SPREADING MY WINGS

Last week, I showed you some of my owl drawings from 30+ years ago.  This week, I thought I would show you some of the images I have been creating for my OPEN GARDEN day, June 16. when my garden will be open to the public for the day, and I will be showing not just the lovely garden, but also some of my work - paintings, garden ceramics, and enamelled items.

Amongst the paintings will be images of some of the little birds which visit British gardens regularly at all times of year.  I am fascinated by the wildlife in my garden ...we have birds galore, including majestic herons - beautiful to look at but not my favourite visitors since they come to eat my fish;  we have badgers, foxes, neighbourhood cats, and we even had a visit from Mr and Mrs Duck last week!

Here are a few of the small paintings of little birds ...not detailed botanical images, but friendly fluffy ones!

"White Waistcoat"  - a rather splendid chap, don't you think?

This one is called "Chilly Feet" and is obviously a Robin.  I know the event is called "Midsummer Gardens" but actually, they have had snow in the north this month!  And Robins are with us all year round.

This is one of my favourites...a cute Long Tailed Tit balancing somewhat precariously on a stump- I called it "Strong Grip".

I will not only have the paintings for sale, but also greetings cards.  There will be approximately 20 different bird images - they would look good on the wall in sets of four!

I have also been working on local woodland scenes:

"Bluebell Patch", pastel, 6"x6"  I just so love carpets of bluebells.

This one is slightly larger, framed in a modern white "box" frame, about 11"x11".. It is the bridle path in Mad Bess Woods - locals should recognise it.  I do feel lucky to have these gorgeous woods so close to my home.

Another small one, this time with hints of abstraction and a strong colour palette, it is called "Silver Birch Sentinels":

Finally, I thought I would show you this one;  it is loosely based on the woods, but it is a foray, for me, even further into the world of abstraction.  I had all ready been gently pushing the colour, using my own colour palette rather than the literal colour of the scene...today I decided to break out of my comfort zone, and for the sheer fun of it use REALLY experimental colour.  It was very exciting to produce, even if it is never framed!

If you would like to come and see the garden, tickets are available from the MIDSUMMER GARDENS website.  the ticket will give you the chance to see lots of gardens throughout the weekend,  and all proceeds will go to charity.  Your ticket will also go into a draw for a variety of excellent prizes.

http://midsummergardens.com/tickets/

Most gardens will be open both Saturday and Sunday;  I will be open Sunday only.  If you live in the vicinity, (Greater London, Herts, Bucks, Middx - Ruislip, Northwood, Rickmansworth, Pinner) do pop along.  If you need directions, you can send me an email to jackiesdesk@gmail.com

Savannah in the undergrowth.  She hides here to watch the birds.

BIRDS- OLD DRAWINGS, NEW STORY

I had a visitor this weekend; a marvellous Israeli Professor who is passionate about birds and has initiated some wonderful projects worldwide - not the least of which is a project teaching farmers how to use owls instead of pesticides!  The owls remove rats and mice from the fields, and his owl nesting boxes are now being used by many grateful farmers, and at the same time, he is promoting peace between neighbours... for example, he has encouraged Arab farmers, who were previously superstitious about owls and thought that they brought bad luck, to try the owl nesting boxes - with huge success. A marvellous bit of cooperation between Israelis and Arabs - we rarely hear about these kinds of collaborations, they are not as newsworthy as bombs and battles!
 As a result of his visit,  I suddenly remembered that somewhere in my studio, there was a calendar I had produced as a student. I  found it, and thought I would just quickly show you some of the birds I tackled at that time, more than thirty years ago!!!  One is a watercolour -( I doubt I could paint such an image quite as well today - who was that person then??? I work so differently today.  But doesn't he look SOFT!!  Owls actually are really soft to the touch, I have stroked one.  It didn't mind at all!) the rest are drawings done with carbon pencils. I hope you enjoy them.

