Winter 2020 Watercolor Class

Project: Desert Refuge Week 2

Both the Monday and Wednesday classes are at the same point in this project, if there are any differences I will note them in the post below.


This week we started by adding the trees. You might want to lightly draw in the outline of the rows of trees so you have a basic shape to guide you.

I was using the corner of  my 1/2" angle brush with a dry brush technique called scumbling. It is a great technique to suggest a jumble of things like branches of a tree, the key is to get a lot of movement in all directions of your brush in a scrubbing-type motion. That, along with very little pressure on the brush can be very effective when creating your trees. I do suggest that you practice this first because you need to learn what your brush does with varying pressure: too much pressure and the paint goes on too solid, same if it is too wet.

I started with the lightest color I saw in the trees, the tan color of burnt sienna a touch of yellow and a touch of orange,but notice that it is a couple of values darker than the mountain behind. 

If you didn't get it too wet, it should dry fairly quickly and you can go back over with different values of green the base mix of Hooker's green, some of the previous tan color or a touch of burnt sienna to gray the green slightly and blue to darken. Again, watch the amount of water in your brush and use light pressure. You don't want to close up all the sky holes in your trees and have your photo in front of you and refer to it often.

Also, watch the shape of your trees. I saw a lot of topiary mushroom trees as I walked around the room these trees probably only get trimmed if the wind breaks off branches so they have odd shapes and the tops are uneven. They also overlap each other as most things do in nature and last, they create a wide "V" shape with a break between the side not only on land but also in the water. This will be important when we get to the reflection.

When you are adding the darker colors, use that dark color to shape the lighter bushes in front of the tree, this is called negative painting and it is something that watercolor artist use all the time because we have to leave the light areas. Notice that I am not only creating the bush in front with the negative painting but I am also creating highlight and shadows in the tree I am painting.

The next things we did were adding the reeds under the tree, the start of the foreground reeds and the reflections in the water.

Again, this will be a dry brush technique using  the burnt sienna, a bit more yellow and a touch of orange to create a golden color. The stroke is lifting straight up so the reeds look straight and the top edge is ragged.
 

Remember that we work from light to dark so in the foreground reeds, look for the lightest color which is that golden color and be sure that when you pull them up, you overlap the levee, and parts of the trees.

The reflections can be done either wet into wet by painting the reflection with water first or wet on dry then using a damp brush to after to blur the strokes. You might want to practice first so you will know which works best for you.

With reflections you want to have your strokes straight down and lightly, straight across no matter what you are painting. This is moving moving water so nothing will be sharp and clear. I used the same colors as I used above in the trees on mostly dry paper because I am working vertically in class but at home I would probably wet the area first so it was damp. Once I put the color down with vertical strokes, I would immediately rinse my brush and with the damp brush, lightly drag my brush horizontally across what I just painted. If I wanted a bit more of a ripple, I would use the sharp edge of my brush to pull out a bit of paint. Let this dry, we may have to go over it again.

Wednesday's Class

This is where we left off in both classes. Wednesday on top and Monday below. Yes,there are differences. Do I care? No. Each person paints differently and each person can paint differently even if they are doing the same thing over again. Don't be so overly concerned about if it looks perfect or if it looks the same as mine, it won't even mine don't look the same and I am doing it 4 times and twice in the same medium.

Monday's class

Try to get you painting to the same point I have mine because this is where we will be starting from when next we meet.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.