EASEL AND REFERENCE MATERIAL

I work on a painting easel on a desk.

On the wall behind me I tape shots of the subject in colour, black and white, posterised and close-ups. 

SURFACE

I use either a wooden panel or, as in this case, a piece of Ampersand gesso panel 16” x 12”. 

PAINTS

I use Royal Talens Cobra water-mixable oil paints. I mix these with water for the initial wash that goes over the panel, but for looser brushstrokes I use the medium that Cobra supply, rather than water.

BRUSHES

My brushes are all flats.  Those in the image are Silver Brush short flat, but any variety of synthetic short flat will do as long as they deliver a smooth brushstroke and a sharp line when used on their side.

COLOUR-MIXING

I prefer to mix my paints before I begin painting. 

On the right are the background colours. The aqua tones are currently what I like to work with for cricket whites. On the left are mixes of grey for the clothing.

FIRST STROKES AND PROPORTION

My style is expressive which helps to build up the feeling of movement. I have learned not to worry about the initial strokes, which work out basic lines of waist, head, legs etc. as I don’t mind if these lines show through to the end of the piece. They are the most expressive of my marks and it’s best to leave them alone. That’s not to say I don’t correct things if I’ve made the legs too long or the head too big for example. Working in oils allows me to adjust all day long if I want to, but each stroke I make remains on the panel unless I specifically decide it needs covering up.

STEP ONE

I used one of the background colours to work out basic proportions. I always start by putting a mark down where the middle is, where the head is and the general direction of the legs, arms, back etc. 

Here I begin putting in light and shade using the mixes of cricket whites.

STEP THREE

I mixed more paint for the helmet and flesh tones, adding an orange background as a complementary colour for blue but, as you will see later, I changed my mind as I felt the orange was too distracting and stole the show.  I used my background mixes to help shape my figure. At this stage the angle of my back was wrong so I used the light blue to slim it back to where I wanted it.  Sometimes, as in the left side of the leg I get it right first time and don’t need to use the background colours.

STEP FOUR

This shows a close-up of the marks.

As the figure is leaning forward, all the mixes for the clothes and background are all the dark tones.  At this stage I keep squinting to make sure that I am not losing my figure to the background.

The green here is probably too light a tone and will need darkening to help bring the figure forward.

As the arm is closest to us, I have to make sure it holds the brightest and lightest tones.

STEP FIVE - The face

I have a rather ugly way of painting a face. I know it’s ugly because I’ve watched countless other artists painting faces!  When adding the face, many artists will have already drawn it out in charcoal or pencil to make sure its accurate before applying paint.  I have tried to do this but have found what works for me. 

The following shots show my method of applying the paint with flat brushes (quite small – 0,1,2 size) and re-applying until I get the likeness I am looking for.  Please note it took three days of painting this same 1 inch square face over and over again until I got it right!

Whilst irritating that I can’t get the face right in a few hours, I no longer worry how long it takes me.  Even if the paint has dried I can come back to it and paint it again.

I recently watched a video of an artist I follow on his patreon channel painting a figure with a fairly detailed face. I asked how long he spent on the face alone. His response of five days was a real eye-opener for me. In an hour-long  video it looks as though artists whip up details in no time at all. The process takes as long as it takes!

The face - phase two.

The face - phase three.

The face - phase four.

The face - phase five.

STEP SIX - The final sweep through

I refer to my painting process as sweeps, as I paint the painting as a whole and not in separate parts. I start at the top and work my way down to the feet, adding and manipulating brushstrokes, then I step back, look and decide whether I need to sweep through again with more tweaks. The parts I am pleased with, and therefore and leave alone, get more frequent as I keep sweeping through until, finally, there’s nothing to change.

At this stage I decided the face was fine but the rest of the figure needed more defining and I have to confess that I got into a real muddle with the background. I decided to turn it into a wash which looked awful!  But no matter, I wiped it off and then painted an extra layer titanium white and raw umber mix to cover it up and carried on.

This image shows close up of the pads, not finished, but to show how I keep my brushstrokes blocky.  The reason I don’t smooth everything out is that it takes away the dynamic feeling. It’s tempting to blend it all in but stop yourself if you can. 

You can also see how I used the aqua background to shape the back leg on the left which I had painted too wide

The finished painting is quite shiny as it has that mix of titanium white and raw umber around the edges of the figure to covered up the wash that I didn’t like.

I will put this piece up for auction on Daily Paintworks. I leave it on for about a week but promote it each day on my Twitter account.  My twitter followers are mainly cricket fans who are used to these auctions. I predict it will go for about £200 - £300 but we’ll have to see.

For top tips on painting moving figures in watercolour see this article by Steve Griggs.

Learn to paint figures in a swimming pool in acrylics with Wendy Jelbert.