Artist questions and answers

I quite often receive messages from other artists asking if I could share my 'secrets' and also which working materials I use. In the past I've replied to each separately but thought it would be a good idea - and save time! - if I wrote about any hints and tips I can give on my blog. So - if you want to know, just ask in the comments.

To start the ball rolling I will discuss my watercolour materials, colours and brushes so if you have any questions before I begin, please let me have them now. Otherwise, I shall start discussing my working methods in the next few days.

If you want to email me and keep your name private, please do so to info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian (Magic) - watercolour

Ch Dvojica Voodoo - Watercolour on Saunders Waterford NOT 

16" x 20" (external mount measurement)

Today's painting is a portrait of the top winning bitch, Magic. Here is a list of some of her wins: 

She is the biggest winning Dalmatian in UK history and was Top Dalmatian in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. She is also the holder for the most amount of Best of Breeds at Crufts, and has won the most amount of Groups and Best in Show at Breed Club shows. She has also won the coveted titles of Dalmatian of the Year, for 2005 and 2009. 

Phew! 

More importantly though she is a much loved and loving pet.You can tell so much about the character of a dog by looking at its face and it is obvious from looking at her that Magic is sweet natured girl. What a doll!

If you would like to commission a painting, please email me or click on the commissions page of my site.

German Shorthaired Pointer - Coco

German Shorthaired Pointer - Coco - 20" x 16" watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper

Here is the finished portrait of Coco. Following on from the last stage shown in my previous post, I next worked on her eyes again until they were almost as shown here. I could then get down to all the detailed work on the rest of her. As I've mentioned previously, I don't paint individual hairs with a fine brush as I prefer what I feel is a more natural look, achieved by splaying out a round sable brush. This is a technique which does require a fair bit of practice and will also involve careful lifting of colour in certain areas and blending in others. My aim is to paint a realistic portrait which doesn't look like a photo but looks more than a photo - I want - well what do I want? I want to make the dog live!

I am pleased to tell you that Coco is alive and well and a very loved family member. Her mum burst into tears when she saw the painting - and I can assure you it wasn't from disappointment! Apparently the painting is now hanging on the wall for all to admire :)

To commission a painting please email me at info@azpaintings.com or visit my commissions pages.

Coco - German Shorthaired Pointer (work in progress)

Coco - 20" x 16" watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper (WIP)

This is my latest commission which I have just recently finished. Here I am showing the first completed stage. The drawing has been done and the background wash has been laid down - as usual a watery mixture onto stretched, dry paper. I paint with the board at a slight angle so the paint, when watery, will run down. I start with a darker mixture at the very top of the paper (in fact this part will eventually be covered with a mount) and gradually add more and more clear water to the brush so that the mixture becomes lighter as it nears the dog's head. Once past the ears, I add the more of the water/paint mixture to the very edges, to bring more colour into the painting and then add a strip of darker paint at the bottom. I then quickly add more clear water so that the background mixes in with the bottom of the dog's neck. I hope that makes sense. All this is done as quickly as I possibly can and as I said in a previous post, I can't stop for anything when laying in this wash as otherwise it would leave ugly hard edges wherever the paint was allowed to dry. 

As is usual, I painted Coco's eyes in first so that we could develop a 'relationship' and then her nose. The rest of her head, neck and ears followed gradually and what you see here is in fact not one layer of paint, but already several laid into each other. You'll notice some hard edges on her forehead and a few other places. As the painting progressed I eventually softened these by scrubbing at the area with an old half inch square edged brush and clear water. I have had this particular 'scrubbing' brush for ages now and hope it lasts for ever as I know it would take ages to break a new one in. I'll try and remember to take a photograph of it one day and show you. I will post the finished painting tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Jules!! (Coco's mum)

To commission a painting please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian watercolour - completed

Dalmatian - Ch Dvojica Voulez Vous (Frida)

20" x 16" watercolour on Saunders Waterford 100% cotton rag paper

Well, here is the finished painting, many, many hours later. I am pleased to report that her owner is thrilled with the portrait of his lovely Frida :)

