Leisure Painter - April Issue

This month's Leisure Painter is something you should not miss if you are looking for tips in painting realistic water using watercolour.

I was very impressed by the Ask The Tutor piece by Tony Cowlinshaw (see below) where the writer focussed on waves. Ask any watercolour painter, drawing water is tough enough. But waves? How do you capture the nuances created by the wind or wakes caused by passing boats realistically?

Well, there are some useful tips here and I would be letting the fun out of the bag if I elaborate too much. Suffice to say, the author also touches on use of masking fluids to capture the intricate part of the waves as well as using 's-strokes' using a loaded brush.



Meanwhile, in the Landscape section, Robert Newcombe touches on the importance of tonal contrast in landscape painting (and this applies to others in case you are wondering).

Newcombe introduces the Tonal Plan method where he stress the importance of having a tonal plan of colours before you even start. I think this is important and believe you me, it is not that easy. You could arm yourself with a tonal chart but that would take out the fun of the spontaneity of painting. Read more in April's edition.

I won't touch on the other sections of this issue because I am more interested in the watercolour tips. As usual, Leisure Painter is full of surprises again.