Fall 2010 Watercolor Class

Watercolor Fall 2010

I have posted the drawing and the reference photo for our class project. As always, please feel free to download and print the reference photo for class.

In our first class we did a couple of things. First, we created a "value scale". These can come in handy, especially, for those who are still learning to paint and need to have visual "proof" of the values within their paintings or their subject matter be it a photo or real life. Until you have developed the skill to see the subtle changes in value and color intensity, having something like the value scale to check against can be a very useful tool.

The process is simple enough: mix a grey color – blue and orange or blue and burnt sienna make a nice gray – and keep it pretty light, you want it just a bit darker than the white of the paper. You can either cut a strip of watercolor paper about 10 inches long by and 1" to 2" or just paint a stripe at the end of you paper. Remember to skip over the first section to leave the white of the paper for your scale and paint a nice even strip across the paper. Let this dry completely or use a hair dryer before doing the next strip. Just remember each time to skip a bit of the previous application but use either the same color you just used or add just tiny amounts of the blue and sienna for your next layer. You want to keep your paint light so you can build up the values one step at a time, also when you are applying a new layer, just put it down with just a couple of strokes and leave it alone. If you keep going over it you run the risk of lifting the paint off from the other layers.

You need about 8 – 10 different layers for a good value scale. When you get to the darkest one, mix blue (your ultra marine) and the sienna with very little water to get a dark almost black color. When it is dry, use a hole punch and punch holes in the middle of each color, then keep this scale with your art stuff so it will be handy.

We also started on the under painting for our class project which will be a close-up of a eucalyptus tree trunk will all it's peeling bark. If you can have this part done with your sketch already drawn on it we can get started in class the next time we meet.

It isn't necessary to have the drawing on your paper before doing this first step and it might almost be preferable to wait until you do the first step before you do you drawing because it can get washed off or covered up with all the water from the under painting.

To do the under painting I first wet the paper with you sprayer. It will help you to have your paper elevated at the top so your paint will run down the page, or lift it while your paint is wet. To the wet paper start adding color. Almost any color will work here but if you have your reference photo handy, you can see that parts of the trunk are cool in color (blues, purples and greens) and other parts are warm in color (sienna, orange, reds and yellow). Your paint should have a lot of water in it so it will run and when it dries it isn't too dark. You can drip it on, flip it on or paint it on, just don't let it get to feeling so good that you end up with mud and don't get your colors so intense that you have no where to go with them, we will intensify the colors as we go but can use those lighter colors to our advantage.

Be sure to have a reference photo with you in class. I will see you soon.

Summer 10

Watercolor 2010 - Wet into Wet Skies



I continued along the wet into wet techniques by doing a couple of skies. There is no one way to do anything and I by no means showed all the variations on the theme, all I hoped to do was to show a couple of possibilities and other uses for wet into wet, it can be a very versatile technique in watercolor.



The biggest thing most beginners have problems with is how to create warm colors along the horizon and cool dark colors at the top. The problems occur when you bet the blue near the yellow or orange, you end up with green or brown (respectively). The problem can be solved by adding red.



If you look at a sunset or dawn, you will notice a gradual change between the light and the dark. It might start as being yellow then fades to orange then to red then blue to deeper blue or purple. RED is the key color here.



First I wet my entire sky area so that it was fairly wet, next I started with my yellow where the horizon would be - and you can turn it upside down if that is easier - next I added orange to the top of the yellow, then RED then blue and finally blue with purple. Having the red in between the orange and the blue keeps the color from getting muddy. Be sure that you are using either the napthol red or crimson and not cadmium red because the cad red tends to be on the orange side and you will get a muddy color where you have the transition from red to blue.



I do want to point out that there is a difference between a morning sky and an evening sky. Morning skies are usually cooler in color: More orange and crimson no yellows whereas evening skies can be blazing hot with color. Part of the reason for this is the fact that morning air is cooler than the air that has been heated all day plus there may be more dust etc in the air from all the activity. Also the change of seasons will affect who a sky looks depending on where the sun is in the sky. Just keep this in mind if you want to create a mood in you painting.



While your sky is still wet, you can lift out clouds with a paper towel or with your brush. These can be the framework for darker clouds but do not try to do darker clouds while your sky is still wet or you will get mud! LET IT DRY COMPLETELY before you add the darker clouds.



