Module 2 - Your First Painting

Martello Tower : Jersey Materials Pencil : 2B Brushes and Paints Rigger No 1, Golden Sceptre 3,5, and 8 Paints: Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, Light Red, Raw Sienna.

  Drawing Technique

1. Place your board horizontally and in the landscape position.
2. Draw a faint line with your 2B pencil, nearly half way down the paper from edge to edge, use a ruler if you feel insecure
3. Draw the Martello Tower and Plinth, using a ruler for the vertical lines
4. Draw the sand dunes at the left hand side, noting the recess, and draw the sailing dinghy.
5. Draw the slither of sand pushing out into the estuary
6. Draw the outline of the two bathers
7. Draw the promontory on the right hand side
8. Place the direction of sunlight on to your gummed strip (top left hand side)

  Basic Water Colour Techniques

1. Form a pool of dense ultramarine blue in your tray
2. Using the No 8 brush, soaked in water, wash the sky surface and leave to become damp.
3. Apply ultramarine blue to the top edge sweeping from left to right
4. Dilute the blue in the tray with water and apply to the previous run.
5. Repeat until the lower half is barely coloured and the horizon is clear paper
6. Mix raw sienna (yellow) with water, add a little light red and burnt umber to give the colour of the sand dune and apply to the top surface
7. Dilute this colour further and apply to spur above the dinghy as well as the middle distance to give a shore effect.
8. If the sky is dry, take the dense blue and apply as a strip to indicate the horizon and sea interface adding water to create a graduated wash down the page
9. With diluted coloured blue paint around the spur to suggest water
10. Leave to dry
11. Mix two pools of burnt umber, dense and medium
12. Apply the dense colour to the walls of the sand dune then whilst damp add medium density burnt umber using No5 or No 8
13. When dry, paint the Martello Tower using a mixture of raw sienna, light red and burnt umber, note the tones light to dark (sunlight from the left hand side.
14. Work light to dark
15. Using a light red/ultramarine mixture for the relief of the promontory on the horizon.
16. Using medium burnt umber and blue mixture, paint the rocks around the tower and in the foreground using a No 3 brush
17. Paint the dinghy with the same colour mixture taking care to note its clinker lines using a No 3 brush
18. When the Tower is dry using a No3 brush, use a blue, burnt umber mixture for the port holes
19. Using a No 5 paint the blue shadows in the water around the tower , the promontory and foreground.
20. Apply burnt umber shadows for the sailing craft
21. Using a mixture of light red/ultramarine paint the two bathers and shadows
22. Using light burnt umber paint suggestions of rocks in the foreground accentuating the base of the rocks with a denser colour.
23. Using the No1 rigger sketch in the tufts of grass
24. Using a No 3 paint in the sand dunes retaining fence giving the suggestion of shadows.
25. Stand back from the painting, half close your eyes to see if you have created a good tonal response and decide if further application is needed.