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When tackling a complex  subject like a vase of flowers, it's a good idea to draw the outline of the entire thing using a dark colour. Start the outline by placing your main flowers ( the ones that are wholly visible ) first  and then moving on to the partially visible ones, moving round and outwards till you have captured everything. Now you can move on to painting the flowers. Start by painting the background, then the rearmost  flowers, so that you can paint the main subject of the wholly visible flowers on top of the background ones. Caroline advised buying a high quality yellow paint as it often is very difficult to get a good mix using the cheaper ones with less pigment. She mixed three shades of yellow using lemon yellow, yellow ochre and white. Adding the white makes the colour more opaque and also stops it becoming too acid. You can also add a tiny bit of red , but be careful not to add too much. Using a pointed round brush you can make a nice petal shape. Start by putting in the darker areas and then paint on your petals on top. Concentrate on darks and lights to bring out the shapes of the petals. Next,use a smaller brush to add lots of bright tips to represent the tops of the petals, also using this brush to put in more darker shades to further define your petals. For the red flower, first put in the centre in a bright phthalo green. Then, using a rigger, go over with small dots of yellow, finishing off with the rigger to put in a dark shadow under the dots. Paint on the red petals and then add white on top where you see the lighter colour. Then paint...

Caroline’s session today was a talk about how the use tonal values affect a painting, followed by a demonstration of how to build up tone in a pencil drawing. First Caroline showed us examples of the use of light and shade and colour in paintings by Norman Rockwell. He was an American artist who depicted everyday scenes of life in the USA in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.  He used photographs and often set up scenes this way to capture an image he had in mind. The first example was a painting titled “Freedom from Want” 1943, which showed a family having a meal around a table. Caroline pointed out the way the use of dark colours drew the eye in to the picture. The male figure in a black suit in the centre contrasted with the woman next to him in white and the dark hair of the children and other adults around the table gave the picture a sense of fluidity.  In many other paintings by Rockwell he used dominating dark or strong colours to draw the eye in while various paler colours are passed over by the eye.  One particular picture showing two black children facing a group of white children in suburban area caused quite a bit of discussion among us, both in his use of colour and social commentary. It was painted in 1967 and reflected the racial tensions of the day. Caroline then demonstrated how to build up a pencil portrait concentrating on light and shade. First she lightly sketched in the features of the woman and her head gear, starting as she always does with the nose, moving on to the mouth and eyes and brow. She kept on taking account of the proportions by measuring with her pencil until she was satisfied...

Caroline gave a helpful talk on preparing your painting for the annual show. It’s a good idea to finish off the back of the painting using gum tape and parcel paper to cover up all the fixings and make your painting look more professional   Please note that all pictures ( apart from canvasses) should be finished by using D rings or eye rings and then strung with sturdy nylon string or wire to make sure your painting will hang securely for many years. It is possible to buy 100 D rings from Amazon for as little as £7 or £8. Caroline manages to pick up nylon string at boot sales very cheaply and will get some for you if you ask. Reasonably priced frames can also be found at Asda at Hollingdean. You could also consider picking up used frames from antique shops or even charity shops. You can easily repair any chips or gouges by using wood filler ( also available at Asda ) and then once it has fully dried sand it down and paint it. You can use any paint of your choice but chalk paint works very well, and looks great after you have waxed it.   When deciding what frame would best complement your painting, take into account   1 Colour.  Use a colour that appears in your work to bring it out   2 Texture.  Use a texture that enhances the style of your piece   3 Topic.  Use a frame which is in keeping with your theme   4 Size.  You should try out different sizes to see which gives your work most impact - you may want to use mounts which can themselves be in different colours.   As a basic rule plain neutral colours are popular or simply plain black....

Caroline began with a description of the various brands and associated thinning agents: Jacksons Aquaduo are very thick and expensive Cobra is like System 3 acrylic, that is with less pigment Lukas thinner is specifically for water based oils. Cleaner: White Spirit When using acrylics, it is often necessary to build with up to six layers to achieve the desired effect. However, the water-based oils will cover in just one or two applications. Caroline suggested that we underpaint with acrylic when outlining the image, and especially putting in skies, and then continue with the oils. The benefit of using this technique is that the acrylic draft will dry very quickly, allowing us to take up the oil paint. Demonstration: Starting with a sketched in image, Caroline mixed the skin tones, as below: Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Deep, Titanium White, Manganese Blue Light Skin Tone:               White, little red, yellow ochre Medium:                           Less white, little red, yellow ochre Deep:                                Less white, little red, yellow ochre + ultramarine Apply the paint and allow to dry before blending. Using a filbert brush, to avoid angular marks, she painted over lightly, blending as she went, using skin tones and applying more than one layer. The oils proved much more workable than acrylics. Using the darker shades for the cheek , Caroline then put some red into the nostril and made it darker further in. She used the lighter tones after the medium and dark tones are done. Working around the mouth, the coloured shadows were put in. For the eye, an off-white was used with a little re inner and a white rim above the lower eyelashes. A dark piece in the corner of the eye. The green for the iris was made of Viridian and blue. For the eyelashes, black was a mix of...

Reflections Demo  30th May Today Caroline is using watercolours and working from light to dark. To mask the highlights on the ball, she would normally use masking fluid, but as that takes hours to dry, candle wax is preferred for speed. A yellow wash was put on the top half of the ball. Caroline stressed that we should ignore detail at this stage, and break down the shapes we see, working in areas. Go for the big shapes first. Note the saucer used for the perfect sphere. Working wet-on-dry, she began on the darker area, using pink first, then blue around the bottom of the ball Fill in with impressions of shapes, such as class members, easel, the kitchen door. Remember that with spheres, all lines turn inward. Use a rigger for detail, such as the rafters in the hall and put in darker lines.  

