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For the grisaille drawing we had a sample from an old instruction book. Grisailles are drawn in grey colours and the object is to make them look like a sculpture. This was a very nice exercise to complete and the process was: draw a soft pencil pressure line down the middle of your intended scale of shape (I generally do an amount of measuring for scaling up) – use a hard pencil, then draw the lines of the overall shape. The line drawing is crucial part of this drawing: take your time in measuring the features. The ear is a focal point of this drawing so take your time in getting the shape and lines correct as they will be your guidelines for your form and shading. Scale wise: ensure the head and the base of the “sculpture” balance; do not make the base too small.

I then take a photo on my phone of the overall image: this takes the place of a thumbnail sketch for me, where you can easily see with a smaller image of your drawing if you have any incorrect shapes.

Now start making form by shading. Use a range of B pencils, working from the hardest B (1) and use the softest ones for the darkest shades. I used a paper stump (a blending stump made of rolled paper) to blend the graphite into the paper. You can use your fingertip but I found the paper stump was a much better tool to use in the particular drawing.

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Ship shapes are wonderful shapes to work from or to. We have in many classes painted boats and ships and it is a matter of perspectives, a ship shape that is flat will not – literally – float, it will sink painting wise. You need to be prepared if you want to concentrate on marine art to learn how to draw boats. They are symmetrical shapes that make sense, that is the easiest way to regard this subject without initially taking a drawing course on How to Draw Marine Art.
For this painting: make a detailed drawing of the shipwreck, use a ruler or any other mechanical aid you see fit. Consider the scale of the overall shape as opposed to the scale of the boat in the background. Add the horizon line as a useful guideline. Watercolour techniques to use: pen and wash painting, which would lend itself perfectly to all the wood sections, curves, lines and shapes on the shipwreck. I used soluble pen as I like the result of adding water to the ink and creating pools of ink that merge and move into each other. Always start with the focal point so start with the shipwreck. The amount of detail you add is your own choice. Another technique to consider is working in glazes where you let the first layer of paint dry and keep going to subsequent layers (working wet on dry) until you reach the level of tone that you require. I used pen and then glazing. For a more traditional watercolour approach: use lighter washes of your colours – transparent watercolours have a quality that no other medium can achieve – the best medium for any artist to study and learn.

Complete your shipwreck before you move on to any other element of this painting. Now as you can see I made the sky very moody but as you can also see from David’s photograph it was lighter than my interpretation. Again, a personal choice for you to make.

After completing the shipwreck I worked on the mud, a fascinating subject to paint. You have to make this look like sludge – the very word watercolour makes you realise that this medium is perfect for muddy, sludgy ideas. I used a large round headed brush, I mixed a chromatic black (burnt umber and ultramarine blue with a burnt umber bias so the mix was 60/40%). I had three grades of wash of this mix ready, I worked dark to light using large swift brushstrokes to represent the darker areas of mud, I then used the medium wash and completed the same process, keeping my brushstrokes union in shape and direction so the viewer of this painting understands this is sludgy and all these individual shapes make one easily understandable overall body of mud. I left some areas of the paper white – another key ingredient of a watercolour painting, but right at the end of this process I painted over the lightest tone of my mud colour on some of those white areas.

The Grass areas – use three different green mixes, I used a Leaf Green and added varying amounts of my chromatic mix so they look like natural colours and not “tube green”. I took a fan brush, which is ideal for grass, and used short sharp vertical/diagonal strokes to give some movement to the grass. One technique I did not use is to underpaint with yellow, which would also be a technique to consider for this painting. Bear in mind that there is a particular skill in using a fan brush: only wet the edge of the brush with a small amount of water, then dip into your wash, again only near the edge. Do not make the whole of the brush wet – you will not get the required effect.

The Background Building and Boat, paint this in lighter tones of your palette to suggest recession in the distance.

The Sky – a good way to practice a graded wash. Skyscapes should suggest some form of movement. The direction you make your brush strokes or the way you let the paint move will help you to achieve this illusion. I used my chromatic mix, wet the paper first, and worked from the top of the paper. I used a strong mix for two brushstrokes (using and 1.5 inch chisel brush) and then used weaker washes of the same mix. As I worked I tilted the paper towards me so the paint moved (to a degree) downwards.

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There is great appeal in any of these subjects: a musical instrument, the hands holding the musical instrument, the expression of the musician, the background, the paraphernalia that surrounds musicians and clothing and folds in material.

Within this study we have all the above ingredients. We worked from a photograph of a painting by Francois Morellon de la Cave painted in 1723: it has been oft disputed if this is the famous composer or not. However, for our purposes it is a perfect example of the exact ingredients required for a painting of a musician.

Start with the overall shape of the face, draw a line down the middle of the face shape and a line across the middle. Then start drawing in the features, eyes on the horizontal line you have drawn across the middle of the shape. The wig is a large shape on the head, do not make this too small. Mark in the folds on the material and then work on the shape of the violin. When drawing hands start the shape with a mitten shape, do not try and start drawing individual digits, it is far more productive to get the overall shape of the hand correct and then start making the fingers from that shape.

