Last Class Winter 2010

Week 7 Torrance/9 PVAC

To Spring forward! Remember to set your clocks ahead one hour.

Everyone please note: This coming week will be our last class at both Torrance and PVAC, we are going to have critiques in all classes please bring in something, it can be your best or a "problem child", we often learn more from our challenges than our successes so bring in one or more paintings be they new or old, good or "needs something" even if it is in a different medium than what you are using in class, I don't mind, if you want a second opinion, bring it in.

I also want you to know that registration is now going on at both places. Non-residents of Torrance can start registering on Tuesday, if you are going to PVAC and are a PVAC member, you can get an early bird discount on your class if you sign up now thru April 5^th.

Don't let classes get canceled or shortened, sign up early and bring a friend. Thanks.

Acrylic Class Week 7 – Darwin Falls

I started the highlighting process the previous week and continued it in our last class. I finished up what I started, looking for light areas, dark areas, painted the water area a dark greenish color. Mostly I was finding and shaping the rocks along with adding some color, getting ready to add the final highlights and darks.

I did add a tree into the crack to the fall's left, when I got home I looked at the picture on the computer and saw that it is growing out of that crack and thought it added a nice touch.

Once I had finished establishing the shapes of my rocks, I under painted the areas that had vines growing on them, think interesting shape rather than vine, then I started looking for my brightest highlights and my darkest shadows also I looked for places I could put some reflected highlights. You will see a lot of reflected light in things especially when they are around water. The light comes in, bounces off of things and the water and will end up in the shadows as a light blue/purple color. If you look at the rocks in the shadowed area, you will see that there is a lot of blue in them, this is probably reflected light. There is also reflected light under the square rock on the right both on its shadowed side and underneath it, don't be afraid to put it in there, it will bring life to you paintings and detail to your shadows.

Please keep in mind that when you are adding these highlights and shadows, you don't want to cover up everything you just did. I heard one artist state that in a visual example your painting should be a gallon of you medium dark, a quart of dark and a pint of highlights. That under painting you have been working on is important, you don't want to loose it. Your dark shadows are important so you highlights will show. You are going to have to find that balance when you paint, I can't do it for you.

You may have to add highlights a couple of times because acrylics dry darker which is a plus for shadows, but not so good for the bright areas. Just be patient and add more light where you think you need it.

When the green areas were dry, I used some sap green with yellow to add some highlights to the vines in front of the square rock and the ones just behind them on the hill. They are the only ones that are getting direct sunlight so they will be the brightest. To that color I added a touch of blue to cool the color down and added touches of white to keep it light but not as light as the first highlight. This color should be a light blue green and added to the rest of the vines. If you want, you can use straight blue (cobalt or ultra marine with a touch of white) to the vines that are in that little cave area.

Now for the falls themselves, please, do not use white for your water at this point, as tempting as it may be, like everything else, we need to under paint it first. In the area where the water is coming out of the rocks you will need to mix up a light blue color using white and blue. The water is in the shadows so it will never be white, remember this.

Water is best done using a dry brush technique, starting where it is comes from behind the rocks, with a light touch, pull you brush down the rocks in the direction the water is flowing. Notice in the picture it hits rocks on the way down and changes direction several times so keep your strokes short and quick. Some of this bluish color sprays over the plants and rocks to the side this will add to the overall wet look of the rocks, this is a wild stream not some controlled man-made concoction. Let this dry before moving on. You should be able to see your under painting thru the spray of water.

In the water you can add the reflections and more darkness where needed. Again, this is water and is best done with a dry brush and since it is in the pond, keep most of your strokes horizontal though occasionally pull the color straight down followed by a horizontal stroke to make it look like a shimmer.

At this point if you are satisfied with how things look, it is time to add the finishing touches. Get out your liner and find cracks in the rocks using a dark color (blue, sienna and purple with lots of water). Like tree branches, there are no straight lines. Some cracks are thicker or have holes, just press down on the brush. Have fun with it. Then start on the tree branches.

The vines that need highlight are the ones in front of the square rock and the ones behind up on the hill, the rest should stay darker. Use yellow with maybe a touch of sap. This color is also on the rock just to their left in the mossy area.

Now you can use your white on the water. It will still be dry brush and will stay mostly in the middle of the streams. Start about half way down from where it comes from behind the rocks – remember, that area is in shade – then follow the water down in quick, dry brush strokes. It hits rocks and bumps so change angles and directions. Look at the reference photo for a guide. If after it dries it is too dark, hit it again BUT ONLY IN A FEW PLACES. Do not try to repaint the whole area or it will become solid, it is water out in Death Valley in late spring, not Utah in winter.

If your branches are dry, under paint the leave with a medium green color – say and a touch of blue – and tap it on using the end of your bristle brush in a stippling fashion and don't be afraid to cover up some of the branches, lost and found is good in trees and bushes. The highlights can be put on in a similar manor though not as much and use the light yellow green you used on the vines.

