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Monthly Archives: May 2021

From the Riverbank Week 3: Boats, Boathouses and other Structures

May 23, 2021

Evening Pairs Henley
Pastel

The challenge this week is to make a painting of boats and/or constructions on the river including weirs, locks, boathouses from sketches made from the riverbank. If the weather makes working by the river difficult why not look at any photos you may have of boats threading their way through the twists and turns of the Thames. It’s more difficult to draw a moving target from life so becoming familiar with the structure of boats and their effects on the water surface is easier from photographs.

However if you have the opportunity, it’s much more rewarding to work outside with a sketchbook. Start with the static objects and develop your confidence, and then try drawing the main shapes of boats and their wakes as they pass by,as swiftly as you can. With a little practice a real notion of movement can be achieved.

After the Races Henley
Pastel

A few photographs of local parts of the Thames with moored and moving craft are below.

Boats heading for Hurley Lock
Photo

Think about the river and its banks, the relation of the boat to the water surface (the waterline, reflections and if moving the bow wave and wake, or if a motor boat how the water may be churned up by a propeller at the stern). The patterns of waves may extend far beyond the immediate vicinity of the boat.

On the Thames at Runnymede
On the Thames: Remenham Meadows

If you attempt to draw or paint a lock, perhaps looking down from a bridge as you can at Maidenhead. Try drawing the large shapes of the lock first so that you get a feel for for its structure and aim to show its perspective. That will help you when you place a boat in it. Think of the lock as a big rather long box so the end away from you appears smaller. Then look at the water level in the lock and how the boat sits in it.

Before the Gates Closed: Boulters Lock
Photo
Beyond the Gates: Boulter’s Lock
Photo

There are also occasions where boats are included as only a small element in a river landscape work so just as observing and drawing from human forms, observing and drawing boat forms will help you to be able to just ‘drop in a boat’ to enliven a composition.

Ducks and Distant Boats Upstream of Boulter’s Lock
Photo
Boat and Boathouses from Ray Mill Island
Photo
From Ray Mill Island
Photo
Old Dredgers new Houses by Boulter’s Lock
Photo

Also included are boathouses and a couple of old rather abandoned looking dredgers and the turbulent water of the weir at Maidenhead.

The Weir at Maidenhead
Photo

With the weir draw its underlying structure lightly before indicating the frothy water tumbling over it. Hopefully we’ll be sketching outside but if not feel free to use any of these references or find a boat scene you would like to paint.

Some examples of paintings of boats and locks etc can be found on Jo’s Pinterest board using the link below:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jhall1282/from-the-riverbank/boats-locks-weirs-and-buildings/

Your Sketches and Paintings:

Boathouses from Ray Mill Island
Watercolour by Jan
Honfleur
by Liz
Three Men in a Boat
Watercolour by Virginia
Pastel Pencil by Shane
almost finished
The Thames at Boulter’s
Watercolour by Ann
After the Races Henley
Watercolour by Ann
Pastel by Heather
Rower at Henley
by Elizabeth
Moored near Henley
Pastel by Barbara
Moored at Remenham Meadows
by John
Bagas Mist
Pastel by Mali
Watercolour by Mali
Watercolour by Maryon
Boathouses from Ray Mill Island
Watercolour by Sarah

From the Riverbank Week 2a: Some Photo reference in case of rain!

May 16, 2021

OK it’s a Coot!

The Weather forecast is miserable for this week so here are some photographs of river birds and a few cows for inspiration, a contingency in case of rain on Tuesday.

As anything that moves is a challenge in real life, becoming familiar with bird and animal shapes will be helpful before sketching them outside. We can work in real time together either from the following references or using your own. We’ll choose a bird or a cow and make rapid thumbnail sketches in real time; four or five to a sketchbook page so don’t think too large. I will be using a stopwatch! You will see from the reference that you should be able to make several sketches of the same or a similar bird in different poses.

Where birds in groups overlap each other, as in the cygnet photos it can be useful to treat them as a single shape and then sort out the individuals. They move in amazing ways, with mother swan looking out for them all the time.

After a few warm up sketches we can move on to a more considered drawing or painting, making a good start that can be finished during the session or in your own time afterwards. This work may either be a painting that has the creature as the main subject, or a work where the beast or bird is placed in its landscape setting.

Most of the heron images are from the water garden at Cliveden where the carp fry are easy prey for a hungry bird. I watched and sketched this one before resorting to record his antics on camera. but sadly never caught him actually catching a fish.

Heron on the Cam
Heron on the Cam detail
Cows and Swans on the Cam
Ducks on the Stour at Flatford
Duck on the Stour at Flatford

Your paintings and sketches:

This week’s drawings include two minute drawings and two minute blind contour drawings, where looking at the image but not the paper was permitted. There are also 30 minute or longer drawings from the Canada Goose image posted just before them.

