Ian McManus

Tonight we were treated to a watercolour demonstration from artist Ian McManus. Ian , who has travelled from Blackpool to be with us this evening, spent the 2 hours sharing his experience of over 30 years, as a dedicated watercolour colourist. 

Ian advocates working in tones rather than focusing on colour, and demonstrated how he began with a light wash, adding general shapes in pale muted colours for his background. The scene he always prepares in pencil first- drawing freehand.

Working from top to bottom, his tones deepened at he moved nearer to the foreground. Key subjects - in this instance, the people walking on the wet pavement, were created with stronger tones and some colour. 

Although his photograph was used as a starting point, Ian added other characters and vehicles to develop an interesting composition. His work is not intended to be a photographic style, preferring to capture the mood of a moment in time. 

Throughout the demonstration, he shared both his techniques and equipment choices - easily answering a varity of questions from the audience. 

The completed work amazed the audience at how the scene was produced so thoroughly in a bare 2 hours. Many thanks to Ian - and I'm sure many of us will be trying out his techniques in the weeks to come.