When it is dry THEN you can put in darker clouds. Do them quickly so you don't mix the paint underneath into the clouds or visa versa. This will keep your colors clean. You can also lift out details with your brush but remember that clouds are soft so you want to avoid hard edges.



When you are painting skies, don't be afraid to turn your paper to get movement in your paint it can add interest and it is fun. No two skies are ever alike so it really won't matter but it will give you an interesting sky.



The rest is up to you. Your job as students is to take what I give you and try to find other ways to make them work for you. It is much easier to mess up a practice piece than to have done a detailed drawing and be afraid to mess up all your hard work, it can be very intimidating and scary. Sacrifice a piece of paper to practice the things you are unsure of and it will pay off huge when you get to your real paintings.



This coming class will be our last class, bring in a few things for critique be they your best work or ones you need help on, getting a second opinion is always a good thing. Remember that registrations is open at both Torrance and at PV, get signed up as early as you can so you can get the classes you want. See you soon.

Watercolor Summer 2010

Watercolor – Wet in to Wet

This week I did demos that showed a couple of ways to use the wet in to wet technique though they were not the only ways to use wet in to wet, it is a very versatile technique and one every watercolor artist should learn to use. Because we had done a still life in class many wanted to put some sort of cloth behind it without much success so a demo on material seemed logical if not a bit late.

Unless you can vividly see your subject in your mind it is always best to have some sort of reference in front of you and in this case even a scrunched paper towel will do. You need to be able to see all the subtle changes in the light and shadow of the material. Some of the shadows are just barely lighter than the highlights to suggest little dips, where as other shadows gradually go from the light into dark folds. You need to be able to see this before starting so you understand what is going on. Also, if there is a pattern on the material, pay close attention to the change in direction it takes, in some cases it can disappear altogether and reappear someplace else depending on how the material is folded back on itself.

Keeping all this in mind, one of the easiest ways to create fabric is using wet in to wet, the exception may be satin which is very shiny and may need some hard lines around the highlights. First you wet the entire area you want to paint with water and use a big brush so you can cover a lot of area in a hurry. It can dry right behind your brush so by using a big brush and going over the area a couple of times you can saturate it enough to keep it wet while you work quickly.

Determine where your highlights will be and use any color you choose to paint NEXT TO the highlight, the color should drift into some of the light area but will leave enough to suggest a highlight. Create the folds of you fabric in this manner. Both the highlights and shadows will start and stop so pay close attention. If a shadow gets darker add more pigment and some shadow color (blue and or purple). Each fabric is going to be a bit different depending on its color: If it is white your colors should be in the blues and grays to violets in the deep folds. Dark reds or blues can be almost black in the shadows so the colors need to be more concentrated.

You can also lift out some highlights with a clean damp brush by running it down the length of a dark area or if you want to add subtle shadows, look on your pallet for some light color or used the lifted color to add a soft shadow into a light area.

If the area starts to dry, you may need to take a damp brush and run it down the side of a color to soften the edge, which is another way to do this process. All the information you need is right there, you just need to practice it until you understand what you need to do to get what you want. Wet in to wet, lifting, adding color or water, find the combination that works best for you.

Another way to use wet in to wet is to create soft backgrounds. These backgrounds can be used in still life or landscape, portrait or in any situation where you need to suggest that there is something going on but you don't want it to stand out but support what is in the foreground.

I used the example of looking through a fruit tree at PV, but this is only one example. First I wet the area with lots of water just like I did in the demo above. In to that wet surface I added colors to suggest sky, fruit, limbs, branches and leaves. Because the paper was wet these shapes blurred out into soft forms, some of the colors ran but that was okay too. This could be anything from, distant mountains or fields of flowers, to just splotches of color, you are only limited by your imaginations. You can turn you paper to change the direction of the runs or you can splatter color in to the wet or lift out shapes while it is still wet. Have fun with it while you learn.

I let my background dry completely before putting on my foreground fruit and branches. The contrast between the sharp edges of the foreground and the soft edges in the background create depth so it looks like you are looking up through a tree with fruit. If I was going to be doing a similar painting as more than a demo, I would have started with a detailed drawing of the foreground I wanted to paint, then I would have masked it all out so I could paint the background and not have to worry about painting around anything. When it was totally dry, I would have rubbed off the masking and painted the foreground subject as I normally would.

