Pastel Project: Creating Distance with Value
(This is a combination of 2 weeks worth of work on the project, FYI)
Now that I have the background in and the foreground brush based in, it was time to start adding the foreground cactus.
Remember that we need to keep in mind that even if things are closer they still need to follow the rule that in the distance they get smaller, softer and grayer in color so the tall saguaros in the back need to be a grayer lighter color than the ones up close to the viewer. If you have limited colors in your pastels, you may need to use either a gray or a blue/gray with your green to get the proper value.
Another thing to watch is where the bottoms of the cactus start. be sure that they all don't start at the same point or they will be visually all on the same plane (distance from the viewer) and you won't get the depth even if you are watching your values. It will look confusing to the eye.
Even these closer cactus have slight differences in value so you can get a sense of 3 dimensions otherwise they look flat.
I used my darker gray/green and my indigo to create the silhouettes of these closer cactus. I also used the indigo to make the branches of the occatillo which is slightly in front of the two saguaros.
The rim lighting was a pale yellow color but it is not a solid line, it is a series of short choppy strokes mostly pulling into the cactus to create that spiky look of the cactus.
I also did some highlighting and shaping of the bushes around the bottom of the cactus.
I used the contrast between the dark and the light to show off the prickly pear cactus. Again, I added the spiky look with a series of little marks, this time using a darker yellow or golden color.
Use contrast to your advantage whenever you can, it brings life to your painting.
This was where I ended the class two weeks ago.
In the last class, I finished my painting by adding the brush coming in from the right hand side, shaping my brush a bit better, adding grasses and weeds and all the little things I felt were needed to make this painting feel complete.
Be sure to have your reference photo in front of you as you finish up your painting.
To the occatillo I added the suggestion of the red flowers they have in the spring time even though they were not in the photo I just felt like adding them. If you don't want to add them you do not need to.
I just used a dark red color and made a few marks at the very ends of the branches. don't get carried away, these are just suggestions. I also went over some of the branches with a dark brown especially near the bottom to make them look darker.
The branches coming in from the side were what gave me the most concern because I was so happy with everything else, I was afraid to just start scribbling all over my paper but I took a deep breath and my indigo and started making branches first.
The trick is, when you make branches on trees or bushes, do a lot of them and don't make them all nice and smooth they are quite chaotic if you really look at them - which you should before you start to put them in you painting. They may have a general direction but they make lots of twists and turns to get there, they also over lap on another. Don't be afraid to cross over other branches and twigs and don't end them all at the same place, that is called a hedge and it means that a person has come and pruned the plant. Make irregular shapes they are more natural.
Once I had the branches in with the indigo - if you look at the photo you will see some brighter branches that are catching the light - I used a soft light gray to highlight some of the branches before I added the leaves. The leaves were just a series of marks with a yellow/green/gray. I made clusters and covered up parts of the branches but I also left open spaces, desert plants usually don't have tons of leaves, they are small, tend to be near the stems and branches and there are quite a few dead branches in them.
The cholla at the bottom right are probably the simplest thing in the whole painting, like making stick figures. I used a very dark brown and made a series of straight lines connecting or coming off of each other to create the general shape of the cholla then with a light pink I made the spines the same way I did on all the other cactus with small inward strokes.
Finally, I went through my brush and added more shape to them - even in the darker areas - added highlights and suggestions of branches and to help create that glow I put light against dark to make it look like the sun was shining through the grasses, weeds and leaves.
Finish this up to your own satisfaction, I will be starting something new in the next class, probably the curled grape leaf if you want to follow along. Until then, keep painting and I will see you in class.
Watercolor Class Studies: Leaf and Rock
When ever you are doing a watercolor with detail like the curl on this leaf, be sure that you have a good drawing before you start, it acts like a road map so you don't get too lost.
Once you have the major features of the leaf sketched in, you will want to wet the entire leaf with just water because this first under painting you will want the colors to blend and mix.
