Using counterchange to good effect

    With the current heatwave hitting the British Isles I reckon it's rather nice to remind ourselves of those lovely cooling days of English drizzle. I've been working on sunny landscapes recently and will feature some in future blogs, but for the moment I'd like to discuss counterchange, an interesting feature that someone brought up recently.

Counterchange in a landscape scene is a very effective way of adding interest to a passage or solving a tonal problem. At its simplest it could be a change in tone across a ridge, hill, forest, mountain, or any background mass to create a tonal range running from light on one side to dark on the other, while at the same time adjusting the sky in a similar way so that the dark part of the sky stands against the light part of the hill, and vice versa. In this watercolour of a cobbled street in Hackney you can see I've used the method vertically on the right-hand wall just to the right of the lampost.

    In this instance I've included it for interest rather than to solve a problem. Where the method is extremely useful in solving a tonal problem can be, for example, where you have a house with a light-coloured wall set against a dark background: if the roof is dark it will get lost in the dark background, and if it is light it will lose itself against the light wall. By laying a graduated wash over the roof, darker at the bottom and graduating to a lighter top where the roof abuts the darker background, you can thus make both top and bottom of the roof stand out, thus causing a counterchange effect using the graduated wash. One of the most simple examples of counterchange can often be found on telegraph poles or winter tree-trunks where they show up light against dark vegetation at the bottom, and dark against the bright sky at the top, depending on the light of course.

This particular painting is featured in my Skies, Light & Atmosphere book available on my website with a special offer package of book and DVD, available only from the site or my demonstrations. Don't forget to watch out for these effects in the natural landscape when you are out and about. You can learn a lot even without your painting or sketching gear!

Painting on the new Bockingford Hot Pressed paper

    It's always great fun to try out new materials and lately I've been testing the new Bockingford hot pressed paper from St Cuthberts Mill. Bockingford is, of course, a well established and popular make of watercolour paper, so how would the addition to the range fare? It did not take me long to find out when I painted a rural farm scene.

I enjoy working on hot pressed paper, although it can be a little more challenging for the inexperienced watercolourist because it dries so much more rapidly than a NOT or rough paper. The advantages of using a hot pressed surface are that you can achieve really sharp, crisp edges, and it lends itself to detail. Colours can also appear more vibrant. The biggest dangers caused by the quicker drying is the possibility that you may find runbacks forming and messy brushmarks can look unsightly if not enough water is used with your colour application and washes.

    Make sure that your mixtures are really fluid, and work quickly once you begin applying a colour. With large washes, unless you need hard edges within a wash area it will help if you lay a wash of clean water over the area first - do this after you have mixed the wash you are about to apply, otherwise the water may well dry before you can lay the wash.

 

    I painted this scene on a Bockingford 140lb (300g) pad of 14" x 10" hot pressed paper and was absolutely delighted with the response of the paper. It is a superlative product that took the washes well and should be in the possession of every watercolour artist. It is also excellent for line and wash work. The paper comes in both pad and sheet form and is superb value in its high quality and economical price. I cannot rate it highly enough.

 

    For further information see the St Cuthberts Mill site

Painting holiday in Canada

    I've just returned from East Anglia, where I indulged in my passion for maritime scenes and collected a number of sketches of old sailing barges under way in Harwich Harbour. Despite the distractions of a giant ferry crashing into the quay and the subsequent charging around of lifeboats, harbour patrol launches, tugs and kitchen sinks, I managed to achieve some lively images which will be the subject of a future blog.

    We still have vacancies on our painting holiday to Canada on September 1st when Jenny and I take a group to the Rockies to paint some amazing scenery. I shall be demonstrating how to paint the sublime natural scenery.  It is easy to be overawed by such spectacular scenery, so I will be showing how to cope with the big landscape and produce an exciting composition, as well as many other aspects of painting, whether you like to work in watercolour, oils, pastels or whatever. There will be plenty of time to paint and sketch, and if anyone wants to do a little walking that would be great, but it is optional.
   

    The holiday runs from 1st to 14th September, and is organised by Spencer Scott Travel in conjunction with The Artist and Leisure Painter magazines. For further information please email  info@spencerscott.co.uk or telephone +44 (0)1825 714310 or check the website www.spencerscotttravel.com

Finding time to blog and sketch

    Trying to maintain a regular blog is pretty much impossible for me, especially at the moment with so much happening. There simply isn't enough time to do all I want. Since the previous post Jenny and I have joined in a major protest in Mid Wales at the start of a public inquiry into five wind farms which, if given the go-ahead will industrialise vast swathes of beautiful landscape and trash the main economy based on tourism. Following that I demonstrated in a slightly different style at Patchings Art Festival in the St Cuthberts Mill and Search Press marquees, and without a break continued to Derbyshire to run a painting course at Derbyshire Arts.

    Hardly back from Derbyshire and I had a rather significant birthday party, which unfortunately was interrupted by the local health and safety officials as pictured above. Nevertheless, much fun was had by all concerned, and nobody got too wet. This interlude was then followed by a spot of filming for another project, until at last! - yesterday I could disappear off into the hills and relax for the first time in a few weeks.

