Winter 2014 Watercolor

Project: Arizona River

(Torrance students, this will be the blog you will reference when we get started on the project after the MLK break. We may have a few different things but most of it will be the same, just a couple weeks behind.)

This week we got started on the class project, I hope that you will continue to practice your negative painting at home whenever you can because the more you do it the more it will make sense to you, I still saw people struggling and that’s okay, it is not an easy thing to do to see things differently but if you want to work in watercolor is is important that you do learn to see the areas of negative space because you will never get away from it, it is an important aspect of the medium.

The first thing you usually want to do is to put your design on your paper. This is not a hard and fast rule because everyone finds what works best for themselves and sometimes the subject will dictate what needs to be done first, but, for beginners, having a drawing on your paper will help. Use at least a #2B drawing pencil or a #3B so you can see your design even after the drawing has gotten wet. I waited to draw my design on because I had a good idea of what needed to be where, but I did have my reference photo handy as all of you should.

When I come into class, I open my paints and I wet them, this is a very important step. Your paints need to be ready to go and you won’t be able to get enough paint off a dry lump of pigment with your brush to get the intensity you need. I know having a wet palette to take home isn’t fun, but if you dry the excess when your are cleaning up and put some paper towels in the palette before you close it up, any leakage will be minimal, but your paints need to be wet or you will struggle to get more than just pastel colors and you will never get and dark values or intense colors.

Have your paper on an incline. Put a roll of tape under the top of your support (and you should all have either a support or a watercolor block to work on) so you have at least an inch or more elevation to your work area. Gravity is your friend in watercolor, working flat is not. You can have all sorts of problems when you work flat from mud to blooms to distortions in your painting, so find a way to elevate your support.

When I started this painting, I wet the paper with my big brush. You can use your sprayer and a big brush to make sure the surface is completely wet, whatever is the quickest for you, the paper needs to be wet for this first round of paint.

On the wet paper I took my cad yellow light and went over the whole paper. This was a fairly intense yellow so I had more pigment than water on my brush and let the wetness of the paper help me to spread it out. Start at the top and work down and work quickly. While it was still wet I literally dropped or splattered cad orange into the wet yellow WHERE MY HILLSIDE AND WATER WILL BE. Try to avoid the sky but just drop the paint, don’t try to control it. I saw some of you brushing the orange across and now what you have is a dark yellow solid color when what you want is a spotted, drippy orange on yellow background. I know this is hard to do because as humans we want to control everything, but it will not work with watercolor, you need to trust it and let it do its own thing.

This next part is a bit tricky and you might want to practice it on a separate sheet of paper to figure it out and this is where if you are working flat you will get into trouble because you will have pockets of dry paper next to pools of wet paper causing all sort of havoc so be patient with yourself, you probably won’t do this the first time of the tenth time or even the hundredth time, but it will come the trick is the dampness of the paper. If you have your paper on an incline, the water will run down to the bottom leaving the top to dry a bit. You want the paper to be slightly damp to the touch. If you test it with the back of your hand, it will feel a bit cool and almost dry, that is perfect. We want the next wash of paint to slightly blur along the edges but not take off across the paper in a giant bloom. If your paper feels physically wet, give in a minute or so and check it again.

On this damp paper we are going to put in the distant mountain. I am taking artistic license here because in the photo the mountain looks a blue/gray but that color doesn’t appear in any of the rest of our painting and I want to keep the colors in harmony with each other, so I used orange to repeat a color I have already used. I was still using my big brush to cover the area quickly and to cover enough to be sure that it will go behind the edge of my closer hillside, paint just below your sketch for the darker hillside, please do not try to paint around it, it is darker and will cover the orange, It will save you a lot of work. When you are done with the distant mountain, you must let the paper dry completely. Letting paper dry is probably the hardest thing to do in watercolor but it is important if you don’t want to mix mud. You can use a hair dryer to speed the process if you want.

This next step is where all your negative painting skills will be put to the test so take your time and think about what you are doing, speed will come when you are more familiar with the process and you will be able to go back and forth between positive and negative painting without even thinking about it, but that is just going to take time and patience with yourself so work at a pace that is comfortable for you and stop frequently to be sure you are negative painting and not positive painting, I did see some of you getting the two confused, when you are learning it is easy enough to do.