I researched on line some sheet music for The Four Seasons so the music I have drawn on is Spring so I was adding some of my own ingredients too.

I would advise to use multi media for this drawing. For the wig I used soluble pen, and then slightly wet the paper so the colour blends and moves slightly. For the face, hands and chest area, I used watercolours, mixing my own skin tone from a mix of Flesh Tint and then used that base colour to add other colours for certain areas e.g. for the darker area under the chin I added blue to the base mix.

I used some acrylic for the background and mixed a very dark purple using Viridian Green and Primary Red – this was painted in last.

I used permanent pens for the musical notes. For the strings on the violin I used a Charcoal White Pencil.

Ensure you leave an area of white on the eye for the light source. The wonderful rich red colours – I use a lot of reds and mix them together. The amount of red colours you can make are really quite endless. Then for the dark folds I added a Cobalt Blue to some of the different reds.

This drawing cum painting takes some time to complete: as it is half term this week it is the ideal opportunity to complete this type of project.

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How to … start with a very precise drawing of the planet and the overall shape of the rings. Use any item that is a suitable size as a template for the planet. You can draw this freehand but you have to make sure there is symmetry from one side of the shape to the other, if one side differs from the other this painting will not be successful. So … use a dinner plate if need be.

The ellipse shape is slightly tilted the right hand side is slightly higher than the left.

Once you have completed your drawing (take a photo of this on a mobile telephone to evaluate the strength of your drawing – I do this as second nature now – it is so useful) you are ready to paint.

Work from dark to light so have an appropriate amount of black, not chromatic black, ready on your palette. Paint in the semi circle shape on the left hand side of the planet first as this gives you shape for the planet and the rings. We are using negative space painting to start. Then paint in the dark side of the planet and then the cast shadow. Your directional brush stroke for the planet should be rounded to the shape of the planet and the directional brush stroke for the shadow should be horizontal, so the two shapes are slightly divorced from one another. Then paint in all the background.

And hey presto! With your negative space painting completed you have the overall shape of your subject. Now paint in the smaller areas of black. The rings could be drawn in with watercolour pencil and then wash over them with a light wash of a cream colour (yellow + white).

The light colours: a blue on the top of the planet, yellow ochre, cream, purple and a small amount of green was the palette I employed. It does take a while to build up all the different tones, and at the very last stages of your painting glaze (wet paint on dry) over the areas on the rings on the right of the composition with a light wash of black.

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The shadows cast by the building on itself give great 3D effects. I used a mix of viridian green and red to make a wonderful series of purples, from a light red to an almost black colour which I used for the inside of the archway. The shadows in this painting were key.

I changed the sky from the one in the photograph we worked from as it was flat, it needed more optical illusion of movement and depth. I worked wet on wet and laid two washes of primary blue, obviously the second wash was stronger than the first otherwise a cauliflower moment would have occurred. I then lifted out colour to give the shapes of the moving clouds.

The clock face is always a great challenge for drawing and painting ellipses. I used multi media to complete this particular piece. I started with a pencil drawing and then strengthened the tone of the lines with permanent pen. I then started building up layers of colour using watercolour paint and a variety of wash strengths.

I used acrylic to highlight tone on the clock face. Remember to underpaint pathways with a flesh tint, it is perfect for most stone colours and you can then add browns or yellows to a skin tone to make other stone colours.

The windows take some time and so they should. A window should tell a lot about the building it is part of. These are old windows with lots of shadows inside some quite dark rooms. I used pen and washes of my mixed purples to achieve the impression of depth. Finish your painting with the bold shadow in the foreground of the tree to the extreme right of the painting.

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Skies are a set of abstract shapes and they often cause learners consternation. The reason I believe is that most people like to paint something real, not something that is really abstract. Also there is a timeframe to painting a sky. An abstract sky usually takes me about two days to complete: you cannot compare an abstract sky to one that is a flat wash or graded wash. So when you paint a sky with lots of different shapes and curves move your mind away from realism into the realm of the unknown.

This particular painting involves using a range of watercolour skills: wet on wet (sky), glazing (silhouette) colour mixing, different brushstrokes. You need to make a very definite drawing of the tree structures so you do not obliterate them with your washes.

The main technique to use, apart from those I have mentioned above is Tonal Skill. This is where the cloud shapes have a range of tones on them to make them look 3D and moving. This Takes Some Time. Do not think you can complete this is a two hour painting session.

The semi circular shape should remain the colour of the paper with a little crescent of yellow surrounding the shape to give it some 3D effect. With the dark silhouette so close to the shape the principal of light against dark is evident. When you have finished this painting consider all the techniques you have used and also consider all the fine ingredients that make a painting worthy of framing and displaying.

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