Making Tutorial DVD ' Rough Brush Watercolour'

This painting is one I made while we were creating a new DVD to teach my methods of painting watercolours with big bad brushes! I fully describe my techniques, and with these methods I honestly think anyone can paint! More details will follow.

Spring in Constable country

This watercolour is of an area I really enjoy. The walk between Flatford and Dedham is a real treat, and when you think John Constable walked the same ground on many occasions...

Large Watercolour Langdon Hills

This painting of Langdon Hills has a lot of lifting out of colour to create the soft light under trees. Mostly ultramarine, sap green and burnt umber. A little yellow ochre in some areas. I made extensive use of the sash brush to creat texture. A conventional bristle stencil brush was used for some 'scrubbing out' with clear water.

Large Watercolour Lake district - Sash Brush!

Yes I've done another painting using rough brushes, I feel a series coming on! The paper size is 11 x 15 inches, which is much larger than I normally use, but I can see the advantages in painting watercolor with a large brush, on a largish paper.

'Rough Brush' large watercolor of Lake District

This is my first go at a largish format of watercolour. I did use SimmTrace to place the mountains accurately, because this is a specific place. It is the road leading to the start of the climb to the top of the 'old man of Coniston' Probably do more of these. I have always been put off by the price of large brushes for watercolour, so I decided to use a large 'sash brush' from a DIY store! Then discovered that the 'randomness' of the brush had pleasing results. So I nipped into the shed and found a selection of old housepainting brushes... 

I did finish off details with a conventional small wc brush.

Portraits with the SimmTrace

I have not been blogging, I have been working...some work on artistic pursuits. I am finding the greatest thing about the SimmTrace is doing portraits. I have been studying up on chiaroscuro y sfumato techniques. This is Italian for light, dark and smoke. The examples I have included with this blog are not charcoal or sanguine sticks as they should be, but rather Crayola crayon and standard #2 pencil like kids use in school. I have to tell you, they look very like the my beautiful redheaded daughter, the subject of these drawings.

And yes, Crayola crayons are real art supplies!