I switched to my ¾” angle brush but you can use a flat or round brush, just don’t break out the small brushes yet or this will take a lot longer than it should.

I mixed a bit of sap green and yellow with a touch or orange and water to make a light grayish green color. I used this color to make the edge of the closer hillside creating interesting shapes as I went. This is a wild hillside not a manicured hedge so it will have lots of ups and downs and jagged edges. I painted the rest of the hillside with this color but be careful when you get to your trees, you might want to go over your pencil lines so you can see them because you are going to have to negative paint around your tree areas to keep the trees yellow. This is important, this is where you will need to stop and think before you proceed or you will paint over your trees and they then become spring or summer trees not late fall trees.

When I am painting an area, I am thinking about what I am painting. This area is a bunch of brush, cactus, rocks and whatnot, it is not a glass smooth panel, it has texture and substance so I am dabbing, and adding touches of other colors like blue or red or sienna along with the light green and also water to make things lighter or darker. I am twisting and turning my brush in my hand, rolling it from the tip to the full side and back again. I just do this as a matter of course, I don’t even think about it as I am doing it. My brushes are my multi-tools they are not a single purpose tool, the more you use and experiment with your brushes the better you will be able to make them do what you want them to do. We aren’t painting walls, we are creating art a whole different animal.

You need to let this dry again before doing the next wash of color.

This next layer of wash is very similar to the last but it is going to be darker and you are going to leave some of the last color in places which becomes highlights on the tops of some of the brush on the hillside. Yes, more negative painting, you will get lots of practice.

This color is similar to the last I think I even just added color in the same area in my palette which I often do, so to my color I added more green, you can add Hooker’s green if you want, blue and sienna to make a dark blue/green that is slightly gray. Don’t use too much water because that will thin the paint and weaken the color, you want this fairly dark, not black but a medium dark color.

Paint around some of the areas of the lighter green to suggest light hitting the tops of some of the hillside brush, again, think of what you are painting and dab and smear shapes. It doesn’t need to be an exact replication of something but just add shapes and texture so suggest to your viewer that there is something going on in all that darkness. Also use this dark color to really define the trees. Put dots and dashes of this dark color in the tree shapes to suggest holes through the trees or to make the outer leaves look lacy. Look at the reference photo and see how many holes there really are in the trees, this is what will make your trees look more believable than solid masses of yellow. You can even suggest some lighter grasses at the bottom of the hillside, just take your time and think about what you are painting. You will need the contrast between the dark hillside and the trees to make the trees glow so don’t be afraid of the dark especially when you are near the trees.

This is where we stopped try to get you painting to this point so we can move on, if you are having trouble or need more time we can review in class. See you soon.

Watercolor Project: Water Lily Week 4

Torrance class the information regarding the negative painting of the flower petals is near the end of last week’s blog because I started the process at PV the previous week, so look there for reference.

Theyellow center area is probably the trickiest because there is a combination of grayish shadows on some of it and a reddish orange on the rest, this is where really looking at the photo is going to be important because I simply cannot do more than give you general areas here, please have you photos out and look at them often BEFORE you start this process.

The gray color is going to be yellow with a touch of purple and a lot of water. It should look gray and not purple and on a value scale of 1 – 10, 1 being white, this should be no more than a 2. This color goes on the yellow stamens/pistils that are in the back also there is a bit in the center and along the front behind the petal. The orange color is orange with a touch of red and it goes in between some of the front structures. Be sure to check the angles and shapes before you start putting on color. There are also some dark parts that seem to be on the sides of some of these structures, I just took my small angle brush and put some dark color from my palette and just touched the full edge of the brush to form a line. When in doubt, practice it first.

