Artists & Illustrators March 2021

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I L L U S T R A T O R S
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EDITORIAL
Group Editor Steve Pill
Art Editor Lauren Debono-Elliot
Assistant Editor Rebecca Bradbury
Contributors Hashim Akib, Martha
Alexander, Grahame Booth, Laura
Boswell, Lizet Dingemans, Al Gury, Laura
Smith, Jake Spicer and Rob Wareing
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ISSN NO. 1473-4729
HERE'S TO EXPERIENCING
LIFE IN FULL COLOUR
I really enjoyed writing about Wassily Kandinsky for this issue
because he and I have something (almost) in common – and sadly,
it’s not that I’m also a successful Russian abstract painter whose
works sell for billions of rubles. No, it’s that Kandinsky is also
COVER ARTWORK LAURA BOSWELL thought to have a condition known as synaesthesia.
Synaesthesia is a union of the senses, where one sense triggers
another. Kandinsky is thought to have had a variant known as
stay inspired chromesthesia, in which sounds are experienced as colours. David Hockney
by subscribing apparently has this too, which explains a lot.
Artists & Illustrators I have grapheme-colour synaesthesia, which involves perceiving letters and
Tel: +44 (0)1858 438789 numbers in different colours. So I tend to see letters in colour, a bit like this.
It’s an involuntary reaction, something I’ve had as long as I can remember,
Email:
artists@subscription.co.uk yet only realised was “a thing” after watching a Horizon documentary about
15 years ago. People often ask if it’s annoying, but I think it makes the world
Online:
www.artistsand rather colourful – as well as helping me to spot a spelling mistake from a
illustrators.co.uk/subscribe distance (“that word has no green in it!”), which is rather useful in this job.
Post: Artists & Illustrators, It is often said of artists that they have a unique perspective on the world
Subscriptions Department, but in Kandinsky’s case it was entirely true. I hope you enjoy the feature.
Chelsea Magazines, Tower
House, Sovereign Park, Steve Pill, Editor
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Harborough, LE16 9EF
Renew:
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Artists & Illustrators 3

Contents 34
E m il y Po n s o n b y
68 m a k es a sp la s h
in o il s
When the first lockdown

hit, I, like a lot of people,
regulars
found it difficult to draw
5 Letters
Your creative lockdown stories
6 Exhibitions
52 – L AUR A S MITH, PAGE 6 4
March's best art shows

9 Sketchbook 32 British Art Prize 52 Project
Quick tips, ideas and reviews Last chance to enter for the Our columnist Laura Boswell
24 Prize Draw chance to win £10,000 of prizes shares her woodcut skills for a
Win an online art course in 2021 34 In The Studio lockdown home print project
25 The Working Artist To the Cotswolds, as Emily 58 Technique
With our columnist Laura Boswell Ponsonby shares her latest work An in-depth look at the benefits
82 10 Minutes With... of making preparatory studies
Rita Isaac, author of the new techniques 64 Drawing
painting book Do More Art: Acrylic 40 Masterclass the Masters
Jake Spicer leads our 12-step Four quick challenges based
inspiration demo drawing in coloured pencil around Rembrandt paintings
o
18 The Big Inter view 44 Colour Theor y 68 How I Paint H ow t cil
pen
m a ke t s f i t
Meet Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis, Our new series focusing on mixing “The Old Mistresses” inspired
i
p o r t r a ll e r y
painter of poetic landscapes secondaries starts with orange Elise Ansel's abstract art
30 Art Histor y 48 How to Draw 74 Composition a
Discover why Wassily Kandinsky Stuck without a model? Learn how Al Gury's series continues with f or a g 0 4
– page
created unique abstract art to draw figures accurately without a look at arranging great still life
4 Artists & Illustrators

Letters
LET TER OF THE MONTH
Write to us!
A PLACE TO GROW Send your letter or email
to the addresses below:
I belong to an art group on Facebook and, by
a wonderful chance, I struck up a social POST:
media friendship with a superb fellow artist. Your Letters,
She recommended Artists & Illustrators to me Artists & Illustrators,
as an all-rounder magazine for artists. She The Chelsea Magazine
was right, of course. Company Ltd.,
I am a newbie to the art world, self-taught Jubilee House,
and gaining confidence. With your magazine, 2 Jubilee Place,
I am learning and growing each month. My London SW3 3TQ
latest watercolour painting, A Ray of Hope and
Light, represents a hopeful beginning to 2021 EMAIL: info@artists
and a light at the end of a long 2020 for us all. andillustrators.co.uk
Debbie Davidge, via email
The writer of our ‘letter
Welcome to the Artists & Illustrators of the month’ will receive
community Debbie and thanks for sharing a £50 gift voucher from
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO EDIT LETTERS FOR PUBLICATION

your lovely painting! GreatArt, which offers
the UK’s largest range of
art materials with more
ABSORBED IN WHITE would almost certainly have heard if other readers have found that than 50,000 art supplies
I am greatly enjoying the guns of the Western Front from colour is a particular inspiration, and regular discounts
your January issue’s his garden as, on several occasions, especially in difficult times? and promotions.
creative challenges they could be heard from London. Rosemary Bailey, via email www.greatart.co.uk
[Issue 425], working This makes the article absolutely
my way through pertinent to today, in that although STRIKING A CHORD
quite a few of them the world is in strife and chaos, we I loved the article on the artist Mark
and learning a lot. can still find a calm sanctuary in Entwisle [Issue 426]. The way he
I would also like to thank you for your creating art in our own homes. explained how he was a frustrated
inspired choice of recommended Tom Jamison, Rochester oil painter struck a chord with me.
reading: The Vivisector by Patrick For years I struggled with
White, based on the life of LIFE IN COLOUR watercolours, never happy with the
Australian painter, Sidney Nolan. During the coronavirus restrictions, results. One day I picked up a box of
I had heard of White’s work but I’ve come to realise the significance pastels and immediately found
never got around to reading any. of colour in my life. Several of us them a joy to use. I had finally found
This novel, which won him the Nobel from our local amateur art group, my medium. My advice to anyone
Prize, is brilliantly written and totally Box Art Group in Gloucestershire, struggling is to experiment with other
absorbing. So glad you reminded have been creating a weekly art supplies and they may discover
me of him and gave your readers a newsletter to email to our members. one that feels more natural to them
great aid for getting through the I receive e-newsletters from and one that they really enjoy using.
latest phase of the lockdown. several organisations each week, Josie Taberner, via email
Jane Kelly, via email but it is the Box Art Group one that I
look forward to most. Much of the
SANCTUARY AT HOME space is dedicated to images of Share your stories and get a daily
I wanted to thank you for the super recent artwork by members or art dose of Artists & Illustrators tips,
feature on the homes of the great that they have seen and wish to advice and inspiration by following
artists [Issue 426]. Taking Claude discuss. For my part, I have drawn us on our social media channels...
Monet’s life at Giverny as a case in inspiration from articles in Artists &
point, it’s conceivable that, without Illustrators, sometimes reviewing an @AandImagazine
having lived there, he may never article and including an image.
ArtistsAndIllustrators
have painted a single water lily. My medium of choice used to be
Furthermore, some of his sublime pen and ink or pencil but, over the AandImagazine
canvases were produced at the last year, I have created more work AandImagazine
height of the Great War. Monet in colour than ever before. I wonder

Exhibitions
MARCH'S BEST ART SHOWS
Tudors to Windsors:
British Royal Portraits
26 February to 31 October
If you were captivated by Netflix’s most
recent season of The Crown, you will love this
collection of 150 of the finest portraits from
across five British dynasties.
As well as discovering how royal portraiture
has developed across five centuries, it’s also
a chance to see work by some of the biggest
names in the art world, from court painters
Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller to Pop
Artist Andy Warhol.
Royal Museums Greenwich, London.
www.rmg.co.uk
The Man Who Could Paint reason why the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and
Anything: The Legacy of its art collection exist today.
Thomas Stuart Smith This exhibition celebrates his generous
29 March to 1 January 2022 bequest, showcasing other works that have
Wish you could turn your hand to any subject? been gifted to the gallery, such as Maurice
© STIRLING SMITH ART GALLERY
One man reputed to be able to do just that Poirson’s Les Moulières à Villerville and Spring
was the Scottish artist Thomas Stuart Smith. Has Come by George Henry [above].
His legacy doesn’t end there, however. Born in Stirling Smith Art Gallery, Stirling.
1814, he was also an avid collector and is the www.smithartgalleryandmuseum.co.uk
Bridget Riley:
Pleasures of Sight
13 February to 16 May
© WILLIAM AND GEORGINA HUSTLER, NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
Reproductions never do Bridget Riley any

justice. To experience the full impact of
the rippling geometric effects, you need
PHOTO: © ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION. © BRIDGET RILEY, 2020
to see her paintings in person, and now

is your chance with this retrospective.
Not only does it feature instantly
recognisable works, like 1961's
Movement in Squares [left], but it will
also be the first time a show delves into
the artist’s relationship with printmaking.
The Lightbox, Woking, Surrey.
www.thelightbox.org

Dates may
change during
the Covid-19
restrictions
Always check
gallery websites
beforehand
Challenging Conventions
27 March to 19 June
It’s no secret that female creatives
have been overlooked and
undervalued throughout art history.
Therefore, this exhibition is a timely
ESTATE OF DAME LAURA KNIGHT DBE RA 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
© TYNE AND WEAR ARCHIVES & MUSEUMS. © REPRODUCED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE
deep dive into four artists who had
the toilsome task of challenging the
conventions imposed upon them
by the patriarchal society in the first
half of the 20th century,
Each of the artists – Vanessa Bell,
Laura Knight [left], Gwen John and
Dod Procter – made significant
strides for women artists within
traditional institutions, and their works
offer the rare opportunity to discover
the era through the female gaze.
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle.
www.artgallery.org.uk
David Hockney: The

Arrival of Spring,
Normandy, 2020
27 March to 22 August
The global pandemic may
have curtailed creativity, but
not for David Hockney. Who
could expect anything less
from the prolific British artist?
What is surprising is
Hockney’s choice of tools.
This new collection of 116
works has been entirely
“painted” on the iPad,
allowing us to see every mark
and stroke of the 83-year-old
artist’s stylus as he captured
spring unfolding at his new
home in Normandy, France.
© DAVID HOCKNEY
Royal Academy of Arts, London.

www.royalacademy.org.uk

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sketchbook
March
TIPS • ADVICE • IDEAS
SPOTLESS!
Foolproof ways to clean
your paint brushes – and
make them last longer
OIL BRUSHES
1 Wrap a clean rag or paper towel

around the ferrule (the metal bit
of the brush) and wipe away from the
handle – you want to avoid pigment
getting down the ferrule. Repeat
as necessary.
2 Dip the brush head in a jar of

odourless thinners (a safer
alternative to white spirits) and knock
the pigment off the bristles. Repeat this
step until no pigment is visible.
3 Wash the brush with soap or

The Master’s Brush Preserver.
Work the lather through the bristles
with your fingers, always pushing out
from the ferrule again.
4 Rinse with clean water, reshape

the brush head with your thumb
and forefinger, and leave to dry.
ACRYLIC BRUSHES
Repeat steps 1-4 above, but use a jar
of clean water in step 2.
WATERCOLOUR BRUSHES
1 Clean the pigment from the brush

by swilling the head in clean water
at the end of your session.
2 Remove excess water from the

bristles with a clean rag or paper
towel and leave to air dry.
3 Wash the brush with soap or

The Master’s Brush Preserver.
Work the lather through the bristles
with your fingers, always pushing out
from the ferrule.
4 Rinse with clean water, reshape

the brush head with your thumb
and forefinger, and leave to dry.
ISTOCK

sketchbook
“PAINTING HAS THE ABILITY TO

COMMUNICATE SOMETHING ABOUT
THE SITTER THAT GETS TO HIS
ESSENCE” — KEHINDE WILEY
MASTER TIP:
GEORGES SEURAT
The painting te chniques
of the world ’s b es t ar tis t s
French painter Georges Seurat’s
pointillist technique of painting
individual dots of colour is well
known, yet there’s plenty more to
learn from his work.
In 1888’s Seascape at Port-en-
Bessin, Normandy, for example,
he avoided using atmospheric
perspective or shadows to give a
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON
sense of depth, instead relying on

colour alone. He lightens the sea to
the left to suggest the position of
the sun, while repeating undulating
curves in the green cliff and clouds
to unify the two areas.
BOOK
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EXPAND YOUR PALETTE

Cerulean Blue
Discover a new colour ever y month
THE COLOUR
This vivid, slightly green-biased blue was first
introduced to English artists in 1860 by George
Rowney of Daler-Rowney fame.
THE PROPERTIES
An inorganic, synthetic mineral pigment, Cerulean
Blue (PB35) is bright, opaque and very lightfast.
THE USES
As the Latin derivative of its name suggests,
Cerulean Blue is ideal for skies. Philip Ball’s Bright
Earth notes that Paul Signac was one such artist
“sufficiently enamoured” with the pigment.
Claude Monet was also a fan.
TEA-BREAK
CHALLENGE
4. VERTICAL DR AWING
DATES FOR THE DIARY

We almost all learned to draw sitting at a table yet
standing up can loosen you up and bring a whole
new dimension to your practice. Try it next time you
have a spare 15 minutes. Choose any subject.
There is over £10,000 of cash prizes available for the Jackson’s Painting Prize and a If you don’t have an easel, pin your paper to a
chance to feature at the Affordable Art Fair. Enter paintings or drawings by 2 March. pinboard or wall. Focus on two things: firstly,
www.jacksonsart.com/paintingprize • The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour drawing with your entire arm, rather than just your
has extended the deadline for its 209th Exhibition. Submit before 5 March at hand. Secondly, try to keep your eyes on the subject
mallgalleries.oess1.uk • This summer, Art Fair East returns to The Halls in Norwich. – not the paper – as much as possible.
ISTOCK
Apply for a stand to showcase your artworks before 31 March. www.artfaireast.com
PAINTING
WITH IMPACT
HA S H IM AKIB on the imp or tance
of planning your paintings
When I get going, my painting process is very

instinctive, and I almost don’t think about what
I’m doing. This is because the planning occurs
before the painting began.
A plan could involve colour, detail, tone,
theme; you might choose a top three set of
priorities. Sometimes I prefer to plan as I paint
to iron out ideas or discover new ones.
When working on a final painting, allow the
process to completely take over, avoiding second
thoughts or deviations. This will make your
painting consistent, giving you clear goals for
each artwork and saving on resources.

