Painting with Carol

The problem with owning a blog is keeping it updated in order for it to remain interesting. I am not sure that I have a lot to tell you as I haven’t been painting at all lately -  it has been the school holidays and at the moment I am lucky enough to have my eight year old grand-daughter staying with us. What a joy she is to have around! I just love being a Nanna and I try to make the most of it while she still wants me around to do things with her.

There is much to be done over the holidays when you are eight and it’s so much better if you have a friend stay over. Thank goodness the weather was perfect for going to the beach, the water was a bit cold to stay swimming for too long but when you are young there is so much to discover in the rock pools. We came home with a bucket full of shells, star fish, hermit crabs, bits of glass washed smooth all that good stuff.

I have also become the cupcake queen, decorated by the girls with bright green and hot pink icing. We spent four days with my mum, who is ninety now and we like to spend as much time with her as we can whilst we still have her around. We went to the theatre to see a production of Just Macbeth, written for children by Andy Griffith. It was a lot of fun and on the way home in the car I asked Zoe to tell me the story of Macbeth. She said, “I am not sure if I understood it all,” but when she told me the story in her words, she was spot on. Would I have understood Shakespeare at that age? I don’t think so.

All in all the school holidays were fun. School started Monday so it is back to normal again. So I am trying to get back in to painting, even though I have been painting for so many years I still find it hard to get back in to the swing of it after a break.

I am lucky enough to be sponsored by Chroma, and they have asked me to design some Christmas cards using their iridescent colours, which I thought it would be a breeze. Not so! They have to be very simple so that anyone including non-painters can do them. I am inclined to fuss too much - I add a bit here and a bit there, so I have to discipline myself. But I am on the way and things are starting to take shape.

This weekend I am going to be the student for a change. I belong to The Sutherland Arts Society and every year they have a Paint-a-thon. I treat myself to painting with other well-known artists. I learn so much - I have always encouraged my own students to paint with as many teachers as they can, as everyone has something to offer. I am so looking forward to it, I have three days of painting watercolours with Ross Paterson. I will take photos for my blog if I am allowed.

Also, I will be teaching the Pink and grey galahs down the south coast at Batemans Bay on the 25th of October.

Well I should get back to painting Christmas cards. Talk soon!

I took these photos during the workshops at Rosewood. I had a wonderful time teaching everybody. I haven’t included names but if you’re in these photos, please add a comment!

It has taken a while, but here is the promised free pattern packet of the gum blossoms watercolour. This is a beginner pattern so it’s a good starting point. There are two parts to the pattern packet:

• The tracing. Download the file here. It’s currently A4 size, so you will need to enlarge it to A3 and print it out onto tracing paper. If your printer doesn’t do sizes larger than A4, take it to a print and copy centre such as Kinkos - they should be able to enlarge it and print it onto tracing paper.
• A step-by-step instruction guide.

Both are PDF documents so you will need a reader such as Adobe Reader in order to view them.

A group of camels.

Here’s my latest watercolour of camels. I am working on another at the moment.

There is an incredible range of watercolours out there, which can be quite daunting to a beginner. When I first started I wasn’t sure what colours I should buy first or what brand of paint to buy. It is very easy and very expensive to buy 25-35 colours but I personally think it is simpler to work with a limited palette of about 12-15 colours.

You must be able to mix your own colours to become a good painter. You will find it fun - this way you will also discover hundreds of hues. I think one of the most important things to remember is:

only buy artist quality paint.

I am going to give you some of the colours that I mostly use in my paintings and that you will also need if we are going to paint together. You will find that once you get started you will want to learn more and more about colour; I still go to other artists’ workshops to learn new techniques. You will find every artist has different colours that they love and use. I encourage everyone to do the same.

The colours I use most are: 

• BLUES: French Ultramarine, Cerulean Blue
• GREENS: Sap Green Permanent, Olive Green Permanent, Australian Leaf Green Dark
• YELLOWS: Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Aureolin, Yellow Ochre
• REDS: Pilbara Red, Spectrum Crimson, Rose Madder, Cadmium Red
• EARTH TONES: Warm Sepia, Burnt Sienna, Payne’s Grey.

As far as the BRAND of paint to buy: I use Art Spectrum. Of course, there are many other wonderful brands of paint but as I live in Australia I like to think I am doing my bit towards our economy, be it ever so small. I also like the the vibrancy of the Art Spectrum colours which suits my style of painting.

I think we are almost ready to start a painting together.

When I was a young thing, before such things as computers, I worked on a drawing board as a draughtswoman. The only pen we used for drawing plans was called a “ruling pen”; it used ink and we filled the pens from a bottle with a dropper attached to the lid. So it was only natural for me to use a ruling pen as one of my tools for painting.

A ruling pen has a small wheel on the side that you can either tighten for fine lines or loosen for much thicker lines. I mostly use it with masking fluid to give me fine lines that you simply can’t get with a brush. For instance, I use it for the veins in leaves or if I were to paint the long flowing hair of a fairy or even a child and I needed to bring some light on a few strands of hair.