There are a couple of the petals that have some green stripes on them, this is very easy if you slightly wet the petal first – you want it damp not dripping – and either with a liner or the edges of a flat/angle brush, draw the lines in with sap green but be sure you follow the couture of the petal, they are not flat, they are curved. As the green mingles with the dampness of the paper it will slightly fuss out, if it disappears altogether, your paper was too wet, if it doesn’t fuzz out at all your paper was too dry. Again practice it first. This is the same thing I did to add the pink tips to some of the petals, I wet the tip and down a bit on the petal the just put color at the tip and let it spread down through the damp paper, guiding it sometimes with a damp brush with just water.

(From here on is what we did different at PV and what we will be doing at Torrance next class.)

The petal that goes under water also has a bit of a shadow falling across the middle of it but the lower part is going to need a light wash of blue. If you have a blue on the mixing part of your palette just add some water and lightly go over the bottom of the petal or use a tiny amount of a color similar to you water, you just want to tint the petal. If you did what I did at PV and painted too heavy over the petal and need to lift some color off to shape the petal that is under the water, just use the color you are lifting in one area and tint the other area with what is on your brush.

The shadows under the flower are very dark but you can see a bit of detail in them. Do not worry about that detail at this point it will look better if you go in later and lift out a bit of color than to worry about it as you are trying to paint the shadow in.

I started my shadows with just a mix of blue and purple, keeping it on the blue side. To be honest, once I got it home and could see it in better light, I am not completely happy with it so I will be tweaking it in our next class. I think I need some green and some sienna to gray up the color a bit and I do need it darker right under the flower, it isn’t dark enough.

I free-handed my shadow, if you need to draw it in that is okay too but when you are lifting out detail also take a damp brush and go across the edges of the shadow horizontally to soften the edges just a bit, then finish up anything you may have missed.

The PV class should be done with this project and students should be bringing in something that they want to paint for class. Torrance students we will probably finish up the project at our next class and you might want to start looking for your own projects as well. I will see you all in class.

WATERCOLOR PROJECT: Water Lily Week 3

After removing the masking fluid, the first thing we did was to under paint the lily pads. Contrary to what you might think, the under painting for the leaves is not pink or brown, it is green. When you are planning your painting, you look for the lightest colors to paint first and in this case it is the light green you see in the pads. The light green is a mix of cad yellow light with a touch of sap green and I painted over all of the bigger leaves the two yellow leaves have a bit more yellow in them. This will have to dry before you can start the next phase of the pads but while you are waiting you can paint in the center of the lily.

 

Front pad color is the under
 painting for the lily pad.

The center of the lily is made up of a lot of spiky stamens and pistils and some of them have white tips, remember this so you paint around some of the ends. I used cad yellow light and water to paint this area, leaving some of the ends unpainted. While it was still wet, I took a thin mix of orange and water and right at the base of the yellow in front I touched this area with the orange to make it a bit darker, it will now have to dry.

If there is one thing I wish I could get my students to do that would help them immensely and that is to be more observant. Many of you don’t even have your photos out let alone look at the to see what I am talking about, unless you can see what I am talking about it won’t matter what I say, you will still be confused so learn to study your subject BEFORE you start to paint whether it is the photo you are working from or when you are out and about, learn to SEE what you are looking at. Break down the shapes of light and shadow, color and form, if you have your camera or phone with camera take more than one photo. Do overall photos of the subject then take detail photos for reference later, the smallest thing can make a big difference in your painting but you need to see it and understand it, sketch it or do small studies of the parts, whatever it take for you to get the job done, it will make you a better painter in the long run. That said, look at your photo before you start this next part.

There are a couple of things I want you to notice, the first being that while, from above, these pads may be almost round, we are looking at them from the side so they become ellipses (flat ovals). The other thing I want you to notice is the edges of the pads have ridges and dips in

them, these ridges go back to a central vein however, they come back at an angle they do not come back straight. The further away from that “sail” structure in the back the more angled the ridges become. If you make those ridges too straight in to the vein, your pad will look like it is standing on its edge. If you need to visually see this before you start painting you can do either a pencil sketch or a small study so you know what you need to do when you get to your painting.