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Fresh
Paint
Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel
Paul Wright
Whenever Paul Wright is struggling in the studio, he always
returns to faces. For almost 20 years now, the human
head has been integral to his practice and his paintings
have featured at the National Portrait Gallery and the
Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ annual exhibition. Even
when he has tried new subjects in recent years, painting a
face remains his artistic comfort blanket. “When artists
feel like they are almost repeating themselves, the marks paul’S
get tired,” he explains. “You need to look for something top tiP
else, something new, something challenging that you can
Balance pure pigment
work within and push things and destroy things until you
with mixed colour: “Too
find a slightly different angle. I always feel I can do that much pure colour can
when I work on faces, especially the small ones.” look naive – and not
His latest online exhibition at Thompson’s Gallery, in a good way”
Profiles, will feature a dozen small-scale portraits. For an
artist famed for expressive mark making, a small canvas
seems like an unwanted restraint, but Paul enjoys it.
“There’s an intensity you can get quite quickly when you’re
working small,” he says. “One sweeping, juicy big mark can
make such a difference, whereas that’s harder on bigger
paintings.” He cherry-picks his palette from Jackson’s,
Winsor & Newton and Michael Harding oils. “There’s one
Michael Harding colour, Caribbean Turquoise, that I’m
using at the moment which is just phenomenal. It looks
almost black out of the tube, but when you mix it down it’s
just an intense colour, so punchy.”
After a foundation year at Loughborough and a degree in
illustration from Falmouth, Paul returned to his native
Leicester where his studio is situated in an industrial
estate on an island in the River Soar. Despite people being
his primary subject, he rarely invites them to the studio,
preferring to produce paintings based on photographic
references. Portraits usualy begin as friends and family yet
get reworked so often they become something new. “It’s
the advantage of being the artist because you can say,
‘yeah that’s exactly what they look like…’” he jokes.
Once the online exhibition is complete, Paul has big
plans for 2021. “I’m a bit of a rhythm painter so to make a
body of work I need a flow,” he says. “The last year, for
obvious reasons, has been quite stop-start and I’ve found
it difficult to make work. I’ve made commissions, which is RIGHT Paul Wright,
great, but my ambition after this is to build a body of work.” Rocket Boy, oil on
www.paul-wright.com board, 32x40cm

Fresh Paint

Fresh Paint
Every month, one of our Fresh Paint

artists is chosen from Portfolio Plus,
our online, art-for-sale portal. For your
chance to feature in a forthcoming
issue, sign up for your own personalised
Portfolio Plus page today. You can also:
• Showcase, share and sell unlimited
artworks commission free
• Get your work seen across Artists &
Illustrators’ social media channels
• Submit art to our online exhibitions
• Enjoy exclusive discounts and more
Sign up in minutes at www.artistsand
illustrators.co.uk/register
TOP RIGHT, Catherine Beale the way light shows form. To capture this in its most
Catherine Beale, Long before Tom Croft’s Portraits for NHS Heroes initiative dramatic guise, the Society of Women Artists member will
The Calling II, had been conceived, Portfolio Plus member Catherine place her sitters up against the brightest, one-directional
watercolour, Beale had painted The Calling – a portrait of a carer in her light source available.
72x66cm uniform, exhausted after a long shift. Then when a medical Also something of a ritual is Catherine’s process of
student with a similar sense of vocation recently sat for the laying down the darks first. “I use watercolour art board,
Bath-based artist, the second in the series was born. which crucially has amazing sizing,” she explains.
“There’s always physical things,” says Catherine of what “This enables me to go in really quite heavily. I start with
interests her about her sitters. “[The subject of The Calling the darkest spot in the face, which tends to be the eye
II] has an incredibly long neck and amazing poise, but on socket. I mix on the page, so I’ll create a puddle of water
top of that she talked very passionately about learning to in the eye socket, drop heavy paint in and start to drag it
be a surgeon and I thought the way she held her hands across the face.”
tied in with that. So, I incorporated them, which is unusual “I tend to be quite loose with the way I apply paint,” she
for my portraits.” adds. “I’m trying to exploit the ways pigments behave with
A signature of Catherine’s work, however, is the white each other.” It’s clear Catherine has found her calling too.
space and cutaways she incorporates in order to focus on www.artistsandillustrators.com/catherinebeale

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T H E B I G I N T E RV I E W
ABOVE Constellation,
egg tempera, pen,
ink and gesso on
board, 18x23cm

Painting
Poetry
Ignoring textbooks and making up her own rules has
garnered landscape painter MARY ANNE AYTOUN-
ELLIS many fans, including Prince Charles,
as REBECCA BRADBURY finds out
F
rom being whisked away on a private jet to
draw a buffalo jump in the foothills of Canada’s
Saskatchewan Mountains to meeting indigenous
Amerindians while painting waterfalls in the Guyanese
rainforest, Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis had some extraordinary
experiences in the noughties as an official tour artist for
HRH The Prince of Wales. Today, the royal heir continues to
collect Mary Anne’s work, but the artist is much more likely
to be found back home in Lewes, tramping across the
rolling hills of England’s South Downs with a five-foot-
square board balanced on her head.
Scratched by thistles and licked by the rough tongues
of cattle, her supports are plunged into perilous positions,
but this is all part of the process. “It’s a hell of a lot to
carry and I nearly take off if it’s windy,” Mary Anne admits.
“But I need to just sit there, really early in the morning, and
just draw. It gives the work an atmosphere and power it
wouldn’t have if I just relied on easy ways of doing it.”
For over a decade now, the landscape has been at
the heart of Mary Anne’s output, renowned for its richly
detailed, intricate layers and atmosphere so evocative it
can cause goosebumps. It’s a body of work that not only
relies on her hawk’s eye for observation, but also her vivid
imagination and memory. This is especially true of the
paintings completed over the past five years, which are
to go on show in The Woods I Know, her postponed
exhibition at London’s Portland Gallery this summer.
“I’m trying to conjure up a place that only exists in my
mind,” she says. “These paintings are based on very
specific trees and bits of woodlands, but in the end, I’m
applying my [powers of] observation to make them into
something that is not just a topographical piece of work.
I want them to be much more than that, I want them to
zoom you into somewhere you think, god, I feel as if I’m
immersed in this place, I feel as if I recognise it.”

ABOVE Moonlit To achieve this symbiosis of observation and As well as helping Mary Anne recognise where her true
Quiet, egg imagination, Mary Anne doesn’t solely paint in the field. passion lay, the masters also impacted upon her choice
tempera, gesso Just as important are the hours spent back in her studio, of materials. Returning to Oxford for a post-graduate
and watercolour on hidden among the medieval streets of Lewes. Born in scholarship, she began painting over etchings on plaster
board, 144x137cm 1966, the artist was brought up in the same Sussex town and discovered egg tempera would create a beautiful
by her grandmother after her parents tragically died in a finish which, when buffed with silk, would turn slightly
car crash. After drawing by the fireplace every afternoon shiny. The plaster proved impractical in the long-term, so
OPPOSITE PAGE, to avoid disturbing her grandma’s nap, she would go on to she switched to paper, but stuck with the egg tempera,
FROM TOP Follow study at Oxford University’s Ruskin School of Drawing, alongside watercolour, ink, gesso and pencil.
the Wind, egg followed by an MA in printmaking at the Royal College of Art. “I’ve carried on using egg tempera that I mix myself
tempera, pencil In some of her works, printmaking is brought to mind in, and I really love that way of working,” she says. “I don’t
and gesso on say, the flat, graphic lines of a bare-branched tree, the long use tempera in anything like the way the textbooks tell
board, 78x112cm; blades of grass or a patchwork of fields, yet there’s a you because that’s not the kind of painting I want to
Hidden Oak, distinct lack of actual prints in her portfolio. make, that’s not how I want to use it.”
egg tempera, “I pretty much stopped [printmaking] when I got to the “Lots of people think it’s a really finicky medium, but
watercolour, gesso Royal College,” she admits. “Once I got there, I realised actually, you can use it in an amazingly direct way,” she
and ink on board, I wanted to make hybrid pictures that were a cross adds. “I like that I can use it very simply. It dries quickly,
152x139cm between drawings, paintings and print.” I can paint in glazes, I can sand it back, I can build it up in

layers, which you’re not traditionally supposed to do.”
Mary Anne’s use of paper could also be considered For over a decade now,
unconventional. Her process is to stick it to gesso ply
or MDF with rice starch – “so it’s acid-free and won’t the landscape has been at the
deteriorate” – to take advantage of both the paper’s
delicacy and the hardness of the support. However, the
heart of Mary Anne’s output
size of the board is never pre-determined. Instead, the
painting’s progress dictates its final dimensions. “I’ll often
build paintings up with 15 to 20 sheets of paper,” she
explains. “I just let the painting grow and eventually I think,
right, it’s going to be that size and then I’ll glue it down.”
This method has resulted in paintings that measure
up to five foot, six of which are to be showcased in her
exhibition this summer. Just as vast is the number of
hours dedicated to them, with some taking five years to
complete. “Sometimes it’s just tiny, incremental changes,
which grow and grow, but then suddenly I might do
something incredibly drastic,” Mary Anne says. “I’m not
really obliterating everything that was there, even if I cover
it over, because I’m painting in water-soluble paints, so
I can always get the layers back again in some way.”
Permeating the many coatings of paint is an amass of
meticulous detail, from a complex tangle of tree branches
to age-old bark furrowed with time to a bouquet of crispy
autumn leaves so redolent you can almost hear their
crunch underfoot. But stand back and the scene wows as
a whole, too. “I often want people to be able to find things
in my paintings,” the artist explains. “I want them to be
so rich close up that you can stand just an inch away and
look at three or four inches and find loads to look at, but
equally they have to work from 20 feet away, which is
the length of my studio. They need to work on different
levels for me.”

ABOVE Knot Practising artists may be disappointed to hear these really trust someone to do that. And I’m quite a literary
Garden, egg large-scale artworks never get easier for Mary Anne. As an painter and she’s a painterly writer, so it worked really well.”
tempera, gesso antidote she’ll switch her focus to smaller, “less stressful” Whether directly or indirectly, the written word has
and watercolour on paintings instead, but her drive to keep pushing herself is always fed into Mary Anne’s artwork. Her reading spans
board, 18x25cm relentless. “The way I paint is constantly evolving. I’m always from novels and nature writing to texts on the history of
trying to push it a bit further and use paint in a slightly the countryside and agriculture – an interest she puts
different way. I don’t have a technique where I think, I know down to coming from a long line of farmers. She loves
what I’m doing now – I never know what I’m doing. It just learning the names of people who once tended the fields
kind of comes out and sometimes it works, and sometimes she walks over (hence Domesday Book: Sussex is on her
it doesn’t. But I’ll keep going until it gets there.” reading list) and how the woodland she paints has been
Mary Anne had a chance to explore a wholly new way pollarded or coppiced by previous generations.
FAR RIGHT of working in 2018, when writer and poet Clare Best The name of Mary Anne’s upcoming exhibition,
Earthwork, egg approached her to collaborate on a poetry and art project The Woods I Know, has been borrowed from one of Dent’s
tempera, pencil exploring mysterious and hidden bodies of water in “Open Air” Nature books, The Wood I Know, which invites
and watercolour on southern England. “It was quite an odd feeling to discuss the reader to discover trees and woods through close
board, 30x23cm progress with someone else,” she recalls. “You have to observation. Originally planned for February, the

I’ve painted all over the place, but what I

really love is right here on my doorstep...
We need to cherish what we’ve got
exhibition’s lockdown-related delay has opened up an

opportunity for essays and other writings to be composed
in response to the paintings.
Indeed, there is much more to the artist’s work than
simply copying a countryside scene or producing a
sentimental pastoral painting. Animals for Mary Anne are
“always a metaphor for the poetry of a place”. But how
does immersing herself in the nature she knows best
compare to travelling the world with British royalty?
“I’ve painted all over the place but I’ve realised what I
really love is right here on my doorstep,” she says, “We are
just passing through as others have done and we really
need to value and cherish what we’ve got, and all my
paintings are about that more than anything else.”
The Woods I Know runs from 1-9 July at Portland Gallery,
London. www.portlandgallery.com

P R I Z E D R AW
one of 10
ST IVES SCHOOL OF
PAINTING DRAW
online art
Name:
Address:
courses
Discover the restorative power of art with an online
workshop from the ST IVES SCHOOL OF PAINTING
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Art can offer many therapeutic benefits, Liz Hough. With five monthly sessions
especially when we’re all stuck inside, from starting on 3 March, students will discover Email:
bringing moments of joy and a sense of how to tap into their unique voice.
accomplishment to providing a welcome There is no need to worry about missing a Telephone:
distraction from the gloomy news cycle and session with St Ives School of Painting. All The closing date for entries is noon on 18 February 2021.
a chance to connect virtually with other classes are recorded, so students can watch
Please tick if you are happy to receive relevant information from
like-minded artists. With this in mind, Artists them live or later. There could be no better The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd. via email , post or phone
or the St Ives School of Painting via email
& Illustrators has teamed up with St Ives alternative to in-real-life classes during these
School of Painting to offer 10 lucky readers trying times. www.schoolofpainting.co.uk
the chance to each win an online art course. or fill in the form and return it to St Ives School
Artists wanting to deepen their THE PRIZE of Painting Prize Draw, Artists & Illustrators,
observational skills and improve their Ten winners, chosen at random, will win a Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd., Jubilee
understanding of tone will be well suited to place on one of two St Ives School of Painting House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ
Slow Time Drawing with Alice Mumford. On online courses: “Abstraction with Liz Hough”
26-27 April, Alice will provide in-depth demos or “Slow Time Drawing with Alice Mumford” TERMS AND CONDITIONS
to inspire, motivate and build confidence. Prize is non-transferable. Choice of course
Artists, meanwhile, looking for a fresh HOW TO ENTER is subject to availability. For full terms
approach to their mixed media paintings are Enter by noon on 18 February 2021 at www. and conditions, please visit
the perfect candidates for Abstraction with artistsandillustrators.co.uk/competitions www.chelseamagazines.com/terms