Once you paper is wet you will be adding the veins first with a mix of yellow and a touch of sap green. Use enough water with your paint so that it is very pale in value. Remember you need to to work from light to dark in watercolor so this first part will be very light.
I use an angled brush but a round brush will work well here. With the yellow-green on your brush barely touch the tip of the brush to the paper and go over the lines, they should spread out as you paint because of the wet paper. This is what you want it to do.
Once you have the veins in then start dripping or touching in other colors like orange, red or crimson even yellow to the main body of the leaf. Where you have the curl keep a paper towel handy and use mostly red or crimson with lots of water, this should just be a tint. If it is too dark, wipe it out while it is still wet what color is left will probably be about right.
The key here is wet paper and thin paint. Once that is done, let it dry completely before moving on.
When your paper has dried completely you can now start deepening the color and increasing the value. You will be working on dry paper this time so no need to wet it first.
You will be using the same colors as before for the red parts of the leaf but when you are in the shadow areas you will add ultramarine blue. the blue mixed with the red will give a purplish color which is perfect for the shadows.
Start in the areas which will be the darkest part of the leaf, paint in sections so you can avoid leaving hard lines. Lay down some of the darker color (this may not be the final color remember we work in thin layers) and as you move away from the dark area, use water to bleed the color out. What you should end up with is a graded color going from dark to lighter. Let it dry before trying to go over it again or you could be mixing mud.
Don't for get to leave the veins unpainted and tap your brush around them to leave some of the green.
The curl is painted much the same way but the shadows are a bit lighter (see above).
Because we have to wait for things to dry with watercolor we stretched this to another week. The first 2 examples were done on the first week, the next 2 will be what was done in the next class.
I continued to add layers of color to bring up the color and increase the value in the shadows just like I did in the previous demo. I also added a bit of dark blue behind the curl so I could see the contrast between the light of the leaf and what is behind it.
When it was dry, I added details to the upper part of the curl using very light washes to show some texture in the leaf.
I also went around the edges with a darker color and sharpened the edges of the leaf and well as using the dry brush technique - little water and little paint on the brush - and lightly skimming the surface of the paper with my brush to add color and texture to the leaf.
I also used my liner brush to add some suggestions of lines around the veins so they would stand out but I did not outline the veins, more like dots and dashes.
Keeping in mind that this is only a study I really didn't need to do much more to the leaf so this is where I stopped.
One of the things about doing a study like this is you get to find out what works and what doesn't. If I were to do this again for real, I think there are different techniques I would use such as using masking out the veins for instance. Studies are not a waste of time because you can learn so much from them and you can practice techniques you might otherwise be afraid to try if you were working on your "masterpiece".
The Rock
The Rock was started much the same way as the leaf: I wet the whole area of the rock with clear water then added in very thin washes of color. The colors this time are yellow, touches or orange and sienna. In the shadow areas a gray which was a mix of blue and sienna. You can see my test of the gray along the side and the bottom and note that the actual color may very a little bit, I am looking for the value.
Once you have this under painting done you must let it dry. This is one of the hardest things for the novice watercolor student to learn: Letting the paper dry before adding more layers but it is an important lesson to learn.
Once the paper has dried it is time for the next layer of color, however, you will need to leave the areas that are the lightest value alone because what you have now is that lightest value.
The color AND the value will be the same as before because watercolor is transparent the color you just put on will affect the next layer by making in darker in value and more intense in color.
I used the sienna and yellow with the occasional touch of orange and worked in sections. I put down the color, rinsed my brush, then with the damp brush I went around the edges of the area I painted to soften and blend.
This rock has a lot of texture so don't be afraid to be a bit more patchy with you paint. That doesn't mean making it look like a patchwork quilt, it means not worrying about totally blending areas together or having dark, light or even different color patches, it will add to your rock's character.
The gray for the shadows is the same and the same value as before but now you start defining some of the structures in the shadows by painting around them with this next layer
leaving the previous color as the lighter areas within the shadows.