Long-eared, and Short-eared owls

Cuckoo Owlets

Barred Owls

Young Tawny Owl

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT PAINTING WOODLAND SCENES

Throughout the ages, artists have enjoyed painting woodland scenes.  Today's modern painters' works, however, are a far cry from the woodland scenes of the painters of old.

Here is an example of an "old" woodland scene, painted by George Baret the elder (what a name!), 1723-1784.

I am sure we could not fault those trees...but to my eye, despite its probable accuracy, it is stodgy,  heavy and gloomy.

More modern painters have treated woodland scenes in quite a different way, and I would like to show you a few of my favourites, so that you can see, perhaps, a different "path through the trees" for your own work.

Lawrence Gowing says that he returns time and time again to certain woodland areas to paint.  He loves groves of trees, with branches meeting overhead, like columns of Gothic arches in a "cathedral of trees".  His woodland scenes are often concerned with a ceiling of leaves, making an enclosed space often leading to a further space beyond.  He makes small "sketch" paintings as rehearsals for larger paintings.  He says he tries to "paint the scoop of space without losing the flatness of the painting surface". Sometimes this results in very abstracted images, the motif having been just a starting point.  "Gifords Copse", the oil painting below, is one such image.

Giford's Copse

The painting "Four Trees in a Wood" 1987, below, also has a really contemporary feel to it, and to my mind, it is interesting to consider why.  Is it the colours ?  They are certainly of his own choosing and bear little resemblance to reality.    Is it the brushstrokes?  What makes it look so modern and such a far cry from the woodland scene of Mr Baret above?  If you look at it very carefully and closely, you will see that in fact, although not such an obvious abstraction as "Giford's Copse", the marks he has used are flat and two dimensional, there is little attempt to achieve three-dimensional form;  the tree trunk of the tree on the far right bears no resemblance to photographic reality whatsoever.  Yet, we recognise perfectly that it is a woodland scene and we understand it fully.

Here is another  woodland scene I have long admired:  Roger De Grey, "La Tremblade" 1989.  It is owned by the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and I wish it was mine!  I just love it.

When I first saw this painting, I was fascinated by the fact that there is little or no recession created by the conventional method of tones becoming paler in the distance.  Instead, the recession is created purely by change of scale.  The artist complains that he find trees "baffling things to work with" and difficult to paint, and spends hours, apparently, trying to make the trees in his paintings seem to grow out of the ground properly.  Clearly, those hours are well spent.

I cannot begin to compare to these masters above, but here is one of my own personal favourites, painted within a couple of hours at a demonstration evening for an art club. It was a bit of a departure for me, since I used imaginative colour, and allowed the painting to hover between representation and abstraction.  But, I hope you will feel it is still an interesting woodland scene even if it owes little to photographic reality!

and this one perhaps does have a little more to do with a "real" woodland scene, although again, I did allow myself some artistic licence with the colours chosen, borrowing some of the gorgeous cool turquoise greens that Lawrence Gowing used - they seemed appropriate to the cool early days of Spring.  It is important, I feel, to remember that creating a painting is not just about  faithfully"duplicating"  the real world...it is about creating something special.... a piece of art which connects with personal vision.

"Spring woods"  pastel on card  21x21cm
available, unframed (mounted) price $295

Arguably, it was from Monet and Cezanne that the landscape painting of this century developed.  Gradually, artists began to give themselves even more permission to try different ways of seeing and painting and expressing their relationship with the landscape. They recognised that the recording of every leaf or tiny branch of a tree may well lead to a rather tedious, lifeless image (and anyway, the camera can do it better) - and they knew that the exploitation of shapes, masses, rhythms, colours, textures and movement can produce far more exciting imagery.   The degree to which an artist transforms the landscape, to express his feelings, is entirely personal and can vary dramatically, but one thing is for sure...as a result our own mood and personality will inevitably be revealed in our paintings. 

