Easy Guide to Painting Skies in Watercolour

Stephen Coates

Description

The Easy Guide to Painting Skies in Watercolour Stephen Coates SEARCH PRESS Stephen Coates was born in Sheffield in 1960. Son of a draughtsman, he was introduced to drawing at a very young age. He excelled in art at school but chose a career in retail, working first in the music industry for 16 years followed by another 16 years running his own catering business. Over a period of 20 years, Stephen learned and specialized in watercolours in his spare time, and gradually developed his own style and unique brand of teaching. In 2011 he traded his sandwich business for a career in art and teaching. He became a full-time professional freelance artist, and set up his own studio in Sheffield with the purpose of teaching others watercolour painting. From here he runs courses, workshops and hosts his own amateur art groups. Stephen also demonstrates his skills and shares his expertise at art societies all over England, and exhibits at a variety of national art shows. www.coatesart.co.uk Other books by Stephen Coates The Watercolour Enigma 978-1-78221-561-5 Take Three Colours: Watercolour Lakes & Rivers 978-1-78221-697-1 The Easy Guide to Painting Skies in Watercolour DEDICATION I have no formal art qualifications, and my skill with watercolours was learnt the hard way: trial and error, and many hours of frustration. There was so much I learnt during this period, and I still pick up plenty of tips every day with a continuation of study.

Sujets

• Painting
• Watercolor painting
• Peinture

Informations

• Publié par: Search Press
• Date de parution: 24 janvier 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781781269381
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 107 Mo

Extrait

The Easy Guide to Painting Skies in Watercolour Stephen Coates

SEARCH PRESS

Stephen Coates was born in Sheffield in 1960. Son of a draughtsman, he was introduced to drawing at a very young age. He excelled in art at school but chose a career in retail, working first in the music industry for 16 years followed by another 16 years running his own catering business. Over a period of 0 years, Stephen learned and specialized in watercolours in his spare time, and gradually developed his own style and unique brand of teaching. In 011 he traded his sandwich business for a career in art and teaching. He became a full-time professional freelance artist, and set up his own studio in Sheffield with the purpose of teaching others watercolour painting. From here he runs courses, workshops and hosts his own amateur art groups. Stephen also demonstrates his skills and shares his expertise at art societies all over England, and exhibits at a variety of national art shows. www.coatesart.co.uk

Other books by Stephen Coates The Watercolour Enigma 978-1-781-561-5

Take Three Colours: Watercolour Lakes & Rivers 978-1-781-697-1

The Easy Guide to Painting Skies in Watercolour

DEDICATION I have no formal art qualifications, and my skill with watercolours was learnt the hard way: trial and error, and many hours of frustration. There was so much I learnt during this period, and I still pick up plenty of tips every day with a continuation of study. In some respects, I wish my own discoveries about watercolours had been available to me when I was learning, in the form of books or online videos. The whole process might have been less painful and taken less time. This book is therefore dedicated to you, the reader, in the hope that you will be inspired by my guidance and advice. I sincerely hope that your experience of learning to paint fantastic watercolour skies is greatly enhanced.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the marvellous family at Search Press for making me so welcome as an author and for giving me the opportunity to publish my books. Particular thanks must be extended to Katie French (editorial director); Juan Hayward, Marrianne Miall and Emma Sutcliffe (designers); Mark Davison (studio photographer); and my wonderful personal editor, Emily Adam, who has to put up with my idiosyncrasies on a regular basis. I couldn’t do it without you all. I would also like to thank Andrew Locking, who kindly provided me with dozens of magnificent photographs he shot while out hiking. Many of these are featured in the book, along with paintings that have been inspired by his photography. Finally I’d like to thank my partner, Lesley, who has to put up with me when I go into ‘bubble’ mode. She tells me I disappear into my own little world when I’m compiling a book!

First published in 2022 Search Press Limited Wellwood, North Farm Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3DR

Text, and photographs on pages 27 (both), 28 (both), 29 (all), 41, 70, 74, 77 and 98, copyright © Stephen Coates 2022

Photographs on pages 30, 50 (both), 60, 81, 85, 91 and 95 (both) by Andrew Locking. Copyright © Andrew Locking. Reproduced with kind permission.

