Exercise 1: Getting to know your brushes
Admittedly, I don’t have a huge range of brushes, and was disappointed to discover I didn’t own any filberts; this is something I shall address shortly. Therefore, I made sure that for this exercise I picked brush shapes and sizes that were of a wide enough variety and that would create different marks that could be attributed to them alone. I chose to use a different paint colour for each brush, for easy distinction.
I began with the spotter and rigger – two very delicate brushes, on the thin side and short and long respectively. As the spotter is so small, I found I had to reload the brush on numerous occasions in an attempt to get a consistent mark. The hairs also seemed to buckle quite easily under pressure, and I soon found out that its name says it all; it is best used for spotting, making small dots with a light touch, and with very fluid paint. The rigger, I discovered, was excellent for writing – almost like writing with a quill and ink – and was equally as impressive with the hairs laid lengthways, for long dashes or wide sweeps of colour. The Round 0 was also good for writing, being on the fine side.
The Round 5 was short and stubby, quite hard-wearing and not susceptible to easy ‘fraying’ when making marks that required more pressure. I didn’t think this brush would yield many impressive results but I was quite pleased with the different sizes of dots and spots I achieved, just by using different planes of the brush.
The most enjoyable for me were the two flats, especially the 1/2″. It seemed capable of everything; small dashes, short lines (when the tip was used), large colour areas, hatching, sweeping lines (with more fluid paint). Also, something about the way the large ferrule and handle felt in my palm contributed, I feel, to the enjoyment of the mark-making exercise!
Next, I moved on to my scene painted from memory, trying to employ some of the techniques and marks made in the previous piece. The scene is a path leading through my local park, and I did find it difficult to remember every little detail (confirmed when later looking at an actual photograph of this area!). I used a flat 1/2″ and round 5 predominately; the flat was great for blocking in large areas of colour – which I was able to build up and overlay in thick swathes to suggest texture – as well as being turned on its side and using its edge to suggest the tree trunks in short, stabby strokes.
I had to fight the urge to convey realism, instead concentrating on making marks and experimenting. Although, I feel I should have started with the sky first, as opposed to the foliage! I found that the paint took on some ‘impasto’ qualities as I applied more marks, which gave a good texture to the foliage but maybe a little more than I had hoped. I couldn’t help my inner colour theorist and added a few touches of complimentary colour (i.e. pinky-red in the green grass). The round brush was good for small, suggestive marks that picked out the leaves in the trees.
Overall, it was satisfying to paint a looser picture, especially without having anything visual to work from.
Finally, I selected a piece of fruit – a grapefruit – again to be painted with the same technique. I loved the colours on this simple fruit; pinks, reds, yellows and oranges, with a dash of white light. I set this up near a window so that the natural light could pick out these beautiful colours.
It was pleasing to paint fruit on such a large scale (A4 board, which is relatively small, but I painted the fruit to fill the whole board). I identified my main colours and had the paint ready, and selected similar brushes to those used in my last piece. The flat 1/2″ was invaluable again for blocking in large colour areas, which I did by applying short, downward strokes overlaid in multiple directions so as to suggest the texture of the grapefruit skin. The round brush was great for a stippling effect, for small areas of detail such as light hitting the surface, as was the edge of the flat brush when loaded with a little thicker paint. I decided not to concentrate too much on the surroundings, so as not to detract from the fruit, and instead made sure I had achieved a convincing shadow effect on the table.
Exercise 2: Applying paint without brushes
I wasn’t sure if I would get on particularly well with this exercise, having not done much painting with anything besides brushes. I collected up as many alternative painting tools as I could find; sponge, store card, a selection of palette knives (bought and hardly used), folded cardboard…and of course, my own fingers.
As suggested in the course book, I used water-based oils for this exercise, and loaded my palette with an interesting selection of colours. Without further hesitation, I grabbed a random tool, scooped up a random colour, and got stuck in. This is where I lost my inhibitions and started having fun. I took great pleasure in pciking the colour up and ‘buttering’ the support with it, especially when two colours were inadvertently but pleasingly mixed together to create a marbled effect.
With each tool, I tried a variety of application techniques; I rubbed the paint on with the larger side of the palette knife and store card, and then used their pointed edges to scrape it on and manipulate it. I can now see why this experiment warrants the use of oils, as they are so malleable and agreeable to manipulation, resulting in such wonderful textures and finishes. The sponge soaked up a lot of colour and was ideal for covering large areas quickly, as well as for smaller, textured areas achieved by dabbing the paint on. The store card acted in a similar way to the palette knives, but its width allowed larger, more opaque areas to be applied. Finally, I used a fingertip to blend, smudge and soften random areas, as well as applying small dots of colour…and I just couldn’t resist a few scrapes with a fingernail.
I was amazed with the end result, and at how much I had enjoyed the exercise. I will most certainly aim to use more techniques like these in future.
Exercise 3: Painting with pastels
For this exercise, I decided to use two neutral sheets of A4 pastel paper, fixed into my A3 sketchbook. I wanted to have two distinct pieces side-by-side; one a selection of experimental marks, the other a finished, albeit quickly-executed (20 mins) simple picture that employed some of these marks.
I have some experience with pastels, but mostly in drawing realistic portraits and using excessive blending. Here, I found it tricky to come up with lots of different marks, but just let the pastels take over and the marks seemed to just draw themselves.
For the picture, I simply drew what was already in front of me; the kitchen table, with my course materials laid out. I had a good mixture of large, blended surfaces (i.e. the table top) together with areas where I used much smaller marks (i.e. the coloured ‘specks’ representing pastel pencil colours in a tin).
I enjoy using pastels immensely, as the colours can be overlaid quickly, built up and blended to create some rather ethereally beautiful effects. I love their versatility and the way they allow the support to shine through, if required.
My BA (Hons) Creative Arts Journey with the OCA 