On a picture like this you can take your time and put in as much detail as you would like or you can stop at any point you feel comfortable with, personally, I feel like I need to do more work on my demo while others thought it was done. My only caveat to this is, if you are looking for places to work on, you are probably done.

This has been fun, I look forward to next semester. I want to give the acrylic class a heads-up, I will probably have a separate blog for you starting in the spring.

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Watercolor – Darwin Falls

After we get done in class, I bring my demos home and I set them up next to the computer so I can write about what we did in class, and often times I see things I need to do I didn't see in class. It is very hard to talk and paint at the same time so when I get it home I can just look at it without trying to explain my every move.

What I saw in all the paintings I did was I needed more color and more texture in the rocks, I could accomplish both by using my sponge. First I addressed the color issue. I wanted my rocks to be a bit pinker, to do that I mixed up some red with just a touch of orange and water to thin it down, I just want a hint of color not a splash.

If you don't have a sea sponge, you can use a wadded up paper towel or even a regular sponge, the look will be different but we are just trying to add color. I used the sea sponge that had some big irregular holes and tapped LIGHTLY on my paper. The harder you press, the more water and paint will come out and fill in areas and that's not what we want. Be sure that if you have rinsed your sponge squeeze as much water out as you can before you pick up your paint.

Into the shadowed areas I added touches of blue the same way and let it dry before adding texture though I added it the same way, with the sponge using a shadow color of blue, purple and sienna and lots of water to make a light grey color. I tapped this color on all areas of rock and the combination of the shadow color and just color creates the rough texture of the rocks.

As I did in the acrylic class, I did add a tree coming out of the crack at the top (falls) left. I first under painted it with orange and when it was dry, using a smaller brush on its edge added sienna and purple in short choppy strokes leaving some of the orange on the sunny side.

The vines that are growing amongst the rocks were under painted with a light yellow green, basically yellow with just a touch of sap green and water. I used this on the vines that are in front of the square rock and up on the hill behind that rock, then I added a touch of cobalt blue to cool the color but still kept it light to under paint the vines that are under the rock and in the shadowed side of the painting.

If you haven't painted the colors of the reflections in the water, now is the time. Pull the color straight down rinse your brush and soften the edges and let it dry before proceeding. The water in the pool I under painted with a mix of blue and green and what mud I had on my palette, kind of a murky blue with lots of water to thin it. Using the edge of my brush and keeping my strokes fairly horizontal I painted in the darker areas of the water. Break up the edges of your reflections with this color but don't cover them completely. The strokes need to be mostly horizontal so the water looks flat.

The falls will be painted using the edge of your brush and a light blue color. Notice that where the water comes out from the rocks, it is in shadow so under paint with blue, let it dry then go over it again adding some darker areas. Think water falling as you paint and refer to the photo to see where you need to go with the color.

The water will be several layers of wash, each darker than the one before but each will be done the same as the one before it leaving bits of the previous color. Try not to cover up all of your reflections they will be hard to get back. Look at the reference photo to see where the water is the darkest and adjust your paint accordingly.

You can also add a second layer of color to the vine areas using mostly using sap green with just a touch of blue, it should be darker than the first layer. Don't try to paint actual leaves, just try to create interesting shapes within the green area to suggest darker leaves. You may need to go over these areas again to get enough dark just don't paint over it all. Each time you should paint less and less this creates depth, dimension and a sense of light. You have to have dark to show light.

If you have enough shadows and texture in your rocks, use your liner to make cracks in the rocks. Mix up a dark color and look for places where you can add cracks, rocks have a lot of them. After you are done with cracks – put as many or as few as you feel comfortable with – add a bit of sienna to the mix to make a dark brown and still using your liner, make the branches coming off the tree and the ones hanging down, on the other side.

Under paint the leaves on these branches first using a light yellow green and using either your brush, a sponge or a paper towel and tap in the sun lit leaves. Let it dry and tap in some darker leave the same way.

This is the point where you need to stand back and look at your painting to see if it actually needs anything else. You will have to finish your painting to satisfy your own needs but if you find yourself searching for things to do, call it done at least for now, then come back in a few days and look at it with fresh eyes. If it is something glaring, it will jump out at you just as it did to me when I sat down to write this up, I'll show you at our last class.

Winter Classes 2010

Week 8 (PV) or 6 (Torr)

Rocks seem to be the most challenging thing my students have to paint. Notice that I didn't say "difficult" or "hard" because once you tell yourself that something is hard, you have already set yourself up for defeat, rather than starting a project with failure already in mind, think of it as a challenging puzzle that you need to figure out how it goes together. Remember that if you are using acrylics you can paint it out and in watercolor, it's just a piece of paper. No lives will be lost, only a bit of time yet the time isn't really lost if you are learning something new or improving on a skill. Think challenge.

