Mixed Media Landscapes and Seascapes E-Book

Chris Forsey

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 126

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

An inspiring guide to creating successful landscapes and seascapes in mixed media, including watercolour, pastels, wax crayons, ink and acrylics. Mixed media is ever growing in popularity. In this useful and insightful book, artist and teacher Chris Forsey shows how to use this technique to create stunning landscapes and seascapes. The book concentrates on combining water-based media – watercolour, pastels, wax crayons, ink and acrylics – to create an exciting and often unpredictable way to paint. It allows the artist to create textures and effects that can exhilarate the painting surface with unusual serendipitous washes, smears and drifts of colour and tone. The book encourages readers to experiment with media, wile providing advice, instruction and step-by-step demonstrations to show how to get the best from two, three or four different media working together. The introduction helps the reader determine what they wish to achieve in a painting. The following chapters then goes on to focus on one of the media combinations: wax crayon and watercolour; oil pastel, watercolour and acrylic; oil pastel and acrylics; oil pastel, watercolour, ink and acrylics. Featuring plenty of step-by-step demonstrations on how to combine the materials, with finished examples of finished paintings. The book offers the reader an array of ways to improve their landscape and seascape painting, taking it to a new level.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Introduction

Materials and equipment

Sketching and capturing inspiration

Colour

The seasons and weather

Mixing the mediums

Capturing the moment

Index

INTRODUCTION

Our world presents artists with never-ending opportunities for inspiration, interpretation and the representation of these ideas in our paintings. Even the smallest patch of landscape can give each of us the chance to explore individual creative ideas and allow true personal expression to follow. The medium we use plays a large part in the appearance of the finished work – the liquidity of inks, the transparency of watercolours, the opacity and texture of pastels and the expressive marks and brushstrokes of acrylic. All of these can be combined in different ways to create a truly individual result, full of expression, energy and excitement. I hope that this book will inspire you and take you on a rewarding creative journey.

The aims of this book

The choice available to artists these days regarding materials, tools and styles can be overwhelming. A visit to any art shop, whether on the high street or online, can leave a novice artist somewhat confused as to which mediums to choose and how to use them creatively. My aim is to give you an introduction to the materials you might wish to try and show how you might combine them to get the most from a mixed-media adventure in paint. My suggestions and advice are just a guide; it’s only through exploring and experimenting that you will find your true personal direction.

In this book you’ll find examples of painting using just two mediums, progressing to those using four or five to create a mixed-media combination that uses texture, mark-making, transparency, opacity, spontaneity and expression. There’s real visual excitement in the end result, and this way of painting is lots of fun, too. I hope this book will spark your creativity and open new horizons in how you see your art.

The Little Harbour, Boat Boxes, Cottages40½ × 51cm (16 × 20in)Acrylic, paint, acrylic ink and oil pastel on acrylic paper

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

The well-known painting mediums come in many colours and with methods of application that include brush, knife, scraper, roller and pen. Using combinations of them can add more complexity and interest to the appearance of an artwork. Some of these combinations are apparent in the work of such artists as John Piper (1903–92). Post-war austerity and no doubt a shortage of art supplies encouraged his use of available materials such as Indian ink, wax crayons, watercolour and gouache, which give his work on paper a certain appearance and quality we admire today. Earlier, Edgar Degas (1834–1917) used soft pastel over watercolour to great effect. We can learn a lot about combining different materials by looking at the work of these two artists and in particular at how one medium affects another; sometimes their non-compatibility produces just the effect we want in order to create exciting surfaces and dynamism in our paintings. A willingness to spend plenty of time on trial and error is very important in the mastering of how to get the most from your materials, combining them to give stimulating results.

Painting materials

I began my fine art career as a watercolourist, never looking elsewhere for a means of creating a painting. However, as an illustrator I had had extensive experience of using gouache and gradually I started to add it to my watercolour paintings. This made me want to explore further and a cornucopia of exciting products was revealed to me. I tried nearly all of them. Some I liked a lot, others I didn’t respond to so much, but they all offered possibilities for experimentation. Here’s a list of my choice of materials.

WATERCOLOURS

I use artist-quality watercolours in tubes. The colours are richer, juicier and more intense in colour than the student-quality tubes and watercolours in pans, and react in a more interesting way with water and other mediums, promoting spontaneous expression and unpredictable results. When squeezed directly from the tube the paint can be applied in a dry, rich way, sometimes emulating oil or acrylic, and is useful combined with the thinner transparent washes. Watercolour in bottles can be useful too, dense in hue and exciting to work with.

