Paint a portrait of Father Christmas on recycled cardboard with Liz Chaderton

Equipment

B pencil

White gouache

Our Studio members can enjoy a whole series of watercolour video demonstrations from Liz and other artists with our exclusive Studio TV content.

Discover Studio and see what you could learn for as little as £3.50 a month!

Colours

Dioxazine purple

Pinks

Blues

Paint a portrait of Father Christmas

Santa says ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’

Reduce, reuse, recycle! Follow Liz Chaderton as she paints a jolly portrait of Father Christmas on packaging cardboard.

Last Christmas over-packaging of our deliveries and the huge waste of resources got me thinking. I couldn’t reduce the amount, as that was in the hands of the retailers and, of course, I tried to recycle everything, but I wondered if I could reuse some of the excess card and paper. This was how I started painting portraits on corrugated card so please join with me in painting an ecological Father Christmas portrait.

Demonstration: Santa says ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’

This copyright free reference photo can be found at www.pixabay.com/photos/ santa-claus-mrs-claus-parade-899021/. I cropped the photo to show only Santa’s face

I sketched Santa freehand using a B pencil. I knew I would rub these guidelines out later and also that I could adjust the result in the next step. You could project or trace the image if you want. Check the relative sizes and angles of the features and, if you need to check your work, look at it in a mirror; this will help your brain see what is really there. The area through the spectacles on the left is particularly interesting. Learning to draw what you see and not what you know is crucial.

Content continues after advertisements

1. Using a permanent fine liner 0.2mm map out the features. It is good to start with a finer line in case of errors. I constantly checked the measurements and angles, and realised I hadn’t drawn the glasses correctly so this was an opportunity to put my drawing right.

2. Rub out any pencil lines when you’ve finished. You may wish to strengthen some lines with a 0.5mm pen.

Top Tip

1. Try to keep the line flowing and lively and do not simply go over your pencil work. Holding the pen far down the shaft helps to keep the line loose. If you do put in a wrong line, don’t panic. Just put in the right one and your viewer’s eye will be drawn to it. You have the chance to put more pen on later, but you cannot take it off so err on the side of caution.

2. Be careful not to puncture the surface of the board. Corrugated card can be quite thin.

1. Using the colour of the card as your mid-tone, start working on the darks with dioxazine purple then add pinks and blues. Card becomes darker when wet so take this into account when judging tone. You will find that the paint does not flow and mix on the surface in the same way as on watercolour paper so wet-in-wet work is trickier. Just enjoy playing – after all it is only rubbish!

2. I wanted the emphasis to be on the left of the painting so I made sure that not all areas had as much colour and finish. Detail, variety and contrast tells the viewer where to look, and directs their gaze.

Top Tip

1. By starting to paint before the drawing is entirely finished you will avoid the temptation to simply colour in your work. You are looking for the paint and line to add up to more than the sum of the parts.

2. Tone is more important than hue. The lights and darks describe the volume of Santa’s face, while the colour brings emotion to the piece. I was slightly tempted to give him a green hat, but I felt that was hammering home my ecological message in a rather obvious way.

3. If you struggle to imagine or see interesting colours, use your computer or phone’s photo software and filters to give ideas. The posterize feature (see below) is helpful, as it clumps colour together.

With the colour in place and dry, it’s time to add highlights. I mixed a little water into white gouache to help it flow and used a Rigger. A Rigger has less control than a small spotter and it helps to ensure marks don’t become too precise and tight. By dragging the brush on its side, you can pick up the texture of the cardboard, which I rather liked, particularly in the beard. I added sparkles to his eyes, as Santa is supposed to be twinkly.

1. Carefully consider if more colour or pen work is needed. It is easier to add than to take away so stop too soon (and not too late). I went back in with a thicker fine liner 0.8mm, to add a few more lines and strengthen a few of the existing ones. In the end, I did not add much more, which just goes to show that if I had completed all the drawing that I originally intended, it would have been too much.

2. Now to think about how to display him. Perhaps a float mount would show off his raw edges in a pleasing way?

Finished painting

Santa says ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’, ink and watercolour on corrugated board (39x29cm)

Liz is a full-time watercolourist, based in Berkshire. She is passionate about watercolour and likes to share her knowledge through teaching and writing. Her workshop programme can be found at www.lizchaderton.co.uk and her books are published by Crowood Press.

Fancy painting a jolly, stained-glass effect robin in watercolour too?