Rocks are a contradiction to our brains. Humans want to organize everything place them in some kind of order so they make sense to us, problem is Nature couldn't care less about our sense of order and things in Nature go every which way and are in every size and shape be it rocks, or trees or flowers or bushes. The rocks in this picture have probably tumbled down mountains or were pushed up by earthquakes, there is no pattern to them, only the shapes of the individual rocks. When you are painting rocks, keep this in mind and concentrate more on the shapes you see. Look for the light shapes and the dark shapes and paint those, the rocks will emerge if the shapes are correct.

Acrylic – Rocks

I really didn't do much of a drawing to start, just more of a general placement so I know where the sky and the water are and the key features like the waterfall and the big rock to the waterfalls right and the dark shapes to its left. Detail at this point is, well, pointless. If you do too much detail in your sketch, you will want to paint it like paint by numbers and your results will look forced. Less is more.

This picture had very little sky, actually, I think the bright area at the top is actually sunlit rocks but to start out this painting is covered the small area with gesso and blended in some yellow and a touch of orange. Most of that will get covered with trees or branches so don't spend too much time worrying about it.

I then started my under painting by mixing up a medium grey color using blue, sienna, purple and gesso. If you want it warmer add more sienna, if you want it cooler add more blue or purple. If you need it darker, less white, lighter more white. I also picked up other colors on my palette as I scumbled this color into my rock area using a flat bristle brush. Scumbling is just a way of saying every-which-way. The more brush strokes in your under painting for the rocks, the better because it creates a visual texture.

Another thing I want you to notice is that there are definite warm and cool sides to the photo. To the waterfall's right is warm golden sun on the rocks, to the left it is very cool, you can even see blue in the rocks. When you are under painting keep this in mind and pick up colors that are appropriate for the sun or the shade.

The under painting for the water is still the medium dark color I was using but into it I added some sap green so it was a deep olive color. Keep in mind that water is flat which means that your brush strokes should also be flat (horizontal). You can add other colors into your water as you go as well because they will be reflecting what is in the rocks above them.

I let this dry completely before I started the next step.

When the paint was dry, I re-sketched in some of the main features of my painting with my soft vine charcoal. This was more for placement of these objects rather than looking for detail, still not to that point. Notice that I did not place the waterfall directly in the middle, it is off to the side. Both the waterfall and the large square-ish rock to its right are on or near a "thirds" line.

I mixed up a dark color with the same colors I had used before but this time with very little white mixed in, I used this for my base color and added color to it when I needed a change of color. With this dark color, I looked for my darkest areas, usually where there is a cast shadow like where the waterfall comes down the rocks or under rocks and between rocks or between the rocks and the water. I also needed to keep my edges soft so I either scrubbed in these areas and/or used my finger to soften the edges or blend them out. In the form shadow areas – these are what give something its shape - I added enough white to make and a touch of blue to make the color just a shade or two lighter than what was there and with a dry brush, scrubbed this color in looking for shapes of the shadows.

The first highlights on the rocks were done with a mix of white, sienna, touches of orange and yellow, probably even some "mud" from my brush. This is not a final highlight so don't use a lot of white and this is also done using a dry brush technique.

I did put some of these light and dark colors down into the water either by dry brushing straight across and then pulling straight down or visa versa. I also added green to the rocks where the moss was growing, you can get lost in the shapes you find, just keep in mind that they are just shapes: The shape of the rocks, the shape of the shadows and the shape of the light. If the shapes are right the rocks will be there when you are done.

We will finish up the rocks and the water next week. We only have 2 more classes to this semester and the new catalogs are out in both Torrance and PV, registration starts on the 9^th for Torrance residents, the following week for non-residents. PV, I think, is open now. Please sign up for classes as soon as you can, so we don't have to worry about it being closed or shortened. Bring a friend.

Watercolor – Rocks

First I showed the class how I would start a painting like this using a simple sketch. Each artist develops their own "shorthand" when it comes to their drawing. Sometimes all you really need is a few lines to guide you as you paint. One thing I did notice when I sat down to write this up was I probably didn't get the waterfall over to the left (its left) as I probably should have, it is a bit too close to the center, thankfully, it is only a demo J

Once I had my sketch on my paper, I picked up a touch of yellow and a lot of water to paint in the sky area. This is not really an important area, but it is there. I think I also added a very little orange to one side as well.

Next, I mixed up a very weak color for the sunlit sides of the rocks. This was yellow with touches or red and or orange and sienna and lots of water! If it is easier for you, you can wet the area first then drop the paint in, just be sure to avoid the waterfall and the water areas with the water. I worked wet onto dry paper picking up water when I needed it and covered all of the sunlit side. When I was done with the sunny color, to it I added a touch of blue and purple to cool and grey the color (I'm mixing compliments together), I still wanted to keep it very light so I added a lot of water and painted in the cooler shadows. At this point – if you want – you could use some plastic wrap into the wet paint or add salt, if you use the plastic wrap remember that it will take a lot longer for it to dry, up to an hour depending on weather and how wet your paper was, but you will get some interesting shapes and textures. It must dry at this point.