 Two people, standing shoulder to shoulder, can photograph the same scene, and their photos will look virtually identical...but no two artists will ever paint the same scene in exactly the same way, even if they are painting side by side.  This is something we artists need to recognise - and capitalise upon.

Memories of Sri Lanka.

A friend recently sent me a page of her “diary”, written while on holiday in Japan.  It was lovely to read, I felt I was with her, enjoying it as she did.

So I thought that while the memories are fresh I would write a little about my painting trip to Sri Lanka. It was a mixture of very special, and very difficult! ( If you cannot be bothered with other people's holiday snaps/paintings, read no further! I do understand.)

I hoped I would be able to do lots of work on the spot, once I had my “eye in” – it always takes me a while.  The journey was somewhat arduous; after a long, uncomfortable 11 hour flight, we then had a long, uncomfortable 3 hr coach journey….but the scenery made up for the discomfort.  Sri Lanka is SO GREEN, tropical foliage everywhere,  rich, lush, massive.  Dotted amongst all the deep green, are Sri Lankan properties – in the most wonderful jewel colours! Bright orange houses, yellow,  purple, pink, blue, vivid viridian green – every brilliant colour you can imagine.

It was, as you can imagine, a feast for the eye – particularly the eye of a painter.  In the towns we travelled through, I marvelled at the bright colours of the clothes of the people too…..sarongs in every colour imaginable.  Brightly coloured umbrellas could be seen everywhere,   keeping the blazing sun off the heads of the dark-haired women,  beautiful women with glowing dark skins.

We eventually arrived at a hotel which looked more like someone’s grand colonial home than a hotel.  Low-lying white buildings - the rooms were set all around a tranquil green lawn with tinkling fountain.   Big rooms, aircon but also a lovely ceiling fan, huge four-poster bed, big bathroom which was a “wet room” with shower.   There was a deep blue-green infinity pool in the garden, and chattering monkeys in the trees.  Comfortable furniture with cool white covers was placed under a roofed-over open area where we were given tea every day – tea is very much a feature of the island. We ate in the hotel for every meal and the food was delicious – lots of lovely spicy Sri Lankan aromatic dishes served by the friendly, attentive staff.  We were even treated to a cookery demonstration by two of the hotel chefs.

Every day, we went out to paint.  Here is where the discomfort set in for me.  The temperatures were very, very high and the humidity – 85% -  made it very uncomfortable for me to walk around, sit and sketch, or stand and paint, for any length of time. I am NOT good with humidity or sun! Which was a great shame, because the sights were so paintable!  On our very first late afternoon outing, we visited a beach where the fishermen were pulling in the catch – a huge line of happy, laughing guys, dressed in colourful shirts and sarongs, singing as they pulled in the net, which stretched a long way out to sea.   As the sun went down, the gold, pink and orange reflections on the water and wet sand sparkled between the legs of the pulling fishermen –the camera cannot do this scene justice... it was enchanting.

We were surrounded by Sri Lankan fishing boats – yet more bright colour, and such wonderful shapes, often with a large boom out to one side, presumably to balance the boat (forgive me, I am not a sailor!)  In some cases, exotic artwork could be seen on the sides of the boats, they were a riot of colour.

On another day, we had the privilege of seeing “Stilt Fishermen” at work.  I found myself wondering how the stilts stayed erect, after all, they were driven into what must be wet sand, not concrete!  The fishermen balanced apparently effortlessly on tiny bits of wood – must have been SO uncomfortable!  But they were fabulous to draw, even tho I struggled with the perspiration running into my eyes, and the coconuts falling around me from the trees I sheltered under.  

