Winter 2019 Watercolor Classes

Backgrounds and Skies Watercolor Demo

(Edited 2/2/19. I added the studies I did in the Monday class to this post because the techniques are the same even if the colors may be different. the Wednesday class seemed to want to do their own thing so there wasn't anything to post this week.)

A painting is like putting together the pieces of a puzzle you are making yourself and each of those parts are just as important as any of the others, backgrounds are just as important as your subject. Think of the background as part of the supporting cast working with the main character to enhance the main character's performance, if the background isn't working it will detract from your subject and your finished painting may not be as successful as it could be.

Many times you need a background that is just a simple background of color. It can be any color or colors but it is just a soft blend, for instance if you are doing a portrait, or a still life.

 In this example I wet the area first with just water, the paper wasn't dripping but damp. I started in the center with my lightest color (yellow), painted a circular shape, rinsed and dried my brush, picked up some orange and just touching the edge of the yellow, put a circle of color around the yellow. I did the same with the red on the outside of the orange. You want the colors to blend naturally so there are no hard lines. If there are hard lines, with a damp brush go over the line between the colors and gently soften the hard edges. You need to work quickly because the paper dries and that is how hard lines happen. This is called wet into wet where you are adding wet paint onto a wet paper.

From the Monday class.

Sometimes your painting calls for a soft focus background like distant trees for instance. Here instead of doing a wet into wet as above, I did a wet on dry (wet paint onto dry paper), but I made sure that the paint touched so they could bleed and soften into each other. First I added the green then came back with the blue and finally when the paper was drying I added some sienna to suggest branches. This is really all you need to tell your viewers that there are trees in the background.

Monday class

Even when you are doing a close up of something like and animal hiding in the grasses or a basket of fruit that has fallen over, it is important that you leave the detail to the foreground. To create a soft focus suggestion of grasses or reeds, I did this wet on dry (see above) using several different colors - yellow, sienna, orange and green - streaking the brush in the direction of the growth of the weeds so you can see the direction of growth. It is important when you are painting to follow the direction or shape of the thing you are painting because the eye picks up on subtle movements in the paint. We aren't painting walls.

Monday class

A couple of people were starting some projects of their own and it was easier for me to show them and the rest of the class how I would go about creating the skies they had chosen.

This late afternoon sky was first wet with water (wet into wet), they I under painted the whole sky with yellows and oranges. Always start with the lightest colors or you could lose the brightness of the color. I let it dry for a minute so it wasn't drippy wet, then added the blue/purple or blue/red mix to the sky. I wanted a lavender color for the clouds. Because the paper was on an incline, gravity helped me paint the clouds. To the damp clouds I added some red and just water to lighten or add color. Each time you will get a different result but it is fun to experiment. the key is the dampness of the paper: Too wet and it all blends together; too dry and you have hard edges.

Monday class

The next one was for a simple blue sky.

First I wet the paper (wet into wet), then, starting at the top of the paper, I added blue  and worked it down the paper so it was lighter at the bottom than at the top. If you need to add more color because it got to light, start at the top again. Rinse your brush and use the damp brush with no color to move the color from the top to the bottom of your sky. While it is still wet, take a paper towel or tissue, wad it up then press it onto the paper and lift up. This is called lifting and it makes great clouds. You can also lift thinner clouds by using a clean damp brush.

Monday class

This was something I did only in the Monday class because a student wanted to know how to do storm clouds.

First I wet the paper and did a graded wash of blue then turned the paper upside down and did the same with some red.

While the paper was still wet, I used a mix of blue and sienna to make a dark gray (more blue than sienna to keep it cool) and with my 3/4" angle brush I made cloud shapes into the wet background.  In these dark clouds I lifted out lighter tops with either a brush or paper towel or I added color by dropping a color with a lot of water in it and touching the area of the cloud and letting the paint do it's own thing. The down pour was caused by adding more water to an area where the water was already accumulating until "the dam broke" and it flowed down the paper. The mountains at the bottom were a happy accident of drying paper.

Save these studies because we are going to do something else with them.

Practice and experiment with these techniques because I make them look easy but learning how much water to have on your paper and in your brush to do these successfully takes practice.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.