Spring 2010 Week 6

Watercolor Class – Borax Wagon

Depending on what class you are in, you may need to reread the end of last weeks blog to get details, I am going to pick up where I left off in the Tuesday afternoon class but will review here what is needed to get caught up.

I dry brushed in the texture of the sides of the wagon and the vertical beams that hold it together. I also under painted the shapes under the wagon with sienna and under painted the wagon wheel and did some texture on it along with the beginnings of the worn paint and I put in a few shadows. See the photos I posted and read the blog to get to that point.

The lines that represent the spaces between the planks on the side of the wagon can be done with either your liner brush, a round brush or a flat brush, choice is yours what ever you feel you have more control over. Just remember that the line will look better if it isn't perfect so don't get out a straight edge. Same with the shadows behind the vertical boards on the wagon, this is a very well worn wagon there is nothing on it that is perfectly straight.

The paint on the wheel is redder on the front than it is on the spokes or the inside rim where it tends to have a lot of orange, if you need to enhance the color use sienna with a touch of red to brighten the color and hit and miss along the edge and make sure that you vary your shapes: Thick, thin; large small; wide, narrow – It is old paint.

We will be using that terracotta color along with orange so don't wipe it off your palette.

On the inside rim start out with that terracotta color at the top spoke and work it down to the next spoke the change to orange all the way to the bottom. Don't worry about the shadows just yet, we will get to them later. If you want, you can wet the area first it might make it easier for you.

Each spoke is going to be painted the same way but with any luck at all, each will look a bit different. This will be wet into wet and there are a couple of ways you can start. I was using my flat, ¼" angled brush for these smaller areas. First the obvious, paint each spoke with water first, then orange then the terracotta. Drop the colors in by touching the tip of your brush to the paper and letting the paint do the work. The other way is to wet the area with orange and touch the terracotta into the orange. The paint should do most of the work and again, don't even think about shadows right now, we will get to them later. This takes time and patience so don't try to rush it. If the red color gets into areas you want lighter, use a clean damp brush to lift off the color a bit, but that is about all you should have to do.

On those wooden beams under the wagon use a mix of sienna with a touch of purple to make a dark red color and dry brush on some texture on some of the beams that are in the sun. Avoid the tops of those things to keep them lighter.

The support beam right under the wagon that has that bar attached can be a bit tricky because the side of it goes from the light into the shadow and it has some reflected light on it. That light is that reddish color you were just using, just wet the area first then touch the color into that area. The metal bar may take some practice on a larger scale so you know what you need to do but I first wet the bar with water then with just straight sienna touched the tip of my brush down the center of the bar. Rinsed and picked up some blue on the time and touched that to the right (shadowed) side, rinsed and picked up orange and touché that to the sunny side (left), all while it was wet and I let the paint figure out the rest.

The rims on the hub and on the outside of the wheel were done in much the same way: Wet the area then touch with color (sienna, blue, orange)

Now we get into some of the shadows. The color will be the same throughout and it will be a mix of blue, purple and a touch of sienna but mostly to the blue side. I am still using my ¼" flat angled brush and it is very important that you have your reference photo handy because you sill be referring to it often.

On the wheel, I looked for spokes that were near ones that I have in my painting (remember we only have 10 and there are actually 14) so I knew the shapes I would need for the shadows. On the left hand side of the wheel next to the spokes, there is a shadow that runs from just past the top of the wheel to the bottom. It is just a thin line but an important one to add depth. At the top on the inside it is very dark then lightens somewhat as it gets next to the spoke at 1 o'clock, this is because there is some reflected light getting into the shadow. The rest of the shadows are pretty dark and you will need to check the photo to see where they go. Some are thin, some only go down a little way, others go down almost half way depending on how the light is hitting other parts of the wheel to create the shadows.

Under the wagon, use the same dark color to start creating light and dark shapes out of the red color you have there. IF you want to add some detail like the chain just behind the wheel, all you have to do is negative paint, first paint the holes with the dark color, then paint around where you want the chain. Please, please, PLEASE check your reference photo to see where your shadows go, it isn't hard to do if you just look before you paint. It is the light and dark shapes you create that will give some meaning to what all that is under there so please take your time to find these dark and light shapes.

We will be working some more on our wagon and will really be getting into the detail. I don't think we will get it finished this week, maybe the next which for Torrance will be our last class. See ya soon.