The bronze color for the pads is a mix of burnt sienna and purple, keeping it to the sienna side. To make it darker use less water, to make it lighter add more water, simple as that but many of you struggle with this. Looking at the reference photo, see where the brown areas are don’t be afraid to use water to soften one color into the other because that is what is happening on the pads naturally. The darker colors will be where there are dips and veins, the down sides of ridges but you need to look to see them. You can also add in greens if you need to and you need to figure this out because there is no real formula other than what I have stated here. All the answers are in the photo, you just need to look for them.

The “sail” structure on the back of the pad is in shadow so both the bronze color and the green will be darker than on the flat of the pads themselves.

Once you are done with your pads, now you need to work on the water. In a few places the water actually comes up on the pads and this is where lifting will work its magic. Locate these areas on your lily pads, sketch them in again if you need to but before you start painting, really

LOOK at the photo so you can see the why and the how of these areas. You will see dark shadows under the lip of the water and you will see highlights along the edges of the water but note that neither of these is a constant line around the pad, they are broken and different sizes and in some places you can see through them. Please see these before you start and again, if you need to do a pencil sketch or small studies before you start on your painting.

The shadow color is blue with a touch of purple, if you need it dark use less water, more water to lighten it either on your palette or, better, on your brush to soften edges. There are also dark areas under the front edges of the pads and where the “sail” is. To lift out the highlights, just use plain water, wet the area with your brush, lift a little with your brush but do not scrub the area, then pat it with a clean part of your paper towel. Make them different sizes and lengths, keep looking at the photo.

Torrance students this next part we did not get to in class the last time but we will cover it when we meet again so don’t panic, you will see a demo on this.

PV students we did get started on the flower and this is where the negative painting study we did at the start of class comes into effect. To get the light areas to stand out you need to negative paint around them. The other thing to keep in mind is this is a white flower so most of our shading it going to be on the light side you don’t want to get too dark with a couple exceptions that I will cover and no, we have not done the shadows under the flower – yet.

If you keep a dirty palette like I do you may not have to mix a color for the shading of the lily, one of the reasons I do keep a dirty palette is I have colors I have been using and if I need just a little bit of color it is already on my palette but if you are neat and need to mix again the color is going to be mostly blue with tiny touches of purple maybe even a tiny amount of sienna, you want a light blue/gray color.

The darkest area of each petal is going to be near its base as it goes behind other petals or the center area, it will lighten as it comes to the outside edges of the petal so start at the bottom with your color, paint up a bit then rinse your brush and with just the water move the color up the petal. You may need to add a bit more color but start at the bottom and work up. Skip petals so you are not painting next to a wet petal and work around your flower. Look at thephoto to see what you are doing we will continue this in our next class.

This should get you caught up on 2 weeks’ worth of blogs. See you in class.

FALL 2013 WATERCOLOR CLASS

WATERCOLOR PROJECT: “Water Lily”

I am going to preface this blog entry with the advice that if there is something you really don’t like about your painting either fix it, if you can, or start over, I ended up doing both.

 

Bad paper

Torrance redo

The PV project just didn’t look right when I got it home and in good light, I just put another ultramarine wash over the offending area and it is fine. I was not so lucky with the Torrance project. I tried a quick fix with another wash but it really didn’t help, I think the paper hadn’t been stored properly and the surface had gotten damaged. It was gifted paper and even though it is the same brand I use, I just couldn’t get it to work right no matter what I tried, it just looked too streaky and not the look I wanted so rather than waste any more time and paint on the dead horse, I started over on some of my own paper and I am much happier with the results. Just so you know your teacher has problems too.

The first thing we did – and this is mostly a whim on my part – we splattered our painting with colors and water. Most of the time beginner and intermediate students are so worried about being “perfect” even the slightest variation from that notion of perfect throws them into a tailspin and even before something is an actual problem, they are trying to fix it and they become fixated on a non-problem. By starting the painting of by first splattering we have already taken away “perfect” and we can move on.

 

Splattered color and water

Actually, many watercolor artists will start with some variation of splattering when they start their own projects. Look in watercolor magazines where they have the how-to section and the artist describing how they create their visions. Many of them start out with splattering or dripping wet into wet or so combination of the two. It is a very loose and free way to give an under tone to you painting. Don’t be afraid of it.

