BACK OUT – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

I finally made the great outdoors this weekend and did some sketching. I had meant to start earlier in the year with pastels and still intend to try this medium outdoors again – but it was watercolours this weekend. And, a return to the canal. The blue mark in the top left is not a mountain, just paint leaking from my palette.

This one was a bit twee and the scale a bit wobbly but it was the willow I was after and that finished up on the edge of the page. I did a sketch of the same willow from the other side of the canal last year and posted that earlier. The finished painting sold in an exhibition recently.

One of the reasons why I chose this location to sketch was that I had a request for a painting of the area and decided to look at what I thought the client wanted. The above was a view I thought he described. I later found out that he had other things in mind and I’ll show you the progress on that project shortly.

Other landscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

COLOURFUL CHARACTERS – ACRYLIC PAINTING

At the life sessions I decided to try and create form using warm and cool colours. This was my first attempt and I was quite happy with the result. Certainly happy enough to have another go the next week (last Wednesday) particularly, after having seen a programme on the Scottish Colourists.

My main problem is reverting back to tonality to define structure, rather than my aim of using colour.

Still, I was happy with the punchy qualities of these pieces and will probably develop them. This wont be the case with my ink drawing using a dropper, which I trialled at the same sessions. I have used a dropper loaded with acrylic ink for abstract painting in the past and found the results interesting. Interesting enough to apply it to a number of paintings.

However, trying to define subtle details with a dropper loaded with acrylic ink certainly eluded me.

These are quick sketches of the two models above, done without measurement and certainly, without comparison and correction.

I do like working with ink as it makes you consider your mark making – no going back, or correcting. The dropper though, deposited a lot of ink and using the residual for shading, I ended up in a mess.

In the past I used an italic nib and that did allow for extending the wet line for shading with a brush, without flooding the subject and losing control. I might go back to the nib in future as I do like the total commitment of ink.

But I’ll be dropping the dropper.

Other figurative paintings are available for sale on my website – grahammcquadefineart.com

CRESCENDO – ACRYLIC PAINTING

A first attempt with, perhaps, more itterations to follow.

I wanted to try and capture the energy, movement and urgency of performance, where the observer’s eye can only take in snippets of an image as it transforms and reshapes.

It’s good to get something down, in this case on paper, to compare an output against the initial vague idea. You begin to see what works and can be built on and what might need to be quietly forgotten.

Other figurative paintings are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

RAGGED REMNANTS OF A RAINY DAY – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING.

I love landscapes where sun light picks out isolated parcels of detail.

It is an amalgam of a couple of photos to which I added an ambiguous skyline to deepen the mystery.

For me, the trickiest part was the dark mass of clouds on the right. I mixed colours on the paper and reduced the tone towards the left. Then I blended clouds into the land on the right, reserving areas of light on the left and middle. In hindsight, to get a smoother area of dark, I might have been better going in with a single wash in the sky area and then dabbed out to get the the highlights. Despite that, I like the simplicity of it.

Nearly as difficult as predicting the weather.

Other landscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

DALES FARM – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

There were a few ugly buildings and cars on my original photo, so I mixed and matched from a comercial photo to smooth the unsightly rough edges. The painting retains a lot of the original and I relished tackling the drystone wall that encapsulates the rugged limestone topography of the area.

If I recall, we were on a walk near to Settle in the west riding of Yorkshire when we came upon this farm overlooking a sunlit dale.

When you get sunshine in the Dales you know why they call it god’s own county – however, it’s the 300 or so other days when doubts might creep in.

But for once it was at its best.

Other landscape paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

THROUGH THE TREES – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Well, it’s Sunday, so let’s have a little sun.

I’ve had this photo – below – for quite a while – long enough to forget it’s location, though it is local to where I live. The seedheads of the plants, illuminated by the low sun, grabbed my attention. Otherwise it was quite dull.

I wondered whether sexing up the trees might help galvanise the overall image.

So there you have it. Hopefully a step in the right direction but, is it far enough? The actual painting has a presence that doesn’t come across here. It took about 45 minutes to paint, working mostly wet into wet.

I hope it brightens your day.

Other forest scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

UP HIGH – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

With not much to paint, I thought I’d do an imaginary landscape with hills drifting off into the distance. I did use a photo as a starting point – just to give me some topographical reference points but there is barely anything in this, that you’d recognise from the photo.

Initially, I had a gnarled tree on the right and the sheep on the left. With the middle ground more defined the tree got lost in the rockery. I was going to abandon the attempt but decided to put the painting under the tap and scrub out the offending parts.

As well as losing the sheep and tree, some of the background started to fade. Suddenly there was a mistiness about it. Once dry, I swapped the tree and sheep around – softly redefined the background and there was a lovely morning scene.

I did have to put a second tree behind the sheep, to disguise a faint but persistant mark – but now, you could be anywhere in the Lake District on a sunny May morning.

Other Lake District paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

PART (2) OF THE FURNITURE – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I posted a version of this a while ago and whilst I liked the concept there was something about it I had issues with. Part of it was the face. So I have grafted a new face in – though the problem could have been the way I painted the first one. I also tidied up the painting and really truncated the hair. The last change was unplanned; as I was going to complete the hair I thought that it looked a little intriguing as it was – so it appears as if she’s dropped in through a hole in the backcloth.

Well, it keeps me amused and off the streets – be thankful.

Other figurative painting is available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

FILLING TIME – CHARCOAL ON PAPER

Yesterday the life model failed to show for our weekly life session. A few of us decided to cut our losses and compensate for the wasted journey by doing each other’s portraits.

Half an hour was about as long as any of us could sit still.

I chose charcoal to work with although a couple of the others used a Bic biro which seemed quite a harsh medium, though I must try it myself. I am sure some solvent could soften off the edges.

Anyway, on Sunday we have an all day session with a reliable and excellent model, so back to acrylic and pastels – hopefully.

Other figurative work is available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

EVENING PAUSE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I thought I’d have a play around with watercolours, using some of the scenes from my holiday as a subject. Some have impact, some perhaps dont. The one above is a compilation of three photos and, apart from not getting a redder light and not getting the sky colour as deep as I would have wished, I am quite happy with the outcome. Working quickly wet in wet, colours can move and you are in the lap of the gods.

I was happy with this until I got to the reflections and foreground. The distant trees are done wet in wet to try and get that morning misty feeling and I was pleased with the outcome. Success then went to my head and I ended up with a rather messy foreground – not helped by working from four photographs. Perhaps I just want a boatmen paddling away from the viewer and a lower waterline so the reflections come further forward.

You may be seeing this again.

Other boat and canal scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com