How to Paint

Seth Godin has a great blog entry called I Need to Build a House, What Kind of Hammer Should I Buy?

I guess many artists are guilty of over-emphasising the importance of the equipment they use. It reminds me that you only need three primary colours plus white, some basic brushes and a length of cheap hardboard to paint a masterpiece.

We focus on the technology of creativity (the pigments, binders, supports, brush types and yes, blogging) and on the techniques (scrumbling, anatomy, cross-hatching, glazing, perspective etc) until it becomes an excuse not to create.

I stumbled on Sydney Padua’s blog today. Sydney is a London-based animator who with a geekish knowledge of cat anatomy. He’s recently been leading some courses in cat anatomy for animators and has published some of his exquisitley drawn course notes on the web. They’re fabulous - lively, brisk and full of cat-like energy and inquisitiveness. Animators like Sydney have to observe their subjects even more intensely than we artists - every gesture, every nuance must be right.

The subject of this painting is a local beauty spot, only about 15 minutes drive from home. Me and my Dad spent a pleasant early evening painting the scene before nipping into the local pub.

The Subject

This was the view that caught our eye. A slightly misty view over blue-green pine woods and a reservoir, towards distant smokey blue hills.

The Equipment

I use this box (or french) easel for most of my oil painting outdoors. All my equipment fits into it and it can store two wet panels or canvases. It tends to be a bit heavy and bulky for long treks though! Cheap but adequate versions of this easel can be had for about £80. More expensive, but well made versions cost £150 upwards.

Stage 1

I decided to put on a light wash of a pearly grey colour that I mixed using ultramarine blue, pthalo green and alizarin crimson - all mixed together with lots or turpentine to form a pale wash. I made sure to use vigorous brushstrokes to give some interesting texture to the wash. Because I used lots of turps, the wash was dry within a couple of minutes.

Stage 2

With a slightly darker version of the wash used in stage 1, I indicate the main outline of the hills, trees and water. As you can see, no need for great detail.

Stage 3

The trickiest stage! The first colours you apply will literally set the tone for the rest of the picture. So I always try hard to get the right colour. But more importantly I try to set the right tone. I identify the darkest tone (the trees in the foreground, and the lightest (the reflections in the reservoir) and try to get them right. Then I look for a mid tone (the fields beyond the reservoir).

Stage 4

Now I’ve established the lightest, darkest and mid-tones, I can relax a bit and fill in the rest. Actually, I decide early on that the mid-tone value for the fields isn’t light enough, so I mix a little white and blue and apply directly over the green paint. It effectively mixes the colours ‘in situ’ on the board - essential when working into wet paint.

Stage 5

This is the finished painting. I add some shadow areas to the trees, then use the wrong end of a brush to scrape marks to represent the tree trunks. I add a touch more crimson and yellow to the grassy areas at the bottom of the picture even though I didn’t see them in nature, as I think this brings them forward a little.

Generally I use thicker and thicker paint as the painting progresses, both for texture and to stop the paint on previous layers being picked up and affecting the colour values. The hardest bit is knowing when to stop. In this case, it took only about an hour from start to finish.

Equipment

Surface: Primed hardboard 12×8ins.
Media: Oils.
Source: Painted on site
Date: August 28th 2002
Subject: Earnsdale Reservoir, near Tockholes.
Colours Used: Cadmium Yellow Pale, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Pthalo Green, Titanium White.

Rhys Harding emailed me a few days ago with a few questions. I answered them as best I could!

What are the major influences in your work?

The landscape (and seascapes) plus portraits and the human form have been the most inspirational subjects for me. In more abstract ways: light (shining through leaves, or from behind stormclouds), colour (from sunsets, or moorland grasses in winter), textures (clouds, hills, grass, mud).

Are there any other artists you have looked up to in your career or when you were younger?

Picasso. For pushing the boundaries of art, for his creative energy and for his technical skill (people forget that he was an incredible draughtsman and could make paint do anything he wanted).

Ivon Hitchens. A relatively unknown English painter whose simple, direct paintings of landscapes I try to emulate.

Matisse. Just for his line and colour, but what lines and what colour!

David Hockney. I can learn so much about painting and drawing by study his work…

Constable. His small sketches, painted outside in front of his subject are so fresh and lively.

