Techniques – Peter's Art Blog

29 March 2026

Mining Ideas… Where to Start?

I’ve just come back from a week’s touring in South Wales, specifically climbing Pen y Fan (almost to the top) in the Brecon Beacons, and enjoying the wild coastline around St David’s Head. Over the course of the trip, many miles were walked, many photographs were taken and multiple gigabytes of video were shot. In all honesty, there was so...

Line and Wash/Pencil/Sketching/Techniques/Tips Comments: 0

24 October 2025

Stick, Fix or Bale?

Anyone who paints in watercolour knows how trying, and utterly soul-destroying, the medium can occasionally be. One minute it can be plain sailing, with everything flowing exactly as it should, where even the unplanned bits seem to be working in perfect synchronicity with the universe, creating an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction and peace with the world. It has the potential...

Materials/Techniques/Watercolour Comments: 0

26 August 2025

Underwashes and Highlights

I want to talk about the loose, wet-in-wet underwash… … and where it sits in the process of a painting that might finish up looking something like this… Applying a loose, wet-in-wet wash to a blank sheet of paper is a great way to start any painting. On the one hand, it can provide the artist with a no-nonsense method...

Techniques/Watercolour Comments: 0

28 July 2025

Watercolour Pencils Revisited

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with watercolour pencils, picking them up only rarely to engage in battle with them, in the hope that I can produce something half decent. On reflection, I’m almost certain that part of my ambivalence has been down to the paper that I’ve used, believing that watercolour pencils must surely work best on a smooth...

Techniques/Watercolour Pencils Comments: 0

28 April 2025

The Unexpected Value of Random Jottings

I have a small notebook on my desk, which I use to make notes when I’m on the telephone, or leave important reminders to myself. Occasionally, I’ll even made the odd random doodle. To be fair, the sketch above isn’t that random. It’s of a subject that I’d been giving a lot of thought to ever since visiting Three Shires...

Line and Wash/Sketching/Techniques/Tips Comments: 0

30 March 2025

The Value of Research and Planning

This is a watercolour painting I did of Mousehole Harbour, in Cornwall, some years ago. Cornwall is a long way from West Yorkshire, which means it isn’t often I get a chance to visit, so it was with great expectations, last month, that we took the campervan down that way for a week’s touring; one of the prime locations we...

Art General/Locations/Techniques/Tips/Watercolour Comments: 2

7 March 2025

Video Sketchbook

I’ve written many times about the concept of using a camera as a sketchbook. Despite the fact that I still bump into people who believe that using any form of technology or photographic equipment is cheating, and that to do so is not being a ‘real’ artist, I’m here to tell you for a fact that they form an integral...

Sketching/Techniques/Watercolour Comments: 0

2 February 2025

The Soul Of The Subject

I wasn’t looking for a link, and I certainly wasn’t groping around for any sort of pun on ‘soul’ (pertaining to churches n’ all), but two recent jobs coincided within hours of each other, providing me with an unexpected segue. In a conversation with an attendee at one of my demonstrations recently, where I was attempting to replicate the success...

Observations/Techniques/Tips/Watercolour Comments: 0

7 August 2024

When is a Rule not a Rule?

When it isn’t actually a rule, but a concept?…. or… when it is a personal preference, or spontaneous choice?… I’m something of a stickler when it comes to rules, but one of the first things I like to tell my students is that, in watercolour, there are no rules. This pronouncement is usually followed up with the revelation that there...

Observations/Techniques/Watercolour Comments: 0

30 June 2024

Line and Wash on Location

This painting was produced on a hot day in June, looking across the village green of Widecombe in the Moor, a quintessentially english village in the heart of Dartmoor National Park. It’s a line and wash, which means I started out with a loose, almost abstract wash; not wet-in-wet, but painted sufficiently loosely as to encourage colours to bleed together...

Line and Wash/Techniques/Watercolour Comments: 0

Category: Techniques