I can only show you a few of the ways to use different techniques, it is up to you to work on these things at home and find out how you can use them yourself, it is a fun adventure, just trust yourself and don't worry if it isn't perfect the first time nothing usually happens perfect the first few times but you will gain knowledge of how your paints work.

I think that we will work on some sky demos this week. We only have one more week after this week so think of what you want to bring in for critique. Classes start at PV on the week of September 13^th and in Torrance in September the week of the 19^th. Registration is now open up at PVAC if you are a member you can get an early bird discount. Torrance registration for residents will start Aug 24^th, non-residents on Aug 31^st. Be sure to get registered in your classes as soon as you can so they don't close your class for lack of students, they usually close under enrolled classes a week before they start so don't get left out and encourage your friends to take classes as well.

I'll see you next week.

Watercolor Summer 2010

Watercolor Glass and Metal

There isn't much left to do on our watercolor still life, just some final touches. I will be using the Torrance demo as my guide as far as color, the techniques are the same just the color is different.

Now that everything is based in, we need to set it down on something, I chose a table top in the Torrance class it looked like a wooden table in the other classes maybe cloth, it's your painting, you need to decide.

Once again, I looked to see where my light was coming from and that was from the right and it hit the table just in front of the bottle and around the bell of the snuffer, that is where I started using orange with a touch of yellow and water. I could start by wetting the area just like we did with the background but because I am working vertically, I needed more control so I wet the paper as I went along.

The next color I picked up was orange with a touch of sienna and blended with water. I want smooth transitions between the colors, it does take practice so don't get discouraged if it doesn't work the first time. The final colors I used were sienna and purple for the corners and sides, this creates a vignette around my subject and focuses the view into the central part of my painting. This now has to dry completely before I start on the shadows.

While this is drying, I can look at the rest of my subject to see where I need more shadows or to intensify color. I decided that I needed a shadow from the bottle on the wall behind the candle. No, I did not see it, but I needed some dark behind the candle to give in more shape against the light background so I put it in. I am an artist, I have a license and I use it and you should too. This isn't a photo where you don't have the control, you are the ultimate "PhotoShop" you put in or take out what ever you need to make your painting work for you. I needed a shadow, I put in a shadow.

Since this was glass that was casting the shadow, it wasn't a real dark shadow. I used Hooker's green and a touch of blue and water to make my shadow. I then rinsed my brush and with a clean brush went around the edge to soften the edge. The color bled down into the wet table but that was okay, some of that color will be on the table as well.

Once the table was dry, I sketched in the shadows cast from the snuffer and the candle and its base. Shadows are important because it sets your objects down and helps tell the viewer where the light is coming from, it is also why it is important to only have one light source when you set up a still life, so you know where your light is.

The shadow color is dark because these are cast shadows. That means that an object is blocking the light, a form shadow shows the shape of an object as its shape move into or out of the light such as the candle gets darker away from the light source, the form shadow tells you it is a round candle.

To mix a dark color in watercolor it is important to be able to get enough pigment off your paint pile so be sure to wet your paints when you are setting up to work. Most of the problems people were having were because they had to wet their brush to wet their paint to get the color off, this dilutes the color making light gray instead of a dark, almost black color. Even if you had black on your palette, if it isn't wet enough for you to pick up enough pigment, it too will look gray instead of black.

Using blue, sienna and a touch of purple and very little water, I mixed a dark blue/purple color for my shadows. I painted the shadow of the handle of the snuffer paying close attention to the face that the snuffer is inclined but the shadow must stay on the table. Under the candle there were two shadows a lighter shadow from the whole candle and holder and a darker shadow cast by the rim of the holder.

I looked at my set-up to see where I could add more shadows like under the rim of the holder, or under the candle next to the holder. The edge of the snuffer or the insides of the holes of the snuffer needed shadows. I even used that dark color to create a wick for the candle, these things you will have to decide how detailed you want your painting to be.

Finally, I removed the masking fluid from my painting making sure that the areas were dry before I rubbed it off. If the paper is even damp, it can tear the surface of the paper so be sure it is dry around the masking.

With a damp brush, I softened some of the edges of the masked areas, sometimes picking up light versions of the colors around the white area to make them look more natural. On the snuffer I wet over the highlights with a thin wash of yellow because the highlights weren't bright white.

During this final process, I step back often to look at my overall painting to see if it really needs me to fiddle with it more. If I can't find any glaring omissions when I step back, it is done! I may live with it a few days and look at it later but it is much better for your painting to stop sooner rather than later otherwise you will over work it and ruin what was a nice painting. This too takes practice but it is what all artists need to learn: When to stop.

