Fall 2010 Watercolor Class

Fall 2010 Watercolor Demo

This week at PV I finished the bucket I started the previous week, Torrance, the procedure is the same for the barrel and I am using the same colors as I used for the bucket.

The first thing I did was to dry brush in some wood grain into the sides of the bucket. I demoed with 3 different brushes to show that you can use what you have available in your own equipment without getting a specialized brush for the job, with the round and the angled brush, after I loaded the brush with paint, I squished the bristles to spread them apart and repeated as necessary or when I re-loaded paint on the brush, the grass brush I used is designed to have gaps so I didn't need to spread the bristles.

I mixed a dark color of sienna, blue and purple keeping it on the warm side and making sure that when I loaded my brush I didn't have a lot of water in my brush. Then I started at the top of the bucket on the shadow side and worked my way down but you may find it easier to start from the bottom and work up, with very little pressure on my brush and with a nervous, jerky motion, pulled the brush down the height of the bucket. The nervous, jerky motion along with the dry brush effect makes it look like old rough hewn wood. I repeated until I got about half way around then added in some orange to my color to lighten it and as I got into the sunlit side, used mostly orange. I did the same on the inside.

For the two metal bands on the top and bottom, I used that same warm dark color adding orange as I went into the light area. The highlights on the top edge of the bands, I lifted out with a damp brush.

Finally, using my liner brush and a very dark color of mostly blue and purple, I added lines and cracks and holes, all the little detail things that can make something look very old and worn out. Just be sure that the lines on the top of the wood stays change direction not only as they go across the top but also where they are placed on the bucket, kind of like spokes on a wheel, the top lines will point to the center of the bucket.

Next week I have a request for sky and water so we shall see what we can do along those lines. As I have said before, I can do these things all day every day but unless you do them your self, you aren't going to understand what it takes to get the effects you want. Keep painting and I'll see you in class.