About 21 years ago, a lady brought her charge, a seriously autistic man along to our house for creative coaching.  Forewarned is forearmed so I did a little research and stumbled across the work of Betty Edwards and Lucia  Capacchione, who both advocate right brain exercise as a way of reaching the very depths of creative ability.  Rather sceptical, I explained the principals to the client's carer and we set about practicing the exercises over a number of weeks.    Some weeks later, the man concerned had progressed from nil ability in hand control and not much verbal ability, to proficient sketching, being able to feed himself, and vastly improved verbal communication skills.  I was utterly amazed and have promoted the Betty Edwards principles within my workshops ever since.   Since this week was the beginning of term, I chose to slot in a Betty Edwards session at the start of class to remind us all how vital warm up sketches are.   My group this week were new to Betty Edward's principles and didn't look terribly enthused by the prospect of grappling with a pencil with their none functional hand for whatever purpose, however quirky or potentially beneficial.  

I gave them all a part to a wooden puzzle so my very tolerant class were sketching unfamiliar shapes.   Five minutes of non functional drawing was enough of a start I figured so asked them to immediately  switch the pencil back to their functional hand and continue.  That is when the magic happens, because then you realise that despite the struggle, you simply cannot produce such excellent quality work with your right hand.  In fact, at this point in the exercise, the functional hand seems incapable of holding the pencil let alone sketching.  Two minutes later asking my lovely group to switch back to their non functional hand restored harmony and the class joyfully enthused to each other of their new discovery.  

Right brained work is normally of a far superior quality than left brained work.  When one is using their normal functional hand, one analyses what we are drawing, continually calculating sizes ratios and suchlike, oh the brain is so busy, far to busy to even acknowledge the command you have given it to copy.  The right brain on the other hand, is simply a  creative beast so it will copy what it sees, no calculations needed.  The more you practice the easier it gets.  The biggest battle is accepting that you can use your non functional hand.  Once that battle is over, you just let your right brain recreate what it sees.  One of my artists could not understand why she was making the grounded edge of her wooden piece much, much darker until I pointed out that there was a very fine shadow cast upon the white formica table top, so fine it did indeed look like a fine dark edge to the piece of wood.  Her right brain simply copied it, almost exactly! 

I have a sketchbook near my easel.  Before I go anywhere near paint, I sit quietly with a cup of tea and sketch the outline of a cloisonné rabbit I have on my windowsill.  This activates the right side of my brain and prepares me for creative work.  My best exam results have been when I have had the time to sit and sketch with my left hand or even simply written my name with my left hand on my scrap paper. My answers have been  more creative, more engaged with the questions.  Exercising your right brain frequently is likely to help you get into the creative habit which you can then apply to practical solutions.   In my case study opening to this blog, my client used the principle to develop control with eating utensils and then speech.

As I visited every learner at their workspace witnessing the magic principle at work once again, I knew how much sharing this simple but proven theory would help the artists in the class to grow beyond the parameters set by their left brain.    

So what can it do for you?  Opening up the creative valves is vital to effective creativity.  If you warm up on the job so to speak you will often work on your canvas, go for your first coffee and return to scrape it all off and start again.  I see that cycle so often.  Warming up can prevent so many painterly agonies.  Keep a small sketchpad in your workspace, keep it for non functional drawing only.  You will hate the first adventure.  No longer than five minutes, but then you will crave for the next and then you are away.  Purchasing both Betty's book, Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, pictured above, and her companion book, Workbook, pictured below will be a marvellous investment in yourself, stretching yourself to new levels of known ability, ....... growth, and like a well rooted tree, however old we are we can all do with new growth!  

The second half of our morning was dedicated to colour mixing.  Once the right brain has been activated, our perception of colour is amazingly accurate.    There was lots of foliage and blossom to choose from and each student replicated the colour to the best of the artist's available palette.  I was astounded at how accurately this seemingly simple but in reality difficult task was executed.  With smiles and with obvious joy.  I had asked the class to choose their primaries in hues relative to their foliage, and then paint one line of each colour down and then across creating a grid.  The paint was applied wet on wet allowing the cross roads of the grid to mix and give a preview of their chosen palette mixing potential.  My artists mixed and experimented and isolated the exact colour they were looking for in relation to their subject matter, and we all had immense fun along the way!

