Ripples and Reflections

Another little demo, in monotone, from my recent course at Boscombe. The ripples have the effect of elongating the reflection. 

'Controlled Wash' demo

Here's a demonstration painting from the last day of my most recent course at Art Holidays in Dorset. When I can, I like to use the ,controlled wash, watercolour technique, as described by Jack Merriott in his book 'Discovering Watercolour'. The first wash is applied to wet paper, the colours being allowed to blend wet-in-wet on the surface. While the wash is wet, the paint can be moved around and allowed to create a soft, foundation wash. Once it has dried, a further wash or two can then be applied to dry paper.
This method of painting creates an atmospheric feel to the whole painting, and that first wash influences whatever transparent washes you place afterwards. It's a really good technique for depicting sunny scenes, as here.
I usually stretch the paper beforehand but here I simply used masking tape around the edges of a quarter sheet of 200lb Bockingford.

'Black & White Moggy'

Got back from a painting course at Art Holidays in Dorset, on Monday. This was painted as one of my evening demonstration paintings... next door's black and white moggy.
After sketching the outline with a 5B pencil onto 200lb Bockingford paper, I soaked the paper and then mixed colours on the page to create a soft, atmospheric foundation wash, lifting out some areas with a damp brush. Once it was dry, I began to build up the washes on dry paper. All in all, the painting took about an hour, from start to finish.

'Watercolour Demonstration Painting'

I was tutoring a painting course at Art Holidays in Dorset last week. This was one of my evening demo's, a rocky scene in Torquay. It's one of those spots you can paint many times and it'll always look different. I'll be back there again next week for another painting break.

Watercolour Demonstration

Here's me in action during a painting demonstration at Art Holidays in Dorset. I was there last week for a course on painting from photographs. My aim was to show students how to use their photographs to create loose and lively watercolours, rather than simply copy them line for line. We had a good break, and much work was done... accompanied by some good food and hospitality, courtesy of Christine and John who run Art Holidays.
Many thanks to Nobu Konno for the photograph, who came all the way from Japan for the course (and a whirlwind tour of the UK).