Atmosphere

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Little Langdale

Little Langdale

To painters, atmosphere has two meanings; the emotions conjured up by the image you are creating or the effect of the weather on the scene.

In this painting of Little Langdale the esoteric atmosphere I was trying to create was of an isolated farmhouse, surrounded by the mountains, abandoned and slowly decaying, there are no animals, the roof is beginning to sag and the wilderness is returning to the fields. All is not lost though, the roof is intact. Perhaps someone will make it a home once again.

The other meaning of the word atmosphere in this painting is created by the use of colour, tone, and detail. These are the three essential ingredients to help you create a sense of recession in your painting, and I make no apology for referring to them time and time again. Keep the distant features cooler in colour, lighter in tone and with less detail than the foreground and middle distance features and you will be well on your way to inviting your viewer into the picture,

You can read more about this aspect of painting and many other tips in my book, Painting with Pastels, published by Search Press. There is also a DVD of the same name to accompany the book and a special offer on the two together.

Lost & Found technique in a painting

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In a painting, when you overstate detail you will detract from the impact the work imparts on the viewer.  The answer is to simplify matters by leaving out much detail and lessening the effect of what remains in what we call a ‘lost and found’ method. This technique is seen quite clearly in the section of a painting of the wall at the home of Witch Coarsecackle, as illustrated below:

The stonework is only revealed in places, and by washing a transparent glaze over it the otherwise stark edges of the stones have been softened. Also note how the window has been rendered, losing strong detail lower down to stop the whole becoming rather boring. I used the negative painting technique here, but masking fluid might well have been an easier technique. Ignore the rather strange-looking creatures in the top right-hand corner as they add more to the narrative than to the aesthetic appreciation of the lost and found method.

You will find the ‘lost and found’ method featured in all my art books, but for further information on Witch Coarsecackle and her amazing abode you can check out The Grog Invasion on my website. It is the first book of the Chronicles of the Llandoddies, the legendary water-folk of Llandrindod Wells, and a great tonic for those who need a good laugh and escape from the realities of modern life, aimed at kids from 9 to 99. Coarsecackle is herself a portrait artist of some renown and a film on her methods is under preparation.

Having fun with your old paintings

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What do you do with those old paintings that end up in a mess and clearly have not worked? Turn them into paper darts? Use the backs for another painting? Frame them and give them to your least favourite aunt for Christmas? Whatever you do, don’t tear them up or throw them away as they are more valuable than you may imagine.

If you keep your old ‘failures’ in a folder the time will come when you will find them extremely useful to practice techniques. In this scene of Tideswell Moor in the English Peak District you will see a dark cloud on the left with a rain squall beneath it. This was achieved with a glaze – a transparent wash laid over an already-painted part of the composition, once it had completely dried. In this case it was done by wetting the paper first so that a soft edge would be achieved on the falling ‘rain’.

Most inexperienced artists find this glaze technique rather daunting, and of course it is easy to mess up an otherwise competent painting. In order to gain practice with this technique there is nothing better than to do it on your old ‘failed’ paintings. You have nothing to lose and you might end up with a really good painting after all. The glaze method can be useful for warming up or cooling down a painting or an area within that painting, or for creating shadow or falling rain as in this case where you wish to suggest a film of atmosphere in between the viewer and part of the composition. Have fun with your old paintings!

Getting out of a rut – Misty marsh in Pan Pastel

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Misty marsh in Pan Pastel

Misty marsh in Pan Pastel

The inspiration for a painting can come in many shapes and forms but most frequently it is a combination of atmosphere and light that sparks the fire.

The sparkle of light on water and a gauze of mist lends enchantment to almost any scene.

In this painting the misty effect was achieved with Pan Pastels on a sheet of white Clairefontaine Pastel Mat paper.

The method of applying the Pan Pastel colour with sponges naturally lends itself to soft edges. The water is mainly the paper left untouched but the highlights on the clouds were created with a small Sofft

tm tool which looks like a plastic palette knife with a sponge sleeve and is very effective for smaller areas.

The challenge of working with Pan Pastels, which does not lend itself readily to creating sharp edges, has made me re-evaluate the amount of fine detail I include in a painting and has ‘loosened up’ my recent work. Working with different methods of applying colour is a stimulus that can get you out of a rut.

Go on try something new.

I will be running a pastel painting course in Cheddar next autumn if you would like to learn more about my methods of working.

Critical observation

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When I talk about sketching outdoors I am well aware that so many artists lose interest – they prefer to stay indoors, warm and comfortable and work from photographs, books, calendars and so on. ‘Sketching’ is a dirty word to many, although for me it is one of the most rewarding things I do. Still, for those of you who don’t wish to venture beyond your front door, you can still learn a lot by critical observation.

This exciting picture was taken in my hotel bedroom last week in London, and if you look carefully you will observe a number of subtle effects concerned with direct and reflected light. The main light is entering through a window to the right, illuminating the right-hand wall and the right-hand edge of the door architrave in the centre, but where this is blocked by an object in the top right-hand corner the most powerful light there comes from the light bulb above the top left-hand corner.

If you look carefully you should be able to see a slight lightening of the vertical thin strip of wall in the centre where reflected light is bouncing back from the illuminated architrave.  Again, at the bottom of the scene you can see further counterchange on wall and architrave caused by a table in the bottom right-hand corner.

Simple scenes like this can provide an excellent idea of how light affects various surfaces and angles. You can observe these effects without having to go out into hostile terrain, or the need to do any sketching. Make it a habit whether you are indoors, outdoors, or sitting in a rickshaw waiting for the traffic lights to change.

In the December issue of Leisure Painter magazine you will find a complete article I wrote on the subject of observation, and I have a further piece on-line at http://www.painters-online.co.uk/  Critical observation like this can also while away the time as you wait for a train or whatever, and it can be great fun!