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Advice from Sir Alfred East, RA
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Posted
Some while ago now, our long-time member - still offering his excellent advice on YouTube and Patreon - Alan Owen, sent me a copy of Sir Alfred East's book Landscape Painting (published in 1906!).
Some of the language in the book belongs firmly to yesteryear - e.g. East's habit of capitalizing 'Nature', throughout; and his injunction to us all to be 'manly' in our approach to the easel - which gave me visions of approaching it with a stern 'Now see here, easel, you'll find me firm but fair, and I propose to tackle you in a manly and straightforward way, brooking no argument or general fannying about, all right?'.
Nonetheless, once you get through the Edwardian turn of phrase, the advice within is good. I read it eagerly when it first arrived, and as I've got back to oil painting again I thought I'd consult it again, discovering a point I'd overlooked at last reading; i.e. that he recommended not starting a painting with the sky (which I confess I nearly always do) but allowing the landscape to inform the colours used in it. He doesn't mean by this just leaving the sky area blank while you paint the rest of the picture, but laying down a mix of white (he used Flake) and Yellow Ochre, to work the blue and other colours into as the whole picture came together - his blues being either Cobalt, or French Ultramarine, with additional colours being maybe rose madder, Venetian Red, or even Raw Umber.
Probably, we tend to do this anyway, without really thinking about it: i.e. we go back into our sky and adjust it as the painting develops, but it's not a process I really remember thinking about before. Does this sound like something you'd do? Or you you like to lay in the sky as completely as possible first, and then adjust your landscape to suit it rather than the other way around?
Posted
Undoubtedly a fine painter and RA. I believe that there is a reprint of his book Robert, I’ll try and source it later.
Oh yes, skies... go into any art group in the country and see how the majority start a painting, its at the top left and in goes the blue sky!
No, its not how I start, never have in fact. To break it down into stages, if any of you have looked at my WIP features for the e-newsletter, (Dawn sends these out monthly), you will have noticed that I generally start blocking in the sky in around the third stage out of five.
This will more likely be a mix of titanium white or unbleached TW, and yellow ochre, maybe a hint of alizarin crimson towards the horizon. This is my staple base colour for much of my work - not all though.
I may scrub a few other colours into it from my palette during the other stages, which helps with the continuity of the piece, but it will not be completed until the last stage.
I’m not saying it makes that much difference, it’s simply how I prefer to work. I’m able to make a better decision on colour once the rest of it is nearing completion.
I do know that Ken Howard works this way, as well as our own Haidee-Jo.
Just to add, I always work on a coloured ground of neutral grey or perhaps an earth colour, crucial in my view. I’ve given all the reasons in these e-shots so I won’t elaborate on it here.
Edited
by alanbickley
Posted
<title></title><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sounds like an interesting book Robert, must admit I am intrigued by the use of white plus yellow ochre, I have used yellow ochre and white with ultramarine to give a subdued sky blue and with cobalt blue for a summer sky, but did Sir Alfred use it on the entire canvas and then paint into it wet on wet? Interesting thought. <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm">As for skies, well personally it all depends on the landscape, most times I will do avery quick and rough washy underpainting to establish tones, then when dry (couple of days) hopefully complete the painting, although many times it may have to be altered, or even scrubbed out, sometimes several times during its course, along with hair tearing and many dire curses, and its not unknown for brushes to be thrown against the wall! Though that's mainly on portraiture. <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Other times, especially on imaginative landscapes where I will just start painting with no real idea of where it will go, then I will always start at the top with the sky the mood of which sets the mood for the rest of the painting, whatever that may turn out to be. <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm">In the final analysis we all find our own way of starting and finishing a painting and the only thing that matters is if we are happy with the result? I rest my case milord!