I try to put off collecting leaves for my students to paint because the season lasts quite a few weeks, and there could always be someting more... However, the wonderful Rheus tree outside my window was so magnificent with yellows, greens and oranges early in Autumn, that I couldn't resist.
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| Dramatic colour on the front... |
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| Delicious even on the back! |
The simplicity of the shapes also made it a great subject as we wouldn't have to spend a great deal of time on the drawing aspect, allowing plenty of time to 'draw with our brushes' instead.
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| Roisin at work |
With water colour, it is important to identify the palest colour first, and lay a wash down as a good base for all other colours to rest on. Effectively, we are painting with stained water, and the darker colours go on last. With these leaves, we used Lemon Yellow as the base colour. you can see this in Roisin's painting (above) and Tony's painting (below).
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| Tony's lovely study - this was his first ever water colour painting! |
Once the initial 'wash' is down, the job of choosing additional layers begins. I restricted the palette to just Lemon Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow, Permanent Sap green and, for much further down the line, Permanent Rose.
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| Carolyn's study |
Restricting the palette is a wonderful way of beginning to understand the colours you are using, and help you realise that mixing a small number of different colours in a variety of quantities, gives you enormous scope and a wide range of options.
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| Jim's painting |
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| Ben, who used water soluble coloured pencil, on a branch of Virginia Creeper |
I introduce 'red' late in the process because the red pigments not olny stain the water we paint wih, but they also quickly stain the paper too. This means that it is often impossible to change your mind and remove it. (One of the myths about water colour is that it is 'fixed'. This isn't true - adding more water to your paper and hitting it with kitchen paper will remove any colour if you have changed your mind - apart from the reds. Undertnading this simply means that we use reds with more caution, and always have the kitchen paper handy!)
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| Liz, a wonderful first painting |
Upcoming workshops: Portrait drawing, Oils weekend, Children's half term workshop. For info please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk
Notes from the Atelier - Julie's drawing and painting manual is available in local book shops and on her website
http://www.juliedouglas.co.uk/julies-book/notes-from-the-atelier
It is also on on Amazon Prime - check out the reviews! https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1527205932?pf_rd_p=9daa0afc-fa5f-4673-9ff4-e926d27e7d1b&pf_rd_r=K3SF2NCDNAQZRAS89749)
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