When your paper is dry, into that last cool color you mixed add touches of blue, purple and sienna but keep it to the blue side then start finding your shadows in both the sunny and the cool sides. We work up to our darkest darks so don't get too dark too soon or you will miss the shades of grey this picture needs. Blend out edges using a clean, damp brush it will create variations in the strength of your shadows. Remember you are only looking for shapes not detail at this point, and you will be using a combination of negative and positive painting. I should mention that a lot of my brush strokes were just touching the paper and lifting quickly to just make marks.

If you want and if you have a sea sponge, you can take this color and with the sponge tap it on the rocks to create more texture. You can also add salt to areas as you go like I did on the rock that divides the falls, first I painted it with sap green then added salt.

At the bottom of the rocks where they enter the water, you can bleed some of the rock colors into the water by using a damp brush and guiding the paint down. We will do more of this next week.

In the shadow areas there is a lot of blue color so add a wash of blue either cobalt or ultra marine, it adds to the sense of cool shadows just don't get too dark, it is just a wash. This blue color can also be used at the top of the waterfall and into some of the shadows on the rocks to the right which are under the trees.

On the wet streak on the rock in front I used sienna with a touch of orange to paint the area and while it was still wet, just dropped some ultra marine into it. You might have to lift the top of your paper to get it to run a bit but it adds to the watery look on the rocks. I also used a touch of orange at the top of the rocks where the falls come out and a bit down the sides of the falls, this is reflected light and adds interest.

We will finish the rocks and work on the water on Monday. If you are going to be working on this, please have a reference picture handy, it is posted on the picture page and will help you a lot as you are painting.

There are only two more weeks to class, sorry to say, it has been fun. The new schedules are out at both Torrance and PV, if you get a PV schedule if you notice the front cover it is of my poppies, and I'm pleased with the way it turned out. If you are planning to take classes be sure to get signed up as soon as possible, we will start the new semester the second week of April.

Winter Classes 2010

WINTER CLASSES 2010

Acrylic Demo – Backgrounds

Putting in your background is like putting in the foundation to your painting. The background along with a good under painting is what supports the subject(s) of your finished painting, it needs to be there or the painting will look unfinished but it shouldn't be so brilliant or garish so it takes away from the subject matter of our painting.

Skies – If you are doing a land or seascape, chances are that at least some sky will be showing and it is a good idea to do this first in acrylics so you don't have to figure out how to put it in later and make it look like it fits. I know in oils many teachers tell you to put it in last but oil paints can be blended with new paints even after weeks have past, we so not have that luxury in acrylics.

I started out by putting on a good coat of gesso into the area where my sky will be. I would normally put it on with my big blender/haki brush but because I was working in a smaller area I used a #12 flat bristle brush, I was generous enough with the gesso so that the whole area was covered, don't try to stretch one load of gesso for the whole area, it needs to be covered. WHILE THE GESSO IS WET (I put this in caps because many of you wait until it dries and that defeats the purpose of putting it on in the first place), I picked up a touch of red and orange on the corners of my brush and streaked this along the bottom of my sky area and blended it up towards the top of the sky.

I wiped my brush off then picked up blue and a touch of purple and did the same thing along the top part of the sky, blending it down towards the warm color. I cleaned my brush and with big, flat "X's" starting in the warm area I blended up into the dark area, then reversed and blended the dark area into the warm area. This is where having a brush with very soft bristles comes into its own. The harder bristles will leave streaks but with a very light touch and the soft bristles you can make it look like it has been air brushed in. It does take practice to get the right amount of pressure but it is worth the time. All of this needs to be done while the paint and gesso are still wet, if you feel it start to tack up, lightly mist it with your spray bottle and work the water in gently.

Be sure that the bottom of the sky doesn't have a hard edge before you let it dry. If you are putting in distant mountains, hills or trees, you can, while the sky is still wet put those distant features in but if you are unsure, let it dry completely before adding other things tha will touch it.

Clouds you use a flat bristle brush and mix up a grey color. If it is a stormy sky, it will be a darker grey (less white) a bright sunny day more white less color. Grey is made up of blue, sienna, a touch of purple and white.

Using a dry brush technique (no be gobs of paint on your brush), a light touch and a circular motion to your strokes create your clouds. You can apply more pressure on the insides of the clouds but less when you get to the edges. Again, this will take practice. When this layer is dry, you can add another layer of white and maybe a touch of yellow and this will be mostly put when the sun might hit the cloud tops, NOT the whole cloud.

For a more impressionistic sky, you can do what is called "brush mixing". Pick up a color you want in the sky and with a series of strokes, paint your sky. Pick up other colors and white to change the flavor and add interest to your sky. Do the same with clouds by putting down a stroke and leaving it. The key to an impressionistic look is to put the paint down then don't mess with it too much.

Simple backgrounds – Things like still life and portraits often need a simple yet complementary background. Look at your subject and see what is the dominate color. For instance, if you are painting a vase full of red roses or a person with red hair, a simple solution to the background would be some form of green because green is the compliment of red. It should be a soft green which means the background will also have some form of red in it to grey the green add white to lighten it. It can be a very "strokey" look or you can soften it with your blender, the choice is yours.