Acrylic and watercolour paints.

ACRYLIC INKS

I often use acrylic inks from bottles that have a pipette in the cap. The pipette is handy for squeezing ink into a palette, though I regularly use it for drawing directly onto the painting. My colours of choice are surprisingly small from a large range. I use the darker colours: browns including Sepia, Antelope Brown and Burnt Umber, together with Payne’s Grey, Indigo and Purple Lake. In addition, orange and white inks can be very useful, the white being highly opaque.

Acrylic ink, wax crayons and oil pastels.

ACRYLIC PAINT

This is a very versatile medium, which can be mixed with plenty of water to emulate pure watercolour, or layered thickly onto the support like oil paints. I use it both in its transparent state, mixed with water or a lot of acrylic medium, and in its opaque, undiluted form.

OIL PASTELS

I like oil pastels for both starting a painting and adding finishing touches of colour. They make a good resist to watercolours and very diluted inks and their opacity makes them useful for scumbling over a layer of painted pigment.

WAX CRAYONS

I carry these with me whenever I go sketching, either for adding a dash of colour to a monochrome sketch or for making a resist to a watercolour wash.

WATER-SOLUBLE CRAYONS

When you’re sketching you can add water to a scribble of colour made with these crayons, and create a useful colour wash that you can draw into again while it’s still wet, to create a broken, blurry line. I particularly enjoy using a dark crayon as it adds texture and tone to the sketch drawing. The crayons are also useful for a dynamic element of drawing added to the painting in the later stages.

Tools

While a lot of tempting equipment is to be found in art shops and online catalogues, you won’t need most of it. It’s best to buy a limited range and get to know it well, then you can make educated decisions about any extras you may want to try.

BRUSHES

Finding the right brush can take a lot of trial and error before you hit upon the shape and size that suits you best. I prefer a flat brush as it can be laid on its face and dragged across the support, thus creating a flat, broad mark, or the sharp tip can be applied to make a linear mark. Combining both methods gives the artist a lot of alternatives in mark-making. I use a surprisingly small selection: 50mm (2in), 38mm (1½in) and 25mm (1in). I also use a rigger occasionally for its long, fine hairs.

The water brush, or water pen as it is sometimes called, is a useful addition to the artist’s arsenal of sketching equipment. It is a brush that houses water in the barrel of its handle. The water is supplied to the brush end via a valve, giving a supply of water when the handle is gently squeezed, allowing the artist to sketch with colour using just paints and the brush, no water pot needed. It can be refilled from any tap or water supply by unscrewing the reservoir or immersing the water brush in water and squeezing the barrel.

PALETTE KNIFE

These knives come in a range of shapes and sizes. I use them to add sharp-edged marks, broad, sweeping gestural marks and smears and also for detailed linear additions.

CARD, PLASTIC AND TISSUE PAPER

Pieces of card in various shapes and sizes are useful for drawing and mark-making. The edge of a plastic card can be handy for pressing marks onto the paper, and so can scrunched-up cellophane. By applying pigment, paint or ink to these materials and just using hand pressure, a variety of random and unpredictable marks can be printed onto the painting surface to create lines and textures.

Kitchen towel or paper tissue can be used for the removal of paint to reveal an earlier surface of colour. This can sometimes be better than using an already grubby rag that could apply colour by mistake.

ROLLERS

I like both hard and sponge rollers for creating random, broad tracks of textural paint.

MASKING FLUID

Masking fluid can be useful for protecting areas of the painting that you wish to retain as white when broad washes of colour are used.

GRAPHITE PENCILS

Graphite pencils, crayons or blocks can be very handy for sketching. The block or crayon can be used on its edge to create broad, tonal marks, the softer-graphite 4B or 6B giving a darker, tonal shade. A lighter mark can be lifted from this area of tone by using the edge of a soft eraser.

Marks made using a palette knife.

A selection of tools used in my work.

Painting surfaces

There are numerous painting surfaces available to you and with experience you will come to know which you favour. Most manufacturers produce watercolour paper in three different surfaces – Cold Press (also known as Not), Hot Press (HP) and Rough. It is worth trying each of these to discover which one will suit your needs for a particular painting. HP paper allows the paint to dry quickly but its smooth surface does not encourage some of the textures and effects that Rough and Not paper can produce. However, I find that Rough papers are sometimes too textured and the mark-making in pastel and acrylic can be a little crude. For watercolour-based work I choose Not and Rough papers, but where acrylics are concerned a smoother surface allows the paints to move in a way that reflects the movement of the brushstrokes without breaking up on the surface as they will with Not and Rough paper. Some manufacturers produce paper for acrylics, but this is not good for watercolour. However, acrylics can work well on watercolour paper, especially HP or Not-finish papers.