Today we enjoyed a demonstration by Caroline of painting a sky at sunset. To begin with, Caroline under painted the board with a sympathetic colour, in this case a Yellow Ochre. She started with the grey clouds mixing the darker tones of deep purple and brown. We should look for the shapes and, using a filbert brush, blend the edges gently. Use acrylic thickly, as a thin mix will dry too quickly. Also, using a thick mix makes blending easier. Caroline used white for the sun, and mixed a glaze medium to give the thin, translucent layer for the purple streaks in the sky. Yellow edges crept around the dark clouds. The reflection on the water was made with an off white, using a flat brush and moving the paint from side to side. This was a very helpful demonstration, as we are fortunate to benefit from such sunsets over water in this coastal area. To the canvas everyone! Palette: Ultramarine. Cadmium Red Deep. Yellow. Yellow Ochre.       

The talk began with Caroline listing five headings, under which she would develop the subject of composition: Line Tonal Values Colour Chroma Warm & Cool Line: When thinking about your composition, consider where lines go. In the above picture by Tissot, all heads are in a line in front of the railing, to the tree, down the invalid carriage, up the steering stick. None go off the page. So the image is formed of a triangle. The intention in composition is to move the eye around the picture. Think of what is most important, then put it in the middle. In the above picture all lines forma a triangle to the focal point of the woman. Tissot was very good with groups of people, so when looking at a picture  look for the lines, as in the picture below.   Tonal Value: What draws the eye is the contrast between light and dark. The light is on the rifle and the dark background pushes the woman forward. Tonal Range: As between white and black. Impressionists used mostly light. Peploe combined tonal values using strong and light values, as below Colour Ferguson used red and green to take the eye around the face, above. He used cool blues and greens for the background , and put all the colour in the face and hat. Use cool colours for the background and warm colours in the foreground. In the Norman Rockwell paintings below, note that the eyes are drawn to the portrait eyes and palette. Similarly, the cool background in the scout picture emphasises the warmth of the figures in the foreground.    Chroma Chroma is the value of a colour in terms of brightness/dullness In the Rockwell picture below the emphasis of the dark suit throws the lightness of the table....

The title of this week’s demonstration may not sound that exciting, but Caroline presented a very interesting session, bringing a rather ordinary subject to life with innovative techniques. There were three images of different forms of rust, each requiring different treatment, as sectioned below: Mosaic Rust Acrylic Mixing  Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow deep making a rust colour, paint on a few shapes in purple, then fill in with a darker red and high light with orange/yellow. You can use a damaged brush .For the flakes mix white with blue for three shades of grey. Gradually build the flakes, using the three greys and inserting dark shadows, as below         Dripping Rust Watercolour Using a flat brush,  put on a water wash.  Mix Yellow Ochre & Orange and allow it to drip down. Then add the red and allow it to move around with the flat brush. Add the dark brown on top and, while still wet, sprinkle with sea salt.       Rust Columns Watercolour Put a water wash on first, using a blue grey. Wash in between grey infills using a yellow layer. Put orange onto the yellow and allow to drop. Splatter with dark red/brown.    We were all engrossed and found the demonstration really riveting!    

Caroline started her talk by showing some examples of people in motion. Artist Sergei Chepik used strong exaggerated poses to bring energy to his paintings such as the bullfighter.   While Mary Cassatt used the strokes of her pastels to convey movement. She painted babies and toddlers who were "caught in the moment " as it is obvious to the viewer that the child could not have maintained that pose for long. To capture people moving can be tricky and it might help to draw a stick figure first, taking care to show the curve of the back, and the correct angles of the arms and legs. The correct slope of the shoulders, waist and hips can be indicated with a straight sloping line. From this base you can then flesh out the drawing. You don't even need to paint fully every part of the body, sometimes it's better to simply give a blur suggesting a hand or foot as this in itself will suggest movement. You should try to measure the angle between the head and the legs to ensure you position them correctly.    Once you are happy with the positioning of your figure you can enhance the feeling of movement by putting in creases in the clothing and shadows on the limbs to emphasize muscles being used. Hair is also great to convey movement as it can be shown flying in the wind. Landscapes can be made more interesting by the inclusion of people working, or simply walking. If the figure is shown performing a sport , the brain automatically fills in the next move to your still frame and so movement is seen. Once again, many thanks to Lesley McBride, who kindly provided the text and photos of this session.    

Painting with Oils  6th September Many materials can be used to paint on: canvas, canvas board, hardboard or paper, but all must be sealed before starting. Those bought ready made from art suppliers are “ready to go” but if you use hardboard or paper, you will need to apply a coat of size or, as Caroline does, a coat of household emulsion. The importance of working fat on lean: Start with thinned layers of paint for under painting and build up to thicker layers with added linseed oil for fluidity. You can choose from a range of oil mediums: linseed oil, poppy seed oil, walnut oil, and safflower oil. The choice of oil imparts a range of properties to the oil paint, such as the amount of yellowing or drying time... Water based oils need their own specific oils, as per the makers’ instructions. Use a thin under-paint consisting of a colour and turpentine, which won’t take too long to dry. You can then add layers of subsequent paint without delaying too long. With over-painting, sometimes if too many layers are applied, it can become muddy and overworked so the options are to scrape off or leave to dry and paint over. Glazing - Building up layers of thin paint. As with the last demonstration on 16th August Glazing on Black & White Acrylics), start with a thin layer of paint + turps  which allows the sketch to show through and keep over-painting, adding heavier amounts of colour. You can also use a technique called Impasto – this involves using the paint thickly to show brush or knife marks, Van Gogh painted in this way. Disposal: Oil paints and the thinning mediums are flammable, so soak any rags or paper towel in water before throwing them in the bin. They can...