Betty Edwards does relate her principles to colourisation and perception, which can be explored in a third book, Colour.  


In this lovely new year, 2013, pledge to underpin your work with the golden rules of practice sketching and colour mixing.  By simply creating a discipline for yourself, you will enjoy a marvellous inner glow of satisfaction as you end your working day, breaking away from that dreadful paint coffee unpaint syndrome early in the year! Happy painting!

Study the doodle above.  How many images do you think you could pick out with a watercolour pen to define?  The above painting is an example of what I do when I am without clear direction.   I  thoroughly wet my paper, and then take my colour mixed to various opacities and just drop it on to the paper.  Then go and have a coffee or two.  If we study the shapes, I can see first of all an indigo area that I could easily create a leaping salmon from, next to the right is an orange koi meeting another coming from the opposite direction, or the whole thing could be fashioned into a water nymph.  I see lots of dragony type creatures too as well as some floral and foliage form, offering lots of scope for some serious dry brushing.  Serious dry brushing means letting your painting dry so you don't rupture the surface of the paper, and go back into the colour with a just damp brush and move the paint where you want the emphasis.   This exercise will give you confidence in your watercolours.  Practice moving the paint, even blotting out the heavier colour with a damp kitchen towel.  Experimentation is the path to confidence in your watercolour work.  Don't reserve them for a carefully plotted landscape, play! Enjoy the play and use them as a tool as a pre-cursor to your acrylic and oil pieces. 

Watercolours are a joy to use once you have gotten to know the beast you are taming.  They can be applied as wet as you like or as dry as you like.  The important thing is that you practice and learn where your comfort zone is.   I love watercolour when I apply it wet on wet which is especially great if you are working outside because you can capture colour, shape and form quickly.  I personally rarely draw in pencil.  You are stuck with it once you have painted it in so unless you are really confident in your drawing, use either pastel - NOT charcoal - to sketch, or a very dilute Payne's Grey applied with a fine brush.  Better still, be brave and just go in with the paint! The sketch to the left was done at Woolacoombe Bay in Devon.  The sketch took about five or six minutes.  I wanted particularly to replicate the shape and form of the rocks, the hazy hills in the distance, the choppiness of the sea complete with resultant surf dancing up the sandy beach, leaving the shoreline sand wet and further up the beach a brighter, more vibrant dry sand.    I didn't need detail just shape, form and an impression strong enough to bring home and replicate, which I did and sold the day after the work was completed.  The lady that bought it lived there and remarked on how well  I had captured the elements.  

In the well worn chestnut of photograph versus sketch debate, there are times when only a sketch will do.  To capture the energy I had to get it down quickly because the tide was moving so fast, ten minutes later the rocks would be hidden by the incoming tide, my haste shows in my brush stroke, particularly the strokes used for the water.  We wouldn't always be able to readily glean such information from a photograph.

Use your watercolour palette as you would a best friend, run everything past your trusty box of paints -  Sketches and plans for landscapes, pet portraits, plans for larger works all scaled down to fit neatly on your pad, which then becomes a journal.  I love the pads which are glued.  I can take them out and have no worries about dragging a board and masking tape with me.    It is much cheaper to experiment with colours with watercolour, especially if the finished work is planned in oil or acrylic.   

If you are finding that your watercolours are thick, you may feel more comfortable with and prefer to use a very watered down gouache or acrylic.  Acrylic ink behaves much the same way and can be watered down quite successfully. 

The important thing is to have fun an enjoy using your new skills, pushing your personal parameters a little more each time.

Here is another watercolour sketch.  Of a small French village, it was painted as the plan for a larger, 24 x 18 canvas in oil, which to this day remains unfinished.  I wanted to work on a sketch to get the stonework right, and the light further down the hill correct and the darker shadow from the tall buildings at this end relatively true to life.  I call the cat 'Lucky', because every time I get the painting out to work on it, a commission comes in and back on the rack it goes!    Six years on it is, thankfully,  very close to completion!  Never give up on a painting.  Keep getting it out, works in progress are good for the soul.  As we learn we can apply our knowledge to our WIP's and get an overall picture of our journey throughout the construction of the painting. 
Remember not to stress, try always to have  fun and most of all enjoy your work!

xx As Always Written & Offered In The Spirit Of Love xx

Painting water, can, quite frankly be a bitch.   Oh those darned sparkles and reflections are a nightmare, and the opacity issues... heavens and then there is the issue of the sun in the sky and where it would cast a reflection ...... Eeeek eeeeek and more eeeeek.  