If you have any questions, or would like to commission a painting please either visit the commissions page of my website, or email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian Watercolour (work in progress)

Dalmatian Ch Dvojica Voulez Vous (Frida) - work in progress

20" x 16" watercolour on Saunders Waterford 100% cotton rag paper

I thought it might be of interest to show the completed first stage of a watercolour painting. At this point in the procedure, I have painted in the background wash. This wash is made from a mixture of lamp black, burnt sienna and a dash of raw umber and is a very watery mixture. I don't dampen my paper first but lay this wash in as quickly as I possibly can with a 1" wide flat brush. If the phone rings or someone comes to the door when I am doing this part of the painting, I don't answer. I simply can't stop during the laying in of the wash or it will dry leaving horrid hard edges and would need to be thrown away. I don't paint over the dog's head although I don't worry if I overlap a little here and there but I make sure to touch every part of the outline or there would be a noticeable white gap which can't be filled in without it noticing.

As this wash is laid onto dry paper, it doesn't take very long to dry so there's just time for a short coffee break usually! The next area to be worked on is the eyes as I very much dislike looking at a 'dead' dog while I paint. So, for the eyes, I do enough work to enable the dog to look back at me. I usually then paint the nose in but with less detail than the eyes. After these two important areas are finished, I then start to lay in washes of tone and this is the same whether the dog is long or short coated. As these toned areas start to develop it is possible to 'feel' the shape of the dog and model it - in my head I imagine touching that part of the dog which helps to ensure accuracy. As this painting is of a Dalmatian, the spots come next. In fact some of the spots here are a little darker than I prefer and I did lift a little of the colour with clear water before putting in the detail. Although in the final painting it will barely notice, it will just add a touch of depth to the painting.

I will show the completed painting tomorrow with more details about it's creation.

If you have any questions, or would like to commission a painting please either visit the commissions page of my website, or email me at info@azpaintings.com

Cocker Spaniel Champion

Sh Ch Wiljana Waterfall - 20" x 16" watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper

This is another of my Christmas commissions - well not strictly Christmas as it wasn't a present but a painting to honour the memory of a much loved girl who lived a full life and to a very good age. A top winner, she achieved the fantastic win of Reserve Best In Show at the world famous Crufts Dog Show in 2000. 

This photo isn't as good as I would have wished as it was taken as the light was getting low but hopefully it is good enough for the detail to be seen - and also for it to be obvious what a very beautiful girl she was.

To commission a painting or purchase an original or print, please visit my main website or email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian Head Study

Ch Camargue Gucci Envy (Lola) - 16" x 20" watercolour on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper

As many of you will know, I was busy before Christmas completing commissions which were to be given as Christmas presents and couldn't therefore be shared with you. The first of these paintings, a head study of a Dalmatian, which I am now showing you, was actually planned as a birthday present to be given in February, but when it arrived shortly after Christmas, her owner couldn't resist giving the painting to his wife - and so now has to find another present for her!

I actually managed to take a work in progress photo of this painting and here it is:

As you can see, I have painted all the spots in and started adding colour to her eyes and some shadings on the head and neck. The shaded areas are made in a couple of different ways; one method is to drop colour into pools of clear water previously painted on the surface, and the other is to paint using a very watery colour and then soften the edges with clear water. If you leave hard edges they can be the very devil to get rid of - so I don't leave them! I think you can just see that I have also put in a few strokes to indicate the lay of the coat and if you look at the spots you will see that their edges also indicate which way the fur is lying. I like to get the eyes of the dog painted as soon as possible in any of my paintings, as I totally detest looking at them without eyes as they seem 'dead' and I want them alive as soon as I can manage it!

If you have any questions, either about commissioning a painting or purchasing an original painting, print or card, please email me at info@azpaintings.com. Also if you have any art related questions, please email me and I will be happy to help. I will do this in confidence if you prefer or if you'd like to share your journey with other readers, that could be fun - so let me know.

