Paintings Page

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Examples of Painting Techniques:

The concentration required while painting is a beautiful bubble to be enclosed in. Day to day life disappears while a paintbrush is in hand and the mind swirls towards endless possibilities.

Experimentation Keeps The Passion for Painting Alive.

Texture Paste

A technique that I sometimes use is to combine with watercolours and 3D texture paste, zoomed in eye example above. This gives a similar effect to a thickly applied oil painting. The watercolours really misbehave themselves with this method and it’s unpredictability adds interesting patterns.

Watercolour on a Canvas

You may think that watercolours only belong on watercolour paper because the paints need a certain type of surface to grip hold of. I use special mediums to enable the watercolours to dance and swirl on any surface, such as wood or a canvas (florals on a canvas above).

Watercolour Shadows

Experimenting with daylight shadows which lift the subject off the page without using dull greys. Watercolours on paper. The different pigments of each paint, its opacity or translucency and the way different pigments interact with each other can take years of experience to master. A decade of experience, and as any watercolour artist may agree, it can still be surprising. I use artists quality watercolour paper 300g/m2  (140Lbs) acid free and archival. By using artists quality watercolour paints the colours float and mix much better giving a brighter fresh look.

Combining Oil and Watercolours

Self Portrait called 'Forgetful' by Sophie Huddlestone 2019. Walking to fetch my daughter from school I had forgotten my blue tinted Irlen Syndrome glasses and was squinting with the brightness of the sun. Painted onto a canvas board and 3D watercolour texture paste was added. Portrait painted in watercolours, the hat and background are in oil paints. I really went wild with this one to see how exaggerated I could go, mixing complementary colours yellow and blue bringing the main focus on the squinting eyes and the uncomfortable feeling to this portrait.

Combining oil paints with watercolour paints has taken several months of experimentation to perfect, as you can imagine oil verses water doesn’t mix and also requires different surfaces to paint on to. Several mixing chemicals and surfaces were tried out until I found the combination that worked well. Perhaps it is a rare combination as I couldn’t find any helpful information on the internet while trying to succeed with these opposite paints (portrait example above in watercolours and oil paints).

Painting Sketch Book

I always have a sketch book at hand to play and scribble ideas, sometimes adding wording, or colour names etc. for future paintings. This painting sketch was created at the time of distancing socially due to the corona virus 2020. “Distancing foot steps shadow the streets, colourful people connect us, grey buildings enclose us as we wait, for rainbows that define us” by Sophie Huddlestone.

Painting Landscapes

painting landscapes by LAOTY Sophie - birch trees pebble stream painting bw

In 2023 Sophie began learning about landscape painting, composition and creating distance into a scene. Sophie has a continual obsession of spontaneous random patterns, yet when combined with areas of realism it results in beautiful landscape paintings. These abstract expressionism landscapes are definitely worth keeping your eye on! 

Colour changing reflective paints

examples of colour changing paints - reds

Recently trying out some colour changing paints which alter the viewers experience, changing from neutral subtle tones of browns to a shimmering multitude of colours.

paints colour changing

Watch a few seconds as the colours change on my YouTube video clip (press the arrow to play). Any video clip shown afterwards will be a YouTube selection, and not one of mine.

Hidden Smile Face

Hidden smile on paintings by Sophie

Above shows you a smile in a zoomed in section from a watercolour painting. The hidden smile on paintings are only a couple of mm in size, have fun finding yours in the sweet whimsical watercolour paintings.

Keep It Yours

Remember you paid for your painting or print so help prevent illegal printing of it. If you show friends or family via text or email etc always obstruct the image, for example with a bit of paper. 

sophie huddlestone commissions came in post today 600.800

Social Media

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Sophie Huddlestone giraffe magnet

Thanks, Sophie Huddlestone :-)