Canvas and Paint Process 3

Now I am starting to block in colours. Each layer is slightly transparent so it is still possible to see the white under painting which will serve as a guide to the more fiddly bits.

Even though the sea beyond the boats will be very light in the finished painting I begin to block in the darkest of the colour that I can see in the sea! For most of the time with oil painting I like to work from the dark towards the light, this however, is only a general rule, I often break it.

And here I have done just that, painting in the lightest areas on the rowing boat and the covered boat. Painting what appear to be white areas is difficult and involves a lot of colour soul searching... when is white white... not very often in my experience. I tend to keep "tube white" (i.e. straight from the tube) to the very last moment, to give that final flourish. The tiny dabs of paint that make a painting spring to life. I have also begun to work into the blues. You can make a blue almost luminous by glazing one blue over another, for example a curealean blue first with a glaze of ultramarine, try it and see. It is important to mess around with colours to see what they do to each other, watercolours especially have different effects.

Every day I have a new pallet. I believe that this keeps my colour mixing up to the minute. If there is a grey mixed I might be tempted to use it rather than bother to think and make a judgement for each tone and hue.

Now I seem to have gone right back to a pale blue on the water. Indecision of just a change of heart? Not sure. I think the most important thing to remember is to keep an open mind, try things out, experiment, even right up to the last minute. Sometimes the wash or glaze that you sweep on at the last sitting is the one that transforms the painting.

The next and final post will include a paint map link to the site of these boats. See you soon.