Fall 2018 Watercolor Class

Watercolor Class Project: Dancing Boots Week 1
(Wednesday's Watercolor Plus, your blog will follow below the "Boots" post, just scroll down. - LP)

I transferred my design onto my watercolor paper using non-waxy graphite transfer paper. You can use a light box, or a window in place of the light box, or use a #3B or #4B pencil to broadly scribble along the lines of the design on the back side as, what I call, "poor man's graphite paper" or if you are brave, you can draw it freehand as I did for the design.

Watercolor is s series of layers of washes or glazes. We work from light to dark with watercolor so we want to start light, which means adding a lot of water to our paint to dilute the color before we apply it to the paper.

This is an under painting or where we start. the cactus was done wet on dry paper using very diluted Hooker's green, the flowers were very diluted, yellow with a touch of orange with very thin napthol red or alizarin crimson.

The boots were dilute (p)thalo blue and water. The interior of the boots was dilute sienna a little blue. Remember these mixtures because we will be adding more of these same colors for the next couple of layers.

Close up of the boots after the first wash of color. The lighter areas I just used water to move a little of the thalo into the area.

Let it dry before doing the next layer.











On the boots only (I will get to the cactus later), I added another 2 layers of the same color and strength to the boots. Adding into the darker areas - look at the reference photo to see the folds and shadows on the boots - then with water only,moved the paint into lighter areas the strengthen the color but still keep it lighter than the shadowed areas.

I like some of the blooms or back runs I got as I worked on the boots because they add to the texture of the boots.

I will be working on the cactus next week as well as getting to some of the darker shadows on the boots and the soles of the shoes so try to get your painting as close to this level as you can and I will pick up from here.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.




Watercolor Plus Week 1: Basics

There is a lot to learn about watercolor about how paints, brushes, paper and water all work together to create the unique look of watercolor. This first week we started with some basic techniques to understand how the paint works on dry and wet paper. Learning to control the water when you paint is an essential part of watercolor and it is a good habit to get into to watch how your paint reacts in each situation. Knowing what results you should be getting will build your relationship with the watercolor rather than being constantly surprised and frustrated, though sometimes the watercolor will surprise you anyway but it will be a good surprise.

Sorry I didn't take photos before using what I had to demonstrate a new technique, if you were in class you should remember, I can go over it again for those who missed or are lost.

The first swatch of paint I did wet paint on dry paper (wet on dry). First I put a fairly strong swatch of paint on the paper, then I rinsed my brush and with a damp brush  I started down about the last third of the color and started painting the water down the page. Because the color is still wet and I have the top of my paper elevated so gravity can help me, the color will flood into to new wet area. I rinse my brush often and repeat until the color fades out to nothing.

In the second example I wet the paper first BEFORE I added the color and because my paper is elevated at the top the paint will naturally flow into and down the wet paper. Not as controlled but sometimes you want that look.

BTW, the brown spots (demo for spots on a banana) I wet the paper first but let it dry just a little so it wasn't real wet, more like damp, then just touched the paper with my brush with color on it. The paint spread out like the other wet into wet but because the paper was a bit dryer it didn't spread as fast or as far. Take note of this because how wet your paper is, is very important in watercolor.

We did a similar thing with these two circles. The top one was wet on dry,moving the paint across the circle with a damp brush.

The second circle started out wet and wet paint was added and helped along with a clean damp brush.

The top circle also has a demo for creating texture for an orange by doing a series of over-lapping marks leaving some of the lighter under painting showing through. this was wet on dry.

The bottom circle was again wet on wet but the paper was almost dry so the paint didn't spread.

In between the above exercises we were painting our fruit using what we were learning about how paint moves.

I started my tomato with a yellow orange under painting for my tomato, then let it dry. Then I did a series of washes or glazes of red with a touch of orange to bring up the values (light and dark) as well as intensify the color (how vibrant it appears), each time leaving a bit of the previous layer to create my values. Finally for the shadows on the tomato and where it is sitting I used a mix of blue and purple to create a shadow color.

Since you were all doing different fruit, you will be using different colors but the process is the same and no matter what color your fruit was, the shadows are always cool visually so they need blues and purples so they look like shadows,

I know that was a lot to remember, just keep practicing and studying your paint, next time we will be doing textures and brush strokes so have your tablet of paper with you, this should be a fun class. Keep painting.