DON’T ALWAYS GO FOR THE BIG PICTURE

It’s easy to get bamboozled into always looking for The Big Picture. When you’re out and about, this is natural. Nature can be awesome – and awe-inspiring – and as a landscape artist, I know that the desire to show the world off in paint is a strong one, and often motivation-enough to make one head for the brushes.

However, next time you’re out and about with your camera or your sketchbook, take time out to look a little closer to home. It’s easy, when one is being seduced by an impressive, senses-jarring, panorama, to overlook possible subjects that might be vitually under your feet. The bark of trees provides endless painting possibilities – as do reflections in water. Stone walls are always interesting, but have you ever gone right up close to one and looked at it in minute detail? Moss and guano provide exciting textural challenges, easily missed if only dealing with The Big Picture. A single rock, lying semi-hidden amongst a patch of long grass can be the inspiration for an entire masterpiece.

Getting in close provides you with extra insight into a subject. The more you understand about the minutiae of an object, the more equipped you’ll be to create it successfully in watercolour.

Don’t forget, also, that painting objects close up, or from unusual angles are a great way of illustrating the familiar in a wholly unfamiliar way. Remember the quizzes you always used to get, where you had to guess the object from an extreme close-up photograph of it? The answer might be a cheese graterer (in fact, come to think of it – it was always a cheese graterer), or a cullinder. You get the idea. Broaden your horizons by occasionally narrowing your field of view!

To give you a start, I’ve added a couple of bark closer-ups to the Photo Resources on the Online Watercolour Workshop this month.