A visit to a tea plantation…..yet more lush greenery, our bus wound through narrow roads which seemed to have been hacked out of the jungle which was threatening to take over again, the plants were VAST.   We sketched two different kinds of “pickers”.  The women in colourful clothing and turbans, baskets on their backs, suspended from ribbons which were somehow secured by their heads and turbans.   Then, there were the pickers all dressed in white.  These were the special pickers of the white tea, a rare plant, cultivated to echo the tea which was presented to the emperor of China in ancient times.  The Chinese pickers of old were all virgins who used golden scissors and dropped the leaves into golden bowls and presented those leaves to the emperor.  The Sri Lankan plantation owner wanted to emulate this, so HIS pickers wore white, with white gloves (tho he said he could not vouch for their virginity!) so that the tea would not be sullied by the aroma given off by human skin (we all smell of the food we eat, apparently – so curry flavour tea would NOT be ideal), and his tea from his special White Tea plants is sold only to one special tea distributor in Paris.

A trip into town made my temperature rise even further…the sight of the vegetable and fruit market was like a trip to Aladdin’s cave!  I had no idea that bananas could be green…yellow…and even pink and orange!   And the fish market was just as colourful too – gorgeous green/blue fishes, bright pink, red, gold…I was in a daze, it was a kind of visual heaven.

COLOUR is my overwhelming memory.  The brilliant orange robes of the young novice monks against the lime green walls of the building…delicious....

  ...the yellow monkeys running across the rooftop of the hotel……the tuk-tuks, little three wheeler “taxis” which zip around town, resplendent in brilliant colours;  the golden "king coconuts"........

 

....the colourful local houses which brought pigment names to mind– aquamarine green; cadmium yellow; yellow ochre; cerulean blue;  alizarin crimson, lizard green……….the rich greens of the foliage – yet more pigments – sap green, viridian, Prussian green, hookers green and more  ………..the beautiful ultramarine blue sea, and the gorgeous cadmium orange, crimson and cadmium red sunsets.  The sharp, fresh blue-white uniforms of our hotel staff, made even whiter somehow by contrast with their burnt sienna skins, dark eyes, and gleaming white smiles!  The Lapis Blue of the sari worn by a lady who floated through the hotel gardens on occasion.  The exciting street scenes and beach market scenes, people thronging , their clothes a riot of colour, no careful colour-matching here…the colours and movement formed a visual kaleidoscope.

painted on the spot in about 1 hour or less.  Far too hot for me!  I really struggled.   Which is my excuse for why there is a GIANT lady on the left...she looked ok until I put in the small guy chopping up fish with a big machete.....have to remove one or the other...oh rats....

I could go on and on…  (If you read this far….well done you.)  I will remember with a  painter’s eye, and do my best to forget the heat and the perspiration and the fact that I was disappointed not to do more, and better, paintings.  But then...it was ever thus......

Jackie

Cornelissen's fun gadgets

Tucked away in a corner of London, is a marvellous old Art Materials shop called L. Cornelissen & Son. 

 Established in 1855, little has changed in this enchanting art supplies shop except the stock. Inside, it's charming and old-fashioned.  It has creaking wooden floors, hundreds of wooden drawers and towering shelves which sweep up to the ceiling, lined with large glass jars of pigments and pastels. 

The shop stocks a wonderful array of brushes, calligraphy equipment, a specialized range of gold leaf and other decorative effects,  paints, pastels,  paper, gadgets, sketchbook, some of which are hand-made,  and books. They even supply quills to film companies! It’s worth popping in, if just to get a glimpse of the unique interior and to soak up the musty smells and long-standing Victorian atmosphere.   Just LOOK at those fantastic  jars of pigment in the pic below.

I visited with a friend from out of town.  She purchased watercolour supplies...including the most beautiful box of Schmincke paints which came in its own gorgeous leather carrying case - on sale, too!  The shop assistants are all artists, and they are extremely knowledgeable.   She learned all about Schmincke watercolours...how most watercolour pans are filled by cutting small squares from a long length of hard-set pigment, then these little squares are dropped into the plastic pans.  Schmincke watercolours are not made this way at all...each little pan is filled with pigment; allowed to dry then filled again.  As a result, the paint does not "rattle around" in the pan, it is firmly filled and releases rich, gorgeous colour.  Fascinating info.  It really is a shop worth visiting.  A victorian one...but with modern stock!  It is quite an experience.