COLUMNIST
Artist
The Working
finished print. It kept him working and,
when he did stand back and look at
his collection of prints, there was a
clear line of improvement and
blossoming of skill and knowledge.
The actual prints themselves and
their appearance as finished artworks
became almost incidental; it was
lovely to watch him switch from his
Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL was inspired
pleasure in seeing how much he had
by an ex-student, who reminded her that the learned to realising that the end
journey is more important than the destination results were pretty pleasing too.
There’s a lot of relief in stepping
R
ecently an ex-student of mine, said, it’s easy to be discouraged and away from the pressure of producing
Bill, came to my studio to stop trying, especially if you are a successful overall result when you
collect a print. He told me that working in isolation. can. Accepting that not every artwork
during the Covid-19 restrictions he’d By ignoring the big picture and is about a good outcome is very
been working on his printmaking and deciding on a practical goal for every liberating and, in giving yourself
trying to improve his technique. I was print he made, Bill found he could permission to experiment, there’s the
impressed by his prints, but the thing step away from the emotional pull of space to grow that skill and fluency. BELOW Laura
that really stayed with me after he left wanting a successful overall outcome. Follow Laura’s woodcut demonstration on Boswell,
were his words, so I jotted them He found satisfaction instead in page 52. She also co-hosts the Ask an Light Study
down. “I quickly realised that I had so achieving a better cut block, a Artist podcast. Listen now at www.artists Early, linocut,
much to learn and struggled to like happier colour palette or a cleaner andillustrators.co.uk/askanartist 19x22cm
anything about my prints at all,” he
told me. “I almost stopped trying
altogether until I decided I’d focus on
one aspect of the work at a time and
not be overwhelmed with trying to get
everything right. That way I could see
some progress every time and, now
I look at the work with you, I realise
there’s a lot to be pleased with.
Much more than I expected.”
Bill’s attitude to learning is such
a positive approach and useful on
many levels. The road from trying a
new process to becoming fluent and
successful with it is a long one. It’s
one often hampered by the instinctive
desire for results to be “good” from
the start. I think we all feel that, even
when we understand that consistent
skill – as opposed to happy accidental
success – requires a mixture of time,
practice and persistence. Just as Bill
Accepting
that not every
artwork is
about a good
outcome is
very liberating

A R T H I S T O RY
Wassily
Kandinsky
The Russian painter was one of the first true abstract artists, using music as a basis for
his instinctive paintings. STEVE PILL explores his colourful responses to the world
W
ABOVE assily Kandinsky wasn’t works as the artist was inspired by senses together. The word itself
Improvisation the first artist to embrace modern classical composers such as derives from the Ancient Greek: syn,
28 (Second music in his painting, but Richard Wagner, Claude Debussy and “together”, and aisthesis, “sensing”.
Version), 1912, he was possibly the first to do so in Arnold Schoenburg. Yet despite these Synaesthesia takes different and
oil on canvas, such an immersive and interests, Kandinsky wasn’t making a very specific forms in different
112.6x162.5cm comprehensive way. Music for the considered attempt to transcribe the people. A person may have colours
Russian artist didn’t simply mean a music but rather a unique and triggered in the brain by sounds, for
radio on in the studio; it was a source instinctive interpretation of the example, or tastes experienced when
of inspiration that triggered colours sounds as he experienced them. hearing certain words.
and ideas in his mind. So why did it happen? Wassily As synaesthesia is a relatively new
Back in 1877, Walter Pater had Kandinsky is widely believed to have scientific discipline, only properly
declared that “all art constantly had a condition known as studied and understood in the last
aspires towards the condition of synaesthesia. Whereas the majority 40-50 years, Kandinsky was never
music” and here was an attempt to of people will think of the senses as properly tested. However, he was
SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK. © VASILY KANDINSKY, VEGAP, BILBAO, 2020
put a chorus of colours into visual five very individual pathways – sight, keenly interested in perception
form. Colour and line would become sound, touch, taste and smell – a and much of his writing points to
Kandinsky’s musical notes as he person with synaesthesia will often him having experienced this
pursued an increasingly abstract experience two or more of these neurological phenomenon.
agenda, creating several series of
individually numbered works that he
called “improvisations” or
“compositions”. 1912’s Improvisation Wassily Kandinsky embraced
28 is a typical example, a wide
canvas with roughly applied passages music in an immersive way... He
OPPOSITE PAGE Blue
of pure colour overlaid with seemingly
random black lines and marks that
is widely believed to have had a
Mountain, 1908- call to mind musical notation. condition known as synaesthesia
’09, oil on canvas, There’s a pleasing rhythm and
107.3x97.6cm lyricism to the brushwork in these

A R T H I S T O RY
ABOVE Composition While Kandinsky’s apparent to give up his academic career and the fortissimo of a great orchestra”.
8, 1923, oil condition eventually made him a very study painting in Munich. “I saw all my Music also influenced how he
on canvas, perceptive and instinctive painter, he colours in spirit, before my eyes,” he interpreted various sounds. “Colour is
140x201cm started out as a very organised and later recalled of the performance. the keyboard. The eye is the hammer,
academic student, not even turning to “Wild, almost crazy lines were while the soul is a piano of many
art full time until later in life. The sketched in front of me.” strings,” he later wrote. “The artist is
artist was born in Moscow in Likewise, Kandinsky regularly used the hand through which the medium
December 1866, the son of a Russian sounds to describe visual effects, of different keys causes the human
tea merchant. When the family moved which suggests he was experiencing soul to vibrate.”
to Odessa (now in the Ukraine), he life in unusual ways. He described While his native Moscow was dear
attended Grekov Odessa Art School Moscow as his “pictorial tuning fork” to him, it was during his time in
before bowing to his parents’ wishes and he particularly loved the skies at Munich that he took his first steps
by studying economics and law at the the end of the day when “the sun towards his pioneering approach to
Moscow State University, where he melts all of Moscow down to a single abstract painting. He studied
continued to lecture after his spot that, like a mad tuba, starts all of technique at a school of painting run
graduation in 1892. the heart and all of the soul vibrating”. by the Slovenian artist Anton Azbe,
Four years later, a performance of The city’s sunset provided “the final before enrolling at the Academy of
Wagner’s Lohengrin at Moscow’s chord of a symphony that takes every Fine Arts. Kandinsky’s paintings at
Bolshoi Theatre prompted Kandinsky colour to the zenith of life that, like the turn of the century forsook the

dark chiaroscuro style of the so-called Together they travelled across Two groups followed, first 1909’s ABOVE Several
Munich School that was dominant in Europe, taking in other parts of more conservative Neue Circles, 1926,
the city at the time and instead Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, Künstlervereinigung München (the oil on canvas,
followed a colourful lead of the as well as North Africa and Russia. Munich New Artists’ Association) and
SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK. © VASILY KANDINSKY, VEGAP, BILBAO, 2020
141x140cm
Impressionists, creating works with Blue Mountain, painted between then Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue
lively brushwork and a slightly 1908 and 1909, is typical of this Rider), formed in 1911 as a rejection
exaggerated palette. period of transformation. Perhaps to the previous. As a central player of
Eager to continue teaching, encouraged by Münter’s bolder both, it was a testament to how
Kandinsky co-founded the Phalanx art handling of colour and also his quickly Kandinsky’s art was evolving.
group in 1901. As well as helping to admiration for the Fauvists, a group For an artist who lived quite a
host a dozen exhibitions that would led by Henri Matisse, Kandinksy was structured life, through art groups
also include works by French artists beginning to explore saturated hues and teachings, his work became
Claude Monet and Henri de Toulouse- and a pointillist approach to paint increasingly formless and daring.
Lautrec, he was named director of the application. What sets his work apart We can be surer of Kandinsky’s
Phalanx School of Painting. It was is that instinctive, synaesthetic thoughts and theories than most
here that he met Gabriele Münter, approach to the palette, however, in artists thanks to his extensive
one of his pupils and a young German which colour is not used to describe writings. He contributed to The Blue
painter who would become his reality but rather to indicate his Rider Almanac as well as writing his
girlfriend and most trusted critic. perceptive response to the world. own book during this period, On the

A R T H I S T O RY
Spiritual in Art, first published in Music was key to this again. In

1912. Although a slightly esoteric 1911, Kandinsky attended a
This exhibition acts as read, in it the artist laid out his belief
that literature, music and art are the
performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s
String Quartet No. 2, which directly
a timely reminder of first “sensitive spheres” in which a
spiritual revolution is felt.
inspired his painting Impression III.
The pair met after the concert and
the Russian artist’s He also discusses colours in depth, talked late into the night.
purity of expression noting that some can affect other

senses and these physical and
Kandinsky’s musical influence
would also see him create Klänge (or
psychic reactions are part of an Sounds), a 1913 book of prose
“innermost necessity”. poems paired with increasingly

A R T H I S T O RY
influential German art school, the time. He even included it in the

Bauhaus. Here he taught painting and inaugural exhibition at his first New
basic design classes, while York museum in 1939, five years
developing his second book, 1926’s before the artist’s death. It means
Point and Line to Plane. In it, he that today Guggenheim Museum
spoke of repetition being a means to Bilbao could draw upon a collection of
reach “elementary harmony in every more than 150 original works for a
form of art”, while a geometric point new retrospective of the artist’s work,
was “the ultimate and most singular titled simply Kandinsky.
union of silence and speech”. These While Covid-19 restrictions may
theories were borne out in his work prevent many of us from seeing this
during this period. While the twenties exhibition in person, it nevertheless
were roaring elsewhere, Kandinsky acts as a timely reminder of the purity
ABOVE Dominant abstract woodcut illustrations, as well was refining his art and developing a of expression of the Russian artist’s
© CENTRE POMPIDOU, MNAM-CCI, DIST. RMN-GRAND PALAIS/
GUY CARRARD. © VASILY KANDINSKY, VEGAP, BILBAO, 2020
Curve, 1936, as several unrealised theatre pieces, vocabulary of expression comprised work. We can never know for sure
SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK. PHOTO:
oil on canvas, including The Yellow Sound. of geometric shapes, lines and how he perceived and interpreted the
129x194cm The outbreak of the First World War curves. Take 1926’s Several Circles. world, yet his endlessly imaginative
saw Kandinsky split with Münter and Limiting himself to a single shape, the compositions and his unerring belief
return to Russia. He met and quickly circle, he creates an orderly, balanced in the power of the palette remain
married Nina Andreevskaya, while composition that is both as simple as profoundly inspiring at a particularly
returning to teach at the Institute of a child’s drawing and as complex as grey time in history.
TOP RIGHT Erfurth Artistic Culture. the vast cosmos that it suggests. Kandinsky runs until 23 May at
Hugo, Portrait of In 1921, the architect Walter Solomon Guggenheim was an avid Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao,
Kandinsky, 1933 Gropius invited Kandinsky to join his collector of Kandinsky’s work at this Spain. www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus

THE VIKING CRUISES
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SELECTION PROCESS been in search of hair for your brushes? How does that process work?
The deadline has been extended to 5pm on Russia is one I will remember. No one We give our artists a number of
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presenter Lachlan Goudie. Our panel will select met me off the train carrying a fur coat. back to the manufacturer for the
a shortlist of 50 artworks and the three top prize changes required. It’s a time-consuming
winners. A fourth prize, the People’s Choice What are your own artistic talents like? process but extremely worthwhile.
Award, will be decided by a public vote. Nowadays my art is gardening. Being a
The British Art Prize 2021 shortlist will now Shropshire lass, my addiction is to David What are your own artistic talents like?
be announced online on 1 March 2021. Visit Austin Roses. I tried to create a tapestry I’m not particularly artistic with paints,
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk after that date of colour for visiting artists to paint. though my calligraphy writing is not bad.
to see if your work has been shortlisted.

