This is the type of work I was involved in which led me to spend time to find better ways to control the watercolour medium.I don't expect everyone will like this paticular style of work but bear with me, examples of the more traditional watercolour style will follow.

In this particular painting you will note at that I have tried to make a number of colour blends in various areas. For example, the alizarin to red to orange to yellow colour blends in the arches in the lower part of the painting. This would have been very difficult using traditional watercolour techniques.

The dark blue to light blue band above the arches is a colour gradation which can also be difficult to control. You will notice that I had trouble trying to achieve a smooth gradation at this stage of my painting device and technique development. The device now allows me to gradate complex shapes with ease and these techniques will be covered by the tutorials that I am hoping to publish here soon.

The colour blends and gradations throughout this painting imparts a certain dynamic interest and I would like to show how these can be added to your artwork in a simple and effective manner.

You will also notice the smooth gradations of the brown earth colours which belong to the umber and sienna families. The particles in these earth colours are coarser than other colours and bring their own set of problems with them, but as you can see, I have been able to tame these colours also and achieve smooth colour gradations.

It is important to point out here that absolutely no masking of any means is used in my paintings. The techniques I would like to share with readers will enable them to paint with an uninterrupted flow without the need to stop to apply masking materials.

A different style this time where I used larger brushes and a much looser approach.

An abstracted portrait using burnt umber. This could be the basis for a simple lesson to show how it is possble to create an interesting painting using one colour.

I have made full use of the tonal range of the colour by taking advantage of complex shaped gradations and by exercising superior control over the medium particularly where there are both hard and soft edged shapes.

This would have been an improvised painting where there would have been no preliminary drawing. I would have started by laying in a light gradation over the whole surface of the paper and then proceed to build up darker gradated shapes around the face and hair. It's an intuitive method of painting which can be very rewarding if one makes the correct decisions throughout it's creation.

A small 7 x 5 inch Turneresque landscape loosely based on his painting of Prudhoe Castle. Although it's a typical 18th century scene, my mischevious side took over and added an American F15 fighter Jet.

Although its a small painting on a rough Fabriano paper, I have still been able to achieve some very delicate gradations in this painting and hopefully this will prove that the device can be used with any type of painting style and not just the surreal/abstract subjects which I personally enjoy painting.