Your brush is your multi-tool, once you learn how to use it to your best advantage you will be amazed what it can do and studies like this will let you have the freedom to experiment. by tapping with the side or using the thin edge (angle or flat brushes) or the very tip of a round brush, you can create all kinds of texture.
Remember to let things dry before adding more layers and if you want you can use a liner brush to put in the cracks. I think that I will stop here for now, if I have time next class I may do some more but this is only a study so I may just leave it like this and call it good.
Next time I think we will be working on skies and maybe getting started on the final study which will be the desert scene where we will use value to create distance in a landscape. Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Acrylic Class Projects: Leaf and Rock
I first under painted where I wanted the veins to be using sap green with yellow and the side of my bristle brush. I DID NOT PAINT LINES, instead I made a wide mark along the vein lines. Look at the photo and you will see that near the veins the green is still present as blotches and patches, I will make the lines smaller as I add the red leaf color but I will end up leaving some of the green.
When the green dried, I under painted the red of the leaf using a mix or alizarin crimson, touch of orange and burnt sienna. I did not mix this completely and much of the time I picked up paint and mixed it on my canvas so the color was more mottled then a solid color and looked more natural. I scumbled the color on using the side of my brush and when I was near the green veins I lessened the pressure on my brush so some of the green would show through. Press harder to cover better.
I did pick up colors and added them as I was painting such as orange, yellow or red where the light might be hitting or crimson and blue under the curl-back to establish the shadow. Remember that this is a study you do not need to be precise, you are just "getting a feel" for the leaf.
The curled part of the leaf was done in the same colors as the main part of the leaf but with white/gesso added to change the value.
Again, really look at the photo so find the details, it is not a solid color but it changes from light to lighter because of the wrinkles in the leaf or where it is turning back on itself.
There is a bluish color on the surface of the leaf which is blue, a touch of crimson and white to lighten, then using the dry brush technique (very little paint or water on your brush) and with very little pressure on the side of your brush, lightly glaze the leaf. You should be able to see a lot of the red when you do this If you can't you either have too much paint, water, pressing too hard or all of the above. Studies are a good way to practice a technique in a practical way.
This gets you the basic leaf painted in from this point you need to finish it with as much or as little detail as you wish. I added a background using all my colors and just suggesting leaf shapes in the background but not making actual leaves, it makes the study leaf stand out.
The Rock
Rocks always seem to make even veteran artists quiver in their boots, why? I don't know as I have always loved to do rocks, so breaking it down and doing a study of a rock will help lessen the fear of rocks because they are really quite interesting to paint.
The first thing I did, using the gray I had mixed when we were doing the flower (yes it is still good and it is ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and gesso, in case you need to mix more) I took some of that gray and mixed in a touch of yellow, sienna and a tiny touch of purple to gray the color then I scumbled this color into my rock shape on my canvas. You want a medium light color but you don't need to be exact.
As I demonstrated in class, I picked up some green to show that even if you accidentally pick up a different color, it is okay. Just blend it in and pretend like you meant to do it, it isn't wrong. Rocks have lots of other colors in them if you just look and as I mentioned before, I like to blend my colors on the canvas so I get streaks of different colors. I did this when painting in the shadow areas, I just picked up some blue and a tiny touch of purple along with the light yellow gray I was using to make a darker, cooler color and it lets me make softer blends where the warmer and cooler colors come together so I avoid hard edges.
Once this under painting was dry, I mixed a similar color with the light gray as the base with the yellow, sienna and orange but this time I added more white to it so I could start the highlighting process.
Using the side of my bristle brush with very little paint on it, I scrubbed and scumbled the lighter areas of the rock. Look at the reference photo and you will see that there are lighter areas mostly along the edges and top parts of the rock. Follow the direction of the rock surface with your brush strokes. Remember: the more pressure you use the more paint come off, the less pressure you use less paint comes off. Again, the study is a good place to try these techniques.
The shadows are done the same way but with a different color: Add blue and sienna to the color you are using, even a touch of purple just be careful to just use a touch, and look at the photo so you know where to add the shadows and where to use it to create shapes in the shadows.
