Max Hale loves a challenge and in the May watercolour demonstration he overcame lots! He demonstrated without the use of microphone or camera. The support was upright so there were a few 'dribbles' - but he made jokes about them.
Advocating the use of large brushes, he proved his point by using the one inch flat brush all evening. Max said that some artists spend time fiddling when they should be expressing feeling and using a time constraint can make your work freer.
He achieved vibrant colour through applying as few layers as possible and by pre-mixing colours as little as possible. They were mostly blended on the paper. Look very hard at the beginning and observe the tonal values advised Max. Work on the whole painting rather than resolving one part too soon. Leave the option to make changes after the paint has dried.
Max showed how to measure proportion, symmetry and draw ellipses and circles.
Other tips were: (1) give cast shadows hard edges and shadows formed on a surface soft edges
(2) paint glass as if it were a see-through mirror.
From the initial pencil drawing to the finished picture, Max showed how to imorove your painting through attention to detail and confident brushwork. Look out for his next article in the September 2013 issue of The Artist!
