'Loosening Up Your Watercolour'

'Loosening Up Your Watercolour' was the theme of this demonstration painting for Kingskerswell Art Group yesterday. I decided to paint another view of the boats at Charlestown, Cornwall. Although quite a busy scene, especially in the background, I simplified as much as I could and put most of the emphasis on the boats themselves. I used my mop brushes to paint fluid, loose washes. The boat hulls and their reflections were painted wet-into-wet in one go.

'Trawlers at Brixham'

Yesterday afternoon I visited Seaton Art Society to do a demonstration. The theme was 'Creating Atmosphere' and my subject was a couple of boats in Brixham Harbour. The photograph I used as a reference was a bit bland and contained a lot of unnecessary detail. I simplified the scene considerably and, hopefully, created a more atmospheric feel with a little mystery.
Painted on Saunders Waterford 200lb NOT paper, stretched onto the board.

'Totnes High Street'

A loose impression of this very well-known landmark. Street scenes can be a little overwhelming for artists. All that detail! The answer is to simplify what you see. Ask yourself 'what can I leave out?'. A camera takes in everything but we artists can be selective. The windows on the bridge were quite important but with a feature like that, it's tempting to get a ruler and start drawing very straight lines. That would lead to a very stilted and boring copy, though. I sketched in their outlines 'freehand' and used my large mop brush to loosely paint the panes. The 'broken' brushstrokes give the impression of reflections in the glass. I also implied a few figures underneath to add some life and scale.