Paul Talbot-Greaves
CONT R A S T S IN WAT E R COLOUR: 6 OF 6
Amantra that I have developed over the time I have been painting is ‘start with a mess, end in success’. It’s true. The looser and messier the start of the painting, the better the end result will be. If you start with a careful and timid outset, making perfect washes and hard edges, the entire painting will follow in a tight and constrained way. There is nothing wrong with that of course if that is how you like to work, but if you prefer a looser and more expressive way of working, let go and start your painting with what many people describe as a mess. I aim to capture only the colours and values at the beginning of a painting, using fluid washes of paint and allowing them to fuse and blend as I brush them on. I’m not a fan of pre-wetting paper but if you prefer it that way then go for it. Be mindful, however, that paint added to pre-wetted paper usually dries lighter than expected due to the dilution of the colour on the damp surface. Use a big brush and don’t try to paint careful shapes or individual features, just broadly apply colour of the lightest values only. Where adjacent shapes have different colours allow them to blend and fuse where they meet. At the end of this stage I sometimes slosh water onto the paper to make colours run further and create runbacks, as this generates more interest in the washes.