We are done with our still life so now you need to find something you would like to work on or at least get started before we end our classes. I will be doing requests the next few weeks so if you have anything that you need more instruction on or clarification on technique, let me know because if you have a problem chances are others do too.

Summer 2010 Watercolor Class

Glass and Metal – Watercolor

Now that we have practiced painting metal and glass, we are going to put what we have learned to practical use by organizing our elements and adding a simple third element into a pleasing simple composition.

You need to draw your still life on your paper but before you start drawing, check your composition. First and foremost, you want to fill up your paper with your subjects. If you have something tall like my wine bottle and you go with a horizontal (landscape) placement of your paper, you are probably going to have a lot of wasted space around your subjects when you get finished so a vertical format will probably be better for tall things.

Again, rule of thirds. I placed the bottle close to the left vertical third line as well as the candle and the bell of the snuffer very near the bottom third intersection and the handle running near the bottom horizontal third line. This I usually do in my head but if you need to, divide your paper into thirds before you start drawing. Also, overlap elements in your composition. When there is space between objects they compete for attention, connecting them visually makes them a unit. You should be using at least a #2B pencil and a soft eraser when you need it.

Add as much information as you need or want to create the elements of your design just don't be so committed to them that you are afraid to improvise when you need to. Use masking fluid to protect your brightest highlights and be sure that the fluid is totally dry before you do the next step.

I know just how tempting it is to jump right in and get started on the main elements that matter most in a painting and worry about the background later, the thing is the background is like the stage set. Yes, you can act out the play without the set but it is very difficult to move the set in or get the props on or adjust the lights once the play has begun, I know, been there, done that and had to be physically held back from running on stage with forgotten props =-O (I still have nightmares). While you may not have nightmares if you don't get the background in first, you are going to have trouble trying to get the background to look like it belongs as you try to paint around your subjects leaving halos and hard lines and odd colors you may never get rid of, so trust me when I say" If your painting is going to have a background, do the background first, it will make your painting a lot simpler.

The background I demonstrated is simple but can be very effective no matter what color scheme you use.

The first thing I look for is my light source and which way the light will be traveling. In this case the light was in the front right so it will hit the upper left third of my background. I went over the "the rule of thirds" in class and if you do a search on the Internet, you will find a lot of sites that can give you more examples and explanations so I won't go into it here except to say that it is important to my composition to use the third lines when I am designing my painting and that includes the background.

Now that I have determined where my light will be the brightest on my paper, I can start painting. First I use my water sprayer to spray the entire paper and with my big wash brush I can add and spread the water to wet the paper evenly. When my paper is totally wet, I start in the area where it will be the lightest and pick up a tiny bit of the color I want to use. I did three different backgrounds in the three watercolor classes because I wanted to show these backgrounds can be any color you want or combinations of colors, it was the technique I was demonstrating not the color. For this explanation, I will go with the colors I used in my Torrance class.

This process moves pretty fast so don't stop between steps. I picked up a tiny touch of yellow on my brush and started working it on to my wet paper where the brightest light would be on my background. I was using a 1" angled shader but can be done with any large brush you have, save the small ones for detail. If I thought it was too yellow, I added more water because I want to keep this step light in value.

Next, I picked up a bit of orange and on the outside edge of the pale yellow worked the orange out a bit more making another ring of color. Blend the two areas together either with light strokes from your brush adding touch of clear water if necessary, you want a nice gentle blend. Keep working.

Next, pick up red, sienna and repeat what you did with the orange. You may find that on the left side you have run out of room for a complete ring, that's okay, just get your paper covered and be sure to blend the area where the two rings come together so you have a nice gradual transition.

The last step to the background will probably be mostly the corners maybe down the right side and bottom, use sienna and purple to create a dark color work that color in the corners. Again blend the touching areas so you don't have a hard dividing line. Now it must dry before you can start painting your objects. Note: on the green background I painted around the candle and snuffer (negative painting) because I didn't want the green to influence their colors in following washes.

