Paint contemporary figures in watercolour

Leo Crane shares his approach to PAINTING THE fiGURE

Leo Crane shares his approach to painting the figure

In the act of painting, I’m reconnecting with the present moment. It’s an act of mindfulness, when the senses awaken and instinct takes over. I’m concentrating, but not thinking; observing critically, but without judgement. Everything I see and feel is valid.

The art of letting go

It starts with the ritual of setting up: opening my paint box, lining up my favourite brushes, laying out paper, two pots of water and my rags. The model poses, the timer starts, a hush descends. I receive what I see, let it flow through my body into the brush and onto the paper, where the painting reveals itself.

I always start directly with paint. There is no drawing to conflict with the fluid marks of brush on paper. If I need to plan or explore, I make a series of study paintings first.

The hardest part is not caring about the result. If I think it’s going well, the spell is broken. If I decide it’s ‘wrong’ and try to correct it, I lose the power of

spontaneous mark making. But if I can give myself over to the act of painting, I can discover an image that just seems to have happened on the page, full of a life of its own.

I try not to work from photographs, videos or live streams, because I relish the energy that flows between two living beings sharing the same space at the same moment. However, I know that for many, a life-drawing group may be difficult to access or too public a setting in which to lose yourself in paint. If you are working in the privacy of your own home, use this as the safest possible place for experimentation.

Push yourself into your own world of interpretive mark making, rather than replicating what is in front of you.

Watercolours don’t need much to release their personality, making them a popular choice for painters on the go. Whether you’re in a luxurious studio or balancing a drawing board on your knees in a busy community space, they’re ready at a moment’s notice.

Once released, watercolours challenge the painter to be instinctive and experimental. If oil paints are like a dinner guest, at times sparkling with conversation, at others deep in existential thought, then watercolour is the spontaneous friend who drags you onto the dance floor to throw caution to the wind.

Will it get on with the paper? Will it decide to run off with the water or just plonk itself in a little puddle? Maybe it will soak up the heat or maybe (if it’s humid) it will just lounge around a little longer than you would wish.

As a painter, you can take many different approaches to forge the relationship that suits you. Some choose to lead, plotting a path and guiding with a firm hand. Others follow, daring watercolour to propel them in an unexpected direction.

▲ Scott Online Painting via video link has a dynamic all of its own. Apart from the difference in colour, perspective and scale, the model and painter do not share the same space. In this session with Scott, I noticed the strange effect of heightened contrast and distorted perspective. As he settled into a 15-minute pose, I used this to emphasise the barrier between us, made stronger by the distracting clutter of a computer desktop

▲ Fluid Roy This painting was my last in a two-hour dropin workshop with my model, Roy. Having started by describing the form with crisp, linear brushstrokes, I pushed myself away from drawing and into the wateriness of the paint. Working on a gently angled board, the pigments seeped into each other, pulled downwards by gravity through the water