The Master at Work - Alex Fong

ALEX FONG DEMO

I went to an Alex Fong demo last week. Alex is somewhat of a legend on the west coast. He has been painting (and selling) his work since he was in college 40 odd years ago. Along with Robert Bateman, he was an early convert to limited edition prints, so many art lovers that couldn't otherwise afford his work, can own a print for their home.

Alex began by saying that this demo would be about creating light in your painting.

“All the white spaces are the light in your painting. Don’t cover the white unless you’re certain what you want there”.

Alex uses Winsor Newton professional watercolor in tubes because blocks don’t come in as many colors and are not as fine quality. He said he always uses three basic transparent colors, in this case Cobalt blue, Raw sienna and Alizarin crimson. Each main color is squeezed into a shallow container made from the bottom of a square milk container. He adds water creating a reservoir of thin paint which settles and leaves thicker paint at the bottom. The watery paint acts as a barrier to stop the thick paint hardening. He says that one of the biggest mistakes beginners make is too much water; watercolor dries lighter and too much water means it needs to be layered. Access to the thicker paint in the bottom of the reservoir helps offset this.

TIP - Some technical wisdom here is that clean water pushes paint away and colored water attracts, this is why he uses the pre-mixed reservoirs.

He also mixes colors on a used palette covered in dried paint, which greys his colors slightly and is his way of economizing. He never cleans the palette. He uses a lot of green in his work, but straight from the tube they are too brilliant, so he adds complimentary color or palette greys to modify the intensity.

Although Alex used to be a straight watercolorist, he now uses some soft body acrylic to brighten certain areas. He lays out his acrylics in the milk cartons and lightly covers with a film of clean water, which, he says keeps them from drying out for days.

As part of his style, Alex uses dots of masking fluid to protect certain areas, then rubs off the mask at the end and paints the white areas with Liquitex acrylic in Medium Magenta Pink, Brilliant Purple, Iridescent Green, Gold or Copper. He sometimes makes these heart shaped. Those "spots of color are like jewellery to the painting" and make it interesting. A tip here is to leave a slight edge of white paper to bring in more light. Alex uses a variety of paints and inks but a favorite is Flame Orange FW ink, a favorite of mine too.

He also uses acrylic inks and iridescence. He says that iridescent paints are another way to add light to your work. He was using Permanent ink but discovered that its not so permanent under varnish and tends to bleed.

Alex prefers to paint on Canson Arches Board which has texture. He sits it on plywood and adds a few staples to keep it flat because it will still buckle slightly if not. Thinner paper can be stapled or attached around the edge with masking tape, but he prefers board. This is also a favorite of mine, especially for pet portraits. He says that students usually select paper that is too smooth.

The next step is using the brush effectively. The point or end should rarely be used. Load the brush and use the side to stroke over the paper, which breaks up on textured paper and reduces hard edges. If you paint directly with the point it looks unnatural.

Stay Tuned for part two and images of the process by following my blog……