Category Archives: Teaching

This is the image I painted in my latest video lesson.  I was trying to create a depth to the painting as it recedes into the distance.  I also was trying to create a sense of place, to tell a bit of a story about this neighbourhood.

This is the painting I did as a demo for my class last night.  After class as I was finishing it I made a huge mistake.  The point of the lesson was to create a more interesting and stronger centre of interest under the overhang.  I felt the darkish wash I used in class wasn’t dark enough so I put a second very dark wash on it and it became too dark, a muddy mess.  That is the one thing that is hard to correct.  I added lighter opaque colours with chinese white but it had no life.  So then it was a double mess.  Finally in desperation I scrubbed out the entire area.  This you can see in the top example.  I’ve left the original dark (with some lighter highlights) to the left of the pillar.

After this dried I then re-applied the darker washes.  This repair job will never have the freshness of that first wash but at least it saved the painting from being recycled.

Many people believe that watercolours can’t be corrected or changed and this is another example that disproves that.  Not a great ending but as they say, ‘it could have been worse’.

For those in class I also added a slightly darker wash to the lawn and the sky.  One nice touch was a light wash of cobalt teal in the top left corner.  Our goal is always to achieve what we want in that first magical wash. Often we fall short but even when we do we can learn so much.

Happy painting.

This is the demo I did last night.  It uses a very experimental (read) mad process to paint the tree on the left.  Lots of splatter.  The most interesting aspect of doing this painting was the final little detailing that bring it to life.  It’s the last 5% of the painting process that makes such a large difference.  These last touches are generally intuitive and therefore difficult to teach.  You can show quite clearly how to draw a shape and what kind of wash to put in it but after all that is done a painting usually needs those special finishing touches and we can’t predict what they will be.  We have to listen to the painting (which means look at it with fresh eyes) and see what it needs.  It can be little dabs here and there, details, adjusting washes etc but this is what brings it to life.

In this painting I did quite a few minor adjustments but the two I would like to talk about are detailing the bridge.  I had already added the drybrush to the top of the bridge and a few dark accents.  Still I felt that the bridge while it was a nice wash was too uniform and a bit boring.  What I did is add some subtle light washes all over the surface.  From a distance you can barely see them but you definitely can sense there presence.  They make the bridge just look more like a real living structure.  The second one is the tree.  Again after the demo it was OK but by splattering with a stronger purer cad yellow it became more dramatic.  I also added some chinese white to the cad yellow for an even stronger effect.

That last 5% made a large difference.

This is the demo I did in class last night.  The interesting part of doing this painting was that when I had finished the demo I realized that the walls of the main building were too light and too bland.  So I rewet the bottom half of the building and lay in a darker wash which helped but it still wasn’t enough.  So I rewet the entire main building and got a lot more aggressive at applying some colour.  So as much as our goal is to get the wash right the first time we often fall short of that goal but watercolour allows for many modifications and this is now a much stronger painting and still retains a freshness and a good sense of light.

The one change that I had to make that couldn’t be repaired was to correct the angle of the tram wires.  You can see where I scrubbed the old ones out.

And further to our talk about happy accidents and accepting them as gifts. . .   as I was sloshing paint on the walls a long drop splattered onto the road but it works as a cane for the figure between the car and the 2 main figures.

Back Lit Building
watercolour
9 x 12

This is an image from a private drawing class that I’m teaching.  It’s a lovely nuthatch.  I did it on hot press watercolour paper which allowed me to quickly fill in a background in watercolour.  The nuthatch itself was done in pencil.

This is the demo I did last night.  I added some finishing touches after the class.  I’ve done this image a number of times so I’m always trying to incorporate some fresh ideas.  I feel quite good about this image.  A little splatter always helps.

Memories Of Oregon
watercolour
20 X 8

This is a painting that I use in my watercolour classes.  I hadn’t painted it for a while  so I was interested to see if I could add any new elements to it to keep it fresh.  I did 85 % of the painting in class last night.  I finished it off this morning.

A couple of things that came to mind during this process.

1) The first 85 % of the painting is about getting the big shapes, putting them into a pleasing composition and giving them the right value.  If this works then you know that your painting will work.

2) The last 15 % of the painting which includes adding details, unifying colours, adjusting values and adding accents and highlights can take as long as the first 85 %.  This part brings the painting to life.

Anyway, that’s how it happened with this painting.

When I look at it now I think it has a great sense of light and is very realistic while not being overly busy.  I can also see 2 things I would change next time. The first is to not have all the highlights in the green bushes at the bottom.  It looks like it’s being lit from below.  Secondly I think it still has too much pure white paper even though I reduced it to just to the right of the door.

This is the painting I did in my latest teaching video.  The original charming landscape is by Barbara Goodspeed.  Watch the video right here.

The painting was done using just 3 colours, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue and cad red light.