A Brush With Art.pdf

Cottages, IdeThese Devon cottages are gorgeous, and they'veeven got a river running down the side! It's alovely scene but when you paint this type ofpicture, it's important to be careful not to go overthe top. If you put too much detail into yourpainting, your finished work will look contrivedand, if anything, too pretty and like an illustrationfor a chocolate box. You can see my painting ofthese cottages overleaf, but first I'm going to talkabout two things that can worry beginners towatercolour painting - windows and skies.Painting windowsOn the opposite page, I've painted some examplesof windows. You'll see I've kept things very simple- these are windows that are viewed from adistance, not close up. The first (top left) has twowindows, one with a window frame and onewithout.The example below this is an easy way ofpainting windows on the side of the building,using simple brush strokes to fill in the shape ofthe window panes.The bottom window and the large one (farright) have more character and modelling becauseI've painted reflections in the glass and put morePainting skiesIf you work too dry, you will have problemspainting skies. The people who are 'naturals' atpainting skies are the ones who are not worriedabout mixing paint with plenty of water! Theyslop it on (but in a controlled way) and thecolours mould beautifully into sky and clouds.When you work the colour in, don't paint in anydetail but aim for an overall effect of the sky. Youwill be working fast and colours will run into eachother, but this is what you want. The more youpractise, the more you will be able to control theway the colours mix on your paper.In the example at the bottom of the oppositepage, the sky was created by applying only twowashes of colour. Start with skies which can bepainted very simply - you can progress and addmore detail and character as you gain experience.detail into the window frames. But still, you'll see,I've kept things simple - and this is what youshould do. When you are painting a building, lookat the windows and screw up your eyes to showyou the shapes and forms. Then paint in theshapes that you see but, remember, alwayssimplify them!72