When my paper was completely dry, I started with the wine bottle because it was the thing that was furthest back in my composition. I based it in with sap green and I was careful to paint around the candle to be sure that the bottle will look like it continues behind the candle. This is negative painting the candle. Looking at my bottle I added in yellow in the lighter areas, and sap with blue or just Hooker's green into the dark areas. I was using my ½" angle brush. Working other colors into the bottle while it is still wet – wet into wet – lets the colors soften into each other, just don't keep going over and over an area or you will stir up the color underneath and your colors could get muddy this is especially true if you are working with a complimentary color like I had with the red background and the green bottle.

The candle is translucent, keep this in mind because its shadows won't be as dark as a solid object. I used a mix of blue, purple and sienna and water to make a gray then starting on the inside where it would be the deepest part of the candle, created the shape of the edge I saw on the actual candle. Rinsed my brush and with a damp (I wiped out most of the water) brush, I went along the outside edge of that color (where it would be the inside of the candle not the outside edge) and spread it out towards the far edge of the interior of the candle. I rinsed my brush often because I wanted to keep it light. I used a similar technique for the shadow on the outside of the candle, starting with the gray color and bleeding it out with a clean damp brush. In some places I used the little bit of color on my brush to indicate shadows in some of the melted wax.

The center of the snuffer was the same blue, purple and sienna but with little water so it was very dark. I started in the darkest part of the bell then rinsed my brush and with the damp brush teased some of that color out to the front of the bell. This is much darker than what you did on the candle because of shadow and soot so you don't need to thin the color too much. This takes practice, if you have some scrap or test paper handy, you might want to practice first. The rest of the brass was painted in with yellow and a touch or orange or sienna. I used the same color mix on the candle holder.

Depending on how fast the class works – and I am by no means trying to rush you – we may get done with the painting next week and for sure the following week so please start looking for something you would like to paint. It can be any subject you want. Also, think about what you might like to do next semester so I can plan for something you want to learn or feel you need more instruction.

Summer 2010 Watercolor

WATERCOLOR CLASS – Glass and metal

There are similarities between glass and metal that will be apparent when you really look at the two, glass has the added element of being transparent for the most part, in both cases it is good to know where you are going with them and that requires a good road map.

You will hear me almost every time talking about drawing skills, my hope is to get a few of you to take it to heart. Like anything else you have to learn, the more practice you get the better you will become and if you concentrate on creating shapes rather than the thing you are drawing you will see improvement. Shapes are important in creating a road map for your glass or metal.

First, draw the basic shape of the glass or metal you want to paint. The outline and some basic "road signs" like a label or a corner is all you need to start. When that is done now look at your object and look for all the shapes that are reflected that are reflected. Don't worry about what is causing the reflection it is truly unimportant even if it is you that is reflected, just draw what you see. If it is glass you may see the shapes of things behind the glass such as the table and that will have its own shape. You may even see shapes within shapes, depending on how detailed you are going to make your drawing/painting will determine what you put in. Remember you do need to suggest enough of what you see to tell your viewer that it is glass or metal, beyond that is up to you as an artist.

If your subject is burnished metal or glass that is not as transparent you still to look at your subject carefully. Whether it is a tarnished copper pot or a ruby glass vase, it you look close, you will see that the things around them do reflect into them, maybe not as strong as something highly polished or transparent, but it is there and you need to be able to see it.

Once you have your "road map" – it could be a simple as a few basic shapes to note the most prominent things you see or it can be highly detailed, your choice – now you have to fill in the map. It doesn't matter where you start just hold off on your highlights until the very end. Even light shapes in a very reflective object aren't pure white so you will want to gray them down with a bit of mud from your palette or a touch of blue and sienna – teeny tiny touches – you just want to take the white down a bit.

When you are painting this for real, it will be to your advantage to mask out the highlights before you start. For the new students who don't know what masking fluid is, it is a rubber cement like latex that watercolorist use to protect their white areas so you can paint right over it and not worry about painting around small areas you want to leave white, then it rubs or peels off when you are ready for it. I will have some you can use in class but if you are going to continue in watercolor it is a handy thing to have in your art box. For now just be sure that you have marked where your major highlight is and worry about the small ones at another time, remember this is just practice.

If you are painting clear glass, really look at your glass. There is very little actual white, in the thickest parts it could be green or blue or gray and the overall color will be a very thin glaze or wash of that color so start off with that color and keep it handy you will need it to build up density. Don't get too dark too soon, in watercolor we work from light to dark and we need all those in between values to help us create three dimension on a two dimensional surface.