IN THE STUDIO
Emily
Ponsonby
MARTHA ALEXANDER meets the
Cotswolds-based figurative painter who is keen
to close the gap between artist and sitter via
her dreamy and sculptural nudes
I
will always jump into any water that make, Leith School of Art, where she
presents itself to me,” says painter mastered technique, and the Royal
Emily Ponsonby, with a vigour that Drawing School, where she worked
translates to the oil-and-beeswax out what sort of painter she wanted to
scenes of nude figures submerged be and “everything fell into place”.
in water that feature in her work. Emily’s professional career has
Although she rather accurately since seen her work in London, Cape
describes her subject matter as Town, Tuscany and now the Cotswolds
timeless, Emily’s paintings are also where she is based. But it was as a
fresh and innovative and strangely schoolgirl that she first became
modern. They are heavily textural, serious about painting. As a teen, she
almost to the point of becoming developed polycystic ovary syndrome,
sculptural, and they treat the depths a condition which can affect, amongst
and lightness of both water and the other things, complexion. “It was a
human body with a graceful respect. really miserable time, and I didn’t
Emily’s investment in her work goes want to see anyone,” she recalls.
beyond simply looking and depicting. “I hid in the art room and channelled
Her experience of water bleeds into everything into this safe space. It was
her paintings. When she is herself in where I found solace and comfort.
the water, she’s always thinking about I developed my style – and I worked
how the scene might look if painted: my socks off.”
“From that moment, as I jump in, it’s As a result, Emily currently feels
as if my mind leaves me and I look in free to play around with form.
on the situation and the negative and “My training was so strong, but I am
positive shapes – armpit, side of body now in a position to be able to undo
and water – and how they all relate.” it which makes for a far more
Emily’s training is classical and interesting painting,” she says.
rigorous. Her CV is a map of brilliant “I’m trying to achieve imperfections.”
educational seats – including City & It is no surprise that one of her
Guilds of London Art School, where prime inspirations is the early
she says she learnt that painters 20th-century Austrian artist Egon
must make the work they want to Schiele. “The way his bodies are so

IN THE STUDIO
I try to paint a
state of mind
rather than a
representational
object... I’m
painting a
feeling
angular and jarring and the way he

crops the body… His work stops the
viewer in [their] tracks,” she explains.
She also admires Schiele for not
painting in the middle of the picture
unlike his mentor Gustav Klimt whose
work was commissioned by aristocrats
and as such needed to be pleasing,
perfect and by no means experimental.
“I try [to paint] a state of mind rather
than a representational object,” she
says. “I’m not just painting a scene
anymore, I’m painting a feeling. I’m
really enjoying focusing on memories
and letting everything be slightly off.”
One of the reasons Emily is so
accomplished at capturing nudes so
beautifully is because not only does
she paint nudes, she poses nude too.
She does so for Charcoal Art Club, an
East London-based life drawing class,
after first modelling out in Cape Town.
“It’s a different kettle of fish modelling
in Hackney rather than a faraway
land,” she laughs.
Emily is keen to close the gap
between artist and subject. “When I
was young and doing life drawing
ABOVE Morning classes it was awkward between the
Light, oil on very much clothed artists and the
beeswax panel, nude model who would slink away
62x52cm in the breaks,” she says. “When I

I like to see people’s
vertebrae uncurl and for
them to relax into being
nude... That’s such an
amazing thing to witness
LEFT After the Bath, model, I like to talk to everyone and to

oil on beeswax show that I’m a normal person.”
panel, 122x100cm Talking is a big part of the process
when she is behind the easel, too.
RIGHT Emily takes Her models are friends, family (who
a break in her she has been locked down with this
Cotswolds studio year) and strangers she has met via
Instagram. “We sit and have coffee,
or I might make them breakfast and
we have a good chat,” she says of a
typical session. “They would be in
front of my fire and I put on nice music:
I like a relaxed atmosphere and we
share things about our lives. I have
met people from all walks of life with
fascinating stories. It’s amazing this is
the one pin that brings us together.”
Emily feels a power in nudity when
she models (“there is no nicer feeling
than modelling in front of people then
putting clothes on and walking down
the street – you feel so strong”) but
also when she paints. “I like to see The studio smells either slightly or
people’s vertebrae uncurl and for strongly of honey depending on what
them to relax into being nude,” she stage of the process she is at. One of
says. “That’s just such an amazing the most important ingredients for
thing to witness.” Emily’s oil-on-panel paintings is
Emily’s idyllic Cotswolds studio is beeswax. Once she has prepped her
located in a working farmyard, panels with a light but energetically
attached to a pigsty where two little applied covering of gesso, it’s time to
piglets have just arrived. Despite the start melting the beeswax. “I take a
connotations of its location, her paintbrush which looks like ET’s finger
studio is neat: “I am incredibly tidy. with hardened layers of beeswax on
The chaos goes on the canvas!” the end. The moment you put it in the
The studio boasts a huge window molten beeswax, it all melts again
which overlooks a picturesque valley. then I can brush that all over the
The interior is pale and soft – and all panels as energetically as possible,”
RIGHT Waterbed, oil of the furniture is secondhand, she explains.
on beeswax panel, including the H-frame easel: “Who The beeswax is, among other
20x15cm knows what it has created before?” things, a means of preventing Emily
IN THE STUDIO
from overworking her paintings. painting on a flat surface – I’m digging “I am trying to create big feelings and
“My instinct is to tighten things,” into the layers to pull out the figures.” emotions within a very small panel.
she explains. “When I put beeswax The sense of physicality – both of I have to work harder to create this
on, the layer underneath becomes the subject matter and how they are big feeling on such a small canvas.”
trapped so there is no way I can get produced with oil paint and beeswax Classical music often plays in the
back to it to overwork it.” – is acutely apparent. And yet the studio when Emily is painting, as she
The beeswax also transforms scale of her recent paintings, around describes her process as like being
the panel into something more 18x24cm, is so small – which seems “in a trance”. That said, she does take
sculptural. “Once it has dried, I scrape incongruous to such physicality. a few short breaks when she’s
back into it using the blade of a Previously Emily has worked on painting, mainly for the perspective
sanding knife and I brush oil paint much larger canvases and panels, gained when one stands back. She
into the surface,” she says. “Then the including an exquisite series of nudes also works on a few different panels
rest of the painting is made using a in bathrooms, but during the past at the same time. Her must-have
blade or a stick. I love that I’m not year she wanted a new challenge. product is odourless turps, because
ABOVE
Sleeping Lions,
oil on canvas,
120x100cm
LEFT Delicious
Monster, oil
on canvas,
120x100cm

of the health benefits. “I went through new-born babies, Emily has no something wild and unpredictable
years of working late into the night interest in keeping hers elegant. and not man-made you have to
using turps and holding a rag covered “My favourite brushes are far more slightly embody that and you have
in turps,” she explains. “It was just so precious to me as tiny little stumps,” to be physical otherwise it might as
toxic. Odourless turps changed all of she says. “These make a better gauge. well be a photograph.”
that and I’m much clearer in the head.” They are more important to me the The quantities of oils applied
Emily paints with Michael Harding more decrepit they have become.” varies, adding interest to the final
oils, which she likes for their pigment- However, she doesn’t just rely panels. “With thick quick dashes of
to-oil ratio, but it’s her brushes which on brushes for her mark making, paint, you conserve the energy of the
she prizes most. Paradoxically, particularly when painting water. artist’s thought in that moment,” she
however, she is not at all precious “I use my thumbs and fingers and the explains. “I love the courage of leaving
with them. While she says her friends side of my hands. I use both ends of a mark and letting it sit for itself.”
treat their brushes as if they were the paintbrush. If you are painting www.emilyponsonby.com

MASTERCL ASS
pencil
colour
Portrait
Draw Brighton’s JAKE SPICER shows how to
create a bolder, more striking finish in a pencil
portrait by taking a selective approach to detail
I
Jake’s materials made this portrait of Immie, a student
and model at our Brighton studio, to
•Coloured Pencils experiment with a more minimal treatment
Mars Violet, Black and Plum, of clothing and to explore a high-key
all Derwent Procolour interpretation of shadows that prioritised
pencils; Dark Orange, Amber colour relationships over tonal accuracy.
Gold, Natural Brown, Wild For reference I used a photograph of
Lavender, Mid Ultramarine, Immie from the Draw Brighton image library,
Turquoise Green, Strawberry, cropping to take the focus away from her
Flame, Moonstone, Oyster feet. I settled on a photograph in which
and Flesh Pink, all Derwent Immie was making steady eye contact with
Lightfast pencils the camera to suggest something of her
•Paper
©OLLY HEARSEY/DRAW BRIGHTON
easy, confident bearing. I only like to draw

Seawhite 220gsm Cartridge from photos of a pose that could plausibly
Paper, A3 be held for the length of time in which the
•Plastic eraser drawing is made, so this longer drawing ruled
•Pencil sharpener out any dynamic twists or fleeting expression.
www.jakespicerart.co.uk
1 Create an under-drawing 2 Refine the lines
I began with a loose establishing drawing in Mars Violet I lightly erased the first sketch, working over the top with Mars Violet Procolour
Procolour pencil. Hold the pencil with a distant, underhand to add greater clarity to the under-drawing. The aim here was to establish a
grip to keep the marks playful. Although most of the drawing foundation for the rest of the drawing. Before you add colour, try to solve all of
will be made with oil-based Lightfast pencils, I prefer Procolour the proportional issues at this early stage by concentrating on achieving a
pencils for under-drawing as they can be erased more easily. visually accurate line drawing that focuses on contour in the figure.

MASTERCL ASS
4 Keep hair smooth

3 Establish tone
To make sure the hair really stood out in the 5 Layer colours
In the final stage of under-drawing, I added drawing, I used colours that I wouldn’t use
tone to the skin in Mars Violet. This provided elsewhere in the portrait. As these colours I switched to the lightest and most saturated
both an opportunity to explore the tonal would need to blend smoothly and the areas of colour – the highlights in the hair
variations myself and to establish an durability of the pencil tip was less of a – layering Amber Gold Lightfast selectively
underlying value that later layers will further priority, I switched to the oil-based Lightfast over the hair around the highlights. Where it
darken. I built up the tone with tight vertical coloured pencils. I started with a thin layer of covered the white paper, it showed as a light
hatching, being careful to leave the light Dark Orange across all but the lightest and yellow and where it layered over the earlier
areas white and keep the dark tones darkest parts of the hair to establish the Dark Orange it combined to create a more
relatively pale to allow me flexibility later. warm saturation of Immie’s local hair colour. saturated orange.
Top tip
To keep things fresh
and open, avoid
pushing tones as dark
as they appear in
your reference
6 Darken the hair

7 Select colours
I added Natural Brown Lightfast over the top
of the Dark Orange, focusing on areas of dark I have a tendency of making my drawings too warm, so to ensure that the skin colour
mid-tone and the slim shapes of shadow that didn’t slip towards dull brown, I picked out cooler colours first, selecting a palette of cool
give the hair its form. coloured pencils. I find that if I select a colour, I am forced to actively select equivalents in
I finished the hair by adding the darkest the skin. It helps me to see green, blue and purple hues amidst the more prominent pinks
darks in Black Procolour pencil to allow for and browns. I used a Wild Lavender Lightfast in the shadows for this, with Mid Ultramarine
sharp, clear-edged shapes of shadow. and Turquoise Green for the coolest highlights.

MASTERCL ASS
9 Work into features 10 Sculpt the surfaces

8 Warm the skin
I worked into the features with a Black Now that the colour of the skin was
To add warmth to the skin, I started with the Procolour, adding clarity to the centre of the established and the features were fixed,
lightest and most saturated areas first, laying lips, nostril and eyelid. At this stage, pay I moved on to sculpting the form of the
colour down on the page with a light touch particular attention to how the negative in-between surfaces.
and using marks which followed the direction space of the white of the eye defines the iris. I used Wild Lavender Lightfast and the
of the skin’s surface. I encircled the pupil carefully, avoiding warm skin palette to gently layer colours
I used a Strawberry Lightfast pencil where colouring its centre so as not to fix its over one another to create dark tones. While
the skin had a pinkish tinge, Flame where it position too firmly. I also added saturation I kept my neutral brown on standby, the
tended towards orange, and Amber Gold with colour to the eyelids, nose and lips, making interaction of the more saturated colours
Dark Orange in the eyebrows. use of most of the skin colours. created all of the tonal variations I needed.
12 Finishing touches
Finally, I added freckles with little scumbles

of Dark Orange and Natural Brown, using the
11 Show form with clothing brown for the dungaree buckles and buttons.
I clarified the shape of her irises with an
Despite the varied tonal range of Immie’s shirt in the photograph, I didn’t want it to detract eraser and used a Black Procolour pencil for
from the patterns of the dungarees, so rendered it quickly and simply in the pale grey of the pupils. I finished the skin with a
Moonstone Lightfast. combination of Oyster and Flesh Pink
The long stripes on the dungarees suggest both the form of the clothing and the shape of Lightfast over the top of selective areas to
the pose, so I decided to draw each stripe as a simple, calligraphic line. I picked the Plum blend and unify colours with a transparent
Procolour pencil for its extra strength, roughly blunting it to ensure a wider mark. layer of pale colour.

Mixing Orange
C O L O U R T H E O RY
GRAHAME BOOTH’s
new series focuses in
turn on the secondary
colours. Starting with
orange, he will show
you how to mix perfect
hues for every occasion
A
part from being a surface on
which to mix, an artist’s
palette is also simply a
collection of colours that they’ve
chosen to use. Some artists’ palettes
can appear to be an almost random
selection but generally most will be
based on a range of cool and warm
colours – there will be a selection of
various shades of the primary colours
blue, red and yellow.
In addition, artists will often include
some secondary colours (orange,
purple and green) as well as neutrals
such as blacks and greys. Most will
use some convenience mixes –
secondaries or tertiaries that they
use frequently – and of course we all
have colours that we simply just like.
It is so easy to get carried away with
the range of hues that are available
today, but I firmly believe that,
irrespective of what colours you use,
it is vital to understand how they
relate to one another.
With many colours in your palette,
it becomes increasingly difficult to
remember just what will happen when
any two are mixed and adding a third
to the equation takes the possibilities
off the scale. By restricting your
palette, I believe you will effectively
have a better range of potential mixes
– simply because you will remember
how they mix. The result is more
appropriate colours, along with less
confusion and greater harmony.
UNDERSTANDING
USEFULNESS
I am sure many of you will have heard
of the six-colour, twin primary system
of colour mixing but do you

understand why it is such a useful

system? The common reason for
basing a palette on the primaries
– red, yellow and blue – is
To p t i p
because they are colours
that cannot be mixed
rely used from any others. This
Set aside ra
ing with is true, but only up to a
paints. Mix tt e
pale point as I shall show.
a re s tric ted n d
rs ta An alternative is to
helps unde
in g .
colour mix base your palette on
three of the four colours
used by printers – yellow,
cyan and magenta (printers also
use black) – but restricting yourself to
only one of these systems severely
limits your mixing possibilities.
This is where the twin primary
system comes in. It essentially
combines the three colours from both
systems and its beauty lies in how
easily and logically a wide variety of
secondaries can be mixed.
Although the twin primary system
is often described as being based
on a warm and cool version of each
primary, I don’t believe this is
particularly helpful in explaining why
the system is so useful and, more
importantly, how it actually works.
Thinking of each twin primary as
being warm or cool can cause some
confusion – after all, describing a
colour as a cold red is surely an
oxymoron?
Instead, I would suggest that it is
easier to understand if we think of it
in terms of colour bias.
Provencal Pots, watercolour on

Saunders 425gsm NOT paper, 51x38cm
As well as mixing your primaries don’t
forget about the possibilities of using
these colours alone. In addition to the
range of mixed oranges and ochres used
on the steps and pots, I used the pure
primaries for parts of the flowers to give a
‘hit’ of pure colour. Care needs to be taken
with this approach, particularly for a fiery
red where it is best to spread it around a
little. A splash of red in only one place will
attract the eye too much.

