Watercolor Garden Fantasy Week 5

I have a couple of weeks to catch up on as far as my notes for this class are concerned and I will try to give you all the information so that you can get caught up because we finished the project in class this past week. Mainly what I did the previous week was to start working on my rocks and creating different shapes of my rocks. You want to start with a shadow color which will be your blue, purple, and little touch of burnt sienna to create a dark cool shadow color and to lighten it you use water. Before you start painting the rocks look at the photograph so that you have or better yet, go out and look at rocks so that you have an idea of what a pile of rocks is going to look like looking at their highlights and their shadows and the texture in the shape of your rocks.

Getting your rocks to look like rocks comes with practice I've been doing this for a long time and rocks happen to be one of my favorite subjects so I do them well but I didn't when I first started. I had to really study rocks so I could see how the light hit them and how to get the texture on them, most of the time I am patting the color on rather than brushing it on. The patting motion creates texture as the dark and light areas of the brush leave the paint they have and the strokes are overlapping which create layers of color that create the texture. Like I said it's going to take you practice and observation to start to get your rocks looking like a pile of rocks rather than a stone wall.

I also continued putting in the shadows and deepening the color of the ground cover and the plants around the stream again you need your shadow color which is the blue and purple this time add some green to it for the green shadows of your of your plants as you work into the sunny area add sap green and yellow.

I created the bark on the pine tree by mixing a dark brown color that would be my burnt sienna with purple and blue to create a very dark color, then I used my quarter inch angle brush on its edge and just by tapping with the edge and overlapping the strokes, I created a bark like texture. You don't want to lose all the gray color that you had on the trunk but you do want to give the suggestion of bark. Remember that as the bark goes off onto the branches it goes in a different direction so be sure that your strokes follow the direction of the part of the tree you are painting.

You should have removed all the masking fluid from your painting by now, now we need to make those white areas in the water look like they belong to the stream. You will need to mix a darker color it can be either blue or green or both but you will use this to make the suggestion of the water flowing over the rocks please look at your photo and look the detail of the water that's going over the Little Falls there you will see that there are many values of color there it isn't just one bright white area it has white streaks it has some dark streaks it has several in between value streaks and a lot of those streaks are in the shape of a “v”: either with the point pointing down or an upward “V” depending on what is underneath the water. What your job is, is to create that representation of that waterfall remember that there are areas of foam at the bottom of each of those falls so you will have to negative paint around that foam or you’ll lose it.

Koi melting into drips.

Also be sure that you get enough dark in your water so that it looks like it has some depth to it. There needs to be some place for the fish to swim and that is shown by putting dark blues and greens into the pools to create those deeper areas. To put fish in your pond, with just a damp brush, paint fishy shapes with your small brush and clean water, then lift it out with a paper towel, while it is still wet add little touches of yellow or orange or red or any of those combinations keep your fish near the Falls you don't want them too far out to the edge of your painting keeping them close into your subject which is the pagoda and will suggest a pond full of fish.

 

Added some drips coming from the tree.

Torrance version

PV version

Last but not least we come to the pagoda itself you will need to mix up a shadow color (see above for the colors) and you will use water to dilute it. Look at your photo see where your shadows are, see where your highlights are, look for any detail that you want to put in and have all of that in your mind as your painting. The darkest area is going to be the inside of the pagoda that color is almost black so you will use your mixture without diluting it everything else will have water added to it to lighten it. Start in a shadow area with your color, rinse your brush and then drag the color out to form the shape of the pagoda. You can do as much detail as you want or as little that will be up to you but you do need to create the shapes so pay particular attention to what you’re painting and its shape. Don't forget to put a very dark shadow at the very base of the pagoda where it sits on the rock and the shadow it's casting on the rock and that about does everything I did in class for the past two weeks finish this up the way you want to and be sure to have something ready to work on in class when we meet again so keep painting and I'll see you in class.

Watercolor Garden Fantasy Week 3

My goal in the last class was to get as much of the painting in the background behind pagoda done as possible because from here we will start finishing up are paintings and we will need to remove the masking that we have put on the pagoda and the white areas in the stream that were covered with the masking.

Have your reference photo of the Botanical Garden pagoda and the stream where you can see it because these are going to give you all the information you're going to need for this part of the painting. They will show you where your shadows are, where the highlights are on the plants in the rocks, it will show you the darks and the lights in the water and it is your best guide when you are painting so have those photographs handy.

Remember when you are under painting an area you want to start light and then add dark with layers, if you get too dark too quickly it will be very difficult to bring back the light so it is better to do this in layers then it is to try and finish it in one fell swoop.

When you are painting the stream remember to follow the water. If the water is in one of the pools it will lay flat so your brush strokes need to be flat if it is falling over one of the many falls your brush strokes will also fall over to look like the water is falling, this will clue your viewer that the water is flowing down over rocks into another pool this is very important.