Don't be afraid to test a color next to your glass or metal on your paper to see how it looks. It is much better to test now and know if it is too dark or not the right color on your paper, than when you are working on the real thing. Test those washes, they should just be tints. If you get things too dark too soon, it may be hard to lift the color back off to where you wanted it and you could end up damaging your paper. Better to do it right the first time than fretting over it later.

Again, have the thing you are going to paint in front of you and put in as much or as little as you need to tell your viewer what it is, the detail is up to you. Just work in layers and let the layers dry before you attempt to add more layers (washes). And feel free to experiment, this is the place where you can learn how to use your brush, how to add washes, how to lay down paint then rinse your brush and use water to bleed the color out. Or play with the color of your object to get the right mix. This is just practice so practice!

We are going to put these objects all together this week and create a simple still life so you will need a fresh paper and bring in your glass and metal along with one other thing for your set-up. It can be a piece of fruit real or not, a silk flower but keep it simple, your glasses if you don't need them to paint, a book, a candle…What ever you think would go with the other two objects that isn't a project in itself. I want it simple for your sake, this third item will help you compose your painting easier than with just two but it should be something you are familiar with painting-wise.

Watercolor Summer 2010

Getting into Our Right Mind. Glass and Metal

I know that most of my students thought that I had lost what little mind I had left with our first assignment of the semester, but as you later found out, there is method to my madness.

As a teacher it is my job to help you along your artistic journey. I watch as I see my students struggle with even simplified scenes, I know what they are going through because I've been there myself, but until they understand on their own, the struggle will continue.

Most of that struggle comes from how our brains work. Students who have been with me for a while will get tired of hearing me mentioning Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" but it is an excellent book on how we see things and how our brain processes the information dividing it up into the left and right sides of the brain. It is the right side we need to tap into as artists but more often than not, the left side just won't let go of the brush so we can get closer to our artistic goals. This is the struggle and we need to find ways to convince ourselves that it is okay to let that creative side take control, which was the purpose of the exercise.

The left side of your brain has a very short attention span, if you will. It wants to name things and move on. If it looks like a chair or a flower or a car or whatever, that is what it is now let's move on! It is your right side that sees the difference between a delicate rose bud and a wilting daisy; or a beat up old Vega and a hot new Porsche. It sees the beauty and nuance of the world around you but with the left brain in charge, it is like driving on the freeway with someone with a lead foot and you are trying to look at the scenery. You need to find a way to make it stop.

Fortunately, we do have ways to slow that side down and the more you feel that shift in your mind, the easier it will become. One of the best ways to slow your brain down is to turn your picture upside down adding the element of the opposite hand brings it to a stand still! What you are left with are shapes and color, the very thing that interests your creative side. When you get right down to it that is what all painting is about: Shapes and color.

You will hear me say quite often that it is just shapes: Shapes of the highlights, shapes of the shadows, shapes within shapes. If when you get done putting those shapes together and those shapes are similar to the original shapes you will have a painting that looks close to what you pictured in your minds eye, the picture will be there.

All in all, I think all of my classes did a great job. It was different and a challenge but in the end what we had surprised everyone and that is a good thing. It is also good to know that if you do have problems with a painting, turn it upside down. You don't have to paint it with your opposite hand unless you want to but it gives you that option to tap into your creative side.

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We started a bit on what we will be doing for the next couple of weeks and that is working to create glass and metal. I want to just do some studies to begin with because it is an important step to understanding how everything goes together.

As I mentioned in class, most beginning and intermediate artists want to get right to the business of painting their masterpiece but more often than not, there are elements in that masterpiece they are at a total loss as to how to proceed. Rather than stopping and doing a few studies to work out the problem, they will work and re-work the areas that cause them problems until the rest of the painting suffers and there goes the masterpiece.

I just did a quick demo on focusing in on certain areas of the subject like a glass bottle or polished metal vase, neither are as they seem. Glass in particular can be reflective, transparent and have its own color, things you need to deal with if you want a convincing piece of glass in your painting. Even if you are doing a more impressionistic rendering, you need to see what is going on in that glass so what you have will look transparent instead of solid. Glass and water have a lot in common so this is good practice for both.

Metal is much the same with out being transparent. Metal has its own color but it also picks up the color of things around it, even burnished metal or tarnished metal, they will still reflect the things around them.

We will work on this more in the next class so don't forget to bring something glass and something metal, I say this because it helps to have it in front of you rather than going by a photo alone.