How to paint rain and reflections with Adebanji Alade

Equipment

Linen canvas

Oil paints

ZIG Dual brush pen

Black pencil

Colours

Viridian

Alizarin crimson

Cobalt blue

Cadmium red

Yellow ochre

Ultramarine

Burnt sienna

Transparent red oxide

Orange

White

Fascinating reflections

'I became really fascinated with reflections when I was painting a series of plein-air paintings in Bath,' says Adebanji Alade.

'I was struggling to depict the effect of the reflections on the wet pavements and it was quite an ordeal. I was painting purely from observation and it wasn’t until I settled down to observe really keenly that I noticed the reflections were easier when simplified to shapes and then mastering the edges around the shapes. It just clicked!

'Every reflection has a beauty of its own – they should be treated purely as subject matter in still life, even though they are just illusions. Urban scenes can be complicated with buildings and objects like cars, poles, trees and figures but reflections help to unite and simplify the whole scene.'

Rain, Colours and Reflections, oil on board, (10x8in.)

Recipes for grey

'On rainy days, greys are the most dominant colours and the ability to mix them correctly makes the other colours sing! I have some core recipes I adopt. They are based on mixing complementary colours in unequal portions. My favourites are viridian with alizarin crimson and cobalt blue with touches of cadmium red and yellow ochre – the cadmium red and yellow ochre making up the right kind of orange I need.

'Another great recipe is ultramarine and burnt sienna or transparent red oxide. All these are mixed with various amounts of white to produce interesting mixtures of greys. There’s something about mixing the greys a bit richer and more saturated than they are, to make the scene really come to life.

'The whole scene should have an overall greyish feel, but at least every colour should have a bit of neutralising in the larger components so that the more vivid colours can be used in the figures, cars or lights to attract attention and lead the viewer to the centre of interest in the painting. If I were to paint a red bus on a rainy day, I’d make sure that the road colour was mixed with a more greenish grey to complement the brightness of the red, and I’d make sure the components around it were also in that colour scheme too. It’s like a game; once you know the rules you can apply them at ease.'

Drizzly Day, Green Park, oil on board, (8x10in.)

Painting reflections

'I have discovered that the most successful way to paint reflections is to paint the reflected surface – road or pavement – separately from everything else and treat them as separate subject matter (I look at them as portraits or a still life). Once I’m able to look at them in this way it makes me more careful about paying attention to shapes, colours and subtle shifts in tone and temperature.

'The most important elements are the edges. Most edges around shapes on wet pavements and roads are soft, but look out for they suddenly have a hard edge. If this is managed and depicted well it creates a closer and accurate representation of the reflections. It’s also best to paint reflections alla prima when using oils, which is my usual medium for painting reflections. The effect of wet-on-wet creates an even more believable illusion of the reflections.

'Never underestimate the power of your drawing, either. Being able to get the reflections in the right size, proportions and angles is so important, especially when it comes to the reflections of poles, streetlights and other verticals in the scene. If you can treat them this way, by isolating them from the main objects in the scene and making them stand out on their own, only a few adjustments will be needed to tie the whole scene together when you look at the painting at the end.'

Rain and Reflections, City of London

Bringing it all together

'Even though I work purely from observation and picture references, and I believe in depicting what I see to the best of my ability, there are still times when I follow the rule of my mentor Ken Howard, who said that ‘dark things appear lighter when reflected and light things appear darker.’ If I have done everything right and I notice this rule is broken or doesn’t really apply, I go over by making these adjustments. This helps to make the painting look believable.

'When next it is raining or when the rain is over, look carefully for these things and you’ll be surprised to see how true they are. When it comes to painting reflections, I have studied the works of Ken Howard, Peter Brown, Irene Marsh and Jeremy Mann. All have different approaches but it’s always great to see how they handle rainy days and reflections with skill and dexterity.'

After the Rain, London Streets, oil on canvas, (30x24cm)

Details and finishing touches

'The details and finishing touches are by far the most important aspects of the painting but they should be handled with care. They are like the icing on the cake. Just little marks here and there – the lines of the pavement, the lights on the road and pavements and the minute features on figures and their reflections. There’s nothing worse than over-doing a particular passage until it’s painted out of life. So the main tip with details is, once you start fiddling without knowing where next to land the brush, it is time to STOP!'

Demonstration: Rain, Rain, Rain, London Streets

Rain, Rain, Rain, London Streets, oil on canvas, (76x122cm)

Using a wash of orange, burnt sienna and white I created a warm gessoed ground on the linen canvas, after which I spent as much time as possible sketching with a ZIG Dual brush pen and a black pencil.

I was very rigorous with the drawing; nothing was taken for granted. It’s quite a large surface and if the drawing had gone wrong it would stick out like a sore thumb.

The key at this stage is patience.

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This is where I show exactly what I was talking about when I said the reflections are treated as a separate entity. I had hardly painted anything else in the scene when I decided to take on the reflections, taking my time to get the right colours, shapes, tonal and temperature shifts and edges. Notice the soft edges between the colour shifts in the light pavement areas. The recipes for greys were used extensively here, mostly alizarin crimson and viridian green.

I have also given the trees a good start, painting with very thick colour straight from the tubes, which is a great contrast to the fluid application of the smooth surface of the pavement.

I worked on everything in the distance and gradually whispered my way forward into the foreground. Things in the distance are kept a bit greyer. Look at the difference between the foliage of the trees in the foreground and those in the background.

Now came the first bit of fun with the figures. Nothing was taken for granted. Even though they look a bit detailed, they were painted in a loose, calculated manner, making sure that the effect of movement and subtlety still pervades.

The spaces in between are also vital as they help in making correct connections between what is in front and what is at the back. If you look closely you’ll see that I have painted the area around the figures before painting the figures.

Some may see this as wrong, thinking the figures would look like cut outs but the key here is to paint them alla prima, to keep the paint fresh and fluid.

My main focus here was the man with the umbrella in the middle; he is in the dead centre of the painting and I had to be careful that he looked just right because any errors would be too distracting.

I also painted one of the umbrellas in the Union flag colours; this looked a bit odd when I stepped back and didn’t flow with the overall colour scheme, so I adjusted it at a later stage after listening to views from my studio mates.

The finished painting

Rain, Rain, Rain, London Streets, oil on canvas, (76x122cm)

I completed the remaining figures and worked on connecting and bringing all the components together, mainly working on edges and fine-tuning details.

Drawing skills are vital here, hence my advice to keep sketching as much as you can so you can have some fluidity in your brush applications and strokes.

Adebanji Alade studied fine art in Nigeria and has a diploma in portraiture from Heatherley’s School of Fine Art, where he teaches in the Open Studio. He tutors workshops and gives demonstrations for art societies and also offers private coaching. For more details see www.adebanjialade.co.uk

Adebanji has two books available, The Addictive Sketcher and Addictive An Artist's Sketchbook, which you can purchase in our online bookstore.

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This demonstration is taken from the February 2017 issue of The Artist. Enjoy endless inspiration with access to past and present issues of both Leisure Painter and The Artist, plus exclusive video demos, tutorials and more, with our Studio Membership! Discover how you can join today.

How to paint rain and reflections with Adebanji Alade

Equipment

Colours

Fascinating reflections

Recipes for grey

Painting reflections

Bringing it all together

Details and finishing touches

Demonstration: Rain, Rain, Rain, London Streets

The finished painting

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