Step by step demonstration... Winter trees and snow - Froggatt Edge, Derbyshire

"Silver Birch on Froggatt Edge" Froggatt Edge, Derbyshire.
Oil. Alistair Butt © 2007.
A simple painting of some Silver Birch trees made much more interesting by a covering of snow and helped by some lovely shadows created by a low afternoon sun.

Stage One:
The top picture shows the end of stage one, the under painting. The objective was to establish the sky, the distant background hills, the main areas of light and shadow on the snow. Also indicated, but loosely, are the positions of the main tree trunks and some of the denser areas of twigs, loosely brushed over the sky, along the lines of dry brushing.

Stage Two:
This started with the distant trees and hills. Mainly indicating the trucks plus main branches of the trees and bringing back or re-establishing some sky colour.
Next was the painting of the foreground line of trees, painting the main trucks and branches first before moving onto the smaller ones. Additional colours were then added to the bracken and heather that hadn't been covered by snow, being under the trees, before moving on to the snow.
Beginning with the band of snow behind the foreground trees, as the shadow snow colour was already established only the areas being caught by the sunlight needed to be painted, along with one or two dark patches where the bracken was showing through.

Moving to the foreground snow. The shadows from the trees were established first, using either shadow and/or highlight colours. As can be seen in the top picture, there's some indication of where the sun is catching the snow and this was used as a guide when painting in all the lit parts of snow, some hard edges, some soft. All the dark patches of bracken etc were then painted before adding a range of lighter, darker or colour variations over possibly two thirds of the snow that was in shadow. Lastly some details like tall grasses etc were added.

Painting of river, reflections, spring trees in Dentdale, Cumbria

"Spring in Dentdale" Dentdale, Cumbria.
Oil. Alistair Butt © 2007.

What first attracted me to this view were the sparking highlights on the water on the River Dee in Dentdale, Cumbria as it flowed over and around the rocks, followed by the contrast between the still water with the reflections and the moving water towards the foreground. The trees and bank added a nice backdrop to the river. The first task was to find a spot that had as much water as possible, i.e. less rocks as the whole river bed was covered by them. When located it was about 6 feet into the river.

This was not the quickest of pictures to paint and many of the smaller stones/pebbles were not painted. The under painting was completed first and was really done to establish the sky and background hills for the over painting (of the trees) to come later, though the mid and dark tones of the water/tree leaf/bank etc were painted at this stage plus indicating the positions of larger stones and main tree branches.

The following day, the far bank and trees, working from background to foreground, were painted along with the reflected section, but slightly darker. A combination of two techniques was used for the trees, either painting the branches first, then the leaves or the other way round. This on top of the under painting, using a range of browns, yellows and greens to create the effect was quite easy. Some sky colour, to create holes in the trees, was added in places. This was followed by the left hand tree and bush.

Next was the water and stones. It could be either paint the stones then the water or water first then the stones. In the end the stones were painted first along with their reflections. Then starting on the foreground area of water the main reflected elements (the tree trunk reflections) were put in, as guides for everything else. The under painting now became the back cloth for a series of paint applications using a combination of colour mixes, some for reflected sky, others for reflected tree to establish the feel of water gently moving over or around the stones. When completed, the highlights that had made this view so attractive were painted.

Painting Demonstration - Staithes, North Yorkshire

"Before the Trip" Staithes, North Yorkshire.
Oil. Alistair Butt © 2007.

Stage One:
This is a relatively simple oil painting done in two stages. The top picture shows the completed first stage and is concerned mainly in establishing the basic colours, the position of the elements, even though a basic drawing using thinned (with Turps) oil paint was underneath, done as quickly possible but with accuracy. Getting this part right makes the following stage, or stages (if required) much easier. For this painting the paint was applied almost neat out of the tubes, i.e. very little medium was added to thin the paint and the board had three coats of white Gesso primer with texture paste added to the second coating.

Stage Two:
Having done most of the hard work, the second stage (bottom picture) is mainly going over the whole painting adjusting colours, sharpening or softening edges, defining detail etc. The under painting done in stage one really helps as at times only minor, if at all, adjustments are required. For this painting the whole background of reflections on the water was darken as this would help punch the boat and figure forward.

The figure (top half) was painted next so that the relationship between the background and foreground could be established. This was followed by the internal elements of the boat, leaving gaps for things like the ropes so they could be painted later but without painting over wet paint. The figure was then completed, followed by the rudder and the area around the waterline.

Next came the outside of the hull and this was started by painting the white areas. There were some nice shadows on these which help define the shape of both them and the hull. Following the painting of the blue areas, the sections catching the sunlight which were darkened as the hull curved away from the light, followed by the areas in shadow. The last part of the boat to be painted was the yellow strip. Final details were then added e.g. ropes, holes in hull etc.

Looe, Cornwall - Children fishing for crabs on the quayside.

"Enjoying the Summer Holidays" Looe, Cornwall.
Watercolour. © Alistair Butt 2007.

The towns of East and West Looe in Cornwall are divided by the river with connections by the bridge, seen in the distance and when the tide allows, a small ferry that crosses the river.

The objective was to capture a number of facets that make up Looe, while it's a thriving tourist town, with a wide variety of shops selling local produce e.g. Cornish Pasties, Cornish Ice Cream, plus amusements, fishing trips etc, it is also has a growing fishing industry (the line of fishing boats alongside the fish market), the river (with a variety of craft) plus the bridge that connects the two different sides to Looe. The children fishing for crabs were an added bonus and add the human side but also tell a store hence the title "Enjoying the Summer Holidays"