Degas. I love the way he used photography to inspire new compositions.

Richard Long. For his understanding of the landscape.

Lucien Freud. Painting the nude is an incredible skill, and to have his focus, over so many years has enabled him to create a ‘body’ (sorry about the pun) of work that helps me see the human form in new ways.

Liam Spencer (a local Manchester artist). Because he’s local and because he captures the way the light reflects on rain-wet streets so well.

Which medium do you most like to work with and why?

Oil or acrylic on canvas or hardboard. I try not be be too concerned about the medium.

What is the favourite piece of your own work?

Usually my own favourites are ones that no-one else likes. I’m really pleased with http://www.davidpott.co.uk/images/WinterHillAndBelmont.jpg but no-one ever buys it! My favourites are usually paintings where I feel I’ve created the painting I set out to paint. Very often when I paint, my initial vision isn’t quite matched by the final painting. When the final painting does match the initial vision, then that’s great.

Where is your favourite place to paint and why?

I feel most at home painting the Pennines.

How long on average do you spend on one of your paintings?

I usually spend about a month from starting a painting to finishing it, though I will have two or three painting ‘on the go’ at any one time. If you add up the actual hours painting involved in one of my paintings, perhaps 5 to 10 hours. I seem to spend a lot of time gazing out of the window, listening to music or the radio, or just looking at the painting in progress. To me, daydreaming like this is just part of the creative process. I used to feel bad about it, until I realised that pictures have to form at their own rate.

Do you find your paintings a challenge or does it come naturally?

If I don’t paint for any period of time I become very irritable but having said that, I find it very difficult to shut out the distractions of everyday life and start to paint. Once started, I’m too easily distracted by other things. So I guess I’m not a naturally creative person - I do have to force myself to stand in front of the canvas sometimes, but I always feel very rewarded when I do.

Do you enjoy what you do?

See above!

Did you always want to be an artist?

My father is an artist, so I was always given access to paint, paper and encouragement. At school I wanted to be many things (an astronaut, an astronomer, a physicist). I ended up working in IT, but slowly the artist came to the fore.

Do you learn something form each piece you create?

Yes. That’s what makes it so great. You never, ever stop being surprised by the visual world.

Have your experiences an artist changed you as a person?

Being an artist helps you see the world with fresh eyes every day. I think I’m much more receptive to beauty, and much more capable of finding aesthetically pleasing aspects in otherwise mundane objects.

A Sudden Squall, originally uploaded by David Pott.

Black and white can be the most dramatic of colour combinations. Here’s one of my favourite paintings that derives most of its dramtic impact from being high-contrast, pure black and white. Often a painting is better for having fewer colours and fewer compositional elements. Less is definitely more, as they say.

Midday is the worst time for an artist. In the morning and afternoon/evening the light is much more interesting. I think it must be the way the light comes through the atmosphere, picking up a warm rich colour.

I came across this site yesterday and can highly recommend it to any beginner artists out there. Drawspace is a web site set up by a lady called Brenda Hoddinott. The well-crafted lessons are clear and well paced and the information is pitched at just the right level. You’lll need to create an account but the basic subscription is free.

You might have seen this site already, but I’ve just found a site that allows you to create your own Jackson Pollock masterpiece (see the link below). Its firmly tongue-in-cheek of course…

My views on Jackson Pollock? Yes, he was an important artist. Yes, he did push back the boundaries of painting, and in doing so he opened the door to new generations of artists to create new work in different and exciting ways.

But perhaps he was too much a ‘one trick pony’. I find too much repetition in his work - to the extent where many of his paintings are indistinguishable from each other. Can you remember a specific painting of his? or, like me, do you remember just an amalgam of all his paintings?

Here’s the link to DIY Jackson Pollock painting.

I’ve been using scrapblogger to create a little explanatory diagram of the thought processes that went into one of my recent paintings.

I’ve just completed a painting of the Langdale Valley in Cumbria. For once I was organised enough to take some photos during its creation. I hope they illustrate the processes I use.

Stage 1 - Start with a plain white canvas (this one is 20 x 30 inches) and add a very simple sketch. I’m using a brush dipped in very watery acrylic paint to draw perhaps a dozen lines that sketch out the main shapes.

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