Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2016 i Artists & Illustrators

There were definitely two trains of thought hurtling headlong into the making of this issue. On the one hand, we’ve taken a very pragmatic approach to painting and come up with an entire technique section devoted to the common concerns and problems facing artists in the studio. If you have ever struggled with controlling wetness, finding focus, removing mistakes or mixing greens then we have an expert solution for you. In fact, we have 27 pages dedicated to these common, tricksy little complaints, so you can apply the advice to your paintings, no matter what the subject or situation. On the other hand, we’ve been putting our troubles behind us and indulging in a little escapism. Brush maker Symi Jackson tells the story of 100 painters making an historic visit…

With tight deadlines and even tighter budgets, the reality for most jobbing illustrators is that “picture research” often amounts to nothing more than a trawl through Google images or some other internet image library. For her latest project, however, Hastings illustrator Nina Cosford decided she was going to break with convention and really try to get to grips with her subject. Frida Kahlo is the fourth in author Zena Alkayat’s Life Portraits series, a collection of beautifully illustrated biographies of iconic female creatives. Nina has provided the imagery for all three previous titles (Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Coco Chanel), but for this particular book she wanted to push herself a little further. “When you look at the books I did before, Virginia Woolf was set in London and Sussex,…

“IF I LIVE UNTIL I’M 90 I KNOW I’LL STILL HAVE A PAINTBRUSH IN MY HAND... I CANNOT LET GO OF IT” You’ve focused on The Ritz in London for your latest series of paintings. Why did it interest you? I went in there to have a cup of coffee and thought there might be some drawing opportunities. They let you sit and watch, which I have done for many hours. My parents had a date at The Ritz when my mother was 18, before they were married. The history and the colours appeal to me. This is one of the only London hotels that keeps those slightly decadent fabrics. I love the golds, and the low lighting. Now, I’ve done it to death [as a subject]; you work on…

For a demanding artist, the quality of the paint throughout a range is one of the most important factors. This means excellent lightfastness and brilliance, the highest pigmentation and various excellent mixing options. All of Schmincke’s premium ranges exceed these demands, not least the PRIMAcryl® Finest Artists’ Acrylic range. Available in 84 brilliant and extremely lightfast shades, PRIMAcryl® Finest Artists’ Acrylic is ideally suited to all painting techniques – from impasto palette knife work to textured illustrations. With PRIMAcryl® Finest Artists’ Acrylic there is practically no colour shift between wet and dry states, while the unmatched Titanium White is a unique combination of the highest pigmentation, opacity and spreading rate, resulting in brilliant mixes. To find out more about Schmincke’s full range of finest artists’ colours, from the much-loved HORADAM®…

LONDON Light, Time, Legacy: Francis Towne’s Watercolours of Rome Until 14 August 52 views of the Colosseum and other landmarks. British Museum. www.britishmuseum.org Painting Norway: Nikolai Astrup Until 15 May Last chance to discover this Scandi master. Dulwich Picture Gallery.www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk Astrazione Oggettiva: The Experience of Colour 13 April to 26 June Italian abstracts for fans of Riley and Rothko. Estorick Collection. www.estorickcollection.com Dutch Flowers 6 April to 29 August Golden Age tulips in exquisite detail. National Gallery. www.nationalgallery.org.uk Maria Merian’s Butterflies 15 April to 9 October Vintage botanical art made in South America. The Queen’s Gallery. www.royalcollection.org.uk In the Age of Giorgione Until 5 June Celebrating Venetian art of the Renaissance. Royal Academy of Arts. www.royalacademy.org.uk Botticelli Reimagined Until 3 July Modern twists on classical beauty. V&A, London. www.vam.ac.uk ENGLAND…