ABOVE Marks made on smooth watercolour paper. RIGHT Marks made on rough watercolour paper.

Mark-making

The various tools and mark-makers I employ produce a wide variety of paint smears, lines, dots, printed textures and so forth. Nearly everything can provide a mark on a surface, from the accidental to the planned, and it is this aspect of painting in mixed media that is so exciting. The most straightforward of marks, for example a line, can prove more interesting if you are using apparently the wrong tool for the job. You might find yourself surprised and inspired by some of the results that occur through embracing experimentation with various tools and mediums.

Linear mark-making

Pens For the sort of line shown here I often use a bamboo pen. This traditional tool can give a calligraphic result if used heavily laden with ink or watercolour. It is unpredictable – it may produce blots and the pen may run out of ink at the wrong moment – but this can add to the painterly quality of the result. In the example here I have also spattered water into the mark to create interesting results. A steel-nibbed pen is also very useful for finer drawing as more precision can be expected.

Toothbrush This is an underrated piece of art equipment, obviously intended for a different use, but the results can be surprisingly useful and expressive; its broadly spaced bristles can create marvellous linear marks simulating grass and seedheads. Here a brush loaded with acrylic ink has been pulled, pushed and scrubbed across the paper, leaving clusters of fine, linear marks indicating a grassy, uncut nature. I have also spattered more ink on top by dragging my forefinger across the toothbrush’s bristles – this is a great effect for many surfaces, such as sand, shingle, concrete, plaster and so on. A finer result can be achieved by carrying out the spattering process nearer to the painting surface.

Marks made with a bamboo pen.

Marks made with a toothbrush.

Broad marks

BrushesA wide 50mm (2in) flat brush is marvellous for gestural, expressive patches of colour. Sometimes I move the broad face of the brush quickly across Rough paper, the speed being responsible for a very textured mark as the pigment only makes contact with the top of the surface. If I use the same colour and speed of stroke on a much smoother paper, the brush leaves its mark on most of the surface.

Rollers These deliver paint in such a way that many effects can never be repeated. A soft, spongy roller works well for watercolour, acrylic paint and ink; the pigment is absorbed completely into the sponge and you can apply more pressure as the roller moves across the support and the amount of pigment lessens. Fine, dotty areas are left behind as well as unpredictable darker, denser areas, marvellous for describing anything from beach to rocky cliff, meadow to forest.

Marks made with a soft roller.

Marks made with a hard roller.

The hardness of a rubber roller gives a completely different character, with dots and stippled areas alongside broader marks. Alternatively, you can turn the roller on its edge and run it over the support to produce a controlled, linear mark.

You can apply some control and limit the extent of the mark with both types of roller by using a paper mask or stencil to cover parts of the painting surface you have already completed.

Tissue and cellophane These can be applied to give a very experimental and expressive painted area. They produce a broadly similar effect but there is something subtly different in the character of the mark; the cellophane leaves a slightly harder-edged appearance where pressure is applied, while tissue prints a slightly softer mark, but both can be useful for adding random textures to the work. They are both great fun to use where you do not need a precise result.

ABOVE Marks made with cellophane. RIGHT Marks made with tissue.

Combining mediums

The mixed-media approaches demonstrated in this book use a variety of materials that are combined to produce individual and personal paintings. The interplay of one material with another requires a certain amount of acceptance of artistic accident and serendipity, allowing the materials to ‘do their thing’ on the support; too much desire for control can stifle creativity.

Wax crayons and watercolour

I remember using wax crayons for colouring-in at primary school, but it was a long time before I realized just how useful they would be to me an artist. Like candle wax, they repel water and so can be very effective when added to a picture prior to the laying of a watercolour wash. The watercolour immediately breaks up into separate droplets, settling only on the uncovered paper support. This is particularly useful for sketchbook drawing, where a quick added layer of wax crayon to vary the texture can transform a single-colour sketch into a more meaningful and useful rendition of the scene.

Wax crayons and watercolour.

Water-soluble wax crayons

These combine with the simple non-soluble wax crayon to great effect that is again very useful for outdoor sketching, both as washes and also added later as a dry drawn mark over the top of the washes. They can be helpful when sketching outdoors using a brush or water brush and a good-quality cartridge paper sketchpad.

Water-soluble graphite.

Watercolour and oil pastels