ABOVE Sidmouth Cliffs, watercolour on primary pigments, all reds will have a Red biased Red biased
Millford 300gsm NOT paper, 38x28cm colour bias either towards yellow (an Red
towards yellow towards blue
The range of sienna and ochre colours in orange-red) or blue (a purple-red)
the cliffs was mixed from various blends and all yellows will be biased either
Bright
of my four primaries. Cadmium Yellow and towards red (an orange-yellow) or
Dull
Pyrrole Red was used for the orange in the blue (a green-yellow). Yellow
foreground sign and fender, as well as the Now here’s the thing – if I mix my biased
reddish colour in the closer cliffs. orange from a red and yellow that are towards
As the cliffs recede Quinacridone biased towards each other and so red
Magenta and Winsor Yellow was used to naturally lean towards orange, I will Yellow Blue
create a duller, less saturated effect. get a bright vibrant orange but if I use
a red and yellow biased towards blue, Yellow biased
in other words biased away from each towards blue
COMBINING COLOURS other, I will get a duller orange.
In this first part of our series, I will The value of this is twofold. Firstly, Colour Wheel
ease you into things by looking at a paintings are not just about bright Note how twin primaries fit into the colour wheel.
first secondary colour, orange, which jazzy colours, but more importantly is Experiment by mixing the closest primaries to
as everyone knows can be made by that this system quickly leads to an make a bright orange, and then mixing the
combining red and yellow. As there understanding of colour mixing that furthest away primaries for a dull orange.
are no true or perfectly neutral allows you to rapidly get close to that

RIGHT Strangford Lough, watercolour on
Millford 300gsm NOT paper, 51x38cm
Secondary oranges don’t always have
to be intense and saturated. For this
misty subject I used mostly Quinacridone
Magenta and Winsor Yellow to give me the
duller hues which I further neutralised by
mixing with French Ultramarine to give me
the subtle warm greys in the foreground
and houses as well as the warm darks in
the seaweed.
colour in your head. Thinking about

the colour bias of your primaries
makes mixing a suitable secondary
so much easier.
So how should you decide on your
three groups of primaries? Well, I try
to go for two versions of each primary
that are still recognisable as that
primary. In the case of red, I don’t Mimicking Colours
want my orange-red to actually be The variety of hues available from mixing these primaries can easily mimic colours like the
orange, just as I don’t want my ochres and siennas. Even dedicated oranges such as Cadmium Orange can be replicated
purple-red to be purple. Apart from quite easily. Try mixing these colour swatches yourself with various strengths of the
that the choice is vast. primaries. Even a hint of one primary can create a significantly different hue.
My choice of reds are Winsor
Red (the same pigment, PR254, as Burnt Cadmium
Pyrrole Red in some brands) and Sienna Orange
Quinacridone Magenta, and my
yellows are Cadmium Yellow and
Winsor Yellow (or Azo Yellow). You may Pyrrole Red Cadmium Yellow
prefer a stronger or weaker bias but
be aware that the closer the primary
approaches the secondary, the less
useful it becomes as a mixer, tending
to produce a duller mix of every hue
other than the secondary it
approaches. To be honest orange is
probably the least useful of the
secondary colours as it is not a huge
shift away from the primaries used to Quinacridone Magenta Winsor Yellow
mix it. Next month we will look at the
more exciting possibilities we get
when mixing purples. Yellow Ochre
www.grahamebooth.com
Neutrals from Orange

I mixed an orange from Pyrrole Red and Cadmium Yellow. I added one of my two blue primaries to it, first French Ultramarine and then
Phthalo Blue (Green Shade). When mixing a secondary colour with the opposite primary on the colour wheel, a good variety of neutrals
are produced. These will always give more varied and interesting results than if you relied on a proprietary grey or black. Try mixing
these yourself, firstly with this same orange and then also with a duller orange made from Quinacridone Magenta and Winsor Yellow.
Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) Orange French Ultramarine

H OW T O D R AW…
Imaginary
f igu res Struggling without a model? Raw
Umber Studios’ LIZET DINGEMANS
shows how to draw accurate
figures from your imagination
P
icture this: you want to draw a
figure. An exciting composition
comes to mind, so you grab a
pencil, or a piece of charcoal, and...
nothing looks right. Do you recognise
that feeling? Figures are one of the
biggest challenges to draw from
one’s imagination, yet also one of
the most fascinating.
Many great artists of the past
have studied the structure of the
human body and used it as a
reference in their work. For instance,
one remarkable story goes that
Michelangelo had to take cover inside
a secret chamber in the Sistine
Chapel for about two months to hide
from the Medici family. To occupy his
time, he drew numerous charcoal
figures from his imagination on the
walls, works that only recently have
been uncovered.
In this article, I will attempt to
cover the basic rules and proportions
of the human body, while giving you
a structural approach to drawing the
figure from imagination. Follow the
demo below and you will be able to
apply these skills either to create
a standalone subject or use as
supplemental knowledge when
drawing or painting from life.

H OW T O D R AW
First a word about materials. To do this, I have made a schematic

If you are just starting out with figure drawing of the human skeleton using
BASIC FORMS
drawing, I recommend four basic the standard measurement of eight You can’t be good at drawing fantastic figures,
purchases: a pad of thin Newsprint heads – see below. (Note that these if you can’t draw a simple cylinder. Therefore, it is
paper (either A4 or A3), a General’s proportions are generalised.) good practice to draw and shade some simple
Peel & Sketch charcoal pencil To draw this imaginary figure, forms, like spheres, cubes and cylinders. Draw lots
(medium hardness), a Faber-Castell I used a system called “comparative of them, quickly, in various positions – and don’t
kneadable art eraser, and a pack of measurement”, which involves worry about whether they’re perfectly drawn or not.
Coates willow charcoal. These are an comparing the sizes of different body
economical way to practice drawing parts against one another. Note how
the figure without making any big on the proportional schema below
investments in your equipment. you can compare the length of the
In addition to those basic materials, pelvis to the length of the skull. They
I also like to use a few extras. when are both “one head” high. In order to
working with charcoal, a sharpening measure and compare this on your
block is useful, as is artists’ masking drawing, lay your pencil across the
tape. To blend my drawings, I use a paper, and mark the area you want to
Daler-Rowney Simply Gold Taklon measure with your thumb and the tip
synthetic brush and a Cretacolor of the pencil. With it marked on your
paper stump. For toned paper, I work pencil, you can move it across various
on a Clairefontaine Paint On Multi- areas of the drawing to see how other
Technique Naturel sketch pads and body parts compare in size. The most
use a soft or medium white Faber- important measurements to get right
Castell Pitt pastel to add highlights. are the three main masses: the skull,
Before we start drawing, I want the ribcage and the hips. The hips are
to take you through the basic roughly one head tall, whereas the
proportions of the human body. ribcage is about 1.5 heads.
If you’re wondering how this relates to the figure,

The figure is eight heads tall have a look at the red lines I have overlaid on my
original drawing below. Can you see how the leg
The hand is the size of the can be seen as a cylinder and the pelvis as a box?
face to the hairline See if you can imagine more shapes and forms
underlying the forms in the figure.
The ribcage is 1.5 heads tall
and two heads wide
The nipple line is halfway

down the ribcage
The bottom of the pelvis is

halfway down the figure
The hand reaches to

halfway down the thigh
The bottom of the knees is

halfway down the legs

H OW T O D R AW
DEMO
1 MAKE A GESTURE LINE
For this demo, I drew on a
Clairefontaine Paint On Multi-Technique
Naturel sketchpad, using a General’s
2
Peel & Sketch charcoal pencil.
The first thing I tend to do is start
with a gesture line. This line is the 3
general direction of your figure
drawing and guides the eye.
Drawing this line should be
instinctual – it is meant to be a
summary of the movement of the
pose, so feel free to be creative.
2 ADD THE STRUCTURE

With the gesture line in place, the
first things to establish are the main
skeletal structures of the figure (see
page 49). The head and pelvis will
be roughly the same height, whereas
the ribcage will be 1.5 heads tall.
Feel free to place these anywhere
along your gesture line. I use spheres
for the skull and ribcage and a cuboid
for the pelvis, but you can experiment
with ovals too.
3 START SHADING
Now imagine a light source and
start shading these basic shapes
accordingly in order to make them
feel voluminous.
In this example, I imagined the light
came from the top left, and therefore
shaded the bottom right. At this point,
you needn’t worry about any details;
the main aim is to establish a sense
of form.

H OW T O D R AW
4 INCREASE THE
VOLUMES
With the three main forms in place,
you can start adding smaller ones on
top using the basic forms outlined
earlier. I used a long ovoid for the
abdomen and cylinders for the arms
and legs. Have fun with this stage and
see what volumes you can add to your
figure – and don’t forget to shade
them to create a sense of volume.
5 ADD HIGHLIGHTS
Now you have an idea of the
gesture and anatomy, continue adding
forms to bulk out the figure, working
from big to small. Add highlights to
further increase the sense of form.
If you are using toned paper like me,
feel free to add in some light using
white chalk or pastel. If you are using
white paper, you can also tone the
paper by going over the whole drawing
lightly with tissue, so the drawing still
shines through. This will allow you to
pick out the lights using an eraser. 4 5
If you are painting and just looking to
6 add a figure to a scene, this stage

can be a good place to stop before
too much detail is added.
6 DETERMINE SHADOWS
To finish, I keep adding smaller
and smaller volumes, much like the
previous two steps. Now, however,
I pay particular attention to the edge
of the shadow shapes. Shadows don’t
need much information, but what can
really make a difference to the realism
of your imagined figure is distinguishing
between form and cast shadows.
A “form shadow” occurs where the
form turns away from the light source.
These shadows have softer edges
to them as the forms get rounder.
A “cast shadow” is caused by another
form casting a shadow. These
shadows will have a sharper edge
to them but diffuse and soften as
they get further away from the object
casting them.
Drawing the figure from the
imagination can be a rewarding
way to experiment with different
compositions and gives you the
freedom to add the figure to your own
work without the need for a model.
Lizet teaches online figure classes with
Raw Umber Studios every Sunday and
Wednesday. www.rawumberstudios.com

oodcut
PROJECT
ints
tors
Our regular columnist (and leading
printmaker) LAURA BOSWELL guides you
through all the tools and techniques required
to make a simple two-block woodcut print
PROJECT
First, I want to talk you through the To hold the cut woodblocks in
materials you will need. place, you need to make a jig in step
one - use a sheet of MDF, thick card
PAPER or foam board for this. I made my
To transfer designs, you need tracing non-slip mat from a piece of cheap
paper and carbon paper (standard rug underlay that I edged at home.
office carbon paper works well). Initial A printing plate is also needed for
rubbings can be made on thin, cheap rolling out ink: this could be a plastic
paper – blank newsprint paper is tray, a sheet of Perspex or a large tile.
ideal – while test prints can be made
on slightly thicker printer paper. TOOLS
For your final prints, you will need If you want the grain of the wood to
a good quality printing paper: a wide feature in the final print, you will need
range of papers will work, smooth a wire brush to raise the grain. There
papers are best. Japanese washi are a wide range of cutting tools,
papers under 150gsm are particularly including linocut tools, that will work
good for hand printing. with wood. Tools usually come with
a U-shape, a V-shape or a flat chisel
INKS profile. You may also find a sloping
For this project you will need at least knife in sets of tools. A pair of U and
two colours of ink. For best results, it a pair of V tools, one narrow and one
is important to use relief printing ink. wide in each, is a good starter kit for
There are three types of relief printing basic cutting.
inks available: water-based inks, A palette knife is needed for mixing
oil-based inks, and oil-based inks that ink and it is important to have a soft
can be cleaned in water (often called roller for successful inking. Essdee’s
“safe wash” inks). All three types of blue-handled soft rubber rollers are
ink will work for this project. Water- an excellent economical choice. The
based ink gives fast results, but specialist suppliers listed opposite
safe-wash and traditional oil-based will be happy to discuss your inking
inks are easier to use. options, along with any questions
about cutting tools and rollers.
MATERIALS A wooden spoon or bamboo baren
This woodblock print requires two is needed for rubbing the printing
types of wood. The background needs paper. Printing barens come in a
a piece of soft wood with a visible range of prices, a cheap one (shown
grain, such as pine, larch or cedar – here) is fine for early experiments.
I used a roof shingle here. A second Masking tape is useful. You will
piece is needed to cut details: shina also need a pencil for drawing your
plywood is ideal. It is sometimes design and a graphite stick if you
called Japanese ply or Asian ply. want to take test rubbings.
W
oodblock is a type of
relief printing. In
woodblock prints, the
surface of the material is used to
make the print and the cut-away
areas do not register. Below is a
simple, two block project that is a
good starting point for anyone who
wants to explore basic woodblock
printing. It includes instructions for
making a jig to line up the two
woodblocks for accurate printing.

