DEMONSTRATION
High Tide, Mevagissey
This Cornish harbour is one of my favourites, it’s always full of activity and paintable subjects. For this demonstration, I was inspired by the tonal contrast of brightly coloured foreground boats, set against the sparkling light on the water and the hazy distant buildings.
STAGE ONE
I sketched out the main forms in 2B pencil, using the box technique to find the boat shapes and then taking out the guidelines with a putty rubber. I noted the reflections were sharp, so I knew they would be painted on dry paper later. For the underpainting I worked top to bottom, leaving white paper for the highlights on rooftops and water. This was essentially one, wet-in-wet wash, starting with raw sienna, then adding a little permanent rose and cobalt blue. While the wash was wet, I added some ripples in the foreground to suggest the eddying current, using a thicker mix of the same colours
STAGE TWO
When all was dry, I developed the background of trees and buildings. It is so important to simplify this information – too much detail and it will come forward and fight with the boats for attention. I used raw sienna, light red and cobalt blue, carefully noting the tonal contrast of buildings and rooftops against the trees and softening the edges of the trees nearer the sun on the left. A few windows were added to buildings to suggest structure, maintaining soft edges
STAGE THREE
Working background to foreground, I started adding the boats. I noted the distant vessels were pale in tone, the details minimal and reflections blurred by the light on the water. Moving forward, the next vessels were darker, and washed in with permanent magenta, ultramarine blue and a little burnt sienna for the darks. The reflections were added while the waterline was wet, using a mix of raw umber, viridian and permanent magenta
STAGE FOUR
The foreground boats and their reflections came next, ensuring the tones were strong enough to bring them forward and push the distance back. The structures were carefully drawn with a pointed brush, working wet-in-wet to create the deep shadows where the dark blue boat sat behind the yellow one. Ultramarine blue, light red and burnt sienna were used for the main shapes, a touch of vermilion and blue for the roof on the left wheelhouse
FINISHED PAINTING
High Tide, Mevagissey, watercolour on Saunders Waterford High White Rough, 140lb (300gsm), 14310in (35.5325.5cm).
For the hull on the left I used cadmium yellow, with burnt sienna added for the shadows. I painted the floats with vermilion and ultramarine, taking care to leave any highlights as white paper. While the waterlines of both vessels were still damp, I painted the reflections with the same mix used for the boats behind them. Finally, I added details such as mooring ropes and a darker wash of blue grey across the foreground water to suggest the undulating surface