Methods and Materials

I have a “varied palette” when it comes to the medium in which I specialise. I choose different mediums and methods to reflect this wonderfully diverse world and life.

This page gives more practical information about my practice, and useful painter’s tips!

Oil painting
Inks and watercolours
Acrylics
Pencil

Oil painting

I was taught painting in oils by Linda Wheeler at Moray College, 1999-2000, and developed my own techniques from her incomparable good teaching.

I cut out, shape and varnish my own paint palettes in the classic French style, with the assistance of my father and his power tools. It is highly advisable to have a specially designed palette which suits your hand shape, where you can mix all those fabulous colours. An extensive understanding of the colour spectrum, and colour relationships in oil paint, is essential in my line of work.

Oil painting technique – 4 basic steps:

First steps:

I sketch and/or take photographs from life. I pick out the features I want to accentuate with coloured pencils or Photoshop.

Second step:

First layer with turpentine
I mix genuine turpentine in with the oil paint to cover the canvas with the general idea of the painting and its basic shapes. This is known as underpainting and often I’ll use the “wrong” colours to get the “right” colours later. In this simple painting I wanted to capture the “temperature” or “feeling” of the picture from the first instant.

I don’t use charcoal to do primary sketches on the canvas – Linda always told us to not be afraid of painting straight on and doing it by eye. Once I’ve decided what I want to do and sorted out the composition in the preliminary drawings, I “go for it” with flat hog hair paintbrushes. Being careful to not mix the paint exactly as I want it at first, I cover the surface as fast as I can, working from the drawings and photos, often combining them to create a new picture with its own individuality.

Third step: linseed oil layer

I normally work on other paintings in between layer-drying times, which can take about a week each. When the turps layer is dry, I apply the next layer of paint mixed with linseed oil, paying slightly more attention to form and detail.

I usually like to mix the paint directly on the canvas. For this work I wanted to keep the vertical strokes as separate primary and secondary colours though, to heighten the sense of “heat” and the way that the space around the tree seems to breathe. I am careful to apply yellow first before even considering blue – whose application over wet yellow will instantly make it a muddy green. Advance/forward thinking and planning is essential.

At this stage I switch to more expensive sable brushes, which give a beautifully smooth application with the oil.

The time between the oil layer and the last layer is a good time to experiment with glazes. Look how the excessive turps underpainting of yellow shines through the oil glaze of alizarin crimson. It produces the most translucent, vibrant orange in contrast to the accentuated blue of the tree. Oil painting is all about building up layers. This is an element you can’t really enjoy in acrylic or watercolour (which can be easily overdone).

The final layer: straight paint

The painting has been left another week to dry and be mused over. The turps layer, the oil layer and any glazes have had time to bind together: now it’s time for straight paint, with linseed oil added in if necessary in certain places.

I know the picture really well now, and I know what it needs. It’s like watching a child go through developmental stages – I have to be aware of its individuality and uniqueness, but also not be afraid to give it what it needs to shine in all its fullness. It’s quite frustrating when the picture doesn’t want to be moulded the way I want it to be, and also quite poignant when I realise that this creation was meant to exist and was just waiting to be born!

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Inks and watercolours

Allowing the white paper to shine through is a key principle in any watercolour practice. Whilst in Italy I developed a new way of using inks and water-based paints, inspired by studying night skies and the abundance of marble found in Italian churches and cities.

This painting began as a thoroughly soaked sheet of good quality paper. Then from the top at a slanted angle, I dropped watered-down blue and black ink with carefully applied reds, yellows and purples, with rivers of plain water at various points. Working like this is very much to do with fluke, because if you over-apply or try to control it too much the whole thing can turn into a huge mess!

Once it had dried, I applied from memory the silhouetted scene of the country church (Birnie Kirk) and horse field near where I grew up in the north of Scotland. I also traced exactly the entire 48 constellations in miniscule silver dots into the sky.

This effect is also good for achieving stormy clouds, ploughed earth and roots of trees.

Brown and black Indian ink, and my old faithful Parker fountain pen, are great for picking out detailing and negative spaces such as tree branches.

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Acrylics

Now that I’m not at school I don’t use acrylics so much these days. I use them mostly for practice and when I’m on the move. However, there is a dry freshness in acrylics which oils cannot emulate. Unless I’m using them in with inks in the technique described above, I use as little water as possible for maximum control of texture, tone and vivid colour. I work fast with acrylics since they dry so quickly once on the paper.

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Pencil

I use two types of pencils: the first is the good old graphite pencil. I do love a nice soft, dark 6B. These are particularly good for shading, lights and darks, and texture. But I actually find any run-of-the-mill plastic mechanical pencil an essential tool to have with me at all times. Detailing cannot be achieved any other way in my opinion!

Pencil drawing was the first way I became “good at art”. From infancy it was a way my mother got me to stop sucking my thumb, and as I grew older, was another way to stop getting totally bored in class! Observation of any given object, be it fruit or fruitcake teachers; copying clothes out of magazines that I could never afford to buy; my own face amazed at the world – were all good ways of developing the necessary skills required for painting and as pictures in their own right.

Watercolour pencils have remained a firm favourite since childhood. They are so good to use on the move. Staying in practice by keeping a sketchbook is a crucial discipline for any artist, whether practicing full-time or doing something else. Recording experiences of life at all times in all places should be seen as a duty and joy. Watercolour pencils are particularly attractive since they do not only help solve problems with composition in a fairly quick and easy way, but also can have water added to them to blend the colours with a small paintbrush, which turns the whole image into a sort of extra-vibrant painting/drawing.

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