Light to Dark, Dark to Light

I think it's Ron Ranson,one of my all-time favourite artists, who suggests the use of Burnt Umber for tonal sketches. It is also nice, as in this case, to use for a complete monochrome painting. It has a superb range of tonal values that equals that of either ivory or lamp black, two other great pigments that I'm starting to use a little more. And what's to stop YOU putting black in your palette ? I know I have ! Oops, perhaps I lost a few more followers there ?!? Just in case you're worrying that I may be going through my dark period ... well don't, I'm not ... well not just yet anyway ! ... but have a chuckle at someone who I think may be going through his  .... LOL.

The Fast Show- Johnny Nice Painter


I hope you are all keeping well. Happy St Patrick's Day ... and of course happy painting too to you all :)

'And You And I', Monochrome with Burnt Umber Watercolour and BrushPens on Fabriano5 140lb HP, A5

 And to make up for my tardiness in posting and commenting, a couple more recent pieces for you, both primarily watercolours of course! The first is purely from imagination, the second is from memory.

'Slippery Slope', Watercolour and Watercolour Pencil on Fabriano5 140lb HP, A5

Hemingford Abbots, Watercolour and BrushPens on Fabriano5 140lb HP, A5

The Weak Bridge

This is a quick sketch, completed on the spot in pencil on the way home from work, with watercolour and a little BrushPen added later at home. This is a very old stone bridge that crosses the River Great Ouse between Huntingdon and the neighbouring Roman town of Durovigutum (or Godmanchester as it is now known). The bridge can only take light traffic and so there is a 'Weak Bridge' sign on the approaches to it. My wife and I always laugh and make groaning sounds whenever we cross over it. You'd just have to be there to appreciate the joke ;)

My blog has now come of age and so I'd like to say 'Hi' to my latest followers, Maggie and Sharon, who have pushed the total up to twenty-one this week. I'd also like to say a big 'thank you' to all of my lovely followers. You all make it very worthwhile :O) !

The Old Bridge, Huntingdon, watercolour, 8" x 5.5"

Raising the bar a little

Ok, I'm totally out of my Comfort Zone with this one . As you can probably tell from my Flickr account I'm not a portrait artist by any means! However, I do feel like a little change from painting landscapes once in  a while and I'm quite happy with how this turned out.

I started with a basic outline in pencil and kept restating lines until it looked right. I then used a Pentel BrushPen for the line drawing.

Once this was done I erased the pencil marks and then left it all for a little while. I couldn't decide whether or not to add colour but I couldn't resist in the end and so out came the watercolours.

I used Yellow Ochre  and Cadmium Red for the skin tones with a little Ultramarine for the shadows. For the hair I used Cadmium Yellow for the light values, a Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber Mix for the middle values and Burnt Umber for the dark values. I added a little coloured pencil in places after it had all thoroughly dried.

I've been trying various paper, media and techniques today and this was the result of that exercise.

Hope you have all had a good Easter :-)