LEARNING OBJECTIVES
■ How to find a strong composition within a photograph
■ Follow five exercises to prepare you to paint the scene
You will need
■ Surface
• Bockingford NOT 140lb (300gsm) watercolour paper 9x13in. (23x33cm)
■ Cotman watercolour tubes
• Ultramarine
• light red
• Raw sienna
• Lemon yellow
Brushes
• Stephen Coates Mini Hake by Pro Arte
• Stephen Coates Spearhead Rounds Nos. 8 & 6
• Pro Arte Prolene Round No. 2
Miscellaneous
• Palette or tray for mixing
• Soft pencil & eraser
• Kitchen towel
• Masking tape
• Hairdryer
Welcome to the penultimate article in my 12-month watercolour course for beginners. It is hard to think that there are only two left. Where has the year gone? If you have been following this course, you will know that I have taken you through many different subjects and techniques. Each time, I wanted to make sure that the exercises and paintings were relatively straightforward so that you could feel a sense of achievement. Now it’s time to put everything together in a single painting. This will be split into two parts across the remaining two issues. I chose a subject that needs a significant level of planning and compositional alterations. This is to help you understand how a photograph can be analysed and changed to enhance the composition and at the same time only include things that are manageable. This study of a scene at Lochranza castle on the Isle of Arran contains just about all the elements and techniques that we have studied throughout the course.
The first part of this article