Tall Grasses – This can be used in many situations where you don't have a sky such as close ups of animals or spilled fruit on the ground. Just as I did in the first sky, I covered the area with gesso so I could blend into it while it is wet, then using my blender, I picked up orange, sienna and red and with a slight curved stroke and the edge of my brush I created a streaked look like tall, dry grass. To that I would add, any other color I had on my palette, but it was primarily a mustard color. It is important to remember that these grasses are not all one color so it is necessary to add other colors as you go even if you are doing a spring green field, you will still need to add some yellow, orange, red and sienna along with blue and purple to make the "green grass" believable.

Rain or Snow – The technique is the same as it is for the grass starting with gesso for blending but this time use blues, grays and purple to keep it cool and wet looking. When it is dry and you want it to look more like snow instead of rain, use your tooth brush and splatter the area with light blue or light grey and finally white.

Next time – Water and Rocks. I will be using my picture of Darwin Falls as an example, see picture page. Download it if you want to use it in class.

PV Watercolor – Splash of color

It is always fun to try something new or different because we often times get stuck in a rut. The following technique can be used in many situations the key is to keep your subject simple.

While I tend to put my drawing on first then splatter, it isn't usually necessary, however, in this case I wanted to remove some of the paint in my subject so having my drawing already on my paper was important.

After I had my drawing on I sprayed my paper a couple of times not to cover the paper but to create wet and dry areas, you can also do this step with just water on your brush and splash it on just like you would do paint. This will let the paint run and blend in some areas where is hits water or stay put if it lands on a dry area.

Using you ¾" angle brush and my warm colors (red, orange and yellow) I splashed color where I thought my light was coming from – top and left. I used my cool colors (green, blue and purple) on what will be the shadowed side. The key to getting your splashing technique to work is water and lots of it. Mix your color pretty strong on your palette but us lots of water, this is where it actually should be dripping off your brush, then drip, throw or tap the color from your brush. This can get to feeling way too good so learn to stop or else you will have mud.

Once you have your splatters the way you want, take a paper towel and blot off some of the color in the flower and bucket area. It is okay if there are some blotches of color left, just take off the excess. Also, while it is wet – if you want – you can add salt to an area or use plastic wrap, just for fun, remember. Let it dry completely before doing anything else.

This next step seemed to be the hardest for students to under stand because it goes against their sense of logic, just trust me, it does work. In the flower area, I mixed up a very light pink color – red with a lot of water – then WITHOUT PAINTING INDIVIDUAL FLOWERS (the part most people missed understood) I painted all of the flower areas, sometimes adding a touch or orange in the sunny side or blue or purple in the shadowed side, but I did keep it very light.

On the bucket I mixed a light color using sienna, yellow and a lot of water to make an ochre color. If you have ochre, you can use it but thin it down because it tends to be a bit on the opaque side. Start in the sunny side of the bucket and as you move into the shadow, add touches of purple to grey the color into the shadows.

In the leave area it is much the same. Start with a light color and paint the whole area, don't worry about individual leaves at this point just get the base color in.

When it has dried completely, this is where we get into the detail.

On the bucket, using a dark mix of blue and purple, there is a shadow right under the rim of the top of the bucket. This is a cast shadow, run it under the rim very dark but when you get to the shadows from the leaves, add a touch of water, those shadows won't be as dark. Around the back part of the bucket is a shadow from the bucket and the flowers, use you shadow color with water and remember it is going around the bucket so it isn't a straight line. There is also a very dark shadow under the bucket and across the ground behind it. Also use this color on the back part of the handle and other shadowed areas. Don't forget the handle.

In the flowers, you can use the same red but it should be much darker. Now you are going to SUGGEST flowers. This step is mostly shapes that could be flower petals with the occasional almost, actual flower to tell the viewer what they are looking at, but this is a very loose process. This is not a botanical where every detail needs to be included; this is just an impression of flowers.

The leaves are going to be done using negative painting and a dark green color (green with blue). It is very dark right under the flowers so this color can be pretty dark. Pull out leaves by painting around them. Add color and veins using the same color but with a bit more water. With just a damp edge of your brush, pull out some stems for the flowers above. Let it dry.

You can do as much detail into the flowers as you want, but for now I am going to concentrate on the bucket. I mixed up a similar color as I mixed the first time, maybe adding a bit more yellow, and I painted the entire bucket with this color. While it was still very wet, I picked up sienna and just touched the paper where I wanted rust spots. My paper is elevated a couple of inches, so the sienna will run down a bit if the paper is wet enough. I also add a bit of orange the same way. I let it dry.

When it was dry again, this time I took sienna with just a touch of purple and painted in darker rust spots where the paint is peeling back. To some of those spots of I wanted it to look like the paint was above it, I took a dark mix or shadow color – blue and purple - and painted right underneath the lighter area. With a liner brush I could add more cracks and detail.