PROJECT
1 2
1 MAKE A JIG
A simple jig is required to hold your
woodblocks and paper in place. It can
3
be made from MDF, thick card or

foam board. It consists of a flat
backing sheet with two L-shaped
margins firmly stuck down, one on top
of the other. The wider L-shape holds
the woodblock in place and the smaller
L-shape on top holds the paper. Your
jig needs to be large enough to fit your
largest woodblock and reasonably
level with the height of the thickest
woodblock. Thinner blocks can be
raised up with layers of card
underneath. The closer the match
between jig and block heights, the
more accurate your printing will be.
2 RAISE THE GRAIN

Work over the wood with a wire
brush to emphasise the wood grain.
Wire brushes come in a range of sizes 4
and strengths. As you brush, the
softer wood is removed and the
harder grain exposed – this works
best with woods such as pine, larch
or cedar. Old wood and offcuts are
often ideal, as any battered or rough
edges will add interest to the print.
Worn and weathered wood with a
naturally raised grain is perfect.
3 POSITION YOUR PAPER

Place the background woodblock
into the jig and position tracing paper
over it as though you were about to
print. The finished print will be the
size of the background woodblock.
Trace the outline of the background
block for sizing. Draw in any parts
of the grain that will help with
positioning detail on the second
block. Replace the first woodblock
with the second and, using carbon

PROJECT
paper between the woodblock and

tracing paper, re-draw the frame and
any grain details onto the second
block. The finished print will be a
mirror image of the woodblocks and
not the same way around as the
tracing shown here.
4 DRAW YOUR DESIGN

In this project, the detailed part
of the design will be cut out of smooth
shina plywood (a sustainable wood
with little discernible grain) and
printed in darker ink than the
background. These details will be
printed second and will lie on top
of the textured background.
A blue carbon paper line marks the
top edge of the finished print and the
relevant wood grain to aid designing.
5
Use a soft pencil for your drawing.
Check your design in a mirror to help
you to picture it as a finished print.
5 CUT A SECOND BLOCK

With your drawing complete, you
can now start cutting the shina
plywood design. Always use a safety
mat or bench hook when cutting.
Using both hands, as shown, will keep
them behind the blade and make
cutting easier. Don’t worry if the
cutting is a little ragged, woodblock
printing suits a lively approach!
Make a rub using a graphite stick
on thin paper to show progress. Cut
away enough of the surface around
the drawing to keep the roller from
inking any surface areas you don’t
want to print, though using a paper
mask (see step 9) does mean you
won’t need to cut away the entire 6
surface around the design.
6 PREPARE INKS
AND PAPER
Using proper printing ink is important
7 INK THE BACKGROUND
Put a line of ink at the top of your
plate. Here I used two shades of grey
for a successful result. I used a sheet to make the line of ink for a two-tone
of Perspex as an inking plate (if glass background. Pull a little ink down
is used, a ground edge is essential with the roller and roll it out; the
for safety). colours will blend together naturally
Many kinds of paper will work for as you do this.
this process, a smooth surface is It is important not to roll out too
best. Experiment with what you have much ink: you want a suede-like
to hand, but lighter weight papers, texture on the plate and your roller,
under 150gsm or so, are easier for not thick streaks of ink. You can
hand rubbing. Japanese washi papers always add more ink as needed.
are very strong lightweight papers Roll over your woodblock before
and are particularly good for hand you place it into the jig, taking care
7 printing. Many suppliers offer sample to keep the gradation of colour in the
packs of printing paper. correct place.

PROJECT
8 PRINT THE
BACKGROUND
Put the inked woodblock into the jig
and lay a sheet of printing paper in
place on top. Rub the back of the
paper with a spoon or printing baren.
You can protect your paper with
baking parchment if you are worried
it will tear.
Work over the woodblock, taking
care not to move the paper or
woodblock from their positions in the
jig. Remove the print and check if
more or less ink is needed to improve
8 the printing. You may like to take
some rough prints using cheap paper
first – printer paper will work for this.
When you’re happy with the results,
make several prints on good paper,
ready for overprinting.
9 PRINT THE DETAIL

Once your background prints are
dry, you can print the foreground
block, repeating the method for the
first block. Here the detail block is
inked up with a darker gradation of
colour. To prevent stray ink
transferring to the print, cut a simple
mask from a sheet of paper that will
isolate the trees and birds.
Rub over with a spoon or baren with
care, taking your time. Small details
with lots of space around them, such
9 as the birds here, are best printed
with a flat baren rather than the
spoon to avoid pushing the paper
down into the cut-away areas. Make
test prints on cheap paper to get your
inking and rubbing pressure right
before you attempt any “good” prints.
10 EDITION YOUR
PRINTS
If you would like to make a limited
edition of prints, decide on the
quantity, colours and style of inking.
Ink up as many backgrounds as you
need (plus a few extra to allow for
mistakes) and then add the second
block. Using pencil, number them in
the bottom left corner as though you
were writing a fraction, with each print
number in turn written over the total
number of prints in the edition. Sign
in the bottom right-hand corner and
10 add a title underneath if you wish.
www.lauraboswell.co.uk

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TECHNIQUE
Preparatory
studIES
Tempted to just get started on a final painting straight away? ROB WAREING shows
you why completing a single-session study first can enhance the finished work
T
his project will walk you through self-portrait, as this is a good way to study sure that light and shadow can clearly be
painting a preparatory study – that is, skin tone closely. seen. You will see below that I have indicated
a painting to prepare you for a more The proportional drawing you make on the the corner of the face in shadow,
complete painting. This study is what I would canvas should not be too embellished but establishing that the light is coming from the
typically aim to produce in a single sitting should take into account the angle of the left. Do bear in mind that the drawing will be
and will provide many valuable lessons. head, its placement on the canvas, the width totally obliterated with broad brush work as
If you’d like to follow along exactly to of the face in relation to its length and the you progress, so don’t get too fussy with it –
practise, you can copy the charcoal drawing positioning of the features. see it merely as a starting point and
below – but I would encourage you to use If you are working from your own study or concentrate instead on getting the skin
your own sitter. You might also try painting a doing a self-portrait for this exercise, make tones right.
You will need…
•Brushes
Filberts, sizes 2, 4, 6, 8 and
10; soft filberts, sizes 1, 2, 3
and 4
•Oil paints
Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine
Blue, Alizarin Crimson,
Titanium White, Raw Sienna,
Yellow Ochre and Cadmium
Yellow Pale
•Canvas
•Prepared medium
(one-part dammar
varnish, one-part
stand oil, five parts
turps)
•Turpentine or white
spirit
•Glass jars
•Rags and paper
towels
LEFT Initial
Drawing
The portrait
drawn out,
ready for skin
tones to go on

TECHNIQUE
STAGE 1: SHADOWS
We work from dark to light. In this
case, the model’s dark hair gives an
easy-to-see dark note: it is black on
the shadow side of her hair. The dark
note can be used to compare with
how dark to paint the other shadows.
This is one of the few times I use a
medium to keep my dark areas at wet
strength. You can see from the steps
that I slosh the paint on with broad
strokes; almost carelessly. My only
consideration is the dark note at the
right-hand edge of the face where the
ear would be.
Once the dark note of the hair is
in place, the next step is to mix the
shadow at the corner of the face.
For this, we mix Burnt Sienna and
Ultramarine Blue with a little white
and place it next to the dark of the
hair. Stand back and focus totally on
the relationship between the dark of
the hair and the shadow.
Stage 1 complete
KEY AIMS
•Identify the dark note
•Establish the shadows
on both hair and skin
•Avoid refinement –
work loosely and quickly
1 Place Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine

Blue and Alizarin Crimson on your
palette, along with Titanium White.
2 Using the medium quite

liberally to allow it to flow – and
importantly, to keep it transparent 1 2
– mix the three colours together to
create a rich dark.
3 Use this mix to paint in the hair

with a size 10 filbert.
4 The same hues in a person’s hair

are always present, to a greater
or lesser extent, in their skintone, so
we use much the same mix for the
areas of skin in shadow, adding just
a hint of Titanium White to vary it.
Don’t treat the skin, neck or hair as
completely separate – it’s all part of
the broader portrait. Add some hints
of light on the hair using a similar mix 3 4
as the skin.

TECHNIQUE
Top tip
Start painting the face
with the strongest
colour so it is easier
to see than more
subtle areas
STAGE 2: MIDTONES
When satisfied that the values are
correct in the darks we can move on
to the halftones. Start with the light
halftone which describes the
cheekbone – this is normally the
strongest colour, and easier to see
than more subtle areas. For this, mix
Burnt Sienna and Alizarin Crimson
with white and judge the value and
hue against the already established
shadow areas. This mixture sets us
up for the next stage, painting the
light side of the face with a lighter
version of the mixture.
KEY AIMS
•Establish the mid-tones on the skin
•Create distinction between the left
and right sides of the face
•Create and retain a sense of light Stage 2 complete
coming from the left
1 Make a mix of Burnt Sienna,

Alizarin Crimson and Titanium
White.
1 2
2 Use this mix to paint the
halftones coming out of the
shadow into the light on the right-
hand side of the portrait. You may find
it helpful to switch down to a smaller
brush, such as a size 8 or 6.
3 On the side facing the light, the

same hue is used, but – being
in the light – it will always be a little
brighter and slightly washed-out.
Add some Titanium White to the mix
to achieve this.
4 When painting the side in the

light, be careful not to over-
model this area, or you will kill the
3 4
effect of light.

TECHNIQUE
STAGE 3: LIGHT AREAS

Using the mixtures on the palette
alongside some warm yellows, we
now establish the lighter shapes. We
use smaller brushes as we paint the
lightest parts, allowing for finer marks
as we work up to the final highlights.
KEY AIMS
•Complete the tonal range
•Keep your eye on the overall effect
as you paint details
•Apply the paint thickly 1 2
1 Add Raw Sienna and Yellow Ochre

to the palette and refresh the
white. Raw Sienna has a very low
tinting strength, so use plenty for
mixes involving this colour.
2 Create a light mix using Titanium

White, Raw Sienna and a little
Alizarin Crimson.
3 Apply this mix with a size 4

filbert. Don’t apply a uniform mix;
look carefully at your model to see
subtleties. For example, the cheek in
shadow is slightly pinker, so use a hint 3 4
more Alizarin Crimson here.
4 Compare areas with one another

– the area above the lip to
the cheek, for example – but keep
the parts of the face in context as
a whole by working from the same
varied pool of paint on your palette.
7 5 Introduce Cadmium Yellow

Pale to your palette. Use a
combination of this, Alizarin Crimson
and Titanium White to create the
highlights – the lightest areas.
5 6 Start to work back into the

remaining areas of blank canvas
on the face, looking for areas of
lighter shadows. Use combinations
of the shadow and mid-tone mixes to
paint these areas, painting with more
deliberate, considered strokes. Add
the eyes using Ultramarine Blue with
a little Burnt Sienna.
7 The result you are looking for

with these strokes should blend
together when you step back, giving
you definite areas that can later be
blended together. Applying the paint
6 quite thickly ensures you have enough
Stage 3 complete
to be moved around effortlessly later.

TECHNIQUE
STAGE 4: REFINING
Particularising the eyes begins the
finishing process which re-establishes
the drawing and brings it all together.
It’s easy at this stage to get caught up
in the portrait, but don’t lose sight of
the sitter. Refer to your model to get
hues and values correct.
Stay positive in terms of applying
the brush: don’t paint for the sake of
painting, or you will muddy your
colours and create a half-hearted
result. If you’re unsure of where to 1 2
apply the paint, step back and
consider until you identify where
to place it.
KEY AIMS
•Apply paint thoughtfully and
meaningfully
•Recreate structure where
it has been lost
•Paint the mouth indistinctly
1 Re-establish the drawing with

a size 2 filbert and the dark mix
from earlier. 3 4
2 When re-drawing the lips, use

a combination of Burnt Sienna
and Alizarin Crimson, but don’t be
too precise here: the mouth should
be painted as one, rather than as
distinct upper and lower lips.
3 Switch to a size 1 round brush

to continue to re-draw and
refine, using the mixes already on the
palette.
4 Be creative in your observation,

to avoid losing sight of the
overall image in the details: try
looking at the sitter or painting with
5
your peripheral vision, rather than
directly; or view them using a mirror
or through a camera – anything that
gives you a different way of looking
at them.
6 When you come to areas of
reflected light in shadow, such as
the part that brings definition to the
jawline on the right, don’t fixate on
5 This stage is one of continuing

evolution, so you mustn’t be
afraid of developing, re-stating or
the area. As your eyes adjust to the
shadow, it will throw your perception
of the true value out and lead you to
even scraping off areas to get the think you need to apply too light a tint.
values correct. Instead, focus on the eyes or nose
Here, for example, the cheek on and pick out the value of the reflected
the left of the portrait is too dark, light in the jaw. Using a clean finger to
which risks over-modelling the area gently blend the highlight brushstroke
(that is, creating too stark a contrast into the area will help to create a truer
in values, which leads to too firm an value, as this will naturally knock back 6
edge). I therefore lighten the area. the firmness of the edge.

