MATERIALS
• Artist quality canvas 60cm x 45cm
• Gesso primer
• Artist quality oil paints: Cerulean Blue, French Ultramarine, Titanium White, Lilac, Indian Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow, Raw Sienna, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Viridian, Paynes Grey Taklon Bristle Brushes rounded 05, 1, 2, 4, No 12 and No 18 Flat, 5/0 and No 2 Rigger and No 2 Fan Brushes
• Liquin
• Spray Matt Lacquer
STEP ONE
I prepared a canvas with six coats of Gesso, making sure each coat was dry before applying the next coat. I then sanded the final coat so it was smooth, leaving no ridges from the weave. I find you can apply more detail when the surface is this smooth. I then applied a coat of warm white in acrylic paint to add some warmth to the background. It’s okay to paint oils over acrylics but not the other way around. I then sketched in the composition, taking great care with the canoes and kayaks that they were in proportion and sitting on the water horizontally while thinking quietly to myself -“is this such a good idea?” Using a No 18 flat brush I blocked in the sky with Cerulean blue and Titanium white with a touch of violet and more white towards the horizon where the light is more intense. Then I carefully blended the colours together on the canvas using a No 2 Fan brush.
Using the same colours as the sky plus French Ultramarine I blocked in the reflected sky in the river using various shades of darker tones towards the foreground and lighter tones towards the horizon, making sure all brush strokes were horizontal. Then I used the fan brush to blend the colours together so as to have a lot of subtle colour and tone variations, giving the impression of ripples and reflections.
STEP TWO
Working in the usual manner, background to foreground, I blocked in the distant hills starting dark and building up in layers of base colours. I experimented to get a feel for the most correct hues and tones, using Burnt and Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, French Ultramarine, Cadmium Red and Paynes Grey, mixing in a touch of sky colour, remembering the further away the lighter the tones. Using a fan brush I blended the colours together more on the canvas.
STEP THREE
Next I moved onto the furthest tree line. Here I added a touch of sky colour to lighten the various shades of greens mixed from Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, and French Ultramarine and scumbled in the suggestion of trees on the ridges and towards the mid-ground with darker tones. Using the same colours found in the background hills and foliage I blocked in the reflections on the water, being aware that the colours and shapes are reflected according to the background colours and shapes. The shapes go vertically even though the brush strokes for the ripples remain horizontal. Care needs to be taken to have the reflections less solid in shape and to mute the tone of the reflections. To give the hills and the middle distance trees more definition, I used a fine brush and defined and highlighted more of the rock formations in the hills and added more bright foliage tone, taking care to have the smallest shapes and lightest values in the distance to add depth. The challenge faced when painting the background is to keep from adding too much detail that could distract from the focal point.
STEP FOUR
I find painting water can be challenging to do properly so I decided to continue working on the water and the reflections, placing in the darkest reflections in the foreground and making sure that the distant water and reflections were smaller and the colours were lighter and vaguer. Then I turned my attention to the foreground water and reflections which needed to be more intensified with lights and darks. Working wet in wet I used a fan brush to smooth out and blend colours, remembering to keep all my brushstrokes horizontal.
STEP FIVE
At this point I decided it was time to block in the large foreground trees using the same colours in the background hills and foliage, while still managing to avoid the kayaks. More definition of the colour and values was developed. The branches and leaves were given dimensions by deepening the shadows with dark blue-greens and increasing the highlights where the light is falling with brighter yellow-greens. Being in the foreground more detail was added to the individual leaves,branches and trunks and skyholes were added to the trees.
FINAL STEP
Finally it was time to tackle the kayaks and canoes so I blocked in the tops of the boats with various shades of Indian Yellow, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Cadmium Red, and the bottom half with variations of the colours of the water with Titanium White. Using the same colours I painted in the reflections, making sure the colours were more muted. After patiently waiting for the paint to dry it was time to darken the shadows using washes of Paynes Grey and intensify the highlights using Titanium White and Cadmium Yellow so as to define the individual boats. Fine detail was then added using the No 2 Rigger on the kayaks and canoes. Then, checking that the canvas was covered in all the darks and mid-tones were taken care of, I painted in the lightest lights to complete the painting.
ARTIST’S HINTS AND TIPS
• All objects are reflected as a mirror image. If you are not sure of the reflected shape of the object, place a mirror against your painting and view the mirror reflection as a guide.
• When I have a break from painting I spray a light mist of water over the acrylic paints on the palette then place it inside a plastic bag and put it in the fridge where it will keep from drying out for a few days.
• When mixing paint on your palette it is more economical to add small elements of dark colour gradually into light colour.
• I like to take notes for future reference on each painting I am working on in an exercise book. I divide the painting up into sections eg Sky, Background Hills, Water, Foreground, Boats, Birds etc and jot down what combination of colours I used in each section. I also place a photo of the painting with it.
• I find I get better results and a finer detail in my painting using artist quality canvass that has been prepared with six coats of Gesso and then given a light sand with a fine sandpaper so the surface is extremely smooth. As it takes time for each coat to dry I find it more economical to prepare a few canvasses at a time.