 I found myself browsing the more unusual items in the shop.  I came across three helpful little gadgets which I thought I would tell you about.

THE PERSPECTOSCOPE

Perfect if you are still a bit confused by perspective and want some help when you are on location.  This is one of the more sophisticated visual aids of this kind that I have found.  You hold the viewer up close to the eye, and with one eye closed, a larger field of view is revealed, or, held at arm's length, you have a small field of view.  There is a thick line running horizontally across the gadget to show the eye level.  Radiating lines can be "lined up" with whatever you are trying to draw.  You have a "landscape" view one side, and a "portrait" view the other.  The landscape view is above.   Here is a pic to show how the theory is applied:

2.  ELLIPTISCOPE

 to help you draw circles or ellipses in perspective.  It "squares the circle" for you.  Or rather, they do.  You receive four little transparent cards, displaying four rectangles containing four ellipses.  They are of different ratios  - 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2 and 1:3.     You also receive a little booklet explaining exactly how to use them.   If you struggle with ellipses which just don't look quite right, these could prove extremely useful to you.

Finally...I have covered this idea in a previous blog, when I just suggested you buy red acetate.  If you want something a bit more posh to use, you can now have:

3.  SELECTATONE SPECTACLES.   !!

Understanding how to interpret tone values is AN ABSOLUTELY VITAL part of your learning as an artist. Reducing any scene to five major tone values, helps to avoid unnecessary detail and overworking.  You can, as I suggested, use a simple piece of red acetate and work out the tones for yourself...but this little pair of specs, with its handy tonal scale along the top, might prove more useful than you think.  Also the gadget comes with a 32 page booklet to explain the whole subject further and also give you some exercises to work with, suggesting you try the same subject first in a single colour, like sepia, then in neutrals, finally in colour.

All three gadgets were designed by Peter Atkins for ArtGizmos.  You can, of course, buy them through Cornelissen, who will send anywhere I am sure, but you could also buy from Global Art Supplies - www.globalartsupplies.co.uk.  Peter puts his email on each pack, so if you have questions, he would probably answer them:  pgatkins35@gmail.com.  

If you don't need any of these gadgets, but do like buying art supplies, and happen to be visiting London, then I definitely suggest you put a trip to Cornelissen's fabulous shop, into your itinerary.  There are not many places quite like it....if any others at all.     My friend said it was like something out of Harry Potter....a Diagon Alley art materials shop!  I have to agree, that is just how it feels, tho I would liken it more to a Tardis!  You step into what feels like a tiny wee shop...but my goodness, the stock they carry!  Such a huge selection, and such wonderful, quality items too. My eyes were popping out on stalks, I began to feel like Michaelangelo's apprentice, sent out to buy things for him.    It really does seem quite magical and quite unlike any other art materials shop I have ever visited.  Such a treat.

THUMBNAIL SKETCHES...WHY BOTHER?

I have just returned from a painting trip to a corner of Sri Lanka, which was a most fascinating place to visit. (that's me, in the middle of the pic!  And that is a king coconut which narrowly missed the other painter when it fell out of a nearby palm tree.....)

 It was a trip mostly taken by watercolourists.  By the time we got off the coach each day at our chosen location, we had, at most, perhaps 2 hours to paint, in quite gruelling conditions -very high temperatures, and humidity of 85% - NOT easy to cope with, for watercolour painters there were all sorts of problems with drying times in that much humidity.

