June 2018: Watercolour, Pan Pastels, Ink demonstration with Tony Hogan
Thanks, Chris for this write-up
Tony Hogan is a very experienced painter with a mastery of several different art mediums. (15 to be precise; somebody once counted!) So, understandably, he often uses mixed media and for our OVAS demonstration he mainly worked in watercolour before adding extra tonal touches and atmosphere with PanPastels, finishing with some details in ink.
After art college in 1961, Tony spent many years working as a graphic designer and commercial artist based in Scarborough before becoming a 'free spirit' in Cornwall, painting what takes his fancy - usually en plein air. But he also enjoys tutoring at art courses, and demonstrating new artist materials on behalf of art companies and for the likes of art enthusiasts such as ourselves.
Thanks, Chris for this write-up
Tony Hogan is a very experienced painter with a mastery of several different art mediums. (15 to be precise; somebody once counted!) So, understandably, he often uses mixed media and for our OVAS demonstration he mainly worked in watercolour before adding extra tonal touches and atmosphere with PanPastels, finishing with some details in ink.
After art college in 1961, Tony spent many years working as a graphic designer and commercial artist based in Scarborough before becoming a 'free spirit' in Cornwall, painting what takes his fancy - usually en plein air. But he also enjoys tutoring at art courses, and demonstrating new artist materials on behalf of art companies and for the likes of art enthusiasts such as ourselves.
Rock - across The Camel, from Padstow
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For us Tony demonstrated from memory a scene somewhere near the above, looking across the Camel towards Rock. He began with a wet wash for the sky area, adding Daniel Smith Manganese Blue and lifting out with kitchen roll before adding clouds with ultramarine violet and lavender. 
Working steadily down the page, Tony used raw sienna and other colours for the sand flats of the Camel.
His intention was that the watercolour be to some extent an underpainting layer TONY's TIP: NEVER start with the main detail that attracted you to do a painting. Let it fit in later |
Tony used a hairdrier to dry his work to prevent bleeding and then added cadmium yellow light and quinacridone magenta to create a sunset and the cloud tops beneath the blue sky.
He completely avoids opaque watercolours such as yellow ochre, and mixes his colours on the paper, not on the palette. 
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Putting the watercolours to one side, Tony introduced us to a new variant on an old medium: PanPastels. (see top right main picture).
These have to be applied with a 'sofft' [not a typo!!], a sort of soft sponge applicator with the consistency of a marshmallow, coming in a huge array of shapes and sizes much as one might need many brushes when oil painting, say. [Do NOT eat a bowl of marshmallows when using these materials, by the way!]. PanPastels cannot be applied with fingers, nor smeared by hand, but are intense and can be built up in layer upon layer without ever getting to that caking stage. Tony used these colours to create very quick grazes [rather than glazes] of colour across the watercolour underlay. They do not lend themselves to very detailed work, although pastel pencils are a good standby for that stage and apply well over the PanPastels - as do conventional pastels. |
Tony also mentioned the arrival of Graphix 'Line Painters' by Derwent, a collection of coloured acrylic ink pens that open interesting possibilities.
And indeed, inktense pencils [the colour being solid acrylic ink] of which he is a keen fan. [As am I. If interested, you can see some of the effects possible in some of the pictures on the OVAS members gallery, and by searching the entire website for inktense, as shown here.
However, on this occasion Tony preferred to bring out his Pilot Parallel pens, versatile calligraphy pens with which he added some fine finishing touches such as lines of boat rigging.
And indeed, inktense pencils [the colour being solid acrylic ink] of which he is a keen fan. [As am I. If interested, you can see some of the effects possible in some of the pictures on the OVAS members gallery, and by searching the entire website for inktense, as shown here.
However, on this occasion Tony preferred to bring out his Pilot Parallel pens, versatile calligraphy pens with which he added some fine finishing touches such as lines of boat rigging.
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As he worked, Rob reinforced certain points of geometric composition, particularly the combination of horizontal, vertical and diagonal elements necessary to satisfy the eye [verticals being represented here by some final boat masts] and the necessity of drawing the eye in on diagonals.
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Only when the masking fluid was finally removed [never by finger since the acid causes discolouration over time!] could we see the foaming ripple of the incoming tidal wave.