Lastly but not least...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Cocker Spaniel painting

Sh Ch Lujesa Happy Too - 20" x 16" watercolour

Yes, another Cocker Spaniel (okay for my American friends, English Cocker Spaniel). This painting was a gift and so I could not show it at the time it was painted. These dogs have such sweet and appealing faces it's hard to remember sometimes that they are energetic and talented gundogs. Over the years, I have met very many of these dogs and have found them to be as affectionate as their sweet faces would imply! If you are an artist contemplating painting one of this breed, I can only say to make sure you get their meltingly sweet expressions just right!

I hope you enjoy viewing this painting as much as I enjoyed painting it. If you would like to commission a painting of your pet, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Saluki Head Study

Saluki - Ch Glenoak Ishaara 20" x 16" watercolour

As Dean Grey at Exploding Doughnut commented that he had never seen a saluki before, I thought I would post another one here - this time a head study.

To commission a similar painting please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Saluki

 Saluki - Joop - 20" x 16" watercolour

After the short legged dachshunds, I thought today a rather longer legged hound might be fun. Unlike dachshunds, salukis hunt by sight not scent and they are both very elegant and very fast! It is said that as a breed they tend to be rather aloof with strangers, so I was somewhat surprised when I went to a saluki show a couple of years ago and was met with many wagging tails and affectionate greetings. I suppose some have that 'stand-offish' temperament but clearly a lot don't!

If you have any questions please email me at info@azpaintings.com

If you'd like to commission a painting, please click on Shop in the menu above and then Commissioning A Painting

Smooth Haired Dachshund

Ch Seatris Laced with Success - 20" x 16" watercolour

Well, after showing you all two different dachshund coats, I thought I'd make it a trilogy!!

The dog above is a Smooth Haired Dachshund - as of course it says in the title!

If you have any questions please email me at info@azpaintings.com

If you'd like to commission a painting, please click on Shop in the menu above and then Commissioning A Painting

Wirehaired Dachshund

Ch Kanix Hilda At Stargang - 20" x 16" watercolour

I thought it might be fun, following my posting of a Longhaired Dachshund, to show a dachshund with a different coat. I hope you can see that the coat on this dachshund is somewhat shorter and rougher than the previous one! It is a Miniature Wirehaired Dachshund for those unfamiliar with the breed.

As usual, if you have any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

 

 

Rhodesian Ridgeback painting

Rhodesian Ridgeback - Ch Nyuki Takamali Shujaa of Morlingcourt
(20" x 16" watercolour)

While I'm busy with current commissions, I thought you might like to see some more of my past paintings - I hope you enjoy them! 

A commissioned portrait

If you have any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian Commission

22" x 18" watercolour on Saunders Waterford NOT paper

This is a portrait I have been working on for a while and just recently completed. I can show it here now as the owners have seen it and are very happy with it. These two sweet girls have passed on through old age, having spent their lives as much loved pets. It was quite emotionally tough painting them - it always is hard painting dogs no longer around. It may be difficult for non-artists to understand this, and the rapport the artist builds up with his/her subject, even if only seen in a photograph (as most of mine are), but I am sure any pet portrait artists reading this will understand only too well. Nevertheless, it is a privilege to be able to pay tribute to much loved animals.

Anna and Misha

Stretching Watercolor Paper - Step By Step

I've been asked several times if I could explain clearly how to stretch watercolour paper and so here are several photos showing my (reasonably foolproof) method of stretching 140lb Saunders Waterford NOT watercolour paper.

This is my board - it is made of ¼" plywood and I use each side alternately so that by warping slightly in different directions each time, it remains flat. By the way, the tape around the edges is just where I haven't bothered to remove it after I had cut out my previous painting - I generally leave it a few times before removing it all.

Here is my roll of gummed tape and the stips cut from it. Cut this tape before you handle your paper so that your hands are totally dry as you don't want any of the glue removed from it. Make sure to make them slightly longer than the edges of your paper.

I take my paper (I normally work on a half full sheet) and soak it in a clean bath (no traces of cleaners or other chemicals) for approximately 15 minutes. I've been known to forget it and leave it in there for more than an hour and I've never suffered adverse consequences!

Remove the paper from the bath with clean hands, holding it along one edge and let the excess water drip off. Take it to your board and lay it down.

