8 minute read
In The Studio
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IN THE STUDIO
Shepherd Tom
The new presenter of Ask An Artist doesn’t need a large studio when he has big ideas. He tells STEVE PILL about his watercolour methods and confidence tricks.
1 The animal’s spots were painted wet-inwet to create softer edges
2 Tom’s huge passion for wildlife informs much of his art Tom Shepherd is one of life’s enthusiasts. Whether he’s talking about his latest artistic project or his long-term love of wildlife, his new home in Pembrokeshire or his passion for surfi ng, a conversation with him is a constant stream of infectious positivity and genuine intrigue about how the world works. He’s the sort of person who would fi nd the bright side to a sudden downpour and no doubt treat his house falling down as a chance to learn a bit about architecture.
The 36-year-old’s optimistic and knowledgeable outlook has made him not only a rising star in wildlife painting, but also one of the UK’s most in-demand art tutors and presenters. His YouTube tutorial videos have racked up tens of thousands of views, while more than 50 episodes of his Creative Perspectives podcast have made him a regular presence in the studios of countless artists around the world.
Tom is now set to take over from printmaker and Artists & Illustrators columnist Laura Boswell as the
co-host of Ask an Artist. “I jumped at the opportunity because it’s such a great podcast,” he says, with typical relish. “If nothing else, you end up chatting to like-minded artists for a few hours, which is never a bad thing.”
Tom had appeared on an early episode of Ask an Artist and he was the fi rst choice of co-host Peter Keegan – author of our new still life workshops on page 68 – to share the reins. The pair look set to complement each other well, with two distinct and different styles, choice of media and approaches to the business of being a professional artist. “One of the fun things about a podcast,” says Tom, “is it’s an open platform to discuss all of the different routes you can take. There are almost an overwhelming number of options for how you can make a living as an artist, and I think demystifying them and talking about them openly is useful for listeners.”
“I feel like there are probably more opportunities than there has ever been if you want to be a professional or semi-professional,” he adds. “It’s such an exciting time to be an artist.”
Calling yourself an “artist” is, of course, one of the fi rst hurdles to navigate. Tom regularly talks to students who have been painting for 10 or 15 years and yet refuse to label themselves as “artists” for fear of failing to fulfi l some imaginary set of criteria. “It’s really important to me when I teach or do my podcast that I get across that it doesn’t matter if you’ve been painting for years or only for a little bit – the important thing is that you are really into it and passionate about it,” he says. “That is what makes you an ‘artist’. It’s got nothing to do with how good you are or whether you make a living from it.”
Confi dence is not something that Tom appears to lack so he is keen to ensure that students emerge from his workshops feeling the same way. When teaching in person, he will try and guide a struggling student through a series of questions to pinpoint what they feel they need to work on. Do they like the composition? Is the drawing as accurate as it needs to be? Are the shadows dark enough? “I almost give people a checklist of things to go through because that provides a very tangible, logical process that they can follow through to analyse their own paintings,” he explains. “That in turn instils a bit of confi dence in them and makes things seem less mysterious.”
It was about 12 or 13 years ago, Tom says, when he fi rst called himself an “artist”: “I don’t think I ever had a problem with that weirdly. When I set out to try and make some sort of living as an artist, I realised that it was important that I presented myself professionally in order to do that.”
With a geography degree under his belt, he had been all set to explore a career in wildlife conservation when he decided to pursue art instead. He found work painting graffi ti designs on guitars – “a niche market within an already niche market” – while subsidising his craft as a part-time gardener. A switch to traditional media proved the breakthrough, with Tom initially drawn to the alla prima representational oil painting style of John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn. He went to sessions with his mum and painted obsessively, quickly getting to the point where he could share his skills with others. After the birth of his fi rst child, Tom took on more teaching and his students’ thirst for acrylics led him to a few years experimenting with this new medium.
It was only when an injury restricted the arm movements required to paint at an easel that the artist decided to
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3 The splashy background of Drinkin’ Ellie was a response to initial layers
4 Photography informs Tom’s paintings, such as Gold Blue Macaw
try his hand at watercolour instead. “I felt like I had found my voice as an artist,” he says of the experience. “I could see the potential for how I wanted to paint was wrapped up in watercolour: it can be so quick and so expressive and so improvisational, I guess. You have to go with what the medium is giving you too. It’s almost like you paint alongside watercolour, you’re not in charge of it.”
Tom utilises photography, particularly for his wildlife paintings, though he is keen to avoid slavishly copying an image. Safari trips abroad in search of subjects have increasingly given way to visiting wildlife parks or exploring the bird life on Skomer Island near his new home in Pembrokeshire. Whether he has taken the photos himself or paid to use them online, he prefers that they act as a jumping off point for a more expressive interpretation of a subject.
“Watercolour is improvisational,” he says, “I’m not planning at the start where I’m going to put a splash in the background or where I’m going to leave the white of the page – that’s born out of the process of painting. All I’m really trying to achieve is a strong sense of light and shadow, and nice fresh washes.”
Tom and his young family moved to south Wales nine months ago. His attic room is smaller than previous studios, but the space is fairly tidy and organised, a legacy of his increasingly refined working process. Aside from a desk and two plan chests, there is a tidier corner for filming his video tutorials and a computer for editing them afterwards.
Unsurprisingly, the artist is a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm when it comes to his materials. As a keen conservationist, he prizes Holbein and Daniel Smith for their animalfriendly watercolours, and ProArte and Escoda for their synthetic paintbrushes. He favours thick cotton papers from Baohong, Two Rivers or Winsor & Newton, always with the roughest possible textured surfaces. “If you make a brushstroke, I want to see the sparkles of the white of the paper showing through,” he reasons.
A self-confessed geek when it comes to art theory and more scientific understanding, Tom’s latest discovery came when he looked into how humans perceive tonal values.
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5 Applying a high contrast background around the gannet’s head draws the eye
6 Tom utilises the texture of his rough paper to suggest a sparkling sea
7 Larger wash brushes encourage more confi dent strokes and less fi ddly detail
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I teach people watercolour, but I still have imposter syndrome and I have no idea why that is
Once he realised that the eye perceives a huge range of lighter tones, whereas there is a steep drop off at the darker end of the scale, he decided to apply that logic to his own practice. He soon realised he could be much freer with the lighter parts of the painting, provided that he kept a tight tonal range in his shadow areas, perhaps using just two darker tones to anchor the whole image. “That’s what holds the painting together and tightens it up and makes sense of the madness of the half-tones on the light side of the subject,” he explains. Given such curiosity, knowledge and apparent confidence, it is reassuring to discover that even Tom isn’t immune to the same worries that afflict us all.
“I teach people watercolours, but I still have imposter syndrome as a watercolourist and I have no idea why that is,” he admits. “That little bit of self-doubt is always in there.” Listen to Ask an Artist at www.artists andillustrators.co.uk/askanartist Register for Tom’s online watercolour workshops at www.tomshepherdart.com