We were presented with a myriad of interesting and challenging subjects to paint.  Almost too much to cope with, in fact. Now can you honestly tell me that when confronted with, say, a beach scene, with unusual-shaped boats, colourfully-dressed fishermen, palm trees, a dog (or cow or goat ) or two, a coconut seller  dressed in a blue sarong and Hawaii -style shirt wielding a massive knife to cut huge orange king coconuts, nets on the sand, trailing ropes, someone digging for turtle eggs, guys on stilts in the water.........you can ignore the detail???  You are positively BOMBARDED with details, and fascinating it is too.  Simplifying the scene is most definitely NOT easy.  And perhaps, if you only have a short time, you want to just get on with painting as much as you can.

With only a limited amount of time, we all had to work fast.  And I noticed that very few, if any, of the painters actually did anything resembling a thumbnail, or even carried a viewfinder, to capture their scene. I too was a victim to this problem and as a result, produced mostly sketchbook studies.

 It will take me time to digest these studies, and revisit my photos, before I begin to produce what I feel would be "proper paintings".

And before embarking on those paintings, I will  definitely do a small thumbnail or two to explore the best way to present the subject.

Thumbnails are a thorny issue for many.  Because it often feels like a waste of precious time.  But I honestly believe it will be 5-10 minutes very well spent, because a good painting is not just about the subject-matter.   And the sooner we, as painters, realise this, and begin to take it into account, the more our paintings will improve.  Why do I say this?  Because creating a painting is not just about accurately recreating the old house,  the shiny apples,  the colourful boats...whatever the subject might be.   Those are physical things, three dimensional, real things.  A painting is just that....it is a painting. It has a life of its own.    It is simply colours and tones, in the form of shapes, put down on a 2 dimensional surface - those shapes may well represent the house,  the apples, the boats.....but first and foremost, those shapes within the rectangle need to hang together well as a cohesive design. 

So, if what you want to achieve is a painting which captures the essence of the scene, you need to first decide what, for you, IS the essence of the scene...a few words written down might help....and then I believe it helps to focus your mind if you spend a few minutes doing a little thumbnail sketch which looks as tho it has the potential to become a dynamic image.  It takes time to learn how to simplify all that information, but here is an important tip for you:

SQUINT.

Did I shout that?  Yes, I did.  It is VITAL.  If you want to create a painting, rather than just collect information for the fun of it, then you need to practice the whole business of thumbnail sketches, make it a regular part of your painting routine. Read about, and Learn as much as you can about composition and design - those things can be learned slowly and incorporated gradually...but in the first instance, JUST SQUINT LIKE CRAZY AND DO THOSE LITTLE "VALUE PATTERN"  THUMBNAILS.

Get down the main elements of the scene - the main light area/s, the mid-tones, and the darks.  Force yourself to tie shapes together - you will see this happening when you squint, so do it in your thumbnail.  Simplify, simplify, simplify.  You need to simplify in order to make a strong, clear statement, which is expressive of your subject.  All your efforts need to be concentrated on linking shapes and values.  The building, the shadow, the tree in front ...are they all the same in tone, do they melt together when you squint? If so, put down the entire shape as a simplified, large shape.  Doesn't have to be fully accurate, this is just your thumbnail.  It will be a semi-abstract rough sketch, which will determine the underlying dark/light pattern of your eventual painting.  It is, without any doubt in my mind, the most valuable five minutes you will spend...unsuccessful paintings are usually the result of a weak underlying value pattern.

I often use just three TOMBOW felt tip pens...light grey, mid grey, dark grey.   For the thumbnail above, I only used two, a light and a darkish grey...the middle grey had dried up!   I used the white of the sketchbook page for the lightest shapes, then covered the rest with the light grey (the one above is the size of a postcard).  Then, I usually build in the mid-tones with the mid grey, and finally I put in the darkest grey, which is almost black.  I squint all the time, so I do not get involved in details at all.  I do the same in pencil, using a 6B soft pencil, if I do not have my felt pens with me.  I use a viewfinder to isolate the scene from the rest of the world around me.  A camera viewfinder will be fine for this too.  I sometimes do more than one thumbnail...I try different formats - basic rectangle;  long and wide;  tall and thin; a square perhaps -  to find a composition which best suits the subject.

