Blue sky in 8 stages

I had to put down a large wash yesterday. This is a private commission which I am determined to get finished this week. I decided to go hell for leather and put the sky background in without stopping out or even loosening the paper up with a clean water wash. It was about as near to a roller coaster ride as painting ever gets; you've got to move really quickly, alternating between big wash mops and smaller detail brushes - first get the quantity down...

...then take it up to the edges with a smaller brush, working quickly to keep the wash whole and unlined while doing this, keeping a spare eye out for areas of wash which are evaporating too quickly and may cause tide lines. To help the wash stay 'wet' I've added a few drops of ox-gall.

It can be a bit fiddly and this was the worst bit - trying to get the edges filled in before the rest of it dried. A wash should ideally be put down in one big, fluid 'go'. However, I've been doing this for a long time now, and you get a sixth sense of how to manage it - practise is something that can't be taught. You learn little tricks and twiddles - most of all you learn to keep your eye on the ball.

And it's done. About 45 minutes of constant brush work. I've slighly encroached over the edges in places, but that can be sorted out later.

Here's an example of a patch which has dried unevenly - you can see the blotch made by the tideline. I fixed it by adding a little dilute blue wash and gentle mopping with a damp sponge, amalgamating it into the rest of the nearly dry wash. This had to be done very carefuly, to keep the overall smoothnesss.

Then I decided to add an extra bit to the beak...I can't remember what these things are called, but male birds seem to have them. It would add an extra bit of character and colour. Decision - would it wreck the painting or could I successfully do a bit of 'plastic surgery'?

First I flooded the pencilled area with clean water and using a dry tissue, soaked up as much of the blue as possible. It has stained the paper but I'm hoping that the new colour will cover that.

...which it has. There is some darkening where the original sky bit is showing through, but I've got to add pencil work later on and the light is to fall across the bird from the left - so it will actually enhance the effect. Now I can relax and enjoy the rest of the painting. The worst is over!