DEMONSTRATION Summer in Dentdale
STAGE ONE
With a 6B pencil I drew out my composition on a piece of watercolour paper. By working from a definite plan, I didn’t have to make alterations, which can be disastrous even at this stage as lots of erasing can easily bruise and damage the paper. I began with size 6 squirrel mop brush, applying a simple wash of light colours using cerulean blue in the sky, switching to yellow ochre and Winsor violet lower down across the foreground
STAGE TWO
In the trees I used a size 3 mop to apply the colours and shapes vigorously in places, maintaining control around the shapes I wanted to keep light. My basic green was permanent sap green and I varied this in colour with the addition of yellow ochre, ultramarine and some cerulean blue. I used fresh colour from the tube which also allowed for rapid changes in values. Lower down in the field I used my size 6 again with permanent sap green, cadmium yellow pale, yellow ochre and cerulean blue mixed loosely on the paper
FINISHED PAINTING
Summer in Dentdale, watercolour on Saunders Waterford 140lb (300gsm) Not, 10315in (25.5338cm).
This was where the design plan paid off; with uncertainty eliminated, I confidently attacked the shadows and form. I added further dark values to the trees to give them depth and shape using a size 2 mop and plenty of thick colour. I continued into the shadow of the left-hand wall with a mixture of cobalt blue, Winsor violet and yellow ochre and I connected this into the field shadows whilst the paint was still wet. Next, I moved on to the building in much the same way, adding the shadows and allowing them to blend into the grass shadows for which I used French ultramarine and permanent sap green. Switching to a size 6 sable brush I worked the sheep one by one, adding a cerulean blue mark to echo the colours of the painting. Finally a little gouache was added to the gates, window frame, roof lights and one or two missed highlights on the sheep