The painting process from start to finish

I’d like to show you one of the ways I use to create my paintings. In this example I am painting in water-mixable oils but the process would be very similar for watercolour or other mediums.

I took these photos (and quite a few more!) of this wonderful old farmhouse in Portugal. It was tucked away amongst residential tower blocks in Gaia which is on the south side of the river Douro with Porto on the north. It was such a strange building to find in the midst of the city, and was beautiful in the spring sunshine.

Step 1. Getting the composition right

With a number of photos to choose from I needed to decide on the right composition. I find the best way to do this is to remember why I was attracted to the scene in the first place, and to make that the key focus of the painting. For me it was the light on the wall with the deep shadow of the eaves and the colourful washing drying on the line. I wasn’t that interested in the setting (in the city) even though the quirky nature of this was of interest historically. Painting the city as a backdrop would have taken away from the building itself. So, first step, a quick pencil thumbnail to decide what I wanted to put in and what I needed to omit or change. I settled on this…

Step 2. Tonal underpainting

I chose to paint the scene in water-mixable oils on a 5″ x 7″ piece of mountboard. I’d coated this with a cream-coloured gesso first. I’m preparing 20 paintings for an exhibition at the moment and all of them are the same small size and painted using my hand held Pokitbox. I painted in the main structure with watered down Pyrrole Red. I’ve recently started using red for the drawing stage as some of it peaks through the later layers of paint and warms them and it is also a good foil for any greens. As well as doing a line drawing I scrubbed in the darker tonal areas to see if the overall design worked.

Step 3. The block-in

It was now time to come in with some thicker paint and to block in the local colours in each of the large areas. I always use a limited palette, and this time I used lemon yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, pyrrole red and vermillion for the warm colours, and cerulean and ultramarine for the cool colours. Oh, plus white.

Step 4. Continuing the block-in

I tried to keep to the tonal plan (darks on darks, mid-tones on mid-tones and lights on lights) as I finished the block in. Now everywhere was painted in.

Step 5. Finishing details

This is often the fun part, where I add as much or as little detail as is necessary. I always try to err on the side of too little rather than too much. Edgar Degas once said: “A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness and some fantasy. When you always make your meaning plain you end up boring people”. I hope I haven’t done that!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my painting process.

#learningtopaint #oilpainting #paintingtips #watermixableoilpaint

My Leisure Painter series on composition

Just wanted to let you know that I have the first of 4 articles now out in the Leisure Painter Magazine in the UK. (The first article is in the June 2023 edition now on sale!)

The series is on composition and in this first article I cover how to use directional lines to lead the viewer through your painting. The other articles in the series cover:

1. Letters of the alphabet (July edition)

2. Thirds and rabatment (August edition)

3. Using the boundary and honing in on colour, tone and edges (September)

The magazine is great, especially if you are starting out in art. I’ve written for it for the past four years or so. Just thought you might like to know so you can grab yourself a copy!

#compositioninart #learningtopaint #leisurepaintermagazine

Introducing… Nathan Fowkes and Marco Bucci

I’d like to introduce you to two of my favourite watercolour/gouache landscape sketchers who have inspired and helped me on my painting journey. So here’s two for the price of one! Both have worked on screen animation for the likes of Disney and other film companies, and yet both still also paint and sketch in the traditional “hands-on” way with brushes and paints. I have put them together here because they both paint in a similar manner with similar materials.

Nathan Fowkes

is a concept artist who has worked on some of the most iconic animated films of our time, including The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, and The Legend of Tarzan. He has also worked in the video game industry. But in addition to his digital work, Nathan is also an accomplished traditional artist. He regularly posts his gouache and watercolour sketches on his Instagram page.

In 2019 Nathan Fowkes produced this excellent book which is a complete guide to sketching outdoors with watercolour and gouache. He covers all the major topics (materials, motif, light and value, edges and textures, colour etc..) in a friendly and understandable way and there are hundreds of examples of his paintings and step-by-step tutorials. There’s even a collection of his reference photos at the back in case you want to have a go!

Marco Bucci

I found Marco Bucci on Youtube (he has 758k YouTube subscribers) and really enjoy his slightly offbeat style. His videos are great and I learned a lot from them. He too works in a mixture of watercolour with gouache added. Check out this video below if you are interested in painting outdoors! It is one of eight videos in his Sketchbook Painting Playlist

If these ways of painting inspire you and you want to learn more, then please take a look at my online courses on painting in gouache and sketching . I hope this has been interesting. There is so many inspiring artists out there and I relish the opportunity of sharing them with you! Please take a moment to rate this post. Thanks

#enpleinair #sketching #learningtopaint #watercolorpainting #Gouache #MarcoBucci #NathanFowkes