George Boyter - "Composition - a Watercolour Landscape Demonstration" November 2019
George Boyter
George Boyter is a professional artist specialising in painting watercolour landscapes including figures and buildings. He hails from the little fishing village of Pittenweem in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland and studied Drawing and Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee. He enjoyed an award-winning career as a creative director in advertising in London and now lives in Oxfordshire. He has studied watercolour technique and composition under the modern masters of the medium – Alvaro Castagnet and Joseph Zbukvic. George offers art classes for groups and individual tuition for beginners and developing artists. His art sampler courses cover a wide variety of techniques including watercolours, oil painting, sketching, life drawing, portraiture and composition.
georgeboyterartist.com
georgeboyterartist.com
Martyn Worman wrote about this demonstration on 12th Nov 2019:
George started by describing his watercolour technique, tools and materials. He emphasised the golden rule of composition (1/3, 1/3, 1/3, both horizontal and vertical) and keeping the painting loose by using a brush which is ‘just a bit larger than you are comfortable with’. He described how his brushes were organised – keep all pointed ones together and have some older ‘less pointed’ ones available for when the need arises. George used largish brushes both for the washes and detail, and stressed the need for the brush to have a good pointed tip.
George’s paper was 300gm rough watercolour (Saunders or Bockingford) so that it did not buckle and needed no stretching prior to painting. He pointed out the useful feature of a rough tooth to get good texture and some special effects. His paints were mostly Windsor & Newton and the somewhat less expensive Cotman. He used several types and shades of grey and an unusual lavender (from a different maker) to mix with, and soften the impact of, some colours both while still wet on the paper and also when mixing in the palette.
George chose a landscape, drawn from memory, with about 1/3 sky, 1/3 land and 1/3 water. The foreground water included some boats and reflections, with a boathouse behind and a distant village. The boathouse was 1/3 from the left hand side. He described the four stages of painting as: 1) composition and outline drawing; 2) base washes; 3) detail (includes wet in wet) and 4) highlights (done with a dry brush).
George first wet the paper with an atomiser spray. Working from the top with a large brush well loaded with water, he picked up neat paint with the tip and slowly moved the wash down the paper, changing the colour mix as necessary from yellow ochre to cobalt blue as he went, pulling the very wet band (the 'bead') at the foot of each wash gradually down the paper with the tip of the brush. This worked very well with the 30 degree inclined paper position (gravity helping to move the bead) and gave good control of both density, graduation and colour.
He ensured that the washes were fully dry before moving to the next (detail) stage and painted the boathouse, boats, distant village and water. George emphasised that there should be no sharp edges or bright colours in the background. He showed how a dark and sharp edge on the boathouse throws back the background and creates depth. Finally. George applied the highlights in the foreground, the reflections in the water, the birds in the sky and the masts on the boats, all done with a fairly dry brush.
This was a competent demonstration and George explained what he was doing, and why he was doing it, in considerable detail throughout the two hours.
George started by describing his watercolour technique, tools and materials. He emphasised the golden rule of composition (1/3, 1/3, 1/3, both horizontal and vertical) and keeping the painting loose by using a brush which is ‘just a bit larger than you are comfortable with’. He described how his brushes were organised – keep all pointed ones together and have some older ‘less pointed’ ones available for when the need arises. George used largish brushes both for the washes and detail, and stressed the need for the brush to have a good pointed tip.
George’s paper was 300gm rough watercolour (Saunders or Bockingford) so that it did not buckle and needed no stretching prior to painting. He pointed out the useful feature of a rough tooth to get good texture and some special effects. His paints were mostly Windsor & Newton and the somewhat less expensive Cotman. He used several types and shades of grey and an unusual lavender (from a different maker) to mix with, and soften the impact of, some colours both while still wet on the paper and also when mixing in the palette.
George chose a landscape, drawn from memory, with about 1/3 sky, 1/3 land and 1/3 water. The foreground water included some boats and reflections, with a boathouse behind and a distant village. The boathouse was 1/3 from the left hand side. He described the four stages of painting as: 1) composition and outline drawing; 2) base washes; 3) detail (includes wet in wet) and 4) highlights (done with a dry brush).
George first wet the paper with an atomiser spray. Working from the top with a large brush well loaded with water, he picked up neat paint with the tip and slowly moved the wash down the paper, changing the colour mix as necessary from yellow ochre to cobalt blue as he went, pulling the very wet band (the 'bead') at the foot of each wash gradually down the paper with the tip of the brush. This worked very well with the 30 degree inclined paper position (gravity helping to move the bead) and gave good control of both density, graduation and colour.
He ensured that the washes were fully dry before moving to the next (detail) stage and painted the boathouse, boats, distant village and water. George emphasised that there should be no sharp edges or bright colours in the background. He showed how a dark and sharp edge on the boathouse throws back the background and creates depth. Finally. George applied the highlights in the foreground, the reflections in the water, the birds in the sky and the masts on the boats, all done with a fairly dry brush.
This was a competent demonstration and George explained what he was doing, and why he was doing it, in considerable detail throughout the two hours.