All remaining photographs by Mark Davison at Search Press Studios © Search Press Ltd. 2022

Design copyright © Search Press Ltd. 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book, text, photographs or illustrations may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, photocopier, internet or in any way known or as yet unknown, or stored in a retrieval system, without written permission obtained beforehand from Search Press.

ISBN: 978-1-78221-944-6 ebook ISBN: 978-1-78126-938-1

The Publishers and author can accept no responsibility for any consequences arising from the information, advice or instructions given in this publication.

Readers are permitted to reproduce any of the artwork in this book for their personal use, or for the purpose of selling for charity, free of charge and without the prior permission of the Publishers. Any use of the artwork for commercial purposes is not permitted without the prior permission of the Publishers.

SUPPLIERS If you have difficulty in obtaining any of the materials and equipment mentioned in this book, then please visit the Search Press website for details of suppliers: www.searchpress.com

You can find information about the author and his work on the following websites: – his personal website, www.coatesart.co.uk – his YouTube channel, @StephenCoates PUBLISHERS’ NOTE All the step-by-step photographs in this book feature the author, Stephen Coates. No models have been used. The projects in this book have been made following imperial measurements, and the metric equivalents provided have been calculated following standard conversion practices. The metric measurements are often rounded to the nearest 25mm for ease of use except in rare circumstances; however, if you need more exact measurements, there are a number of excellent online converters that you can use. Always use either metric or imperial measurements, not a combination of both.

The Easy Guide to Painting Skies in Watercolour Stephen Coates

SEARCH PRESS

Contents 1 2

Introduction

The challenge of watercolour skies

Planning Understanding paint Brushes and brushing techniques Watercolour paper Tools and materials Working from photographs

6

8 9 10

16 21 24 26

3

SKIES 1. Large blended washes 2. White clouds 3. Sunset skies project 4. Sunbeams project

5. Stormy skies 6. Low clouds and mist project 7. Focal points and perspective project

30 38 50 56 60 67 70 84 86

94 102

Building a repertoire of skies 106 Index 112

6

4

5

7

Introduction

spent my childhood with a pencil in my hand, I always sketching objects, buildings or scenes. I used to draw figures as well, often making up my own characters in a cartoon style. It wasn’t until later in life, after the kids had grown up and left home, that I started painting with watercolours. Art had never been a problem for me, so I expected watercolours to be no different. How wrong I was!

I soon realized that the idea of painting quickly and not fiddling went against all the natural traits of my previous experiences of drawing and using solid colour. Like most humans, I like to be in control of what I do and expect to be able to produce something with an element of precision.

It took me a few years and lots of practice to understand that watercolours don’t behave like any other paint medium. I discovered that planning and preparation are both crucial before setting out to paint a sky. I also learnt that a sky is not actually taken to its conclusion with a paint brush. Instead, the paint is applied and should be left to develop without any further interference from a brush.

It was actually skies that first inspired me to use watercolours. Since I first launched my work into the public eye, it was always the skies in my landscapes that attracted the most favourable comments. My love of producing watercolour skies has led me down a successful road of teaching and writing, but it never ceases to amaze me how many people misunderstand how to use watercolours. My first book,The Watercolour Enigma(Search Press, 2017), is a practical course that helps readers to understand the medium. It explains how to control the water and blend colours with a series of exercises that can be followed in a specifically

6

designed order. It has now sold thousands of copies worldwide, and I’m delighted to say has been very well received.

It was always my intention to follow with a book exclusively about painting skies. The sky in a landscape is usually the first step, so it is vital to be satisfied with it before proceeding with the rest of the painting. However, as you will discover, a watercolour sky never turns out exactly as planned because the paint doesn’t allow the artist to control it precisely. Furthermore, each and every person will apply paint in a slightly different way, so it’s impossible to copy a sky exactly. The same sky can also be painted several times by the selfsame artist, yet each one will be different.

The title of this book might suggest that it will show you an easy way to paint skies. This is not the case because painting watercolour skies is never easy. What I hope is for this book to be an easy tofollow guide that will help you to gain a clearer understanding of what is required to produce skies that are great but also consistent.

You will need to accept from the outset that you’ll have a significant failure rate. I still make mistakes today when it comes to skies. In fact, in the making of this book, some of the work had to be repeated in order to give you the most informative and inspirational paintings possible!

Above all, don’t be too hard on yourself, accept the inevitable errors along the way, and simply practise as much as you can.

Good luck.

Stephen Coates