TIP 9
Tony Hart was a childhood inspiration. I used to love watching Vision On and all the amazing artwork they featured.
I found this plastic model of Morph whilst walking my dog. The animated Morph used to feature in Tony Hart’s television program Take Hart which was an inspiration to millions of children including myself. He passed away at the age of 83 in January 2009. You can still see some clips of Tony on YouTube.
So here’s an important tip when using watercolour paints. Change your water regularly. As soon as it starts getting discoloured, rinse out your jar and replace it with clean water. I usually have two jars on my drawing board. One to take off the paint on my brush, the other to get the brush really clean. If your water is dirty and discoloured, it will contaminate the pigment you are trying to use. You could end up with washes that are dirty and dull.
In the background you can see a silver container that I use to hold extra water whilst painting on location. Sadly I lost this special container which I bought in Siena. It was left on Jebel Akhdar in Oman when I was painting early one morning.
You can also see a couple of watercolour boxes. I use both painting boxes whilst working outdoors. The smaller of the two also contains water.
The scene above is a commission of Oman for one of my clients. It’s in the early stages of the preliminary wash. I wonder if Tony Hart would approve?