Fall 2017 Watercolor Classes

Watercolor Plus - Leaves and Berries Week 2

Week 2 of our Leaves and Berries project is basically more of the same: Adding more layers to deepen the shadows and intensify the colors and creating more leaves in the shadows through the use of negative painting.

In this photo I have at least 4 layers of the green as I created the leaves in the shadows. Each layer of wash I put down makes those first leaves I left unpainted look brighter and brighter because of contrast, I may do at least one or two more washes of green with blue to deepen the shadowed areas of my painting.

All of these leaves are in shadow. The leaf in front has had 2 layers of wash before I left it out, the ones behind it had 3 layers of wash. The twigs were painted with sienna and a bit of orange and painted while the background was still damp so the edges would get fuzzy.

I finished the first layer of wash on the berries making sure that I started on the shadowed side of each berry with the darkest color and with a damp brush spreading a little bit of that color up into the lighter areas. Remember the pumpkin: you start where the shadows are and tease the color with a damp brush.

Close-up of some of the berries. BTW, the blue spot on that one berry was a happy accident from the splattering I did when I started the painting, if your's doesn't have it that is fine, there is a little place where the flower was connected that I will need to put in on some of the berries I will do when I get to the detail.

We will work on this until our last day and I hope that we will get enough along that you will see how to finish your's up at home when classes are over.

So keep painting and I will see you in class.







Watercolor Project: A Fall Proposal Week 6

We are coming down the home stretch with this painting now so most of what I did was fine tuning what I had and putting in some detail.

I put on yet another wash of red over all of the background and foreground fabric adding touches of orange to the napthol red in and round the subject and alizarin to the napthol in the shadowed areas and corners. I will probably do at least one more wash of color to deepen the color some more as well as deepen the shadows.

I did remove the masking from the ring but I have not done anything with the ring yet, probably the next class. I did go in and deepen shadows or added color to leaves.

In the red flower I took my ultramarine blue with a touch of sienna (burnt umber will also work) to create a dark color to add a bit of the detail between the petals. Watch the direction and shape of these lines because they are not straight or one width. Look at the photo to see how they differ.

I deepened the shadows of the paper around the bottle so that the one edge of the bottle next to the paper almost disappears, this is called "lost and found lines" and it helps add a bit of visual mystery to the painting.

On the label I added some shadow also to the seal around the neck. I did this with my blue and a touch of alizarin to make a purple color, starting in the darkest part of the shadow I put down the color, rinsed my brush and with a damp brush while the color is still wet, I teased some of the color out into the lighted part of the label to create a sense of roundness to the label and bottle. I did a similar thing on the seal always starting in the darkest area and teasing the color across with a damp brush with just water. I may need to do this again to get the dark I want. Watercolor dries lighter so it may take more than one wash to get the look you want.


I should finish this up in the coming class. We have 2 more weeks and if you need that time to finish, please take it, there is no rush. I will be doing the finishing touches in our next class so keep painting and I will see you in class.