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"

Watercolour Painting of Polperro, Cornwall

"Summer Day" Polperro, Cornwall.
Watercolour. Alistair Butt © 2007.

 After the first wet wash, which was really just to establish the sky, some of that colour was brought down into areas that are either shadows or water (almost high tide at the time).

The next stage was to complete the background hill of trees with the occasional house before moving down into the distant buildings of the village of Polperro. The trees were painted in three or four layers. Each layer had varied colour mixes for each area, sometimes each tree. Along the lines of a wet against wet before allowing to that to dry and then the next darker areas were painted, again wet against wet. This continued until I had enough depth of tone in the shadows. Once completed and dried a wet wash was applied to soften all hard edges.

The buildings on the hill side needed to be painted separately but thankfully the colour of the roofs on most of the distant buildings was similar and therefore require minor colour changes. Details like windows, shadows, drain pipes were added and then like the hill side the buildings area was given a wet wash just to soften the edges and tie it in with the hill side.

Next stage involved painting the middle distant buildings, some of the boats along with some refection's. A good contrast between the buildings, on the left hand side and the distant hill of trees was essential to create depth and impact.

Starting on the left hand side and working across, the left hand group of buildings was painted individually. While doing this, areas for the boats mast, rigging etc were left unpainted. Each building was built up using a number of layers to achieve the correct colour, tone and texture beginning with the walls, then roof areas before adding details like windows, pipes etc. A unifying shadow wash was then applied to areas in cast shadow.

The buildings on the right hand side were much simpler to paint, again like the previous buildings, starting with the walls, then the roofs, almost all variations, warm or cool of one colour followed by the details, e.g. the windows.

Once the buildings were completed, the interesting and complicated, in terms of detail, boats below the buildings were completed. Here all the light coloured areas were painted first, using the relevant colour for each part or area, then repeating this technique for the mid and dark colours, blending and softening areas as required.

Watercolour Painting - final stages

"Into the bright sunlight" Staithes, North Yorkshire.
Watercolour. Alistair Butt © 2007.

Watercolour painting - Staithes, North Yorkshire

The final parts to complete this watercolour/watercolor painting were the group of foreground boats along with their reflections in the shallow water and wet mud.

Each of the small wooden boats was painted individually, working from left to right, starting with the interior followed by the external areas. Being painted in an array of colours meant lots of mixing but all areas were treated the same with the colour being built up using overlaying layers (from 1 to 5 - light to very dark) to create the form of each part or area.

The area of low water with the boat reflections, the wet mud with it's reflected light and the shadow cast from the buildings to the right of the picture frame was a real joy to paint. Using wet-into-wet washes as a starting point followed by further washes as this dried until painting wet on dry (not always recommended but glaze washes were to follow) to establish some of the reflections and ripples in the water. The detail, although soft edged (using a damp brush with clean water), for the darker or coloured reflections was painted next. Glaze washes were applied over the area of cast shadow. The last parts to be painted were the sharp detail of some stones and the ropes, a nice contrast to the loose mud and water.