“I FOUND MYSELF TRAVELLING IN THE COMPANY OF PEOPLE LIKE CECIL BEATON AND IVOR NOVELLO… I PROBABLY OVERSTAYED MY WELCOME BUT I HAD A MARVELLOUS TIME!” Art and architecture have always been natural bedfellows. Together, they capture the cultural zeitgeist from one century to the next, working simultaneously to change the way we see the world, from the grandeur and excess of the Baroque to the functionality of the Bauhaus school. With interior design the relationship to art, while less obvious, is just as rich. Both disciplines can be used as a means to explore colour, balance and beauty, while also acting as an important means of self-expression. Nobody exemplifies the connection between these two worlds like American artist Jeremiah Goodman, whose illustrious paintings of famous interiors predate the widespread…

PAINTING HIGHLIGHTS BOTANICAL ARTIST SIMON WILLIAMS ON CREATING SUBTLE LIGHT EFFECTS When using gouache, highlights can be added with white paint, though this depends on the choice of subject. A white will show up nicely against a subject with a deep intensity of colour, but a paler subject will struggle to have enough strength for the white to show. A Zinc White is usually provided in gouache starter sets, but for highlighting a Permanent White is worth purchasing. This is a cleaner and much more opaque colour that does not have the blue-grey tinge of Zinc White. Because of the dryness with which white gouache needs to be applied for highlights, it is best to use a hatching or stippling technique. Hatching is a good technique for achieving a smooth…

I would like to know how to mix watercolour greens that look natural for a landscape painting? Priscilla George, via Facebook Andy Pankhurst: “All greens can look ‘natural’ in landscape painting, depending on how you use them. Never underestimate nature – in painting, we can never be extreme enough. The art of watercolour painting is to think of your white paper as the ‘light’. The aim is to tint the paper and build up the image using as many transparent layers of colour as necessary. Watercolour is not designed to be used in an opaque manner like a designers’ gouache or acrylic. “If you are finding your greens too bright, try adding a little complementary red. This will move your colour from a pure saturated value towards an earthy brown…

THE EXERCISE Next time you go to a life class, try drawing with watercolour rather than pencil or charcoal. It is helpful to have a really expressive model who can hold a variety of poses. The poses don’t have to be wild and dramatic; quiet and gentle ones work equally well. When working quickly, it is more important to capture the gesture of the pose, rather than a true likeness of the model. DURATION Opt for short sittings: anything from two to 30 minutes. Watercolour lends itself perfectly to spontaneity, movement and vibrancy, so work quickly for the best results. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN Drawing with a brush loaded with watercolour will help you to focus on the figure as a whole rather than zooming in on the detail too…

Having a strong focus or striking focal point in your paintings is always a useful way to hook in the viewer and provide them with a clear, defined narrative. If you think about every aspect in a painting – subject, colour, tone, drawing, your own involvement – each has a direct impact on the outcome. Thinking things through and understanding where the heart of the painting lies before you start will make the entire process altogether easier. Most scenes have a natural focal point – eyes in a portrait, for example – the key is to make the most of these areas while allowing other areas to just breathe. There is no right or wrong answer here. A strong focus can be achieved by using or combining various techniques –…

When I view a great work of art, my first reaction is a deep level of appreciation for the artist’s skill set. Eventually, I begin to deconstruct the masterpiece, in an attempt to understand each component used to create it. This requires me to look far beyond the surface and deeper into the underlying layers and ultimately onto the ground layer. In this demonstration, I build a portrait, using thin washes in the ground layers and finishing with slightly thicker glaze layers of colour. This “simple” approach to glazing allows light to reflect off the paper and gives the subject a luminous appearance. Audrey has distinct, chiselled features, which I wanted to showcase. The overhead light source created dramatic shadows on her face, which allowed me to accomplish my goal.…

1 HE STARTED EARLY Born on 16 December 1932, Quentin Blake was a precocious artistic talent, becoming the youngest ever contributor to Punch magazine at the age of 16. Nevertheless, Blake surprised his school art teacher by opting to study English Literature at Cambridge. In the new biography, In the Theatre of the Imagination, he explains his logic: “I thought, if I go to an art school I might stop reading… but if I go to Cambridge I shan’t stop drawing.” 2 HE IS SPONTANEOUS WITH COLOUR Blake has a spontaneous approach to colour, which he applies to his illustrations with watercolour, ink or chinagraph pencil. “I don’t have a set of rules about colour and how you use it, I don’t think leaves are green, or tree-trunks brown. Colour…