When you are as far as you can go with your bushes, trees, ground cover and stream without removing the masking, let your painting dry completely before you remove the masking.

Once you have removed the masking from the pagoda you will want under painted in a warm color, I used my cadmium yellow light with a touch of burnt sienna and a little tiny touch of purple and a lot of water to under paint the pagoda.

 

In the streams I went in with various values of green and blue to break up some of the white area that make up falls look at the stream photo and you will see that where the waterfalls over the rocks it has various different colors and values this is what you're trying to recreate you don't want to lose all of the white that you saved but you do want to make it look more natural.

Try to get your painting up to this point as best he can we could possibly finish this painting this next week so you might want to start looking for the next thing that you want to paint and I will help you get started. Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Watercolor Garden Fantasy week 2

This week I started painting in the rocks the waterfall and some of the plants around the pagoda and beginnings of detailing the pine tree and other bushes.

The first thing I did was a quick demo on how to under paint the waterfall. I made a larger full page drawing of a similar waterfall and showed how I under paint for the rocks and also for the water. Remember when you were painting watercolor you work from the lightest area to the darkest area so when you under paint something you don't want to get too dark too soon.

There are a couple of ways that you can do this: you can wet the rocks area of first and then start adding some light colors like grey - which is a combination of your blue, burnt sienna, and purple with lots of water – and to that you can add more blue or you could have little touches of orange or red or yellow even green because a lot of these rocks will have moss on them so green is the perfect color, just keep everything light in value at this point.  Be sure to have your reference photo in front of you so that you can refer to it often I keep my reference photo right there where I can look up to it and I do as I'm painting, it’s called a reference photo for a reason because you need to refer to it.

The water also starts out very light. The water in the reference photo is a greenish color probably because of algae for one and also the greenery above it, so if you want to make your water more green that's perfectly OK, I chose at this time to use a light blue and if you have other colors besides the ultramarine blue such as cobalt blue or cerulean blue, you can use those, just be sure you have enough water in them that they are very light in value.

When you paint your water remember that water finds its own level, that means when it is sitting in a pool area it is going to be very flat so your strokes need to be very horizontal, when they fall over the rocks they become more vertical your brush strokes will tell your viewer that the water is falling over rocks or lying flat in a pool, brushstrokes matter.

I also want it made very clear I have not removed the masking fluid from any of my painting it is still on there because I'm still painting around things and as soon as I feel it is safe I will remove the masking fluid but not at this time. You do have some time before it becomes a problem.

I under painted theneedles of the pine tree. They're formed in clumps because they are cut and train that way but they still have a bit of irregularity to the edges, be sure when you are painting that you create interesting shapes. I used the very edge of my angle brush to create the illusion of the pine needles so that the point was to the outside, I overlapped my strokes in the body of the clump but when I got to the edge I make sure that it looked very spiky like

Torrance Version

needles, when I change color to create the next value I did the same thing and again with a darker value it's all the same kind of brush strokes. For the lighter colors of the pine tree I used my sap green with some of my yellow. l under painted the whole area of the pine needles. The mid-tone color I added in more of the sap green and painted in the mid-values and for the very shadows I added in blue and some Hooker’s green for my shadows I also use this dark shadow color as the underneath shadow for the little tree on the right hand side of the pagoda, also it becomes the shadows in its variations for the ground covers adding more blue, purple or sienna to change the color a bit.

On the right hand side I used some of my medium greens to create some detail in the green background trees. I also use that color to negative paint into the orange in front of it to suggest clumps of leaves and branches in the tree in front but in the orange tree behind the green tree I used my red with a touch of orange to create shadows so that the green tree will stand out. Remember, you are negative painting the lighter trees in front when you are paint the shadows of the tree behind. I also added some red leaves coming in from the right hand side, I just like the shape and color so I added them you do not need to put them in but if you want to, you can they are just stuff.

PV Version

I also under painted the tree trunk and branches on the pine tree using a light gray color slightly on the bluish side. I need this color so that when I want to make the tree bark this color will show through. For the little tree behind the pagoda I mixed a dark brown using my burnt Sienna with blue and a touch of purple you want it to be on the Siena side.

Do as much as you can and as much as you feel confident that you can do, I won't miss anything for those who need more instructions, however, if you feel you can you can work into the painting a bit feel free, I will continue from here in class I will not leave anyone behind. By now you should be able to start seeing how this is going to work out I know it's been a bit confusing but splattering can be fun so keep painting and I will see you in class.

Watercolor: Garden Fantasy Week 1

I wanted to start out this painting in a little bit different way from what we have been doing lately just to show that there is so much you can do and have fun while you're painting so I wanted to start this painting by splattering.

