'Watercolour Basics and Beyond' - Part Three

The April edition of Leisure Painter is in the shops now. It includes part four of my series 'Watercolour basics and beyond'. This month I talk about the wet-in-wet technique, which is a tricky but exciting way of working with watercolour.
The main painting, which I did as an example, is 'Braveheart', one of the steam locomotives at Dartmouth Steam Railway, Paignton station.

'Boats and Reflections'

I was in Essex last week, to do a demonstration for Galleywood Art Club. They wanted me to paint 'Boats and Reflections' so I did this painting of a scene at Charlestown, in Cornwall. (painted on 22x15in Bockingford NOT, stretched on a board)

'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.

Demonstration for Teignmouth Art Society

Did a demonstration on Friday night for Teignmouth Art Society. 'Still Life with Glass' was the subject, so I took along a few jars & bottles. One of the members also brought along a few items and, from these, I selected that lovely blue jug. Like many clubs these days, they had their own camera/screen, so the people in the cheap seats can also see what's going on. I did this one in about an hour and forty minutes, from blank sheet to finished painting.

Thanks to Felicity Hughes for the photo of me in mid-demo.

Demonstration at Chagford

Yesterday, I did a demonstration painting for Chagford Art Group. A blank sheet to completed watercolour painting in 2 hours, with a 15 minute tea break, can be quite a daunting prospect. However, I've been doing these for about ten years now, so I know what I'm in for. 
I stretched a half-sheet of 200lb Bockingford Rough paper to my board, the previous day. Stretching the paper beforehand provides a lovely, flat surface to paint on and I know that I'll be able to soak the paper without fear of it buckling (I still carry an extra sheet, just in case of a mishap).
I began by quickly sketching out the main shapes, with a 5B pencil. I then diluted some colours in my mixing palette. I usually begin a painting by applying a wet-in-wet wash to the entire sheet, mixing colours on the paper, to create a soft-edged shapes. Once this was dry (on demo's I use a hair dryer to speed things up), I began creating more solid forms and recognizable shapes. Finally, I put in the shadows.