Winter 2016 Watercolor Class

Winter 2016 Watercolor Class: Cozy Cottage Week 3

Torrance students I want to remind you that you're a week behind where the Palos Verdes classes so please look at the previous blog for instructions on where you are in class.

PV class you should have your pine trees in behind the house and your painting should be to a point where you can remove the masking fluid from the trees and the cottage.

This week we started to detail the snow on the roof of cottage and to finish up the reflection in the pond in front of the cottage if you are not to that point you need to get to that point so that we can get this finished.

If you have taken the masking fluid off of the roof of your house we are now going to add some dimension and texture to the snow using a mix of ultramarine blue a little touch of purple to create a plum color and add a lot of water to it because we want it to be a very pale mixture. You can always add another layer or wash of color to make a darker color, it is harder to take off color than it is to put it on so you want to sneak up on the value that you are trying to get.

Using this soft bluish color start at the base of one of the areas of snow where it touches the thatch part of the roof, this will be in a shadow part of the snow. Put down some of this color right at the base working in small areas, rinse your brush, dry it off and then with a damp brush pull some of that color up into the white snow area. If you do this correctly you will start to see snow has dimension if you need to do it again let it dry a bit first but repeat exactly what you did here. You can take what's left over in your brush and tap round into some of the lighter snow areas and that creates the sense of texture in the snow.

The stones for the house are done with burnt sienna, a little touch of yellow and even a little touch of orange, to create a warm color for the sunny side of the house. It needs to be a shade or so darker than what is already there and when you put this on it's not going to be a solid color you're just going to make little dabs and shapes with your brush. Whether you are using a round brush, an angle brush or a flat brush, you're just going to be making some little rock types shapes. For the shadow area add a little touch of purple or blue to this mixture and repeat the process don't try to line them up or make them even or even the same size or shape because these are rocks that came out of the field and they are all different shapes. Leave little thin spaces of that under color to represent the mortar between the rocks, this is where underpainting comes in it becomes something else such as the mortar or highlights or just texture.

You can paint in the windows by adding more blue and even a little touch of purple into the same color to create a dark charcoal grey but remember if you want snow in these windows do not paint the entire square leave a bit of white to have snow in your window. If you want to put a door in there is an indentation to where the door attaches to the house, add water to the color you have to lighten it paint in a little thin line on one side of the door rinse your brush and then paint the door any color you would like to be a blue door, or red door, brown door… make it your own.

The bricks or stones for the chimney I did much the same way I just used a little bit more burnt sienna and a little touch of purple into it for the shadows but I left some of the under color show for the mortar in the chimney.

Now we go back to the reflection in the pond again. You should have a rough sketch of where the house will show in the water before you begin, then I want you to wet everything that is supposed to be water but do not get the snow or the fence post or anything else wet, just what is supposed to be the pond, so take clear water and wet the area.

Using colors that are similar to what you used in the house above starting at the shoreline right below the house pull those colors straight down stopping at your mark on your paper where the house ends, it does not need to be a perfect reflection it just needs to suggest a reflection. Remember to pull down some of that lavender color that you put in for the snow and the shadow colors for the house, these colors should blend with the wet paper to create a soft image then where the sky is from our last meeting add some more crimson into that color to darken it slightly you want to have a soft blurry image that suggests a reflection of the house above it.

I went back in with that shadow color I was using on the roof and added more shadows into some of the areas around the house there are several layers of shadows in this snow to make it have dimension. I also went in - after the reflection was dry - and I toned where the

railing for the fence and the wood pile is by the house are with a soft mix of burnt sienna with a touch of blue and lots of water, I don't want dark colors yet this is just the underpainting. Lastly I took a mix of blue and purple and a little sienna to make a dark bluish color and using my small angled brush I put a dark line right around the shoreline, just remember you can only see this color for the parts of the shoreline that are directly in your line of sight, so do not outline the entire thing look at it closely and look at the reference to find out where the snow or the shoreline may be blocking little inlets.

Do as much as you can to get your painting to this point and we will continue from there so keep painting and I will see you in class.