I've
often heard stories of people holding failed watercolours under
running water to wash the colour off. They then paint over the faint
image that's left. Some artists make this part of their usual
practice by starting with an overall variegated wash. Trevor
Chamberlain calls this a “ghost wash”.
I
haven't tried washing a painting off before. If it's that bad I
usually just start again on a fresh piece of paper. I had been
reading about the ghost wash idea, so I thought I would try it with
an old reject. It worked well and I liked the idea of covering the
paper and quickly establishing the general colours. It's definitely
something that I am going to try a bit more.
I
took some photographs while I was working on the painting to show the
progress. The colours are a bit off because of the light, but the
finished view is fairly accurate.
Stage One
I
held the painting under a running tap and gently wiped the paint off
with a brush. This was Saunders Waterford Rough paper, which I find
retains the pigments more than other papers, so a faint image
remained.
Stage One
Stage
Two
I
re-wetted the sky area and painted the clouds with a mixture of
French Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. As this dried I dropped in a
stronger mix of the same colours, with a bit more blue, to give
more form to the clouds.
Stage Two
Stage
Three
Once
the sky had dried I put in the distant hills with French Ultramarine,
Burnt Sienna and a little Permanent Rose. Some wet-in-wet touches of
pure Ultramarine gave a bit more definition.
I
continued with the foreground areas, using Raw Sienna alone or with
Pthalo Green for the fields. The moorland at the bottom was Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine with a bit of Permanent Rose.
I
also put in the roofs with Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna.
Stage Three
Final
Stage
I
finished the painting off with some strong darks, using Ultramarine
and Burnt Sienna. Some dry-brushing gave a bit of texture to the foreground, The vertical telegraph poles helped to break up the
horizontal lines a bit.
"A Hill Farm" - watercolour - 18 x 26 cm