With clean kitchen roll - just a couple of sheets - remove the excess water. Just lightly run your hand over the back of the kitchen roll - no heavy handedness.

Then just lighly run the kitchen roll down the edges of the paper.

 Now wet half of a piece of tape. The reason for leaving half of it dry is as it absorbs the water from your paper, if it is already wet, it becomes too wet and won't stick. Do just completely wet the very ends of the tape though as they will extend further than your paper and won't otherwise stick down.

 This photo shows one piece of tape stuck down. Run the back of your nail up and down it and you will see it start to adhere to your paper - do this until it is smooth.

And the final result ... a lovely taut, clean piece of paper just waiting to be painted on!  :)

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions, just leave a comment or email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatians - Ch Sophtspot Sugar Daddy at Dvojica & Ch Dvojica Voodoo

Dalmatians - Ch Sophtspot Sugar Daddy at Dvojica & Ch Dvojica Voodoo

(watercolour on Saunders Waterford NOT paper) 

 

At the moment I am painting a commission which is a gift and therefore I can't share it here, so I thought instead that I would post a past commission of mine. 

The two Dalmatians above are owned by Mark Dunnachie, owner/breeder of Dvojica Dalmatians, and as well as being very successful show dogs are also much loved and spoilt family pets - which is of course what all Dalmatians should be. Both dogs have won extremely well and become UK Champions, with Ch Dvojica Voodoo - Magic as she is known to her friends - doing a phenomenal amount of winning and becoming the top winning Dalmatian in UK history (she is the one on the right as you look at the painting). It was a pleasure painting these two dogs and I know that Mark has been delighted with his painting :)

If you should wish to commission a portrait of your dog - or other pet - please email me at info@azpaintings.com for more information or visit www.azpaintings.com

Colour/color prejudice in watercolours

Well back after a long break - not on holiday unfortunately!

Today I want to talk a little bit about colour prejudice in watercolour painting and, like colour prejudice in the human population, it concerns the colours black and white. However, here the similarity ends thank goodness!

Traditional watercolour purists would never use black or white in their paintings, asserting that black is a 'dead' colour and that white in a watercolour should only be achieved by leaving virgin areas of paper.

When I started painting in the long distant past, being a very law-abiding person, I used to follow this rule and it frequenly made my life very difficult indeed. How do you have white whiskers on a dog for instance if you don't paint them in? Well, when I didn't use white, I basically had two options. One was to simply scratch the paint away with a sharp blade but although I tried many, many times, I never became very proficient at this and instead of nice clean, sharp lines, I used to end up with somewhat 'bobbly' lines. The other technique is to cover the paper you wish to reserve with masking fluid. Masking fluid is a whitish liquid which dries to a rubbery consistency which you can then peel off from your paper. If you decide to have a try with masking fluid, use a pen and not a brush as I did at first - you will never get the dried fluid off your brush. If you want to cover a larger area and have to use a brush, use an old one as you will need to throw it away afterwards. Speaking personally though, like the scratching technique, I never enjoyed using masking fluid.

In my own work, I use watercolour paint in many layers. This in itself would be frowned upon by purists. The fact that I use black and white would just confirm their worst opinion!

However, I must make a couple of, I believe, very important points. Firstly I never mix white with any other colour. I have a real distaste for something which is actually quite widespread in watercolour paintings, and that is 'chalkiness'. I find that this chalkiness completely deadens the painting and removes the light and life from it. I mostly use white where it is the final colour i.e. whiskers or hairs overlapping a coloured part of an animal's coat or the lighest part of a white section. Occasionally I will use it as a 'basecoat' in a small part of the painting. By this I mean that I will paint a very small area white, wait for it to dry completely and then very carefully and lightly, apply a dryish thin coat of colour over the white, thus allowing the white to shine through. If I make a mistake and apply the colour a little too wet or not quite lightly enough and it starts to mix with the white below, I will immediately add more water to dissolve the paint and mop it up - I really, really do hate chalky paintings! Unfortunately this technique is very time-consuming which is why I believe so few artists use it.

