In the beginning class we did a couple things that are important for all students so the first part of this is for everyone and the last part will be for the Monday class.
One of the things I try to explain is the transparent nature of watercolor, that all the layers that are already on the paper will affect the next layer you put on top of it. In the above exercise, I started with yellow for the round shape and red for the cube-ish shape (hard to draw from the side), when the paint was dry, I used ultramarine blue on both to add shadows. However, the blue not only adds shadows but it also changes the color. The yellow ball is now greenish and the red cube is more purple.
If you want to know how colors will interact on your paper, do this experiment letting the first color dry before adding the second.
Next we went over negative painting and again we will be counting on the fact that a previous layer will have an influence on the following layers so we can "build" up darkness (value)
Each time I added a layer of paint, I left out certain of the posts but painted EVERYTHING ELSE or, in other words, the negative space around the ones I was leaving. I did not positive paint the posts, I painted everything that I wasn't leaving the lighter value. This is important. In watercolor we work from light to dark with white being the white of the paper and if you look at the bottom of the paper, you will see that most of my layers are close to the same value except the last two which were just a little darker.
If you are going to be a watercolor artist, this negative painting is going to be your bread and butter, you use it in everything including the trees in the project. This lesson was for everyone, not just the beginners because I see how even people who have been with me for years struggle figuring this out so if you didn't do it, you might want to do it at home so you can get a better understanding of the process.
This is where the beginners can end, we did to a little work on the project in the Monday class, so I will cover that next.
This is actually a combination of both positive painting the branches and negative painting around the trees in front. I was using my 1/2" angled shader, Hooker's green with blue to make a darker, cooler green, there will be another layer of darker colors next week. The tree trunks were blue and burnt sienna to make a dark color and I used the edge of my brush. Look at your reference photo often as you are painting these trees.
I added the red for the smaller house but to the napthol red I added a little burnt sienna to "age" the color a bit.
This is where we left off. Try to get the trees to this point for next time.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
No comments:
Post a Comment