I am not suggesting that you use my thumbnail as an example of "strong shapes within the rectangle".....now I look at it again, I feel it does not have particularly strong shapes, but it was obviously a comfortable value pattern which I felt would work, it balanced reasonably well and captured the atmosphere I was after - I could clearly "see" what I wanted,  in my mind's eye.The dark foliage and the dappled shadows on the ground encircled the central, sunlit section which the figures were walking towards,  and created the atmosphere I wanted, the sense of intimacy.    Here is the finished article:   I like the way that the colour, tones and shapes within the rectangle linked together in the end, creating a feeling of "flow".  The painting has, for me, a nice relaxed "Sunday Stroll" kind of feeling to it, just what I had wanted.  (It is not Sri Lanka, it is London, incidentally!)  Not too much detail, just enough to tell the story.

An American artist, Mel Stabin, says in one of his books "painting is a process of subtraction, not addition".  He recommends that you include only those elements that are expressive of your subject, and that you RUTHLESSLY ELIMINATE THOSE THAT ARE NOT.  Wise words indeed.  He suggests we consider carefully what we want to omit from our painting, in order to achieve simplicity.  Simplicity, he says, is the solution, to both the problems of complexity and chaos.

Doing a thumbnail when confronted with the complexity and chaos of the real world, helps us to pare down what we see, and what we eventually use.

I hope to show you some Sri Lankan scenes, once I have completed a few that I am happy with.

Jackie





  

STOP DITHERING AND GET ON WITH IT

View to the Salute, watercolour and gouache on grey tinted paper

I had to smile when I read this in a book by one of my favourite painters, Jane Corsellis.  I hope she will forgive me for using it as a blog title.

The comment was given to her one day when she asked a painter friend how she should go about painting with watercolours.  The implication behind the words is that he was inviting her to just TRY IT,  learn from her own mistakes, and glory in the discoveries she might make.

I decided to use this blog post to encourage you to think a little differently, perhaps, about how you work, in order to learn from your own mistakes and glory in some new discoveries.

Although I tend to lean towards pastels as my favourite medium, I do enjoy the look of watercolours.   However, they are not always an easy medium to use;  it takes time to become familiar with the technical issues of working with them. They have a reputation for being technically demanding, requiring careful washes and clever brushstrokes that seemingly once in place, cannot be changed ...but I have found that if I make up my mind to be a a bit more relaxed about working with them, using them in a sketchbook for example,  being a bit less precious about techniques, then some of these problems are minimised.  

Rather than produce careful finished paintings with my watercolours, I use them for location work, and since I am off to Sri Lanka next weekend, it is the medium I will most likely use while I am there.  Much as I might love, and in fact prefer my pastels, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to carry heavy kit around, and on location these days, I mostly use sketchbook and watercolours for convenience and ease of transportation.  ALSO I do feel that the sketchbook is just for me to look at, I don't feel I have to show it to anyone, so super-careful technique and meticulous finish goes out of the window, I stop dithering, and just get on with it.

I begin often with a light pencil sketch but sometimes, this can become a crutch - something to "fill in", so I try to use as little pencil as possible - I just put the main shapes in place to be sure that I can fit my desired image on the page.  Then, I begin laying in washes, worrying not at all about "going over the lines", washes are applied quite freely - and quickly, no fiddling.  From then on, I develop the painting wash over wash, sometimes working wet-into-wet (worth practising separately, to get the hang of the amount of water on brush and water on paper), sometimes working on dry areas. 