Drawings below were 30 minute drawings from the image above

Canada Geese
by Virginia
Canada Geese
by Elizabeth
Canada Geese
by Jan
Canada Geese
by John
Canada Geese
by Liz
Canada Geese
by Shane
Canada Geese
by Ann
Canada Geese
by Heather
Canada Geese
by Sarah
Canada Geese
Pencil by Maryon
Canada Geese
Acrylic and Ink by Maryon

Two minute drawings and blind contour drawings:

Two Minute Heron
by Sarah
Two minute Herons and blind contour Ducks and Geese by John
Heron: Two minute sketches, Ducks: blind contour drawing
by Jan
Two Minute cows
by Sarah
Two Minute Cows
by Jan

From the Riverbank 2: Out in the Open

May 11, 2021

This week we’ll think about working outside, developing work from sketches or diving into a painting if you are feeling brave. The world outside can seem quite daunting if you are not used to working in the open and the complexity of some scenes can be overwhelming unless ways can be found to home in on a subject and isolate it from the surrounding “noise”.

Using a camera as a view finder is one way but limits you to composing with one shape. A better way is to take two L-shaped pieces of card which you can view the landscape in endlessly varied formats. Quite a good idea to tape these together once the desired subject and format has been found, preferably with a removable masking tape or similar.

To home in on a suitable composition it’s a good idea to make a few composition and tonal sketches first. Exploring a scene in this way focuses the mind on what most interests you and aids observation and drawing skills enormously. Last week we explored photographs in a similar way.

Below is a way of recording shape and tone in a sketchbook. Charcoal pencil was used in this case but if I had used pencil three or four small sketches could be made on a sketch book page.

A rectangle was drawn in the same proportions as the composition. Outside you may not have ruler but will have made the decision on what format to use , by using a viewfinder. Then the main lines of the composition can be drawn in, perhaps starting with the waterline. Draw the space the sky takes up. Then look for the main shapes of objects and their reflections and areas that were distinctly different in tone. Small shapes like the clump of reeds were only included because they play a significant role in the composition.
The main tonal areas were filled in taking care with the darkest and palest areas. The sky and small clump of reeds were untouched paper but look at how the reeds surrounded by dark tone stand out and shout for attention.
Whether pencil or charcoal is used the edges of some shapes can be softened and some areas made smoother by burnishing; a finger will do or a small piece of eraser rubbed lightly on the surface. Some areas can be darkened further.
Some areas have been darkened even more, while others have been drawn into with the edge of a plastic eraser that has been cut to a fine edge with a craft knife. Some of the foliage on the tree and a suggestion of flowers on the bank has been done with the eraser edge as have the ripples on the water. The charcoal pencil was used to add texture suggesting foliage of the foreground trees and branches of the distant trees, and the reeds on the riverbank.

This time make small sketches not worked up drawings to decide on the composition. This is a good exercise whether working directly from the landscape or preparing for a work to be completed in the studio. There is a good case for making both tonal sketches and making colour notes, not necessarily in the same sketch. If there is time separate sketches of any details you may need for the final work can be made. A camera of course is useful but because nature does not always arrange itself in the most interesting or pleasing way, small personal sketches are often a good guide to what should and should not be included.

A silly example would be if I wanted to make a picture of a coot with its reflection. I would think very hard before including or excluding a sign in red paint behind the bird saying DANGER WEIR which was only slightly camouflaged by a nest in front of the sign. If the sign and its reflection was making the painting much more exciting than just the bird, putting the bird in context with that part of the river, it may be good to include. If it did no more than draw attention away from my principal subject or led the eye out of the picture the sign would have to go. Then again I would have the same problem with the coot if my focus was river signage.

I know you are going to tell me this is a Moorhen!

1. Equipment for working outside; minimum for preparatory sketches

Sketchbook, drawing implements: pencil, pen, eraser, small camera and view finder, light weight folding stool

Optional: a few of any kind of coloured pencils or a small box of watercolours , brush, water, water pot; for making colour notes

2. Equipment for working outside; for painting directly from the landscape

Sketchbook, drawing implements: pencil, pen, eraser, small camera, light weight folding stool;

Watercolour painters: Watercolours, pan box useful if working at a fairly small scale as usually have an integral palette, water and water pot, brushes, paper towel (few sheets), small natural sponge (if you have one), drawing board with stretched paper/ heavy weight paper well taped down or small block of paper

Pastel painters: small box of landscape colours (Sienna, green dark, green bright, ultramarine blue dark and light, white, yellow, yellow ochre, crimson, cadmium red middle tone, dark grey or black, purple. These colours are only a suggestion. Handful of pastel pencils if you have any), pastel paper and a board, clips or tape to attach your paper, small can fixative spray, craft knife, pencil sharpener, Blu-tac or putty eraser, few sheets paper towel

If the weather is stormy the challenge will be to paint wildlife or agricultural scene from the riverbank. This could include willows, cows birds, nests waterlilies, reed banks.

