On the many days I’m not out and about travelling through Scotland in search of scenes and views to paint, I paint subjects nearer hand such as flowers and plants in the garden or trees from woodlands nearby. I also paint from the extensive collection of photos I’ve taken on previous trips. 


During this past week I created some rough sketches and layout for a piece of art I’ll be submitting to an art exhibition open call soon. The inspiration for that painting came from coins and yet the subject is actually flowers! I’ll explain more in another post, once that art is finished. (Currently waiting on an order of Bristol board to be delivered to create the final piece.) Anyway, another piece of art I did was a watercolour painting of a scene just south of the Spittal of Glenshee. 

I took a few photos and used them as reference photos for the rolling hills and fields that made up the subject of my painting. As I always, personally, enjoy seeing how other artists work - they’re process, stages and work in progress shots, I thought I’d create this post to show how my paintings start out and then how they end up, including the stages that come in between. 

A few years ago when I did art passionately but not so seriously, I’d spend ages trying to sketch out things perfectly in pencil, erasing plenty of lead as I did so, in my attempt to create the best possible initial image from which to start. This frequently (1) took a lot of time and (2) ruined the surface of the watercolour paper (you’ll know exactly what I mean if you’ve done it yourself!) Now, though, I only really ever sketch with waterproof, pigmented, fineliner pens of, usually, very small nib. This forces me to get it right the first time and if I make an error, I just have to go with it. After working in pen for a while, it’s amazing how much you can make what seems at first like an irreparable mistake into a completely insignificant part of your overall artwork. 

Here is my ink sketch for the landscape. I used a ‘XS’ Faber Castell art pen for this. I’m not too fussy about brands, though, I use Staedtler and Micron too frequently. 



After the initial outlines were created I started blocking in a couple of pale washes over the whole sheet then started to build layer upon layer once each wash dried. 

For the sky I used a small amount of scrunched up kitchen roll to take way some of the blue paint to leave ‘negative’ white clouds. Natural sponges also work well. The only problem with mine is that they are currently so well tidied away in my studio, I may have forgotten exactly where I tidied them too... Paper is also good to use if you accidentally put paint where you didn’t mean to or add colour and then realise it is far darker than you expected it to be; simply blot the wet paint away as quickly as possible. 


When building up the painting, I find its best to work with decreasing volumes of water for each layer to really help to bring out the vibrancy of the paints. This is in addition to reducing the size of brush as I go. I’ll use a really small ‘0000’ brush at the end for the finer details. 




For the record, the brush above isn't the tiny one, it's another brush I was using. I used 3 in total, that one, a medium sized flat brush and the tiny '0000' brush. 


think that’s about it for my process in painting this scene from near Glenshee. Here is the finished painting. 


Some tips for watercolour painting:

• Use small bits of kitchen roll or toilet paper to quickly soak up any stray paint on your painting 
• Don’t stress if you make a mistake, try and keep going 
• Keep the mixing water clean 
• Keep your palette closest to the area of painting on which you are working (this avoids paint dripping from a loaded brush before you reach the area you’re wanting to paint)
• To paint darker areas let the previously painted area dry completely

If you’ve enjoyed this post or would like to see more of my art in future, be sure to follow me on social media! You can find me on Twitter and Instagram if you search for @HCRart. 
You can also find me on FB:www.facebook.com/hcr.art

Helen 

HCRart

A couple of weekends ago, I had a wonderfully productive trip to Glenshee. I only visited Glenshee for the first time a couple of years ago despite the fact it is not too far from where I live. Yet, ever since my first visit I have been back a number of times and it never fails to impress me. It is so seasonally variant with the colours, textures, and scenes of the area transforming depending upon the time of year. Here are some summer scenes. 




And here is a snowy vista from earlier this year, around February, for contrast. 


This is my favourite view at Glenshee. You can see an acrylic painting I painted of this view last year if you look in the portfolio on my website (www.hcrart.com). 

I have many a photo taken there, some make up my inspiration board areas in my studio, but in this post I’ll mainly share with you the photos I took in June. I have intended doing watercolour sketching while there a few times but up until this last trip, I ended up not doing it; opting to stick with my fineliner pen sketches instead. 

It was great finally allowing myself to add colour while there. For me, as an artist, adding colour to paper is so much fun, I feel like a child discovering colour for the first time! The fact a watercolour pan can produce such wondrous colour with the addition of water gives me much pleasure and layering it on the paper with each brushstroke seeing a picture come to life is a great feeling! 


I decided to go up to Braemar first and then work my way back down the road painting scenes as I saw them. I usually work the other way around, but it is always good to switch things up and approach things from a fresh perspective. (Plus, Braemar had a shop for me to buy some lunch to eat in between paintings. Food is something often on my mind and it’s important to fuel my creativity with energy from tasty food!) The photo below is of the first scene I painted. It is a view up the valley in the direction of Braemar, not too far south of the village itself. All of my paintings were done using a Winsor & Newton travel watercolour set and Cass Art brushes though I forgot to take a large brush for the sky so that is why all the skies in my sketches are left blank - oops!  




During the painting of this second view (below) I was reminded of the challenges a glen can make when painting - the constantly changing shadows due to moving clouds and mountains of significant height! I tried to just apply the basic colours as quickly as possible to give some idea of the textures and hues of the landscape and I’m pretty satisfied with the outcome. 



