Hookers green is a horrible colour straight from the tube, If you take it out of the equation of the eight colours I use all the time, mix the other seven in one at a time you have 7 different lovely greens. Mix a third colour into some of the mixes and have about 5 secondary greens. Hey presto twelve greens from one tube.

Why do you use Raw Umber all the time?

Raw umber is a lovely soft brown. If I add ultra marine blue to my raw umber that gives me sepia. That’s two browns. Add a little bit of burnt sienna to the last mix gives me warm sepia that’s three browns. Take my raw umber with just burnt sienna and you have burnt umber. Four different lovely browns form one tube.

Do you ever pre stretch your paper?

I never ever pre stretch my paper. Its rough and it’s a really hard wearing paper which very very rarely cockles and ruffles and if it does once I take off the tape it dries flat anyway. Interestingly both sides are sized and both sides are equally rough, so you can paint on both sides. Sometimes when we are filming that same piece of paper can have two or three sky washes and it still never messes me about.

How do you layout your palette?

I have been asked numerous times how I layout my palette, click on this following link and you will see.

Do you carry water with you?

What is frequently said is watercolours are a bit of a faff taking water with you on location. I very rarely carry water with me; there is nearly always a source of water somewhere. Be it public toilets, pub, café, river, stream, and when I’m painting on beaches I always use seawater. “Hands thrown into the air in shock horror”, yes sea water. I’ve done literally hundreds of painting over many years using seawater and there is no damage. Simply paint the picture when it’s dried dust it off.

Do you never wash your palette out?

Yes, 1974 I think it was. It’s a bit like my filing system, it looks an absolute mess but I know where everything is. The same range of colours is mixed in the same areas all the time.

How do you mix black?

I never use a manufactured black because it’s dead and flat. There are two ways in which I mix black. The easier and most instant is ultra marine blue and burnt sienna mixed, which gives you a good strong black. The second alizarin crimson and hookers green.

Why do you only use so few brushes?

I only ever use four brushes all the time. 1.5” wash brush, ¾” flat wash brush, No 8 round, and No3 rigger. The big flat wash brush I use is totally synthetic because its so big it will carry lots of water but then its robust enough to do the sucking out of the paint from the clouds. I find that a lot of the very expensive pure sable brushes are too soft for the hard treatment that I give. The sapphire ¾ inch flat, Round and rigger that I use are a mixture of sable and synthetic therefore would do the job of both brushes i.e. carry a nice big wash but then when it comes to some hard treatment the synthetic qualities give it the robustness needed.

Do you ever paint from photographs?

No, or very rarely. I find that working from a sketch book is more satisfying and also by doing a sketch on location you automatically cut down on unnecessary clutter and by working from the sketch for the main picture it simplifies it for yourself. The watercolour pencils I use last for years and with a tin of 24 I have all the colours I need.

What kind of pen and wash do you use in your watercolour pencils drawings?

I don’t use any pen and wash, just any old biro most of the time occasionally there are some fancy pens to hand but most of the time just a black. Do a colour drawing, colour in with your pencils then stroke over with a wet brush and it becomes a little painting. Once this has dried add a few squiggling lines with your pen to pull out some details here and there. To check this out look at some of the watercolour pencils projects on the site. I stipulate a hardback sketch book because no matter what condition they get in they are properly strung bound which means that the pages aren’t going to fall out.