I love water actually.  I love painting it and I love watching it.  But it wasn't always like that, more of a bit of a struggle really, so as is my way I confronted the issue head on setting about  photographing as much water as possible.  The non- flash photograph on the left is actually my loo flushing! I later used this photo in an advertising campaign by taking the wine glass shape, Tinting it pink after defining it a bit in photoshop and voila! My client was delighted, though never had a clue how I achieved it! 

If you want to paint water you have to study it.  Now look carefully at the photograph. Pick out the sparkles, the droplets, note where the water appears opaque and which bits appear almost translucent.  Pick out the shadowy areas and pick out the light play.  Now if you are really bored, you can get your watercolours out and copy it - without masking fluid - this is where paint bleed can be your very good friend. Don't spend ages, fifteen minutes top, just sketch with your paints dropping in the lights and darks, letting the bleed be your transparentish areas.  Other good practice subjects are a glass tumbler with water, a glass vase with water but no flowers.  Puddles - with all of this rain we are having puddles are everywhere, make the most of the opportunity! A window with rain running down the outside, a running tap, a puddle of water on a worktop - these are all good subjects for exercising your water muscles.
If you can master water then you can apply it to any painting, whether it be present in the flesh so to speak or not.  Puddles can make a garden scene come alive, spills of tea make an afternoon tea scene look human, and rain on a window gives instant atmosphere.  

River and ocean water follow the same rules.  Look at the piccy on the right.  This was taken at Chichester Canal on a dry day.  The water has lights, darks, greys, solid opaque areas and near the banks a little translucency.  However, there is only one flat truly reflective area which is to the right of the barge and is reflecting part of a tree. The rest of the reflection is almost opaqued out.  Now an inexperienced painter may go for a complete reflection and wonder why it didn't look quite right.  Water is fluid, it is mostly moving.  When it moves, it is like it has a skin on it - look at the ripples in the foreground to see what I mean. It is extremely rare to get flat still water, and rarely looks right in a painting.   Reflections that are painted as a flat reflection of what is above the water line look artificial and flat, a few perhaps a minimal amount of water lines will breathe life into your waterscape.  Pay particular attention to the colours too.  The red livesaver  on the rear of the barge is reflected on almost every ripple coming toward the bank.  Few painters would indicate those repetitive reflections, yet such detail can make the difference between a good painting and an outstanding painting.   The water itself varies from a light grey to a deep deep olive.  Do not let your eye convince you of the presence of blacks or whites, it's fibbing .........  Trust me, I know about these things!  The brain can be very lazy with your internal colour chart if you don't keep it toned up.  Study wet things,  perhaps take two identical cups, place on on the drainer dry, and one you have just rinsed under the tap next to it. Compare the two.  We know when things are wet simply by looking at them.  To paint wet objects you need to study those subtle differences that tell your brain that your eye is looking at a wet object and incorporate your knowledge into your paintings.  

When I painted 'Dancing In The Rain', to get the water right, I stood in the shower with several mirrors watching the way water ran off my body - now that's dedication for you - I also photographed people walking through puddles to get the splish splash of movement as good as I could.  I didn't see any point on painting the original sketch if I wasn't going to then follow through and  practice on what I found to be the challenging areas.  If you are embarking on a complex water project, thorough research is the key to the success of the project, yet so many painters sit down at their workstation and try to paint water from memory.  Unless you are painting water on a daily basis, to paint straight from memory and get it absolutely spot on is nigh on impossible!  Make sure you always have at least one good reference point, or that you make a habit of studying water when you get the opportunity.  Painting practice is a darn good practice and we all know that proper practice promotes perfect paint habits, and we don't then, rejoice, for it is never to early to learn!

xx As Always Written And Offered In The Spirit Of Love xx