Ask Ali: How do you do…grass?

I’ve been thinking a great deal about this blog as I didn’t want it to just be about art materials, I wanted to also share a few insights into my work and my business to help out anyone who is struggling with technique or who wants to go Pro and might benefit from learning more.

Therefore, this week, I have introduced ‘How do you do…’ to Ask Ali, where I will be zooming in on a portion of a painting to share how I achieved a mark or a texture. Let’s start with this painting that I demonstrated during a workshop earlier in the year, it’s predominantly watercolour and is of Hurds Hill, a beautiful private home where I have hosted a painting retreat before.

Yes, it’s a perspective challenge but that’s not what I want to focus on today. Sometimes we concentrate on the elements that we know are going to challenge us and forget that it’s often the simple parts that are the most important, grass being a really good example, as it’s easy to paint badly and takes a bit of thought to paint well.

Here is a close up of the grass at the top left-hand section of the architecture where you can see I have painted some random blades of grass to show some texture and depth.

So, how did I achieve it? It’s one of the simplest techniques and a real favourite of mine, while the larger blob of paint is still wet, invert the handle of your brush, dip the tip into the blob and flick it outwards. I love it because it means that it’s not too contrived a mark but still looks like convincing grass, I hope that helps with your next grassy project.

Do you have any suggestions of things you would like to see me cover in the future? Drop me a line, leave a comment here or on social media, I can’t promise to get it in the schedule quickly but will always do my best, Ali