Outside the challenge will be to make a composition including one or more of the following; trees, boats and boathouses, lock gates and their reflections, or a weir for the fearless! Be selective; one well painted boat or tree is better than a scribble of a fleet or forest! It would be good to take on board the tonal balance of reflections and objects. Reflections are not always darker than the real object but often are. See how the sky is reflected and how ripples catch the sun, as we will see next week sometimes very literally.

For inspiration visit my as yet unsorted Pinterest Boards at:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jhall1282/from-the-riverbank/

Your paintings:

From the Riverbank Week 1: A Challenging Surface

May 4, 2021

Hurley looking upstream from the Bridge before the Lock
Watercolour

Over the next six weeks we’ll be drawing and painting anything that can be seen from a riverbank.   The first session will be online but if you do have the opportunity to sketch your subject by the river and paint afterwards that would be brilliant.  We’ll start by considering water, waves and reflections and go on to explore the riverbank vegetation, birdlife, bridges, weirs and locks that can be seen locally.

The Bridge downstream of Hurley Lock looking upstream
Watercolour

Some words that sprang to mind when thinking about water were flowing, calm, reflection, spray, fierce, roar, crash, wet, wave, ripple, current, whirlpool, eddy.  By the Thames locally, the extremes in appearance of water going over the weir at Maidenhead  and the wonderful reflections of trees in the very calm water that can be seen from  the towpath just a couple of hundred yards upstream, reveal what a varied and challenging subject this is.

Quiet Water upstream of Hurley lock
Photo
Large ripples in foreground give very distorted reflections.
See how little patches of sky are reflected and the large tonal differences in this picture: the palest areas are the small poles in the middle distance and the darkest are in the trees and their reflections.

 We may often notice the reflections of boats, trees, poles etc. in and on the water but the sky is perhaps the most important element, being reflected not only in calm water but in every ripple and almost always brings an element of fleeting and shimmering light to the surface.  The Impressionists found good ways of depicting this, using strokes of different colours and tones alongside each other to create shimmering effects.

Boathouses from Ray Mill Island
Photo
Criss cross ripple patterns in the wake of the ducks.
Ripples appear smaller in the distance and eventually look like a shimmering tone on the water.

If you can, get to a riverbank and watch the water.  Better still make some sketches of what you see.  Take two L-shaped pieces of card with you so you can use them as a view finder.  These are more versatile than a camera as they enable the isolation of very tall thin slithers of the landscape or extreme panoramic views, as well as squarer and more conventional landscape shapes for your composition.  In the sketchbook try several small sketches in different formats concentrating on the shape and tones of what you see.

If you can’t get out this week try exploring different compositions within one photo reference.

Calm Day on the Cam
Photo
The following images were all cropped from this one photo. You may like to do something similar; crop a reference photo in different ways and make a tonal sketch of each. Choose the most successful for your painting. Choosing and isolating the elements you wish to paint is an important part of painting outside and why a sketchbook is invaluable to try out different composition ideas. I was amazed at what lay hidden in this reference taken mainly for the very subtle cloud cover and its reflection.
Crop 1
Crop 2
Crop 3
Crop 4
Crop 5
Crop 6
Crop 7

I am forced to admit this photo was taken from a boat and not the bank but the various crops show the great choice we have from the quite dark composition of crop 4 to the light airy feel of the original photograph.

Start to think in terms of shape and tone.  Instead of thinking I am drawing a tree and its reflection say to yourself,” I can see a large dark oval shape.  Below it is a similar dark shape that fragments into elongated light and dark shapes when the wind blows.” If you can stay long enough, observe different patterns on the water surface as a boat passes, and when there is wind or no wind. Try to translate these into drawing. Can you observe differences in size between ripples near you and those further away?

Observe and note whether there is a difference in tone between the sky and its reflection and do the same for reflected objects. As you can see from the photo taken on the Cam, the sky there was almost the same tone as its reflection but this is not always the case.

When you have found a composition that pleases you either paint or make a more considered drawing.  Both the observation of the water surface and the composition exercise will be good preparation for the outside drawing/painting sessions.

Have fun and experiment!

Perhaps look at a few Impressionist paintings!

Your Drawings and Paintings:

Stream in the Savill Gardens
Pastel by Shane
Boat Houses from Ray Mill Island
Watercolour by Virginia
Mallard
Drawing by Maryon
Reeds by the River : crop 1
Drawing by maryon
Reeds by the River: crop 2
Drawing by Maryon
Maidenhead Bridge
Watercolour by Ann
The Thames at Pangbourne
Pastel by Barbara
View from the Bridge at Wareham
Watercolour and Pastel by John
Watercolour by Heather
Clapham bridge, Yorkshire
Watercolour by Liz
Exploratory Sketches by Liz
Odney
Watercolour by Jan
Sketches by Jan
Sketches by Jan
Pastel by Mali
Capel Curig
Coloured pencil and watercolour by Sarah
The Moat at Hever Castle
Watercolour by Sarah