Las but not least, I took my fine tipped Sharpie and outlined everything. Just don't make solid lines or line everything. This is a very fun technique so don't look for perfection, its better that way.

Next week – Rocks and water. If you can find your own reference so you have something to look at, it will be great, I will be using my photo of Darwin Falls as an example, it is on the picture page if you want to download it for class. There is no drawing to go with this photo.

Winter 2010

Textures in Watercolor

This lesson is more visual than anything else so use the link to the picture page to see the textures and the explainations on how to create them. These are only a few to get you started try using them in combination to get the effects you want, you are only limited by your imagination so don't be afraid to try something new which is another reason I tell you to have test paper or watercolor cards handy to try out something new before applying it to your "masterpiece".

Most important to remember is to watch how much water is in your brush or sponge, what ever you are using, if it is suppose to be textured and it is too filled in it could be that you had too much water or you were pressing too hard, many things require a light touch as well as little water.

Have fun and try out different things to see if you can come up with your own textures.

Winter Classes 2010

Week 5 Winter Classes

I just want to remind my Torrance classes that there will be no class on Monday because of the President's Day Holiday. Fortunately that is the last of the long winter weekends so we should be good until the end of the semester.

Acrylic – Gull Part 2

You should have your gull under painted by now along with the post and should have started the first round of highlights.

As I've said before, I will often see something at home when I set a painting up to write about it that I didn't see in class, in this instance I really didn't like the shape of the beak of this bird. I decided that this was a good opportunity to show the class that if you don't like something you don't have to struggle to make it work, it is simple enough to paint it out and do it again. I just used similar colors that I used in my back ground and painted the beak out, blending those colors into the background using similar strokes and working out into a large enough area to make the correction look as if it was always there and I didn't end up with a "halo" around my bird. After it had dried, I re-drew the beak and under painted with orange and a touch of purple.

I have been using a #6 filbert bristle brush throughout most of this painting because it is large enough for the size painting I am doing but not so small that it is causing me more work than I should be doing. A #6 or 8 flat bristle or sable brush would work here as well.

This time I will be using white with just the tiniest touch of yellow just to take the harshness off the white and I will use this as part of my final highlight on the white part of the gull. I started at the head and with quick strokes (remember you are painting feathers) from the top of the head down the back because that is the side the light is coming from (left side). I also use this color in dabs around the eyes and beak but leave a bit of the grey color around the eyes to show a depression in the feathers to give depth to the feathers.

Work your way down the gull and over but lighten the pressure on your brush as you get near the shadows, you want a gradual change from the light side to the shadowed side including the under belly.

With this same color using quick strokes, highlight the tips of the feathers near the tail and add some wispy feathers near his belly. Remember that acrylics dry darker so you will probably have to repeat this process once or twice each time using less yellow and not going over quite so far on the bird.

On the beak, use yellow with a touch of white to the top of the beak and just a touch of orange and red into that color for the bottom. There is a brighter spot of orange on the front of the lower beak you can blend back with your finger to soften it in.

The legs add more white and red into the orange color you were just using to get a very light pink color to highlight the front parts of the leg. Remember there is a cast shadow so this light color starts about his knee joint down. Also, if you want, take a bit of this leg color with maybe a touch more red and VERY LIGHTLY dry brush this color into the shadows on the belly. This is reflected light from his legs and it is there in the picture if you look close enough.

On the post dry brush in as much color as you want warn colors to the sun lit side cool colors in the shadows. Even mix up some light violet with white, blue and purple and dry brush it into the dark shadows, this will be a reflected highlight.

Finally, when you are satisfied with the texture on your post, mix a bit of white with touches of yellow and orange – it should be pretty light – use this to highlight the beveled edge of the post and the vertical edge that it getting the most light. Use quick choppy strokes this is old rough, wood so it won't be smooth.

Now it is time to change brushes, get out your liner brush and add enough water to this white mixture so it will flow off this brush. Streak some of this color into the sun lit side and along the edges of the big crack. These are not solid lines, more broken and streaky the better, you are creating texture. When you have as may streaks as you think you need, go back into that light violet color and use that to do the same thing in the shadow areas, add a touch more white if necessary but it should be on the blue/purple side.

Now rinse your brush and mix up a dark color using blue, sienna and purple, this is more blue and sienna than purple, and use more blue to keep it on the cool side. Remember to use plenty of water so it will flow off your brush. You will be creating cracks and holes in the wood and place some of these cracks next to the white streaks you just put in. You can also use this dark color for the eye if you haven't put it in already, the nostril, mouth line and the nails on the toes. Use just a touch of white in the eye to add life and finish the gull to your own satisfaction.

We will be doing thumbnail backgrounds when we come back so have a big enough canvas that you can divide it into 4 or 6 separate areas.

Watercolor Week 5 – Negative Painting.

Negative painting is something that we use a lot when we are painting in watercolor because we traditionally saving light areas working from light to dark, I chose the leaves not because this is the only way to paint leaves, I could have used circles or squares and accomplished the same thing, but to make it a bit more interesting.