The Italian hilltop image below was drawn initially rather more in pencil, since I felt the need to get the proportions and perspective of the buildings right.  So, having begun with pencil, I took this pencil sketch further, adding tone in various places with the pencil, you can see quite a lot of scribbles particularly under the foliage to the left!  I was not the least bit "precious" about it, it is in a sketchbook, so it did not matter what I did.    THAT's the beauty of working in a sketchbook, you can give yourself permission to work with any implements you fancy.  In this instance, rather than carefully put in twiddly foliage shapes, I  put in some long sweeping vertical strokes of colour with a big square-ended brush, to see if I liked the look.  I did. The vertical strokes echoed the long vertical shapes on some of the buildings.  Nice.

Italian Hilltop.  Pencil and watercolour in heavy cartridge paper sketchbook with off-white, creamy paper

Sometimes I will "draw" with the brush instead of using the safety net of a pencil... ..the figures in the image below were not drawn at all in pencil

country lane, Rhajastan in good quality watercolour sketchbook

Flags and rain, Venice.
Watercolour and gouache on tinted pastel paper

 I sometimes work on a tinted paper, this is fun, since I can then use some opaque white (as Turner did).  This turns the image into something more like a gouache piece.  Using opaque white  removes some of the anxiety of "reserving" the white paper for brightest lights.  Chinese White watercolour is more subtle than Gouache white, which is more opaque - do try both.

All of these images here today were worked on location.  As you can see, they are a long way from being "finished watercolour paintings" but they were SUCH fun to create, and I seriously did just get on with it.   Making lots of small studies gets the adrenalin going, and the adrenalin makes you much less tense and fearful, so your work will have a liveliness that often disappears when you are trying so very hard to get things "right". 

So, I can hear you asking.........what kind of sketchbook, or paper?

Obviously, given that you are working with water, the paper needs to be THICK.  I sometimes use good quality watercolour books;  sometimes tinted pastel paper in a spiral bound sketchbook;  sometimes I use a sketchbook with heavy cartridge paper.   Moleskin sketchbooks work quite well, if you dont mind their yellowy colour pages. I am not sure I do like them.  I prefer something greyer if I can find it. Turner produced some gorgeous images, using "body colour" and watercolours on a greenish grey tinted paper.

You can also use paper taped to a board;  for lightness, you can use Foam Core board;  tape two panels together like a sketchbook, and tape your watercolour paper (minimum 140lb, heavier better if you slosh about a lot) to both sides, then you have a very lightweight, improvised sketchbook.  The only problem with Foam Core is that sometimes it is difficult to get sticky tape off it.  So I generally prefer a very lightweight, thin plywood board.

An interesting addition to your watercolour box, could be a few watersoluble pencils.  The sketch below was done with a watersoluble graphite pencil, to give me a rather nice monochrome image. If you look carefully you can see that I worked across a double-page spread.  I often do that, then there is no way I can tear the image out to frame it!

Wool sellers, Morocco market.  Done with watersoluble pencil, washed  with water to create tonal sketch. Done in a watercolour sketchbook.


One little bit of important "technical" advice I would like to offer if you work with watercolours:  Do not muck about with an area of your picture which is DAMP.  Adding more colour means adding more water....and any area which is damp will likely be spoiled.  Always leave damp areas to dry thoroughly;  then you can add more washes without any worries.  Wet-into-wet is different....while there is a sheen on the paper, which means water on the surface, you can (carefully) add more pigment  (this does take practice to know what will happen)...but once the sheen disappears, the water sinks in and the paper becomes technically "damp", you MUST leave it to dry...no further fiddling allowed!

The "stop dithering and get on with it" advice sounds flippant, but honestly, it works.  When you throw caution to the winds, and just have a go without being too precious, or super-careful,  or most importantly,  worrying about what others might say or think, you can often surprise yourself with some enjoyable results.  I will not be able to frame any of my sketchbook work, but years later, looking at these pictures takes me right back to their moment of creation. I remember the chill of the wind and rain in Venice, the musty smell of the wool market, the heat and dust in India... even the discomfort of the car seat in Italy, where I sat to paint.... these images are better memory-joggers than any photo could ever be.