Here I used the darker color to created all the little shapes in the shadow, leaving the original under painting as the lighter color. This is called negative painting, you are painting the area around the subject as opposed to paint the subject itself. Watercolorists use this technique all the time, it is a good one to know.
Lastly, to add the cracks and detail to the rocks I used my liner brush and a mix of blue, sienna and purple - no white this time - and enough water to make the paint the consistency of ink. As always, I looked at my photo to see where the cracks were and what directions they were going. these are not straight lines and you will notice when they go from the top to going down the side, they change directions, this is one of the ways to help give your rock dimension.
I did paint in the background so the rock would stand out but it is not necessary since this is only a study.
Next time we will be working on skies and maybe getting started on the final study of using value to create distance in a landscape. Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Watercolor class project: Flower Study
I want to remind everyone that what we are doing this semester are studies, not complete paintings. Studies are something an artist should do to learn about the subjects they are painting, By only focusing on one thing, you get a better sense of what it is about and it is not strange territory when you go to paint it in your painting. Studies also helps you learn to see what is really in front of you because your brain will lie to you as in this instance, you brain tells you you are painting a white flower and it will balk when you start painting in shades of gray but it is those shades of gray that give the flower its texture and its depth otherwise, all we would need to do is paint around the outside and paint a center in and it would be perfect. Just doesn't work like that and you need to train yourself to see these subtle changes in value.
First off have the photo and your gray scale in front of you at all times, this is your road map to the flower without it you are lost.
Look for the whitest white on each petal. Those areas are along the edges going towards the center, the rest of the petal is some shade of gray: blue gray or lavender gray, I went with a more blue gray. This goes for any time you are painting white: white, in watercolor, is the white of the paper and the shadows are blues and purples.
Use your value scale and lay in about in the middle of one of the petals, then squint your eyes as you move the scale across the petal slowly. When the hole in the middle of the shade of gray disappears, that is the value of gray you need to mix.
My basic mix for gray is ultramarine blue and burnt sienna using water to thin the mixture to make it lighter. I do not use white because it clouds up the color and black is a color killer. It is better to mix to a dark color because you have more control of the hue that you get.
Have a sheet of test paper or test it along the side of your paper, since this is a study you won't hurt anything but you do need to test the color for value and hue (color) you want a blue gray.
Most of the petals have white next to the petal next to them so you can paint around the flower, sometimes you have to skip over petals so that wet areas do not flow into other wet areas creating a bloom or back run.
Once you have your medium blue gray (no darker than a 3 on the value scale, start near the center of the flower on the first petal and paint that color at the bottom, up the sides and part way up the center of the petal. Rinse your brush and with just a damp brush, pull that color up and over the rest of the petal. The color should become lighter as you go. If you need to get more color go back to the darker area and get more color or add more color to the darker area and repeat. Do not paint in the areas that should remain white.
What you should get is what is called a graded wash: Dark at the bottom and lighter as you go up. Do this on all the petals but please check your photo before you paint anything.
You may need to repeat this a couple of times because watercolor dries a bit lighter but each time you start, start where it is darkest and work up. Also, leave some of the previous color to create the ridges and wrinkles of the petals. Use the end of your brush if you are using a flat or angle brush or the tip of a round brush to create the darker part of the ridges, just remember they are not straight but curved and fad them out towards the end of the petal or it will take on a more variegated look.
The center is stippled (lots of dots) in using a more concentrated mix of yellow with a touch of orange (more orange in the center). Don't cover up all of the lighter yellow you put in, this becomes highlights. The darker dots were ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.
To define the outside edges of the flower use a darker color like blue, green or some other color that will get a dark version (I was using the ultramarine blue and a touch of purple), then use this dark color to create the ridges on the ends of the petals and the couple of spaces in between the petals near the center. It is the contrast between the dark and the light that makes the flower look like a white flower even though you know from painting it that it is a mostly gray flower.