If you want, before you start your negative painting, you can wet the paper and drop what ever colors you want on to the paper to create some interest. This is not necessary just a different way to start a painting. You might want to wait until you have done this step and it has dried completely before putting on your design so it doesn't get washed away in the process and when you are using a pencil use at least a #2B - #4B so it is dark enough that you will be able to see it after several layers of washes have been laid down over it. Many who used an HB or harder pencil had a difficult time seeing their design after only one of two washes. Pencil lines are okay in watercolor and this is just a study anyway.

After you have gotten your design on you next have to figure out which leaf is going to be your lightest leaf or leaves This will be your first No Paint Zone. By that I mean you will be painting around what ever falls into a NPZ. I chose the one leaf that looks on top and the curl back of the leave to the right for my NPZ.

I then mixed up a thin wash of color. You can use any color with the exception of yellow because yellow really doesn't change value (lightness to darkness) it really only intensifies in color. I used a mix of blue and purple for my wash and it was the same color and value throughout my demo until the very last wash. This is important to note because if you mix your wash too dark you have no place to go with it, the layers will darken as you put successive washes on because the layer underneath will show through and increase the intensity of the color as well as darken it, this is the nature of watercolor.

I let each wash dry completely before adding my next wash. Each time I do a wash, I select another leaf or leaves to join in the NPZ until all of the leaves are in the NPZ that is the point where I can darken or change the color of my final wash.

I also use negative painting to show how to put veins into the leaves using my angle brush with just some color on the tip of the brush and painting around where I wanted the veins to be, by increasing the value (light vs dark) and intensity (strength of the color) the lighter veins will show because of the contrast. This takes practice but it come in very handy when you do a lot of plants and flowers or any time there is lighter raised areas like a blood vein in a hand or on an animal's face for examples.

I also intensified the shadow under the curl back using negative painting, I could use it any time I need to add a shadow or increase a value behind something. As you become more adept as a painter you will go back and forth between positive and negative painting without even thinking about what you are doing.

You can finish these leaves anyway you would like. Get some leave from your yard and see how they look in real life and try to create that on your paper, that is the fun stuff: the holes and rotted or dieing parts that give character to the leaf, this is just a study so you can't mess it up. Have fun that is what art is all about.

PV classes we will be going over textures next week so there won't be any drawings or photos you will need to print out. Torrance students, hang in there, I will get you caught up but do try these things at home, remember you have a day off on Monday to paint to your hearts content.

Winter Classes 2010 Week 4

Sorry this is so late, I've had a sinus headache most of the week making it hard to think and type. I also fixed the link to Art Supply Warehouse and added the link to Poster if you are interested.

Week 3 Acrylic: Working with White

(For my new watercolor classes, the watercolor notes follow the acrylic notes)

In acrylics, we work from dark to light because this gives us some place to go with our values. The problem with many novice painters is they just don't understand this concept especially when it comes to light or white things. If something is white, they tend to start out with white then have no place to go with their values. The results are a flat looking object more like a cartoon than something with dimension.

I demonstrated methods of how you can transfer a drawing onto your canvas, I suggest that you do this after you have your background done, it will save having to fill in areas you missed later like I had to in class.

My background was kept soft and out of focus so it didn't draw attention to itself. I wanted it to look like water behind my gull and I needed it dark enough so the gull would stand out against it. First I coated the background with gesso which helped me to blend my colors, then using blue, green and touches of purple and sienna created a soft blended background. Notice that I kept my brush strokes horizontal to the top and bottom of the canvas because the strokes will also suggest water.

The following colors were used in various combinations to under paint the gull and the post and are a very handy combination to remember especially when you are under painting.

Using, either, gesso or white combined with blue (either ultra marine or cobalt), a touch of purple (a little goes a long way) and sienna, more of the colored pigment than white, I created a cool bluish grey color which I used to under paint all of the white areas on the gull. Then, adding more blue, purple and sienna into the same area, I made a dark grey color for the wings of the gull. More blue than purple or sienna, test it on your canvas until you get a color you like.

When you are painting the feathers – and this goes for fur as well – have your reference picture so you can look at it often because your brush strokes need to follow the direction of growth so what you are painting it looks like it belongs on the animal you are working on, in this instance, a gull.

For the post, again back into that same colors but this time add more sienna to get a warm grey color and maybe a touch of purple to cool it down. At the top of the post, I added a bit more white to suggest light, just remember this is only the under painting not the final highlight. Like I said: a very handy combination of colors. Keep the strokes on the post vertical to create the idea of texture in the post.

The beak of the bird is yellow but we need to under paint with a darker version. Using orange, white and a bit of the mud on your brush make a dull orange color.

The legs are almost pink but we do need a dark under painting, add some red and a touch of purple to the mix you used on the beak to use on the legs.

This all has to dry before you go on to the next layer, if it is still wet or tacky, you will lift more paint than you will put down.