Re: Daily Painting, Issue 360 As well as being an artist, I work full-time, so I tend to spend quite a bit of time thinking about painting, but not much time actually doing it. I tell myself I haven’t got enough time or I need better ideas or there’s no decent light at this time of year. I particularly enjoyed and felt inspired by the article in January’s magazine, so I set myself a challenge to paint 30 paintings in 30 days. I didn’t set out to create a perfect series of work, but rather to, in the words of Andy Warhol, “just get it done”. I also wanted to develop a more regular rhythm of painting that would last beyond the challenge. I’m nearly at the end of the…

OLIVER BEDEMAN London-based painter Oliver Bedeman is an inveterate people watcher, wandering the city’s many parks or forms of public transport in search of inspiration for his next canvas. “On the tube you get such a rich mix of people it’s the perfect place to observe,” he says. “You have to be careful not to catch the wrong eye or to stare too long, so I tend to half-draw from memory. This in turn adds to the work as you internalise it and discover what it was that drew you to the scene. Although the oddities are always compelling, really it’s the mundane and every day that I’d like to convey as a sort of shared experience.” Oliver trained at the Prince’s Drawing School (now the Royal Drawing School) and…

IN OLD HAVANA, IT FELT LIKE THE CLOCKS HAD STOPPED AND WE HAD TRAVELLED BACK IN TIME TO THE 1950S Last month, 100 plein air painters packed their brushes and travelled to Cuba for the trip of a lifetime. Arranged by a US publisher, this was to be the largest group of artists to visit the Caribbean island in its history. The timing was perfect, not least for the chance to visit this jewel of a country before it changes. Since the end of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the country has remained under Communist Party rule with trade embargos and food rationing ensuring that it feels as if you’re stepping into a bygone era, from the vintage cars and traditional bars, to the unkempt buildings and the rural working…

“I USE LAYERS OF BRUSHMARKS TO GIVE A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE IN A LANDSCAPE” Congratulations on scooping Best Editorial Illustration at last year’s V&A Illustration Awards. Thanks. I always expect with illustration competitions that they want a quirky idea and mine was just a landscape. It showed that people could just appreciate something on its own terms. You’ve been illustrating for almost 20 years. Have you noticed a change in the nature of the work available? Yes, when we left college, there were lots of computer magazines commissioning illustration and you’d get book covers more easily too. That died for a while as they started giving them to designers instead, but I think that’s starting to come back. When do you get the call now? When people want something quite…

By the very nature of watercolour as a medium, mistakes are unavoidable. The unpredictability is part of the joy. Before taking action to correct any ‘mistakes’, start by asking yourself if the marks actually add to your finished image. If not, what follows are some tips for correcting some of the more common offending marks. Before we begin, it is worth noting that there is one commonly occurring mistake that compounds all others – making a correction too quickly. Paint that appears surface dry may still be damp enough underneath that the addition of extra water will cause the pigment to move easily. This can increase the mistake or cause further unwanted marks to appear. Bear in mind that some mistakes are best left until completely dry before any attempt…

1 Applied too much watercolour to your page? Take a clean, wet brush (a round one will do) and gently lift out the excess colour. Allow the water to diffuse the pigment and soften the edges with careful strokes. 2 If you create a dent in your canvas, spray the back with warm (not hot) water. As the water begins to evaporate, the canvas should shrink into shape. Introduce the water gradually, repeating the step if necessary, but avoid saturating the material. 3 Oil paintings can take forever to dry. Try adding a fast-drying medium like Schmincke’s Rapid Medium or Winsor & Newton’s Liquin to your paint to speed things up – they also increase flow and transparency. 4 When stored incorrectly (particularly at the wrong temperature), masking fluid can…