Fall 2016 Watercolor Class Week 7

Fall Watercolor Class Project: Pumpkins on Parade Week 3

This week I worked on increasing color intensity and the value of my pumpkins. I also took off the masking from the blue pumpkin and stems. I under painted the netting - for lack of a better term - with a very light mix or burnt sienna with a tiny touch of blue with lots of water to make it very thin. I used this to under paint all the the areas on the blue pumpkin where I took off the masking.

You can see just how light a color I used at the top of the blue pumpkin next to the white of the paper, it is almost the same value so it is very light for now. This will be come the highlights on the "netting" we will add more intense colors later.

On the yellow pumpkin in front, I suggested the position of the stem, intensified the yellow color by starting in the creases with yellow then using water to bleed it up into the lighter areas. 

I went back into areas where there are shadows (look at your reference photo). Start in the darker shadowed areas then rinse your brush and use just a damp brush to soften the edges of the shadows and to bleed the to form the lighter parts of the shadows.

I also added more color to the orange pumpkin using layers of orange which was sometimes mixed with yellow for a lighter orange or with red to create a richer color. For the shadows I added blue, sienna and touches of purple to darken the color. Be sure that you do this in layers or washes of thin color. DO NOT try to go straight to the color or your paint will look pasty.

I worked a lot on the large orange pumpkin using the same colors and techniques I used on the smaller one on the other side. I had my photo right above my painting and my eyes were constantly going to the pumpkin in the photo and the area I was going to paint then back to my painting so I knew exactly what I needed to do. 

I increased the size of the shadows cast from the blue and the white pumpkins, I located highlights and other shadows as well as worked a bit on detail.

Be careful of getting too involved in detail at this point because you do not want to overwork one area then under work the rest of the painting. I had to tell myself to move around may painting ant get the white and lighter yellow pumpkins up to the level of the rest of the painting.

The little white pumpkin is actually more on the blue/gray side, however, you do want to leave the white of the paper for the highlights. Use ultramarine blue with a touch of sienna or burnt umber and a very tiny touch of purple with lots of water and work in layers. Looking first to see where the shadows are and what the shapes are before you start painting, the rinse your brush and use a damp brush to bleed the color to make the lighter shades of gray for the shadows.

The little yellow pumpkin is done much the same way as the other one. No detail other than light and shadow.

I am hoping to get this done in the time we have left so keep painting and I will see you in class.