A post about a page

Bonjour mes Amis – (and that, rather embarrassingly pretty much exhausts my knowledge of the French language!). Hopefully, as you read this, I’ll be in the Dordogne region of France sheltering in the shade somewhere equidistant between my watercolours and sketchbook and a nice cold drink. More realistically of course I’ll be hot, sweaty and out of breath from haring around a campsite after my daughter!

As I expect it will take me a while to settle in and track down some wi-fi, I thought I’d post something that I’ve been working on for a short while. Over the year’s I’ve received quite a few enquiries about what paints, brushes or paper I use and I usually end up responding to such enquiries individually.

I thought it might be helpful to have a page on my site where I describe what materials I usually use so that’s what I’ve been tinkering away at. Here then is a link to my painting equipment which I will keep up to date with changes (I’m hoping, for instance, that there’ll be a major announcement coming in the autumn in relation to my palette of choice!)

And for anyone that can’t bear to click away from this post, below is what visitors to the new page will find. Should you wish to leave a comment about any of this information, it would be great if you could comment on the page, rather than on this post, so that visitors to the page will be able to follow everything more easily.

Sketching and Drawing

I always use a classic metal bodied Caran D’Ache 2mm clutch pencil for all of my sketching out and use a relatively soft 3b lead. I watched video a long time ago of an extra-ordinarily skilled artist that worked mainly in pencil. He advocated these pencils for their flexibility, ie you can use the lead long or short to suit your requirements and, the weight of the pencil remains consistent so you really get used to it. I don’t know why but this recommendation really stuck with me. I also like that the sharpener is inside the cap so I never have to worry about keeping a pencil sharpener with me! For the inevitable errors, I’m rarely far away from a kneadable putty rubber of some description.

Paper

Over a number of years I’ve tried a number of different papers, each of which I’ve been happy with until I move on to the next paper! One constant however, is that I always paint on rough paper, which I find most sympathetic to my style of painting and the range of marks and textures that I try to employ in painting, from smooth graduated washes to broken dry brush marks. So far my paper journey has taken in Bockingford, Saunders Waterford and, currently Arches. For size, I mainly paint on half imperial (dimensions) or quarter imperial (dimensions) sheets of paper.

Paints

I know from my own experience that there are many different brands of watercolour to choose from, each offering such a bewildering array of enticing colours that it can be hard to know where to start. Some early advice that I received was to start with a relatively modest choice of colours and, years on, that’s pretty much where I still am today.

My earliest mentors, the likes of Edward Seago and Edward Wesson both used a similar range of colours so that to me seemed like as good a starting point as any. I understand that both also favoured Winsor and Newton paints, and who am I to argue with such wonderful exponents of the art of watercolour painting. Based on this foundation then, my current palette features the following colours from the Winsor and Newton Professional Range

• Winsor Yellow
• Raw Sienna
• Burnt Sienna
• Light Red
• Alizarin Crimson
• Burnt Umber
• Cobalt Blue
• French Ultramarine Blue
• Winsor Blue

I’ve found this to be a great palette of colours – (and one that I think is especially suited to the more muted colours of the english landscape!). You can make just about everything that most people are ever likely to need from this palette. Another advantage is that because you have to do so much mixing – to get all your greens for instance – you get to know your palette and what it can do really well.

As I’ve developed, and moved on to some more urban scenes too, I’ve added the following colours to this basic palette:

• Cerrulean Blue (don’t know why but, mixed with neutral tint, I find it great for tarmac!)
• Neutral tint (for a while I played around a lot with Payne’s grey but now I much prefer Neutral tint)
• Winsor Red (traffic lights etc!)
• White gouache (only ever used sparingly for the odd sunlit highlight)

Oh, and lamp black. I hardly ever use this but carry it partly because of Rowland Hilder’s influence. It’s especially handy in a reduced sketching palette to get a dark tone in quickly and for some dry brush work. It also produces a great green when mixed with yellow!

I do try out the odd other colour – I recently bought a Winsor Violet to play with – but the ones listed above are my staples.

Even though I’ve been painting for a good many years now, I still feel like I’m getting to know my palette, what the colours can do, how they work together, their individual and combined characteristics. So, I don’t suggest that this selection is in any way a definitive. It’s just the selection of paints that I currently use, and which may be helpful to be aware of when looking at any of my paintings.

If I do have a top tip, once you’ve settled on your essential list, buy the large 37ml tubes of paint when the major retailers are having their sales. Compared to buying smaller tubes they just represent much better value for money.

Brushes

Well, I certainly don’t have enough time to cover the full gamut of brushes that I’ve tried, but here’s a selection of my current favourites. I won’t list sizes as this is personal from one person to the next. My general rule of thumb however, which isn’t of my own making but one I’ve adopted along the way, is to try to paint with a slightly larger brush than seems appropriate for the job in hand!

• Da Vinci Casaneo synthetic mop brushes
• Escoda Ultimo synthetic mop brushes
• Escoda Aquario Mop brushes
• Escoda sable watercolour brushes
• Escoda Versatil synthetic rigger brushes
• Escoda Reservour rigger brush
• Escoda Round Toray synthetic brushes
• Ocean-I Squirrel mop brush and tulip sable brush
• Prolene synthetic swordliner

Palette

Again, I’ve tried lots of different palettes and my current favourites are from the Holbein range of enamelled palettes, the Holbein 1000 and the smaller Holbein 500 – both of which are simply laid out with ample space for being generous with mixes and washes.

For small sketches and for travelling with, my favourite palette is my beloved Frazer Price Palette Box. This isn’t the best palette in the world by any means, but I love the history and heritage of these palettes – plus I’ve been able to customise it to better suit my style painting – and I do like a bit of personalisation!

Easel

I prefer to paint standing up so I use an easel for all of my painting (with the exception of just sketching). I use a basic camera tripod and have my painting boards fitted with camera tripod adaptors such as this one from Ken Bromley art supplies.

For quarter sheets, I have a homemade board and paper carrier and there’s a brief slideshow of this set up below.

For half sheets, I have a plain piece of 6mm MDF that’s been cut to size and then sealed with Danish Oil, and mounted onto another tripod bracket.

Sundry items

• Bucket of water
• Water spray
• Kitchen towel
• Sponge
• Tool for scraping

I hope that this may be of some interest and maybe even of some assistance to others. Have I missed anything? What’s the one item of equipment, colour of paint or type of brush you simply couldn’t live without? Let me know in the comments section of my watercolour equipment page.

As I say, I expect this list to be constant ‘work in progress’ so I’m always on the lookout for anything that will contribute to me being a better – or even just a happier painter!