    There's been some marvellous weather for working out of doors lately, and long may it continue. I have a number of sketching kits, ranging from large expedition ones to pocket-sized pads with a pencil or two plus an aquash brush - it really is worth taking a few materials with you, plus a camera, to catch a fascinating composition while you are out. If you feel embarrassed sketching out on doors then hide your sketchbook in a copy of the Beano or other comic and pretend to be doing the crossword......enjoy the summer.

Creating a strikingly moody landscape in watercolour

    The combination of a striking centre of interest with a soft, misty background can be a powerful recipe for a stunning composition. To achieve this is it hard to beat the combination of masking fluid and the wet-into-wet watercolour technique. In producing a strong contrast between the soft, ethereal misty background and the hard-edged focal point you will be creating a really head-turning image.

This watercolour of Hisley Bridge on the edge of Dartmoor illustrates the effectiveness of painting masking fluid over the bridge before doing any painting, then applying very fluid washes wet-into-wet for the background, bringing the wash down over the bridge with impunity, as you can lift off the masking fluid once it has dried and hey presto! the bridge appears again. The sense of mood has been accentuated by limiting the background colours in the wet-into-wet wash, with warmer colours being applied in the bridge and foreground.

    If you are interested in this particular scene there is a stage-by-stage demonstration of the painting in my book Painting Wild Landscapes in Watercolour, published by HarperCollins, and for more information see my website.

On Friday 7th June I shall be demonstrating at Patchings Art & Craft Festival, in the St Cuthberts Mill marquee at 11am, and the Search Press marquee at 3pm, then again on Saturday morning at 11 am in the St Cuthberts Mill marquee. On each occasion I'll be using the marvellous Saunders Waterford High White paper manufactured by St Cuthberts Mill, with whom I've worked for a great many years now. You can take it from me that when you are demonstrating you have to have total faith in the paper, and Waterford has never let me down.

 

Sadly Jenny won't be at Patchings this time as she has not been well. It's a great disappointment  as she loves demonstrating at the festival, but hopefully she'll be back in action at next year's event.

The Pure Watercolour Society Exhibition

    This weekend I had a very pleasant sojourn in the Cotswolds, invited to join in the exhibition of the Pure Watercolour Society at the Windrush Gallery situated in the delightful village of Windrush, just west of Burford. This was formerly the studio and home of James Fletcher-Watson who was passionate about traditional watercolour painting, and became the first President of the PWS in 1999. This exhibition marks James' centenary and includes a great many of his original paintings.

    The picture shows members of the PWS hard at work in a Cotswold farmyard. We were sketching the lovely old buildings, but what caught my eye was the wonderful collection of decaying rubbish hidden behind a barn: don't ignore those rusting old drums and bits of machinery half-hidden in the weeds. There was even an old anvil lying in the midst of it all. These little features can add so much to a painting.

    As well as James' paintings the artists represented include David Curtis, Trevor Chamberlain, David Howell, Winston Oh, Tony Taylor, Peter Cronin, Andrew Hucklesby, John Yardley, Philip L Hobbs and Ian Piper. The exhibition continues until 28th May and is open 11 am to 5 pm daily. Tel: 01451 844425 The exhibition launches a new book commemorating James' work, and in which several of us were privileged to include an example of our work. Try to get along and see the exhibition if you can, as it contains a wonderful variety of styles by a number of watercolour masters.

And now for something different

    Now and then we get into one of those dreadful artistic ruts that leave us rudderless for periods, not quite knowing which direction to take, and finding little inspiration in anything. One great way of snapping out of these doldrums is to try a different medium, perhaps only slightly different, but enough to spur you on to greener pastures. Derwent are always bringing out exciting new ideas, and many of them are related to watercolour, which has the advantage of taking us into new areas of working, but ones which can also give our watercolours a new lift.

    I've just been trying out the new Derwent XL Graphite blocks - a set of six chunky watersoluble blocks, and as you can see in the picture on the left, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between these and watercolour. I began by laying olive green across the foliage areas, blending it in with a finger and then washing over it with a number 10 round brush with clean water. I had already laid more olive green on a piece of scrap paper and picked up a quite strong mix of this with a fine number 2 brush, drawing the tree trunks and branches into the wet wash, wet-in-wet style. Quickly I then applied more olive green strongly into the upper parts and directly with the block. Going on to a wet surface it produced a deeper tone which I then worked into with a brush to suggest the loose leaves and some of the ground cover. The paper was still wet enough for me to work in a soft grey colour with the number 10 brush to suggest the more distant rocks. I then drew burnt umber in with the block for the darker rocks, softening it off in places with a brush before completing the work with blue over the foreground. including a touch of green reflections here and there.

   Derwent have also come up with a really useful sprinkler tool - a small grid across which you rasp the XL Graphite block to create a spatter effect. I did this on a different composition, and the technique works deliciously when dropped onto a wet surface as here where I'm suggesting a bush. The branches were created with a fine rigger, picking up colour directly off the burnt umber block.

    These blocks can be used for many purposes, apart from creating paintings by themselves. They can be combined with normal watercolour, can be used to rescue a wayward watercolour, and are great for doing quick studio sketches in planning out a larger painting. Give them a try, they really are tremendous fun, and if you wish can be readily combined with the Graphitint pencils. The only problem I have now is that Jenny has just seen my work and has run off with my XL blocks........