While I was painting a wee fly decided he wanted to explore my paper landscape... But he quickly realised he didn't fit in and flew away!


This third painting was done a little further up the road and conveys another view facing down towards the Spittal of Glenshee. 


My final painting is of my aforementioned favourite view in Glenshee. As I arrived there and for the first little while of painting, the sun was in the perfect position to illluminate the vastness of the valley. It clouded over later but by that time I had added most of the colour.    
Here is the finished painting along with some of the work in progress photos to give you an idea of my artistic process. 






So, that was my little painting trip to Glenshee; I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of scenes from the journey. 

Also, I am busy this summer with getting paintings created, finished and sent to various exhibitions I’m participating in or hoping to participate in. If you’d like to keep up to date with details of these exhibitions, keep an eye on my social media pages:

Twitter: @HCRart
Facebook: /hcr.art
Instagram: @HCRart

Have a great day,
HCR 



This post should have been written in December but you can have it now, albeit very late! 

These are a couple of photos from a train journey between Perth and Inverness. I was going up to Inverness to catch up with a university friend and to do some Christmas shopping. Where I live there was no snow, neither was there snow in Perth but not long out of Perth on the line northwards snow started falling thick and fast. It looked so wintery and created the atmosphere of a freshly shaken snow globe. 

It was great being able to take photos of the scenes from the comfort and warmth of the train carriage. Mountains are something which I absolutely love to paint. (I started at the beginning of 2015 and had been looking forward to winter snow scenes again. Check out some on my portfolio: www.hcrart.com.) It was not so fun when the train stopped a few times due to the line being blocked but I got to my destination eventually, if an hour later than planned! At least I was rewarded with the photos I took. The drama of the trip up wasn't finished when I arrived in Inverness though as my friend greeted me by saying she was glad I'd arrived there eventually but wasn't sure if I'd get back home as the station announcements board had on it that many trains South were cancelled due to a fallen tree on the line. Just what I wanted to hear (!) 



In case you're wondering, I did actually get home fine in the end. Never a dull day when traveling in snow! 

For more, feel free to follow me on Twitter: @HCRart
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HCR.art 
Instagram: @HCRart for my art or my new account @ScottishScenes devoted to the beautiful Scottish landscape 

Have a great day,
Get out in nature and go explore! 
HCR
I have often passed Kinnoull Hill as it is by the A90. The hill and other hill beside it, together part of the Kinnoull Hill Woodlands Park, tower above the busy road at one side, while the wide River Tay, borders the other side. Right at the top of Kinnoull Hill there is a tower modelled in the style of historic towers that projected from the landscape on hills by the River Rhine in Germany. The tower had always interested me and I have a habit of looking out for it whenever I pass it. It's never hard to find, protruding from the peak of the hill. 

This week I went to the woodland park and did one of the signposted walks. I chose the one going up to the aforementioned tower. At some point in the future though I would like to do the longer circuit walk round the two hills as there are apparently ruins of iron age fort at the top of the other hill and the historian in me is excited by that! (I have a degree in history.) 

The walk I did was a nice walk. A well-maintained path skirted around and them rose through the woods at a not too steep incline up to the top. There were lovely views at a few points and the view from the top didn't disappoint but it would have been nicer had the sun decided to shine! I'd have loved to have seem the blue of the sky reflected on the surface of the River Tay. 

Here are some of the photos I took. These are just a few from my phone, I haven't sorted the ones from my camera yet, but these give an idea of the surroundings there. 


View to the north. The Tay is looking quite silvery here! 


View to the south from the top. 


View to the north through one of the windows of the ruins at the top.  

Kinnoull Tower itself. It wasn't as tall as I'd expected but it is a fun thing to come across at the top of a hill. (Well, if, like me, you like old architecture / ruins I guess!)

It was too cold to sketch while there with it being forecast snow later on in the day but I am thinking of doing some  watercolour landscapes of the views from the top. 

In the meantime you can check out my Instagram account (@HCRart) if you're interested in seeing any of my most recent work. Woodland is what is inspiring my latest couple of pieces. 

I'm also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HCR.art and Twitter: @HCRart 

Have a great weekend, 
Helen   

It's a New Year! Happy New Year! 
For many in Scotland the year unfortunately began with flooding. Where I live was not so badly affected but those in the surrounding areas were. There was a lot of high winds and heavy rain where I am for most of this first week of 2016. Yet, yesterday blue sky finally appeared overhead! I wanted to make the most of the sun being out and went for a 3 hour walk along the coast a few minutes walk from where I live. You can travel far from home in search of beauty, but you should never neglect the beauty on your doorstep. I took quite a few reference photos, including the ones I have posted below, for paintings. It was very, very cold but seeing the blue sky, sun, and white-frothed wave-filled sea after the stormy days before wasa most welcome view. 

I should probably note that all these photos are portrait because I only had my iPhone with me and it's memory was full so I could only take photos through a third party photo app. that only saves portrait photos. Frustrating but better than nothing! 







To see my paintings, visit my website: www.hcrart.com 

You can also follow my latest art on Twitter (@HCRart) and Instagram (@HCRart)

I'm also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HCR.art  

Have a great weekend! 

Helen x
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