HNIQUE
udy was
the palette
this – you
variety of
nd subtlety
used.
areful to
and dark
t.
This detail shows how much of the same mixes are present in
the skin shadows and hair highlights – such commonality of hue
helps to ensure both read as parts of the same portrait. Note also
Stage 4 complete the light on the jawline, picked out by reflected (secondary) light.
Reflected lights should never be painted too light.
USING THE STUDY

The purpose of a preparatory study is,
of course, to prepare for a complete
painting. The portrait here was
painted using the lessons learned
from making the study on the
previous pages.
This is a typical, traditional,
three-quarter-length portrait with the
subject posed in a relaxed manner.
The emphasis was on the head and
capturing the relaxed passive pose,
although some strength was also
given to the foreground to enhance
the illusion of depth. For related
reasons, the background is left
slightly underdone.
When tackling a full three-quarter
pose, I find having done a preparatory
head study most helpful, as it allows
me to confidently establish this very
important part of the painting early
on. I can then focus all my energy on
the pose and hand positions. Not
having this area resolved can start a
never-ending process of working and
revising, which is bound to end up as
a muddy, overworked painting.
This is an edited extract from Rob’s
new book, Painting Portraits in Oils,
published by Search Press, RRP £19.99.
Faye, oil on canvas, 76x91cm
www.searchpress.com

D R AW I N G T H E M A S T E R S
1 Rembrandt
Heatherley School of Fine Art tutor and artist LAURA SMITH looks to the work of the
Old Masters and sets a series of exercises that will improve your composition skills
I
n this three-part series, we will
look closely at a few paintings in
terms of how they have been
composed. I teach a class at The
Heatherley School of Fine Art called
“Drawing from Paintings in London
Collections”, which normally involves
a group of us meeting up at a
different gallery each week, with
camping stools under our arms and
heading in to look at, talk about and
draw from the paintings.
When the first lockdown hit, I, like a
lot of people during that time, found it
difficult to continue drawing. One of
the few things that felt manageable
was to make a small drawing from a
postcard of a painting. When we took
the class online, however, we missed
seeing the paintings in the flesh, but
there have been good surprises.
Many galleries now have high-
quality images of their collections on
their websites so you can zoom in and
see details that can be hard to see in
real life. It’s more comfortable to view
them from home and there’s an
unexpected intimacy to zoom
discussions without echoing hallways.
Drawing from anything is a way to
look more carefully and in a more
searching way. It gives you a deep ABOVE Rembrandt feelings of a human being. Ultimately, Creating figure compositions was part
connection with what’s going on in van Rijn, The every single mark is a decision made of a tradition of picture making.
front of you and puts you in the Lamentation at and every brushstroke has its own In the 1930s, The Euston Road
moment. It can be frustrating, but it is the Foot of the tonal value, temperature, degree of School in London did much to
often very absorbing. That’s one of Cross, c.1634-’35, saturation, speed of application and promote the idea of working directly
the things that, at the moment, we all pen, ink and oil on relationship with its neighbours. from observation with emphasis on
want more than ever before. We want paper, 22x25cm These all add up to the painting to visual perception. A strong element of
to get lost in an activity and forget which you’re responding. When you this was careful scrutiny of the
NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON; TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM
about other things. take each small area in turn and physical world. As someone who has
For me, drawing from a painting compare them, you are learning about painted almost exclusively from
means that I look more closely at the mind and hand behind the image. observation, I find the idea of trying to
every part of the picture, even those LEFT Rembrandt It’s worth noting that it is relatively construct a convincing illusion of
bits that I might have ignored before. van Rijn, The recently that those of us who have space from a combination of drawings
It also means that I am engaging with Lamentation worked from life have not also and imagination highly interesting. In
how the painting was constructed and over the Dead constructed compositions away from fact, Heatherley’s does have a
the decisions that have been made. Christ, c.1635, direct observation. When the competition each summer where the
In the same way that writing uses oil on paper and Impressionists were young, art Portrait Diploma students have to
language to convey an idea, painting canvas on board, students were taught by artists who make a figure composition including
too communicates the thoughts and 32x28cm made elaborate history paintings. three or more figures.

EXERCISE SUBJECT imagined and he was drawing on

The two works we are going to be his artistic experience, his memory
AIM drawing from are Rembrandt’s The and imagination.
Many of us have drawn from paintings Lamentation over the Dead Christ We can identify some of the
– or at least it’s a relatively familiar from The National Gallery and The characters: The Virgin Mary has
idea. What I’m proposing with this British Museum’s The Lamentation at Christ’s body in her lap and the older
exercise is something slightly the Foot of the Cross. They are said to figure supporting her is Nicodemus.
different. I want you not only to draw be made in “about 1635” but I feel Mary Magdalene is embracing his feet.
from a painting but also to draw from sure they were both made that year It’s possible that both pictures were
another depiction of the same story by a grieving 29-year-old Rembrandt actually preparatory studies for an
by the same artist. Lift out a few of soon after he and his wife Saskia lost etching that was never made. You can
the characters and create your own their baby son, Rumbartus, who died read more about this theory on The
composition with them, encouraging two months after he was born. National Gallery website.
you to step into the shoes of someone This is the work of a man who was
putting together a narrative painting. imagining another death, another WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
grieving family, bringing his own This exercise is a way to enter into the
DURATION suffering and compassion to bear. He kind of visual activity Rembrandt
Spend 30-60 minutes on each has brought the narrative to life with a would have been engaging in. The two
drawing, around 2-4 hours in total. raw intensity few artists could match. main aims here are to deepen your
The emotion is palpable. All of his understanding of what Rembrandt
MATERIALS experience is poured into these tiny was doing when he was constructing
•Four A4 sheets of paper pictures. He may have had models for his painting and to see what it feels
•A pencil certain of the characters but quite like to arrange figures in a
•An eraser possibly this could all have been composition of your own.
PROCESS DRAWING 1
Take a first sheet of paper and NATIONAL GALLERY
spend 30-60 minutes drawing
from the National Gallery
painting. Take note of every
figure and, as much as
possible, draw them in relation
to one another. Try to get the
whole composition in and be
sensitive to the rectangle and
the overall design.
Now take a new sheet of
paper and spend the same
amount of time drawing from
the British Museum drawing.
You’ll notice that some of the
figures appear in both the
drawing and the painting and
some only appear in one.
On the third sheet of paper,
pick out and draw seven of the
figures from either painting.
For example, take three from
one and four from the other.
What you’ll find is that you can
see all of some but only
fragments of others. I’d like
you to complete the figures.
Perhaps you can only see
the head and shoulders of one.
What can you learn about what
you can’t see from the parts
that are visible? Where do you
think the arms are likely to be?

Next
month:
Draw inspiration from
DRAWING 2 John Constable’s
BRITISH MUSEUM landscapes
DRAWING 3
SEVEN FIGURES
DRAWING 4 Imagine what the rest of their

A NEW COMPOSITION body looks like and draw it.
You needn’t relate the
figures to one another; this
should be seven individual
drawings located on the same
piece of paper for convenience.
You can spend as long as you
like on this. Some people find
it comes naturally to work from
imagination and some people
find it very challenging.
For the final step, take the
last sheet of paper and make a
composition based upon those
seven figures. There are no
hard and fast rules. You can
enlarge or shrink the figures,
rotate them or alter their
poses. You can create mirror
images of them. Think about
the rhythms you are setting up.
How does the tone create
emphasis? Try overlapping the
figures so that they interrelate.
It will be interesting to see how
the storytelling changes. When
I tried this myself, it gave me a
greater appreciation for how
important all the figures in the
original composition were.
I felt how sparse it looked with
so few characters.
www.laura-smith.com

H OW I PA I N T
Elise Ansel
By striking up a conversation with the Old Mistresses of art history, this American
oil painter has brought their stories to life via her fresh and abstracted style
E
lise Ansel was born in
New York City in 1961.
She studied a BA at
Rhode Island’s Brown
University, where she later
returned as a visiting artist and
lecturer. An MFA in Visual Art
followed at Southern Methodist if I would create an exhibition in a celebration of both feminine energy TOP Sardanapalus
University in Texas. “conversation” with masterpieces at and nature; a visual articulation of Sir Meets Pink Angels,
Her paintings are an attempt the DIA. I was inspired by many of the David Attenborough’s idea that “the oil on linen,
to translate Old Masters into paintings in the collection, but the natural world is... the greatest source 122x152cm
contemporary artistic encounter with two works by female of so much in life that makes life
language, and she has been Old Masters (or “Old Mistresses” as worth living.”
exhibiting them in the UK and they were famously called by Griselda For the first time I began to make
US for more than 35 years. Pollock and Rozsika Parker), Ruysch’s collages, hybridising sections of my
Elise currently lives in Portland, Flowers in a Glass Vase and Artemisia own previous transcriptions with
Maine, and is represented by Gentileschi’s Judith and her details of my paintings of the Ruysch.
Cadogan Contemporary in Maidservant, proved transformative. I was excavating details within details;
London and Miles McEnery I was energised by the opportunity to cropping, cutting and pasting;
Gallery in New York. align myself with female artists from zooming in, pinching out; allowing the
www.eliseansel.com another time, another place; to draw visual density of the source to reveal
strength and inspiration from their itself on deeper scrutiny.
accomplishments, and to extend Flowers in a Glass Vase I was
TALKING WITH ARTISTS what they had begun. my attempt to get at the truth at the
Flowers in a Glass Vase I springs from Ruysch’s Flowers in a Glass Vase heart of Ruysch’s painting. The idea
Rachel Ruysch’s 1704 painting was crawling with details I wanted to of the profligate generosity of nature,
Flowers in a Glass Vase, which is in paint. The richness of its voluptuous fecund and fertile, swarming with OPPOSITE PAGE
the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum floral forms and the teeming insect life and death. Simultaneously a Flowers in a Glass
(DIA) collection. In 2019, gallerist life within the painting are evocative celebration of biodiversity and Vase I, oil on linen,
David Klein saw my work and asked and open to interpretation. They are a harbinger of decay. 76x61cm

H OW I PA I N T

H OW I PA I N T
from a source I learn something that

I then use in the next painting. I cross
back and forth over the border
between abstraction and figuration,
searching for things that are fresh
and unexpected. My goal is to step
away from the Old Master painting
and create an original work of my
own that can stand alone while at
the same time remain in some way
rooted in or reflective of the source.
I consider each piece in the series
both a valid work in its own right and a
potential source for future paintings.
I like the idea that there is no “right”
answer, no one way to do things, no
one perspective or approach that is
“correct” that obviates all other
attempts and points of view.
MATERIAL CONCERNS
In general, I don’t mix anything into
my paint, though when I’m finishing a
work, I sometimes add a bit of linseed
oil to the paint used in the final layers
to maintain the fat over lean balance.
I think real confidence is something
every artist struggles to achieve.
Hauser & Wirth recently aired a
terrific documentary about Philip
Guston in which he speaks about the
transition from his mid-career refined
abstractions to the more controversial
figurative late work. Guston referred
to “some mysterious process at work
that I don’t even want to understand”.
I think the more an artist can give
oneself over to that process, the
more confident one can become.
Confidence also comes from the
TOP Uffizi Judith I, Rachel Ruysch’s father, Frederik MULTIPLE VERSIONS ideas behind the work and from the
oil on linen, Ruysch, was a professor with a vast I usually begin my interpretation of thrill of finding new sources in art, in
76x61cm collection of insect and botanical an Old Master painting with a series nature and in oneself. My work deals
specimens to which his daughter had of small improvisational oil studies. with intersectional feminism and is a
full access. His botanical and The small studies are pared down concrete manifestation of my effort to
entomological work enabled her to responses, painted rapidly as a way give prominence to voices and points
create impossible fictions. She of obscuring representational of view excluded from the canon.
juxtaposed images of flowers in full content, distilling colour and I feel very confident in my assertion
bloom that, in reality, do not bloom composition, and rehearsing gesture that the white male point of view, or
at the same time. In her paintings, and palette. I use the small studies “way of seeing” as John Berger put it,
colourful insects, many of which are as points of departure for larger which has for so long been dominant
now extinct, act as agents of cross works, allowing the constant in the world of visual art – in terms of
pollination while devouring the growth discovery of one state to give rise to academia, amount of successful
they helped create. Ruysch’s paintings another. The large paintings embrace practitioners, assessments of quality,
depict the glutted affluence of the the choreography of the small works structural analysis, and museum and
Golden Age as the catalyst of its own with an increased emphasis on colour gallery representation – is not the
demise. This has a connection to the and gestural expression. only valid point of view. This is what
current pandemic: the idea that The multiple versions result from gives my brushstrokes confidence,
havoc is wrought by unintended the fact that I am never fully satisfied energy and power.
LEFT Cloud II, oil on consequences of the accelerating with my paintings, and so I want to try My work challenges monocular
linen, 152x122cm growth of human populations. again and again. Each time I work thinking. Inscribing my perspective

H OW I PA I N T
TOP Incandescent in the space of the Old Masters signals at Atlantis Art in London that I like a
II, oil on paper, the presence of voices excluded from lot. I also like the large bristle brushes
46x35cm the canon. Old Master paintings were, made by Omega and Da Vinci. I am
for the most part, created by white interested in examining the material
men for white men. I search for characteristics specific to oil paint.
exceptions to that rule. Further, I use This, in combination with a kinesthetic
abstraction to interrupt a one-sided sense of touch developed over a
narrative and transform it into a lifetime of painting, informs my ability
sensually capacious, non-narrative to gauge the pressure necessary to
form of visual communication that create the visible brushstrokes.
embraces multiple points of view.
The goal is inclusivity. To be clear, CREATING IN QUARANTINE
I’m not trying to destroy the past but Outside influences can make it hard
to build on it, to reconstitute what’s to work, but also can fuel or inform
problematic and to celebrate what’s the work and become part of it. At the
beautiful, to radically reinvent historical beginning of the pandemic, everyone
art through my own perspective, in in my family was home, working,
my own language, for my own time. social distancing, taking classes seed for Flowers in a Glass Vase I.
My collages and paintings are not online. I was concerned about the Created under quarantine during
critiques of the Old Masters but difficult things going on in the world the first months of the pandemic, this
rather a vehicle for shining a light on and I had less time to paint. I kept series not only references Dutch
imbalances existent today. In this, the working but my pace slowed, and Golden Age floral still life painting but
Old Mistresses are my powerful allies. I scaled down. Rather than making also alludes to Edouard Manet’s Last
On a technical level, the large large scale oil-on-linen paintings, as Flowers and Jean Fautrier’s Hostages
visible brushstrokes are created by I was doing before the pandemic, (Les Otages).
TOP RIGHT Yes dragging a large loaded brush I focused on creating a new series of Both artists worked in isolation.
II, oil on linen, through wet paint. I bought some small oil studies on paper – one of Manet painted the last flowers in the
101x152cm oversized Vulkanisiert bristle brushes which, Incandescent II, became the early 1880s while dying of syphilis,

H OW I PA I N T
each painting a response to a In the 1990s I took a class in

On a technical level, bouquet sent by a friend, a gift French academic portrait painting.
reciprocated, a glimmer of hope. I’ve repurposed techniques I learned
the large visible brush- Fautrier’s isolation was caused by the in that class to contemporary ends
strokes are created by Second World War. Comprising
anonymous, featureless heads and
and I’ve improvised on them. My work
is a hybrid of the traditional and the
dragging a large loaded abstracted floating torsos, Fautrier’s contemporary. You could say I’m
Hostages were described by André interpreting Old Master techniques
brush through wet paint Malraux as “the most beautiful through the lens of Abstract
monument to the dead of the Second Expressionism, which is, in a sense,
World War”. now, also an Old Master technique.

