School Playground

 'School Playground'
Watercolour & Gouache
66 x 50cm

After working on other jobs and taking a week off to teach a summer school course, I have finally finished 'School Playground'.

I'm pleased with the overall result but I do think I could have developed the relationship between the characters and first school further. Maybe by depicting a young animal going through the doorway or a few heads poking out of the windows? I'm not sure, but it is certainly something I will keep in mind for future similar paintings.

Enough of the internal soul searching... here are some pictures showing my progress.

Rough Drawing

Concentrating on the background after finishing the sky and trees

For this passage I was closely copying a photograph I had taken a few days previously

School finished, working on the playground now.

Bit by bit I worked through the characters

Keep painting...

... and painting

... and finally pull out the gouache paints.

The school is based on the old Corsham Primary school which is now the Pound Arts Centre - where I have my studio! Next door to me are two other artists, the superb Penney Ellis and the extraordinary Caroline Rudge. We have an open studio every Monday, so please feel free to drop by and say hello if you are in the area.

See if you can spot any of these animals in the playground. The two young rabbits might be hard to spot.

'Catching Butterflies'

I now realise I have a back log of artwork to post! Firstly I had better tie up the lose end from my previous WIP post. Here is the, now complete, painting called 'Catching Butterflies'

Catching Butterflies
Watercolour & Gouache
24 x 31cm

I used three distinct techniques to paint this whimsical image of a stoat chasing butterflies. The first was to work wet in wet to build up the soft trees in the background, I had to be very careful not to encroach on the hat and net. The second technique was to use masking fluid with a toothbrush to speckle the field with lots of wild flowers and seeds, that way I could easily work up the greens without worrying about losing the bright flowers. The third technique was glaze very thin applications of paint over the shadows on the stoat so even in darker areas there would still be a nice interplay of cold blues and warm greens.

'Catching Butterflies' Work In Progress

A shot of what is on my drawing at the moment.

He's going to need a bigger net

A Quarter Past One On Platform Ten Pt .3

For the first part of this post click here, and for the second part click here.

Finally I was up and running with my brushes (not literally, although I do have wheels on my studio chair so the option is there if needed).

Under-paintings and then some.

As is my wont, I began with an under-painting. However, just to be difficult, I began with payne's grey for the station and engine and then moved onto sepia for the characters. This was to re-enforce the difference between the cool station colours and the warmly coloured characters.

After that initial stage, it was a case of blocking in colours to work out the types of clothing. Every now and then I had to grab new reference (thank goodness for Downton Abbey screenshots) but mostly I had a reasonably clear idea of costumes beforehand.

A series of WIP shots taken over a period of 10 days

You'll notice in the 'works in progress' photos I tended to concentrate on the foreground characters more than the background. Traditional thinking would be to do this the opposite way, but I found it easier to focus on the main elements first before I lost enthusiasm with the painting and ended up slacking on my quality control. There's nothing worse than a fantastic scene with a poorly painted character sticking out like a sore thumb. Also there were so many elements that really I'm not sure it mattered where I began so long as I eventually finished it.

Speaking of which here is the final painting.

A Quarter Past One On Platform Ten
Watercolour & Gouache
50 x 92

 

3 weeks work in total and my biggest watercolour painting of this series so far.
 

Quick Getaway

I have only just realised I never posted this finished painting on the blog.

  Quick Getaway

Watercolour / Gouache

24 x 31cm

This painting was partly inspired by the moonlit paintings of Atkinson Grimshaw and with any good night-time scene you have to have the moon silhouetting the branches of a gnarled tree in winter - it's the law.

The pub which the sly fox is running away from is base on the Wagon & Horses at Beckhampton which is about 7miles from where I live. It has the most fantastic thatched roof and stonework, much better than anything I could have imagined.

This painting as ties in with 'The Card Game' which I recently finished. Thankfully the fox managed to escape the nasty looking stoats at the end of their game, however you can see the chase has only just begun.

Click here to see the initial sketch  

The Card Game (Over)

As promised here is the finished artwork of 'The Card Game'.

The Card Game

Watercolour / Gouache

24 x 31cm

Recently I've been trying to separate the foreground, middleground and background into three tonal values, light, mid-tone and dark. It's proved to be very useful, however when it comes to interior scenes the three stages can become very muddled. The background comes forward and pretty much takes over the middleground which leaves me with very difficult tonal decisions to make. I decided to place a soft spotlight on the card table so the light would highlight the figures seated facing the viewer also producing the highest contrast. This also means that the rat and stoat with their back to the viewer would be in shadow as the light would be hitting their fronts (which you cannot see). All that is left to play with is the mid-tone which I placed in on background vixen and badger, also notice that I reduced contrast not only on the characters at the back but also the barrels and spirits on the shelf above, not only to fit in with the 3 tone scheme but also to suggest a smoky haze in the air which would nullify extreme darks and lights.

In summary I now have dark on light on mid-tone. I'm sure if I were able to set this scene up and photograph in reality the shadows and tonal range would be completely different but that's where artistic licence comes in to save the day.

The overall intention of 'The Card Game' was to produce an image that at first glance appeared whimsical and pleasant. It wasn't until the viewer took their time to study the scene that they could see the game of cards is about to turn very sour indeed.

The Card Game Progression 2

Started glazing local colour and bringing out the values a bit more now but it's still in the ugly stage. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow I will be over the top of the hill and beginning my descent into the finished artwork valley.

The Card Game Progress

I've been working on a sepia under-painting today. This one will have lots of warm yellows, oranges and browns in it so sepia should emerge through the glazes of watercolour very nicely indeed.

'The Card Game' Idea

The last of my small roughs that has been approved (below). I still have a lot of working out to do (not in the gym, on my drawing board) before I even think about reaching for my brushes.

I hoping to give the viewer a bit of a shock in this one. At first glance it looks like a nice civilised game of cards in a warm pub, that is until you spot the stoats accusing look and small knife in his paw which he is about to brandish as the fox picks up is purse of winnings.