Once the drip were dry and I mean bone dry, we put masking fluid on the outside edges to about an inch in to protect our subject while we paint the background water in. do not put masking on the flower shadow, it is almost the darkest thing in your painting so it will need all the values it can get. While we didn’t need to mask out anything in this painting because we could have painted around everything (negative painting), sometimes it is just easier to be able to paint quickly and not worry about edges or painting around stuff. As you develop your skills you will automatically paint faster and subjects like this will be easier painted without masking but for now you know you have another tool in your art box.

Once the masking was dry (it should look clear not cloudy when dry) we mixed a color for the water that was ultramarine blue and Hooker’s green, I did add a tiny touch of burnt sienna but mostly the blue and the green. It was a medium light value. It will take more than one wash of color to get to where you want and you don’t usually want to get there right out of the gate (exceptions to all rules) and adding layers of washes lets you build up to where you want to be rather than blowing past it then having to fix it.

I painting everything that is water including the yellow leaf that is under water in a more or less horizontal direction with a scumbling stroke. (Scumbling is a disorganized series of strokes) Remember, this is a painting not a wall and while it is water and water lies flat, you want to avoid long horizontal strokes which could leave streaks that will be hard to get out. It might make it easier to get the paint on quickly if you wet the area first and always work with the back of your board or paper slightly elevated, even an inch is better than flat. Let gravity work for you, if you work flat the paint and water will stay in puddles and as your paper dries it can create blooms or back runs you may not want.

The second layer of wash I applied after the first layer had dried, it was the same colors but

more color less water so it was slightly darker and went over everything EXCEPT that yellow leaf. That is as far as we got this week. At Torrance I will need to do one more layer of wash at PV I think that I am done for now with the water so I removed the masking. Everyone: If you have masking on your paper DO NOT LEAVE IT IN YOUR CAR OR NEAR A WINDOW. The masking will bake into your paper and you will never get it off. You also don’t want to leave it on your paper for more than a few weeks. I’ve left some on for 6 weeks with no problem removing it but if you have a soft surface paper or if you are going to put it away for a while, remove the masking as soon as possible so you won’t have problems later down the line. We will probably be removing all masking in class this week if you haven’t done so already.

We are going to move a bit faster now because we will be able to move around our painting as areas dry, so get ready to work. See you soon.

WATERCOLOR CLASSES FALL 2013

Surprisingly, we were able to do the negative painting exercise in both the Torrance and the PV classes so for the time being we are all in sync. 

There really isn't much to go over and I think the short video does a better job of showing what we did in class but I will give a brief description here for those who missed.

First we created a very colorful background. I found that using warm colors like yellow, orange and red worked better than the cooler colors, but the choice is yours.

I only drew in the layer that I was painting around each time because all those lines just add to the confusion and negative painting is confusing enough - as many of you found out.

I used the same colors and value of those colors throughout the entire process and those colors were ultramarine blue with a touch of purple with enough water to make a medium light value. It doesn't have to be exact each time, just close. you DO NOT have to make it darker for each layer it will do that on its own, just let the layers dry in between applications of paint before you do the next layer.

Remember that this is NEGATIVE painting, do not paint the thing, PAINT THE SPACE AROUND THE THING. It is an essential part of painting in watercolor so you need to learn this. Watch the video and see how it progresses, we will be using this technique on the project. 
http://youtu.be/0QdEbkNIa8E

Have the project drawn on your paper for class and bring the reference photo with you at all times. See you all soon 

If you haven't checked out some of the YouTube videos I have posted for class, here is one on negative painting that will come in handy when we do the study in class.

http://youtu.be/0QdEbkNIa8E

Watercolor Class Summer 2013

The project is finished if you need to review what was done, scroll down to previous posts for information. this is also where the PV class can find what was done in class last week.

At Torrance I did a simple demo on creating grasses starting with a very loose wet into wet under painting and when it was dry adding very quickly both positive and negative shapes to create a natural looking grass.

This was done quickly even the under painting (right side )
 always using "grassy" strokes. I wasn't painting a wall.

It is always good to practice a technique on another piece of paper so you understand what you are doing. Studies are a good thing.