Back to our cool grey combination but this time add more white. You want this to be a couple values lighter than what you started the bird with but we are still under painting, any pure white will come at the very last.

This time when you load your brush, use it more dry brush and again, you need to follow the direction of growth of the feathers. I used the side on the edge and mad short choppy strokes, thinking about the feathers as I painted. Look at the reference photo and don't paint this value into the shadow areas, leave that first layer as shadows. Also watch around the eye, there is a bit of a depression so leave some of that darker color where the eye will go.

You can ad a touch more blue and sienna to create a gray color to start the highlights on the wing plus you can even dry brush some of that color down into the post, old wood has a lot of colors in it so have fun.

This is where we stopped and we will finish on Monday.

Working with White and Watercolor

Working with watercolor is almost opposite from what artists in other mediums do to create the same goal, painting a white or light object is a prime example. We work from light to dark which means that we leave the white of the paper and work to our darks using washes to increase the values in our painting, but like our counter parts in other mediums we can face some of the same problems especially when it comes to light subjects in our paintings because even white isn't white if we want to get dimension in the subject.

In watercolor the drawing is more important than it is in other mediums. There are various methods to transfer a drawing onto your paper and one method is to do your drawing on another type of paper like drawing or tracing paper then using graphite paper – and make sure it is graphite paper and not carbon or a paper with wax or you will have allsorts of problems – transfer the drawing so you don't hurt the surface of your paper.

Once my drawing was on my paper, I used masking fluid to protect some of the smaller areas so I didn't have to try and paint around them. Yes, I could have put masking all over my drawing, but that really would have been a waste of time and masking fluid, most of the areas are large enough I can just paint around them.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail regarding the background because it isn't important beyond creating some contrast between dark (background) and light (the gull). In two of my classes I tried to create water behind the bird, in another, I just created some dark color behind the bird so he could be seen. As an artist, these are things you need to decide to fit what you are trying do. Main thing is get some dark color behind the gull.

If you read any of the above notes for the acrylic class you will have seen that I made various shades of grey using blue, purple and sienna. In acrylics I have to use white, in watercolor we use water to thin our mixture but I use the same colors in watercolor as I do in acrylics to get some really nice grey colors.

Once our background is dry mix a bluish grey using the above colors, this should be to the blue side, watch the purple because it will over power your color. Now the value of this color should be fairly dark, however, if your background is really dark, it is okay if this color is a bit lighter than the background, if you have a light background this color should definitely be darker.

Starting under the chin and beak, add your shadows. Rinse your brush often as you do this step and with just a damp brush, soften the edge that is on the feather side. Brush strokes are important her too, so remember you are painting feathers and follow the way they grow. Sometimes just the color you have on your brush after you rinse your brush, is enough to add subtle texture in a white area or pick up just a small amount on a damp brush is just enough, white is delicate and you need to keep that in mind.

There are also shadows around the eye and where the beak comes into the feathers, they are subtle but the are there. There are also some light texture shadows on his chest and feathers on his side.

Once you have painted in all the shadows in the white area of the bird, mix a stronger grey color, it will mostly be blue and sienna and should start out pretty dark, this will be on the wings starting on the back. Look at the photo because you will need to lighten this color where the wings fold and where the sun is hitting the front part of the wing. Just rinse your brush and use water to move the color that is already there into these lighter areas.

If you have black or Payne's grey, go ahead and use it on the tail and eye, I won't tell the teacher.

On the beak, you can use yellow starting on the lower part then rinse and with a damp brush pull the color to the top of the beak. Near the tip of the beak is a touch of orange that you can add while the yellow is still wet and just drag a little of that orange back towards the head on the lower beak.

On the legs, I used red with a touch or orange to get a pinkish color that should be fairly dark. Starting where the legs go into the body use this color on the whole leg but as you move down, just run it along the back of the leg and bottoms of the toes. Rinse your brush and with a damp brush, drag some of that color to the front of the legs and tops of the toes.

On the post add a bit of sienna and purple to the color you used on the win and start with the shadowed side with this color and as you come to the sunlit side, add more sienna, orange or yellow or if you want it to stay grayish, just add water. When it is dry, you can create an almost life-like texture by using dry brush and finally your liner. Remember it is old beat up wood so it isn't perfect. We'll do wood later so I'm not going into it right now.

If you have any masking on your gull, you can remove it now and make any adjustments to the areas you need to do like softening edges or adding some texture.

This time using mostly blue and a touch of purple, mix up a medium wash of color. Use this color on the top parts of the legs and down the back, also use it where the feet come in contact with the post and down the back side of the post. These are darker shadows and need to be intensified. Finish the gull as you see fit, but if you start to look for something to do, you are done.

Next week we will do negative painting. It is very important for watercolor artists to understand this and if you want to bring you painting to another level, you need to learn to use it to your advantage. Feel free to download and copy the simple leaf drrawing I've done or do one of your own the important thing is to have over lapping leaves so you can have layers.