COMPOSITION
2. S ill
L e
pai ting
Continuing his new series on composing
pictures, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts’ chair of painting AL GURY talks us through
humble still life traditions
S
till life painting in the west swords, objects of torture, flowers and Art education today often begins with
appeared as early as 3,500 more identified everything from the drawing of humble objects to teach
years ago in Egypt. Images of stories of individual saints to spiritual form, proportion and composition, as
mundane objects useful in a good and theological concepts. still life has emerged as a central
afterlife adorn murals of daily life in The parallel traditions of still life genre of artistic expression.
Egyptian frescoes and tomb compositions as sources of beauty Compositional strategies in still life
paintings. They were commonly as well as symbolic narrative have painting vary according to the
interwoven with images of workers, continued to the 21st century. In fact, purpose of the image and the intent
kings and gods, rather than being they have been a vehicle for visual of the artist. The focus might be a
individual paintings. Compositionally, narrative and expression in almost symmetrically placed object or a set
these arrangements, and their often every historical and artistic movement of asymmetrically balanced objects.
symbolic and narrative qualities, were in western art. Everything from Lighting is also an important factor.
a subset of larger images that also Impressionism to early modern A directional light might reveal form
had symbolic and narrative qualities. Abstraction utilised still life subjects strongly, while ambient indirect light
In the classical periods of ancient as a vehicle for exploration. might emphasise flat shapes in the
Greece and Rome, still life paintings The French painter Edouard Manet composition. Colour is an important
achieved a vibrant level of naturalism thought of still life as the touchstone factor in designing a composition,
and enjoyment for their own sake. of painting, or as a kind of basis of whether the objects are three-
Woven into household frescoes in painting experience. Many of the dimensional and realistic, or flat and
wealthy Pompeian homes, still life greatest painters of the 20th and semi-abstract. Over the next four
paintings provided visual delight to 21st centuries, such as Henri pages are six areas to consider when
the residents as they included food, Matisse, Euan Uglow and Georgia thinking through and executing a
books, flowers, gardens and animals. O’Keeffe, have focused on still life. strong still life composition.
Symbolic objects were also part of
figurative images of the gods and
goddesses, read as part of the visual Elizabeth Osborne, Evening Still Life, 1986, serigraph, 60x83cm
story unfolding on fresco walls. A harmony of rectangles characterises this asymmetrical composition. The flowers
Medieval painting and book are a major actor in the composition, but the room itself and the view from the
illumination traditions in Europe window are equally important. The space described is representational, but strong
elevated the role of still life objects to references to modernist abstraction are present via the flatness of the shapes and
new heights of symbolic narrative, not the unified clarity of edges in the drawing.
unlike that of ancient Egypt. Chalices,

COMPOSITION
Arthur DeCosta, Seven Pears, 1960,

1 UNDERSTANDING
It is important to become familiar with the objects
THE PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, USA

oil on canvas, 25x31cm you have chosen for your still life composition. What
Renaissance perspective is the character of the objects in terms of their forms,
characterised this asymmetrical underlying structures, textures, proportions and colours?
composition. A nod to the still life Preliminary thumbnail sketches of individual objects
paintings of Zurburan, Caravaggio and provide familiarity with the underlying challenges in their
Chardin can be seen in the intensity structures. For example, if the objects are rectilinear like
of light on the pears, the diagonal boxes or have strong symmetrical parallel sides and ellipses
cast shadow from a window and the like wine bottles, it is a good practice to make sure these
humble subject. elements are well understood before beginning the painting.
All areas of tonality within the Awkward, skewed and imbalanced parallels and ellipses
pictorial frame serve to create balance can do serious damage to the sense of drawing.
and visual movement without leaving Organic objects like flowers can be the most challenging.
the confines of the image. The underlying shape and form needs to be analysed to
become really comfortable with painting flowers. For
example, a lily seen from the side has a triangle shape and
a cone volume. A rose has an oval shape and a volume like
a cup. The stem and leaf shapes and gestures are very
important and provide balance and movement throughout.
Other organic objects like fruit or vegetables might not
be as complicated, but understanding their underlying
structure is no less important. Inorganic objects that have
strong movements and shapes like fabric and folds should
be analysed and simplified to their essential forms. A good
rule of thumb is to break down folded fabric in a still life
to its primary big shape, and then identify the major large
folds and secondary shapes. If the fabric and folds are
THE PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, USA.GIFT OF PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP
draped over a table or shelf, that structure must be part

of the description of compositional forms.
All too often we become caught up in the details of
fabric and lose sight of the big structures that provide
unity and underlying integration. Again, quick thumbnail
sketches of all these elements can provide a remarkable
sense of insight and compositional awareness.
2 ARRANGEMENT
How do you envision your objects being arranged?
For example, is the composition a simple
arrangement with a single object? Or is it a complex
grouping of many objects? The placement of the objects
relative to each other and to the pictorial frame of the
canvas has a huge impact on the balance within the
composition. For a single object, like a piece of fruit
or a vase of flowers, the decisions are simpler.
Creating harmony of balance through sizes, heights,
shapes, widths, depth and tilts of objects must be thought
out carefully. Setting up often requires moving, adjusting
and rearranging the objects from your chosen point of view.

PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, USA. THE VIVIAN O. AND MEYER POTAMKIN COLLECTION
3 SYMMETRY
The central positioning of an object versus an
off-centre arrangement of balances is critical
to the personality of the still life composition.
Symmetrical composition, with a central focus and
William Michael Harnett, Still Life Composition, 1887, oil on canvas, 62x51cm
Influenced by the complex compositions and naturalism of 17th century Dutch still
life painting, Harnett focused on dramatic dark and light tonality, Renaissance-
style perspective and strong diagonals. His palette is dominated by earth colours
but augmented by a limited range of prismatic colours.
relatively similar amounts of space on either side, forms
one of the most stable and simple arrangements.
This choice creates a sense of formality and importance to be carefully thought out in advance and planned
around the central object. according to heights, widths, visual weights and
Asymmetrical compositions are characterised background spaces. If any imbalance occurs in this type of
by a variety of balances among the objects and the composition, it can easily throw off the sense of weight
spaces around them. Asymmetrical arrangements need within the pictorial frame.

COMPOSITION
4 COMPOSITIONAL SPACE
The planning of the background is critical to a
well-organised composition. The amount of
canvas space around the objects impacts on focus within
the painting, and ultimately on the strength of the subject
the viewer that the object simply continues outside of
the frame, we just don’t see it. Awkward cropping in the
composition can make objects feel merely cut off or
damaged. A rule of thumb is to not crop through the centre
of an important element or along the edges of an object.
itself. For example, a relatively small amount of space Go a little above or below to prevent awkwardness.
5
around the objects focuses the viewer on them as the
primary subject. POINTS OF VIEW
The proximity of the subject to the edges of the canvas Point of view and perspective in a still life
can either intensify or diminish the importance of the composition has the same importance that it does
subject. For example, if there is too much space around in a landscape. How the painter positions themselves
the still life objects, the viewer’s eye can be directed away relative to the still life setup affects illusions of depth and
to irrelevant parts of the painting or even off the edge of form. For example, a traditional Renaissance positioning
the canvas. Too little space can cause the image to feel refers to the viewer’s eye being far enough away from the
cramped, awkward and stiff, as if there is no air around subject to be able to see it as a whole in one glance.
the objects. If any still life object in the composition This also refers to the height or position of a table and
touches the edge of the canvas, a sense of flatness can its objects being of median height relative to the viewer’s
develop which denies the overall form that was intended. gaze. Too high or too low can damage the orderly sense
Cropping works very well if it is done in a way that tells of depth and aerial perspective that the Renaissance
perspective provides.
The closer and higher the point of view relative to
Jane Piper, Still Life (Untitled), pastel on paper, 25x30cm the still life setup, the more depth is potentially denied.
Piper’s work was influenced by French modernism and This point of view also strengthens the sense of the flat
such artists as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Arthur B shapes of the objects. Looking down on the objects
Carles and Hans Hofmann, many of whom she knew literally flattens the picture plane and intensifies the
personally. Her use of rich prismatic colours helps move abstract nature of the composition.
the viewer’s eye through the composition and emphasize In another variant, the further the painter gets away
the picture plane as a whole, rather that specific objects. from the still life setup, the more important the space
COURTESY OF CERULEAN ARTS GALLERY AND JAN BALTZELL, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, USA
COMPOSITION
becomes around the composition.

This can even result in the necessity
of painting the still life as part of a
view of a room rather than the still
life being the primary subject.
The subject is now the room, with
the still life only being a part of the
composition.
Point of view has to be chosen and
planned carefully according to the
form and depth that the artist wants
the viewer to perceive.
Possibly the most

complicated and subtle part
of the compositional decisions is the
use of colour in the still life painting.
6 COLOUR
A whole separate discussion in itself,

colour and palette choices for the still
life composition are based on a
variety of aesthetic, and often,
very personal sensibilities.
What is the inherent colour of the
objects? Are they dominated by the
earth palette, the prismatic colours,
or a combination of both? Is there a
dominant brightly coloured object?
If so, how are the other colours going
to balance it? How will the value
ranges of the colours affect the
impact of the image?
For example, a Giorgio Morandi still
life is often dominated by earth hues
and even ambient light. His choices
also tend to be in a mid-tone range,
COLLECTION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, USA
producing an overall emotional

quality of quiet and introspection. In
a Dutch Baroque still life, the brilliant
colours of a central object or two are
augmented and dramatised by strong
directional light, creating an energetic
and dramatic image. Spots of colour
in the composition also move the eye
through the design and provide
moments of rest or excitement for
the viewer’s eye and mind.
Just as we suggested preliminary
thumbnail sketches to determine
composition, small initial colour
studies can help work out the plan for
your colour statement.
Colour in a still life composition can
be based on the inherent colour of
John F Peto, The Fish House Door, 1890s, oil on canvas, 160x102cm the chosen objects and how they arrange to create flow
Highly regarded by modernist painters, Peto created compositions and balance in the image. Colour choices can also be
characterised by shallow depth and almost abstract descriptions of objects aesthetically based and have nothing to do with the reality
based on a strong underlying rectilinear grid. Details of hinges, nails, pieces of of the objects, but rather the subjective attitudes of the
paper, keys and old photos move the eye through the composition, while resting artist. Either way, colour in a still life composition can
on a few larger objects benefit from being thought out carefully.
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Rita
10 MINUTES WITH
ISSAC
The multi-media artist WHAT’S THE BEST THING
on her new book, ABOUT ACRYLIC PAINT?
journaling and keeping It’s very versatile. You can create a
film on the paint by letting it dry and
motivated. Interview:
you can mould it into other things as
REBECCA BRADBURY well. That’s why I use it and pitched
a technical book on it.
WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT

MEMORY OF PAINTING? THAT NEW BOOK, DO MORE
On my first day of primary school, ART: ACRYLIC ?
we had to paint something to put next It’s not a typical step-by-step
to our coat peg. I remember doing this guidebook. It looks at the work of
yellow grid, which was very different contemporary artists as a means
from what the other kids were doing,
but it set me off doing things
to inspire, then shows how to
achieve some of their techniques.
Explore freely. Do
differently. This is not to limit the reader to just
impersonate that style, but to prompt
not be afraid. Acrylic
WHO IS YOUR them to deconstruct things and drive is very forgiving.
FAVOURITE ARTIST? them to create.
Marina Abramovic. She inspires me
and drives me to create. I’ve just DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS Don’t grab onto big projects or big life
re-read her autobiography [Walk FOR ACRYLIC NEWBIES? changes – look at the small things.
Through Walls: A Memoir, right] and Explore freely. Do not be afraid. Acrylic It’s these small practices and habits
I recommend it to everyone. It gives is very forgiving and there are very few that actually make big changes and
context to her artworks, but it’s also “wrongs” and “rights”. allow us to keep creating on a
an interesting book full of humour consistent basis.
interesting stories and her NE ART PRODUCT Rita’s new book, Do More Art: Acrylic,
perspective on life. YOU LIVE is published by Laurence King.
UT? www.ritaisaac.com
WHAT INSPIRES Open Thinner. It’s an
YOU TO CREATE? edium that basically
Everything. Any kind of acti the drying time and
reaction or interaction. I ha e to expand the
themes I return to like mem ies when working
time, which I work through i lics.
journals, and I’m a little bit obsessed
with skin, which I explore in my WHAT ARE YOUR ARTISTIC
photography work. PLANS FOR 2021?
I want to do more art residencies.
HOW OFTEN DO YOU They allow you to experiment with
JOURNAL? other artists and exchange ideas,
I keep multiple journals at the same but for obvious reasons they weren’t
time and journal daily. Sometimes I possible last year.
go back and rework pages if I’m not
satisfied with them. This could be with HOW DO YOU KEEP
paintings, drawings or writing. They MOTIVATED CREATIVELY?
grow to be these rich, completely It’s just a matter of doing it every
packed books. day, even if it’s just doing a doodle.

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I’ve painted all over the place, but what I

Artists & Illustrators March 2021

Artists & Illustrators March 2021

Artists & Illustrators March 2021