Everything you used to paint this flower holds true for any other light or white thing you will paint, this is not exclusive to this one flower alone, another good thing about studies.
Next time we will be doing the leaf so please have your line drawing on your paper so we can get started painting when we come to class.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Since I know that some of you look on your phones for the photos and I have not linked the photo page to a blog yet, I thought I had better post the images on this first blog so you can have access to them if you can't find the picture page (the link was at the bottom of the email).
We will not have class on Monday so you should have time to do a drawing. Good luck, see you on the 23rd.
https://goo.gl/photos/1CvMMdNFkNUTU1S1A
Watercolor Class Project: Pumpkins on Parade Final
This is a combination of week 4 and the final week on this project so you can review it if you are still working on your own.
I have removed all of the masking fluid from the painting at this point. In the foreground I have used a blue (you can use any color you want) and I let it dry completely before starting on the background. Paint a larger area than you think you want because it will shrink as you add the ink.
For the background I used India Ink with my brush. It will not hurt your brush but you do want to be sure that it and your water are clean before using it in your watercolors again so that the ink doesn't dull your colors.
I used the ink straight for most of the background except where I wanted the under painted colors to come thru then I added water to thin the ink so that the underneath color comes through.
You can use the ink to shape your pumpkins better, like putting bumps on the blue pumpkin's edge, or giving a stem a better shape or maybe you had a color leak out into a space you didn't want it, if it is going to be covered with the ink, just re-shape the object. Use the ink for the shadows under and behind the pumpkins, you can even use a bit of water to bleed the ink up into the shadows. A word of warning: once the ink is dry it won't come off so be sure you are putting it where you want it.
If you have black watercolor, you can use that but you may need to do more than one wash. If you don't have either black or India ink, you can use you ultramarine blue, burnt umber and a touch of purple to make a very dark color, again, it may take more than one wash to cover.
The small stripped pumpkins are done the same way. The first thing you want to get mostly finished is the shadows. Don't worry about the stripes until after you have the shadows on your little pumpkins, then add the stems with a bit of burnt sienna and water for the under painting, then a bit darker mix or burnt sienna with a touch of blue, water to thin for the intermediate colors, more sienna and blue for the shadows.
The cast shadow from the stem is a watered down blue with a touch of purple (keep it on the blue side), be sure that the shadows follow the curves of the sections of the pumpkin.
The stripes are not solid straight lines on the pumpkins, they are uneven and start and stop. Look at the photo before you start the stripes. Orange alone or with a touch of yellow is all you need. If you have your shadows in, the orange will automatically get darker because of the color underneath the stripe, if it doesn't add just a touch of alizarin crimson into the orange to cool it down.
The rough ridges on the blue pumpkin are done in a series of washes. You need to leave what is there for the highlights then using a mix or sienna and a touch of orange, paint the next value. In the shadowed areas your can paint this color over all of the bumps, in the light areas leave your highlights. This sienna and orange become the next lightest color and some of this will get left for highlights in darker areas.
Next will come sienna and a touch of blue for the next darkest areas and finally sienna and purple for the darkest areas. Look at the reference photo and let it be your guide as you paint.
This is where week 4 ended. You want to keep adding washes to the orange pumpkins to intensify the color: Yellow and orange in the light areas and orange, red and alizarin in the darker areas and sienna and purple in the shadows. Don't forget that the surface is uneven and has segments, use a choppy stroke to create texture and follow the curves of the pumpkin.
If you need to intensify the color of the blue pumpkin, use more washes of the original color to bring up the intensity of the color (Intensity is the richness of the color.) Add purple or alizarin to the blue to create a shadow color. this shadow color can go over everything including the bumps if they are also in the shadow.
You can also use that shadow color and the end of a small brush to make the textured stem of the blue pumpkin. If you are using a flat or angle brush just tap the edge along the stem following its curves, if you use a small round brush just make small dots and dashes but always follow the shape of the thing you are painting.
