Pobedino

oil on card 21x15cm

This is the second of the four 'Small Scale' paintings to be posted. The location is near a village called Pobedino - in the Russian Kaliningrad enclave, just to the east of the Russo-Lithuanian border - and is all about the sky. Of course.

It's done to the usual basic drawing, acrylic wash, then oil paint system, but this time with a small tweak - I used a pale blue Caran d'ache crayon for marking out the clouds. Any crayon that is visible through the oil layers blends in a lot better than a pencil mark would, and will be embedded within the paint a lot more securely than graphite. I'd be loathe to advocate painting on top of thick blocks of crayon, but I'm fairly happy with light lines of it. Caran d'ache comes off the priming with an eraser a lot easier too – with none of graphite's greasy streaking – and if necessary it can wiped off with water.

I've always been uncomfortable about using pencil for the initial drawing and placing. A couple of my painting tutors at college had discouraged it as they were of the opinion that the graphite would seep upwards through the oil paint to appear on the surface many years later. The reason that I'm reluctant to use it is because it is a very weak and slippery material, and anything laid onto it is liable to be very easily peeled off later. When we use pencil to draw on paper and smudge it for effect, we're making very good use of graphite's loose structure, but it's usually a wise move to spray a fixative onto heavy soft pencil to 'lock' it.

Not that graphite is totally 'The Devil's Artstick' – as I've already said it's a fantastic drawing material - it's also an excellent dry lubricant, and is widely used for smoothing stiff locks and keys. Nuts & bolts, and screws, also turn better with a scrape of pencil lead, and I've sorted many a tricky zip by running an HB up and down it. In past workshop days, I used to rub a block of graphite along my wood lathe bed to ensure a smoothly gliding tailstock without it gumming up with oily dust and shavings.

I'm quite happy with this painting, despite a little mini-crisis of confidence about the cloud tones (I went with light and atmospheric rather than dark and heavy), and I'm very pleased with the soft blue I mixed for the sky layers and thin line of far horizon (Ultamarine, Zinc White, some Ultramarine Violet, and a touch of Burnt Umber, if you must know). An honourable mention has to go to the little stray puff of cumulus to the upper left – it's the best piece of cloud painting there. It was done with the least amount of effort per square inch, and I still have absolutely no idea how that comes about.

Just to end, a bit of sad news. One of our tutors from Edinburgh College of Art days – David 'Dai' Evans - died a few weeks ago. He was much-liked and respected by his students, interested in what we did, and who we were (not always the case with other tutors), and always helpful. Dai was a highly skilled and interesting painter & draughtsman whose final style was about simplicity and subtlety.

Madam bought me a 'Small Scale' painting of his a couple of years ago - a beautiful little cup and saucer still life. It's a delightful little painting, and each time I look at it, it gets better and better.