As for black I usually use lamp black and add just a little of another colour to enrich it - perhaps a touch of French ultramarine or burnt sienna. I recently bought some mars black but am being very careful about how I use it and in fact will only use it for backgrounds as I like the way it granulates. I dislike it in the body of the painting however as it is a dead, flat colour and despite being black has that 'chalkiness' about it that I don't want in my paintings.

I've included a painting of a border collie today - a black and white dog. This painting contains very little white paint indeed - just the whiskers and where some of the white hairs overlap the black. All the shine in the coat is the paper shining through the paint. Although, as I say, I use many layers of paint, I am careful in certain areas, to make these layers very thin and transparent so that the finished painting will be lively and fresh. The black has been moderated with touches of blue and brown.

So although I am not colour prejudiced in my paintings and will use both black and white, I use them with care.

Contratulations!

I thought it might be nice to occasionally include news of some of the dogs I have painted.

Today's news though isn't of a dog I have painted but he belongs to Sue Ellis for whom I painted the portrait above - her Ch Chayo Blue Thunder. Blue is the first Champion Malamute in the UK and of course I am very proud to have painted him and no doubt Sue is equally proud to have bred him and to own him.

The dog in the news today is Sue's Ch Chayo Dom Perignon ShCM who has won an unprecedented two Best In Show awards at general championship shows in the UK and is the first Alaskan Malamute to win a Best in Show at a general championship show. Sue obviously has a knack of breaking records with her dogs! Loius (Dom Perignon) is a son of Blue.

Brushes On Watercolour - Wet On Wet

I had an interesting question the other day about watercolour paper and whether it is used wet or dry. Well, it is used both ways depending on what you are painting and the effect you want to make.

If you are going to paint a detailed painting, which needs to be accurate to scale (like mine) you will have to work on dry paper. The reason for this is that you will need to make your pencil drawing on your paper and as we all know - you can't draw with an ordinary lead pencil onto wet paper. A long time ago I did try drawing on my paper before soaking and stretching it. Unfortunately I discovered that when you do this, you also stretch your drawing and even when the paper has completely dried, the drawing is not absolutely as it was when you drew it. So for my purposes where accuracy is vital, it was useless. If however, 100% accuracy to scale is not needed, then you can certainly do this.

You may wonder why anyone would want to draw first, soak later. The reason for this, is that when you have a sheet of wet paper on your board (not completely, dripping wet but still soaked through) you can lay your paints onto the paper and get some wonderful effects. You will need to practice to see what I mean, but essentially the paint will mix in with the water held in the paper and spread out into wonderful shapes and patterns. When you then add another colour to the mix - oh lovely! Do be aware though, that where the paper is holding a lot of water, you will need to put reasonably strong colours on your brush.

If you need to let your paper dry so that you can put on an accurate drawing, you can however, wet areas of your paper with clean water (make sure it is clean!!) and then drop your colours into that area. No doubt you will find some frustrations. Quite often the paint will collect to the edges of its spread and when dry, creates and thickish hard line which most often you won't want. If you try and lift some of the paint when you see this happening, you will find to your dismay that quite often you get a 'floral' effect and most of the time you won't want this, although in a looser painting, it can be utilized to become a useful part of the design.

The picture at the top shows a small part from the background of one of my paintings (ignore the piece of dog neck) which shows granulation. Granulation occurs when some paints are mixed together - I usually make mine happen by adding ultramarine to my mix. I love the grainy effect it gives.

So to summarise - your paper can be worked dry, damp or wet. It will depend on your requirements and may well differ from painting to painting. Just keep going and don't give up if your efforts appear amateurish to begin with. Enjoy what you're doing. Don't make it an effort but look forward to it as an enjoyable discovery. Apart from learning to draw and paint, you will also begin to see differently. Yes, you will. Where once you would just look at an object, now you will start to really see it. You will notice it's shape, colour, the way the light falls on it. Yes, life will become more fun!

Talking of fun, did anyone notice the heading of this piece? If you take the initials it reads BOW-WOW - perfect for a dog obsessed person like me!