rob Dudley, Just Beyond Harford,
watercolour on paper, 46x30cm
I came across a lane on Dartmoor near to my studio
that had so many of the elements that I like to paint,
yet my original watercolour sketch (5) still proved to
be rather disappointing.
I felt like the format and scale weren’t right, so I
used two L-shaped corners of mountboard to assess
various potential crops and formats (6). Doing this
often presents some unexpected results and I was
able to pinpoint that the problem lay in the original
format. On reflection, the elongated portrait format
of the original sketch was far too tall and narrow.
It had taken the focus away from the farm buildings
and gave too much attention to the moor beyond.
The squarer format (7) I settled upon helped to
emphasise the huddle of farm buildings at the end
of the lane without the distant moor dominating.
qualities of each pigment will result
in better choices when painting.
6. TECHNIQUE
Have you applied the paint in a
suitable way?
Reviewing an artwork can quickly 5
reveal that it needs to be done again.
However, even at this point, a trip to
the bin might be rather premature as
an unsuccessful painting still has
much to offer.
Often the mistakes in a painting
can be down to the failure of chosen
techniques: a drybrush mark that was
too wet, a wash applied before the
previous one had dried.
One might not be able to rectify
these mistakes within the particular
painting, but if one identifies them,
and practices them too, there is less
chance of repeating the mistakes in
subsequent paintings.
In fact, the offending painting offers
the perfect platform to practice and
discover new techniques and effects.
Try for example adding some pen
work, scratching out highlights with a
scalpel, or experimenting with pencil
or pastel overlays. These techniques
can be subsequently incorporated
into later paintings, keeping things
fresh and interesting.
Rob is the co-author of Painting Trees,
published by Crowood Press. 6
www.moortoseaarts.co.uk
 TECHNIQUE

Artists & Illustrators 77

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Maria
10 MINUTES WITH

RIVANS

BRIGHTON: RHY KENTISH/UNSPLASH. INSTALLATION VIEW OF OLAFUR ELIASSON: IN REAL LIFE AT TATE MODERN
FROM 11 JULY 2019 TO 5 JANUARY 2020. PHOTO BY ANDERS SUNE BERG. ARTWORK © OLAFUR ELIASSON
The collage artist reveals the
influences behind her aesthetic.
Interview: REBECCA BRADBURY

WHEN DID YOU FIRST WANT

TO BECOME AN ARTIST?
When I was a kid, I used to watch the
Saturday afternoon matinees on TV
with my mum. There was a Bette
Davis film called A Stolen Life where
she plays an artist with this amazing
studio. I knew then and there that
was what I wanted to do.

WHERE DID YOU STUDY?

While I was studying for my foundation
in art, I discovered I really liked
three-dimensional design. Brighton
Polytechnic [now Brighton University]
did a great course in this, so Brighton
is where I chose to do my degree.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE
YOUR ARTWORKS?
They are labour-intensive collages.
I re-appropriate printed ephemera
to create fantastical worlds, as well
as to rewrite storylines and characters
from films I love.
WHAT INFLUENCES HELP
DEFINE YOUR AESTHETIC?
There are so many! I listen to music
by David Bowie, Laura Marling and
Joan As Policewoman while I work,
and these all influence my art.
Then there are visual artists such
as Sarah Lucas, Hieronymus Bosch
and Richard Hamilton, and I’m also
inspired by films like Planet of the
Apes and Land of the Giants, anything
starring Bette Davis and Joan
Crawford, and David Lynch movies.
TELL US ABOUT
YOUR NEW BOOK?
Extraordinary Things to
Cut Out and Collage is
an activity book for
adults. You could
produce a really
quick, energetic
collage in five
minutes, or spend
hours creating a
really intricate composition. There are
more than 1,500 images you can cut
out, as well as step-by-step guides.
HOW DO YOU CREATE YOUR
OWN COLLAGES?
It begins by sourcing pictures from
my collection of retro magazines,
books and postcards. I often let the
images dictate the form and shape –
it’s interesting when my initial idea
shifts as I cut and collate.
WHERE DO YOU SOURCE
YOUR VINTAGE IMAGERY?
Charity shops, boot markets and a
few favourite shops around Brighton
and Hove. I love having a little root
around, it’s really exciting when I
come across something I can use
WHAT ONE ART PRODUCT
CAN’T YOU LIVE WITHOUT?
My Xcut scissors [right]. I find cutting
really meditative, it’s when I come
up with a lot of my ideas and these
scissors fit my hand really well.
My works are labour-
intensive collages…
I find cutting really
meditative
WHAT WAS THE LAST GREAT
EXHIBITION THAT YOU SAW?
Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life at Tate
Modern [below right]. The installation
played on all your senses and there
was an Icelandic influence which he
conveyed beautifully. I’ve been to
Iceland and his work took me back.
WHAT WAS THE LAST GREAT
BOOK THAT YOU READ?
Becoming Supernatural by Dr Joe
Dispenza. This book explains how
meditation works on a scientific level
and teaches how to shift awareness
to a quantum field of infinite
ossibilities. I try to convey
mething similar through
y work: how we’re not just
hysical beings but spiritual
beings as well.
Extraordinary Things to Cut Out
and Collage is published by
Laurence King. www.mariarivans.com

82 Artists & Illustrators