Spring 2019 Watercolor Class

Watercolor Project: Pink Umbrella Week 2
(Watercolor Plus students we just went over brush strokes last class and if you look in the side bar, I have a page just for brush strokes so I won't have a post use the page for reference.)

Starting on the distant mountain, I added the SUGGESTION of rocks and patches of green in the fields of flowers. Look at the photo. While there are rocks, it is because you assume they are rocks because of your experience and from rocks closer to you, yet they really are just shapes of light and dark.

Because this is in the distance I am keeping my colors lighter even the shadows. This is important to remember when you are trying to create distance in a painting: Things in the distance are softer and grayer in tone (color) and values (light and dark) and less detail. If you look at the "rocks" you will see all I did was use my shadow color (ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and a touch of alizarin crimson and water) and where I had white paper showing from the dry brush I did with the green last week, I made a few little strokes to suggest outcroppings of rocks. While I was aware of the slope I was painting on I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about rocks, just a variety of shapes going down a slope. Same with the green I added into the flowers to suggest patches of bushes (Hooker's green and orange and water). I wasn't trying to paint a "bush" I was painting the "suggestion" of bushes growing up and down slopes.

On the middle ridge behind the lady I added another wash of orange and yellows as well as adding the first suggestions of bushes, again being very aware of the contours of the ridge.

Even though orange and yellow seem light in value  and never get to a dark dark, they do get up into the mid rage on the value scale, and become more intense in color, the orange more than the yellow. I need all of the darker valued I can get behind the woman so when I take the masking off her white dress will show up against the intensity of the color behind her. If it is too light, she and her umbrella will not show up the way I need them to.

In the foreground I under painted with a light tan made with sienna, blue and lots of water. Because I have masked out areas that I want to keep white for now (the blue gray) I don't have to worry about painting right over the masking, same will go when you paint the bushes, just paint right over the masking.

Every plant has a unique growth pattern, learning how to create those patterns will improve your landscape paintings. It doesn't need to be anything fancy, again, all you are doing is suggesting how a plant grows. 

Many of the low growing shrubs in these desert and woodlands grow from a central area and send branches out from that area near the ground so they make little mounds with a fan-like shape (see image above). Other plants will grow more like a tree and create branches up the stem creating a more varied outline. I use my angle brush but you can use a flat or round brush and I suggest you practice first. 

The strokes of the fan shaped bush come back down to a central point on the ground. I used a series of over lapping strokes with the edge of my angle brush. The taller, more random shaped bush I created with the same brush but I was tapping the corner and working from the center line of the bush to the outside edge trying to create an interesting edge.

I left paths through the foreground bushes but I did try to connect patches of the bushes so I didn't have a series of brown stripes going across my paper.

This is where I left off in class. I have a bit more to do in the middle ground and maybe a few more rocks in the background but then I think I will be removing the masking so I can start finishing up this painting.

So keep painting and I will see you in class.