Amanda Jackson 2025 appraisals 

 

Top tip - asking questions of a painting. 

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We read paintings from left to right. 

Lack of lock and flow creates isolation in a figure. 

Styles should be consistent across a picture.

Use of a different brush can provide variety of texture. 

Is there ambiguity in the picture?  If so, it needs to be there for a reason. 

Use opaque colour to cover something that isn’t working. 

People part of a scene can have equal importance to the objects. 

Create somewhere for the eye to follow a pattern to draw the eye through/follow a narrative. 

Shadows are an example of where we can use artistic licence to make it look like what you believe you would see. 

Allow watercolour to dry and go in with a white pen or gouache as an alternative to having to plan for white crossing a darker area. 

Lock and flow brings a painting together. This is hard to achieve near the edge of someone’s face - it can be suffocating - it needs breathing space. The same can apply to figures - give them room to stand. 

Cooler colours allow a background to recede. 

Darker colours at the bottom give a sense of weight. 

Think about cool versus warm in a picture. 

Have a plan for the big areas of light and dark in a picture. 

Using more paint makes a picture more powerful, particularly something abstract. 

 

Meg Grant

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