Learning two simple lessons: Hanwell Clock Tower watercolour

I haven’t taken as many process photos for this latest painting. Bteween painting the Woolworths painting at the end of last week, and painting his one, I’ve been looking at watercolours of similar subjects by artists I really like, and trying to figure out why I think their’s are SO much better than mine, and I picked up just a couple of ideas that I tried to apply while I was making this painting.

The subject is the Clock tower in Hanwell, which is the part of Ealing where I grew up. It was erected in 1937 to commemorate the Coronation of King George VI. There was a campaign to have it removed during the 1970s. Thankfully this didn’t come to anything.

I've sketched the clock tower in ink from a different angle: -

I’ve developed the habit of filling the page with my original outline sketch, which does mean that I have to rub out the pencil lines which have been covered over by the tapes.

Right, the two things I picked up from looking at watercolours by artists I like showing similar views were these:- 1) You don’t have to go for a traditional blue sky every time. Some of the pictures I looked at achieve great things using colours like yellow, crimson or even purple for the sky. So I went for a mostly yellow sky with just a hint of blue bleeding into it from the very top. – 2) Do not overwork the painting.As you can see, I had finished the clock itself at a very early stage of the painting. I would always be tempted to do more work on it, to darken the shadows more, and try to add more texture. Here I forced myself to say – it’s good now, be satisfied.

I’d started the painting on the Sunday afternoon, but my daughter and my youngest grandson called round, so I didn’t return to it until the evening. Taking this photo was the last thing I did before packing up for the night. The natural light had gone and the artificial light was not really helping me much.

 

I woke too early this morning, but was eager to crack on with the painting. I made up my mind to be disciplined and work from left to right. So the first job was to complete the red brick building. I’d already painted he cream base yesterday. Today I applied the individual brush strokes to replicate the pattern of the bricks. Once these had dried I watered down the brown, and applied a very thin layer over the op of the brickwork, just to push the pattern back a little.

I shouldn’t say it, but I was getting quite excited by this time at just how it might turn out. I was deliberately using colours that were somewhat more muted than I would normally, and it was giving the painting the quality I wanted.

The next thing was to work on the shopfronts. I had to have a serious think about how I was going to execute what I wanted and in the end decided to paint in the more brightly coloured chairs on the pavement in front of the café before finishing the shopfront and windows.

By this time I was so far into the picture that I really only had one main concern which was – don’t cock it up now by making a pig’s ear of the last few bits on the far right. I was happy with the front of the café and the chairs. Although I still need to add the shadows on the pavement in front of it.

Before I took this penultimate picture It struck me that the blue on the timbered building and on the building on the far right was a little weak. The buildings in real life are actually white but the blue contrasts strongly with the colours of the clock tower, and fools the eye into thinking that the white buildings are in shadow. So the Ladbrokes shopfront and the windows above it were finished, and this was the stage just before the signing, and the ceremonial removal of the tape. I still had to add the kerb, and one shadow running up the steps of the clock.

And this is the finished painting. No doubt it’s not a masterpiece. However, it does show some of the qualities I think make watercolour special. I like this one a lot.