To use the masking fluid, I just pour some of the masking fluid into a film container as I find it easier to handle. Then I dip the tip of the pen in, making sure that I don’t go as far as the mechanism - otherwise the rubber latex can wrap around it and I have found it almost impossible to remove. Paint can also be used in the pen as long as it’s the consistency of ink. When it comes to cleaning, try not to immerse the pen in water as it will rust.

I know that you can still buy ruling pens as separate items from The Art Scene as that is where I buy most of my supplies. Check at home before you buy one, as you may find that you already have one in an old drawing set from an old technical drawing class at school (there was nearly always a ruling pen amongst them).

If there is anything else you would like to know about them don’t hesitate to ask me questions in the comments.

This is a big subject to tackle. I could write pages and pages about it. But if you are anything like me, you can only take in a little information at a time. If I am faced with pages of information I don’t read it properly. I wonder if this means I only use the artistic side of my brain?

Anyway I have decided that I will write a little at a time as required for the projects we do together. There is a basic vocabulary used when talking about colour and when I first started to paint, I found it difficult to know one from the other. Every colour has three characteristics:

• Hue
• Value
• Intensity

If you attend a class or a workshop you will hear your teacher speak of “hue” - this simply means it is the name of the colour. It allows us to distinguish one colour from another.

“Value” is the most important of the three. It simply means the lightness or darkness of a colour - however, if the value of the colour is wrong then the colour is wrong.

“Intensity” just means the brightness of the colour as it comes freshly from the tube; mix any other colour with it and you change it’s intensity. Brilliant Red has a high intensity value, for example, but if you were to add a touch of green to the red it would make it less intense. You can lighten the hue of watercolours by just adding water. I have tried to simplify it as much as I can but if at any stage you are unable to understand what I write, please don’t hesitate in asking me. If you’re wondering about something, it’s a safe bet others are too - and it will also be a help to me.

Colour may seem to be a difficult subject but I have found the more you paint and mix your own colours the more fun it can be. You will find the best thing about painting is playing and learning about it. I have reached the stage now after so many years of painting where I can look across a field and I feel confident enough to know I can mix any colour to suit the colours in the grasses, trees, or anything else needed for a painting. Of course, that only comes with experience and practice. I will go more in to colour as it is required.

I’m working on uploading a pattern packet of this design so that you can try it out for yourself. Stay tuned.

If you take up a hobby of any description you will need extra “stuff”. I just love that word “stuff” - I have so much of it much to the disgust of my family. Here’s a quick list of some of the stuff you’ll need for watercolours:

• Razor blades for scratching highlights which of course we will go in to when we paint together.
• A fine mist water spray. Chroma has the best one I have found so far. You’ll need it to quickly wet the paper down.
• Don’t through away your old toothbrush as you can use that for splattering.
• A synthetic sponge and a natural sea sponge. I often use sponges for different effects.
• Paper towels and tissues are very much apart of a watercolour artists list of things to have, I couldn’t live without tissues for different effects and blotting up mistakes.
• A ruling pen. I use this all the time and often I am asked what it is. It can be bought at The Art Scene. My camera has died but I will take a photo of the “Ruling Pen” for all to see when I get it back; I think you will find it self explanatory.
• An eye dropper for measuring out water when I mix my paints.
• A soft and hard pencil for quick sketching.
• Along with a pencil of course goes a pencil sharpener.

I am sure there is so much more. I will enter them in as I think of them.

I like to think that everyone can be successful when they start to paint with watercolours, so I introduce art masking fluid with the first painting. There is a school of thought that one should never use masking fluid - that you should be able to introduce light in to a painting with out it.

But you know what? If you are successful with your first painting you are likely to want to continue.

Art masking fluid is a rubber latex solution. It is used to mask out an area you do not wish to paint. For instance, if you would like to paint a rose you would either trace or sketch the rose, then you would carefully block it in with the masking fluid, making sure the paper is covered well. If you can see the paper through the masking fluid, then you will need to add another coat.

Allow it to dry before you apply the required washes over the paper for the background. Masking fluid can be used before any painting has been done - this will ensure that any highlights can be kept white. Masking Fluid is available in a clear or slightly yellow tint and I have even seen it in a blue colour. It can also be introduced at any stage of the painting - providing the surface is thoroughly dry before it is applied.

I like to use the brand Art Spectrum which has a yellow tint to it this makes it easier to see when applying it. Of course, you can buy other good brands of masking fluid at your favourite supplier.

TIPS:

• Don’t use your good brushes when applying the masking fluid, but use a brush with a good point.
• Continually condition your brush with liquid detergent before you dip it in the fluid as it is inclined to clog the brush.
• Leave a small amount of liquid detergent in the brush before applying
• Wash your brush frequently.

I like to paint over the sketch lines as I find the masking fluid will remove them. It is important that the masking fluid is dry before you remove it - even when it’s dry it will have a wet sticky look so touch it with the tip of your finger to check. Gently rub away the masking fluid with a clean fingertip or an eraser.

Masking fluid can also be used for textured effects and splattering - the list goes on and on there is just so much for you to learn, it is so exciting. I think I will leave that for when we are actually painting a project together.