DEMONSTRATION

Aberaeron at High Tide

Palette and brushes

My palette is laid out with cool colours and warm colours because that is what I think about when painting. That and tonal value, which I feel is more important to get right than the exact colour, as it will make the painting understandable and read well to the viewer. Any left-over paint on the palette from my last painting session is used to make lovely greys and, when mixed with colours straight from the tube, they look more natural.

For this painting I used two brushes. A large mop to do the washes and a round brush with a good tip that comes to a point – this enabled me to paint detail whilst still holding enough paint for a good fluid wash. You could also use a rigger to paint the masts and any other fine bits of detail. A common mistake is to use a brush that is too small for the job, even a very large brush with a good point can carry out some fine detail jobs

REFERENCE PHOTOGRAPH ◀

The first job is to find something to paint! As I live near the picturesque harbour town of Aberaeron in Wales I am never short of a subject to paint. I regularly walk around with my camera looking for my next painting. This photo was taken on a spring morning at high tide. Unusually there was very little wind and the boats had not yet been lifted into the harbour, so the water was like a sheet of glass. Aberaeron is famous for its bright, multicoloured houses, so I will inject some of that colour into this scene. To improve the composition I will add/ move a boat or two – don’t be afraid to improve on the scene, as an artist you have the tools

STAGE ONE ►

I sketched out the scene, keeping the drawing loose yet concentrating on accuracy in the horizontals and verticals – we are hard wired to recognise these and a horizon that is slightly out will look odd

STAGE TWO ◀

Keeping the wash light in tone, I started with cerulean blue and then, as I moved down the paper, added some alizarin crimson and then a warm cadmium yellow, letting them mix and run into each other by themselves. If you mess about too much with the brush you will end up with grey. The sky and water areas needed to be light in tone to maximise the contrast of the harbour wall and boats. It’s better to be too light than too dark – remember watercolour dries a little lighter than when applied

STAGE THREE ►

I carried this wash with the same colours of the sky all the way to the bottom of the paper, starting with very little pigment then strengthening and warming it up by increasing the pigment and adding some alizarin crimson/ultramarine blue in the foreground area. This is when a large fully loaded mop comes into play as it will enable you to get a good clean wash with no streaks or lines as it will hold plenty of water. Just before it dried I used the round brush with a slightly thicker mix of the foreground colour or thereabouts and put the ripples in, remembering they get smaller as they recede. This was allowed to dry completely

STAGE FOUR ◀

Using a well-loaded round brush and a warm, dark grey mixed with my primary colours I started to paint the dark shapes of the buildings and harbour wall. I varied the mix to keep things interesting, adding a bit of colour here and there. Try to connect your shapes together, particularly the dark tones, as this will help the painting look whole. If you are lucky and your brush is loaded with plenty of paint, the shapes will melt into one another. Let watercolour do its thing –don’t fight it, you will lose every time!

STAGE FIVE ►

While the harbour wall was still wet (you may need to use the water atomiser to keep areas moist) I began to add the reflections of the harbour wall using a mix of ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson. I find the best way to paint reflections is to keep them simple

FINISHED PAINTING ▲

Aberaeron at High Tide, watercolour on Saunders Waterford 140lb (300gsm) watercolour paper, 11315in (28338cm).

Lastly I added the boats and suggested some details. Here I used the buoys to lead the viewer to the slip way – a zigzag always works well, I find – and the light on the harbour wall does the rest. Notice how not having a hard edge for the horizon gives the scene atmosphere and distance. The warm purple colour in the foreground wash complements the yellow haze, and warm colours tend to come forward, again adding to the feel of distance. The darkest part of the harbour wall is next to the lightest part of the water and this contrast draws the viewer’s eye to this point. The buoys act as a good lead-in, there are a good combination of hard and soft edges in this painting