On all the pumpkins if you need a bit of an accent highlight, you can lift color off in the area you need a touch of light. With your brush just a bit more than damp, paint the water on with short strokes a couple of times then dab with a paper towel. Let the area dry before trying to make it lighter, if you go over the same spot too many times you run the risk of damaging the paper.
Shadows on the stems are blue, green and a touch of purple, look at the reference photo so you know where the shadows go.
A note about shadows especially in a painting like this where there is such drama with the lighting: You can do what is called "lost and found" with the shadows where the shadows are so deep that the edges of the object seem to disappear into them. Note in the image above how the bottom of the orange pumpkin is barely visible behind the the two lighter pumpkins. another thing having these dark shadows around the lighter pumpkins is by contrast, it makes them appear lighter than they are. Do not be afraid to use shadows and get dark it will bring your painting to a whole new level.
This is where I left off with the painting though as I look at it I do see some things I want to change. One area is the light area I left behind the big orange pumpkin, I think I will make that all black as well. the other thing I see is I need to darken the shadows at the bottom of the blue pumpkin and the cast shadows on it from the small orange pumpkin. Other shadows need to be strengthened but for now I will call it done.
I had a lot of fun doing this one, I hope you did too as well as learn a lot from it. In the new semester because it is going to be a shortened session because of the 2 holidays, I thought that we would do a series of studies concentrating on one subject for each class session to understand what you are seeing. I don't think students see the value in studies but by concentrating on one thing you can see and understand a lot more than worrying about being perfect for a whole painting. You don't need big sheets of paper smaller sizes will work just fine even the watercolor cards you find in Micheal's, you will learn a lot and have fun as well, that is my goal anyway, until next semester keep painting and I will see you in class.
Fall Watercolor Class Project: Pumpkins on Parade Week 3
This week I worked on increasing color intensity and the value of my pumpkins. I also took off the masking from the blue pumpkin and stems. I under painted the netting - for lack of a better term - with a very light mix or burnt sienna with a tiny touch of blue with lots of water to make it very thin. I used this to under paint all the the areas on the blue pumpkin where I took off the masking.
You can see just how light a color I used at the top of the blue pumpkin next to the white of the paper, it is almost the same value so it is very light for now. This will be come the highlights on the "netting" we will add more intense colors later.
On the yellow pumpkin in front, I suggested the position of the stem, intensified the yellow color by starting in the creases with yellow then using water to bleed it up into the lighter areas.
I went back into areas where there are shadows (look at your reference photo). Start in the darker shadowed areas then rinse your brush and use just a damp brush to soften the edges of the shadows and to bleed the to form the lighter parts of the shadows.
I also added more color to the orange pumpkin using layers of orange which was sometimes mixed with yellow for a lighter orange or with red to create a richer color. For the shadows I added blue, sienna and touches of purple to darken the color. Be sure that you do this in layers or washes of thin color. DO NOT try to go straight to the color or your paint will look pasty.
I worked a lot on the large orange pumpkin using the same colors and techniques I used on the smaller one on the other side. I had my photo right above my painting and my eyes were constantly going to the pumpkin in the photo and the area I was going to paint then back to my painting so I knew exactly what I needed to do.
I increased the size of the shadows cast from the blue and the white pumpkins, I located highlights and other shadows as well as worked a bit on detail.
Be careful of getting too involved in detail at this point because you do not want to overwork one area then under work the rest of the painting. I had to tell myself to move around may painting ant get the white and lighter yellow pumpkins up to the level of the rest of the painting.
The little white pumpkin is actually more on the blue/gray side, however, you do want to leave the white of the paper for the highlights. Use ultramarine blue with a touch of sienna or burnt umber and a very tiny touch of purple with lots of water and work in layers. Looking first to see where the shadows are and what the shapes are before you start painting, the rinse your brush and use a damp brush to bleed the color to make the lighter shades of gray for the shadows.
The little yellow pumpkin is done much the same way as the other one. No detail other than light and shadow.
I am hoping to get this done in the time we have left so keep painting and I will see you in class.
