Using watercolours (From an oil painter’s perspective)
I didn’t realise how lucky I had it, to have thrown myself in at the deep end and learn to paint with oils as quickly as I did. It was a medium I wanted as my friend and I threw it around until I made it work. I was going to shoehorn my work to intertwine with oils and do whatever it took. Luckily the shoe fit. It wasn’t until I went back to materials I had previously used before I taught myself how to paint properly, that I realised it is not how the material works for you but how you work the material. Watercolour painting is oil painting flipped on its head. This is my own interpretation. Where oils are malleable, subject to complete change in consistency and shape of the mark you just made, watercolours are not. With oils you could alter that one mark up to 3 or 4 days later. With watercolours you cannot. You have a matter of seconds to decide if the mark you just made was ‘correct’ …