I am working on a half sheet of watercolor paper so it is 15 by 22. I wanted to have it a little bit bigger so that I had room for my splatters to show around the edges of my design. I get my design on my paper by transferring it with graphite transfer paper and then went over some of those lines with a number 2 pencil.

Before you start splattering be sure you have water on of your pants so that they are in pools of water because that is what you'll be using to splatter with and you want your pigments to be ready to go for this step.

PV Version

I started with my light colors such as my yellow and I mixed it on my palate with lots of water. Be sure your palate is clean when you do this so you don’t muddy your colors. I mix my yellow with enough water so that it was a very runny mixture. I was using a round brush and a half inch flat brush. I filled the brush well with this mixture - you want it to be dripping off the end of your brush - and then splatter on your paper. If you want to you can take your spray bottle and lightly spritz your paper so that there will be spots of water on your paper when the color hits the spots of water it will spread out and give a different look from where it hits dry paper you can also spritz the paper after you have splattered just don't do it too often otherwise your paper will be too wet and your colors will start bleeding into each other.

After the yellow I went to orange than to red, I have a color called (p)thalo yellow green, another color which is a cheap Joe's color called Andrews turquoise, along with my ultramarine blue and my dioxazine purple. The trick to splattering is to know when to stop, you want enough splattering to make it look interesting and fun like confetti on paper but you don't want so much that the colors start bleeding into each other creating muddied brown colors you can also do more splattering after it dries and add more color just know when to stop so that you don't get muddied colors. Keep a paper towel handy to sop up any unwanted color combinations.

Once my splattering had dried I needed to protect the areas that I wanted to leave unpainted at this point, which would be the pagoda in the foreground and the foam in the water from the waterfalls so I will need to protect them making the rest easier to paint. You will need your masking fluid an old paint brush and some soap: you first rinse your brush in water, rub it around in the soap to cover all the bristles down to the metal ferrule, wipe off the excess foam and then load the brush with the masking fluid and paint out the pagoda. Once that is completely painted out then add touches around where the foam will be and in the fall themselves add some streaks of masking so later when we are finishing up the water we will have lighter areas that will look like shining in the water to give them movement. This has to dry completely before starting the next step if you are in the PV class this was as far as we got so we will cover the following next time we meet.

 

Torrance class, I started under painting for my trees and bushes and ground cover around the stream and around the pagoda. Mostly I used greens but I also use some orange/reds for the under painting for some of the other plants that will be in there I am NOT specifically painting any particular plant at this point I'm just under painting and that is where we stopped in class so please try to have your paintings to this point for next class and we will continue on from there. Keep painting and I will see you in class

Watercolor Safe Harbor Week 4

 

Finished project

This was the final week for this project what I did was to go through and make sure that everything was the way I wanted it to be, that I had things dark enough or that I had enough detail or that I had finished everything. This is the finishing up stages and how you finish yours is going to be a personal choice for you as an artist, you can make this as detailed as you want or as undetailed as you want this is totally up to you.

One of the things I needed to finish up was the dock in the front which had the crab pots, the ropes and the pilings. On the crab pots, I did not take a ruler or any other straight object to create the sides or the netting, I just took the straight edge of my brush and created a series of little lines with a dark, gray color to form the framework of the pots. The grey I used was a color I got from mixing all the colors on the dark part of my palate together to come up with a palette gray, if it needed to be darker I added more blue and a touch of sienna but if you need to mix the color it was blue, sienna and purple. When I was putting in the railings on the pots I left some of the white that was there after I removed the masking. Very little of the white was left but it was enough to suggest highlights.

For the netting in thepots I just added some more water to lighten the color and then just scribbled diagonal lines across the sections of the pots this cuts down the white that was there to create highlights in the netting. Again I did not get out a straight edge I did not worry about if it was perfect or not I just scribbled lines in. There is netting all the way around these pots so there will be a lot of overlapping lines. If you are trying to make the perfect netting on the pots you will 1, get them too wide and the crabs will escape, and 2, it will look like there's only netting on one side and again your crabs will escape, so just scribble this on and it will look a lot more realistic.

The pier pilings and the rope are pretty simple to do you just have to trust me on this. To create a round, textured piling I took my quarter inch flat angled brush mixed a dark color that will be to the warm side (remember the dark is burnt sienna, blue, touch of purple but this time it will be more to the sienna side) and with just the edge of my brush I made a series of vertical overlapping strokes starting in the shadowed area and working towards the sunny area. About a third of the way from the shadow to the light I rinsed my brush, picked up some sienna then starting just inside the dark area made some more vertical strokes about another third around the piling, I rinsed my brush again, picked up some sienna with orange as well to finished off the piling with the vertical strokes into the sunlit area and there you have your piling. It should look round you might want to practice on another piece of paper but this creates wonderful texture especially for old wood or tree bark, this makes great tree bark, and it is something you need to learn.

 

The rope I took some color from the dark side of my palette and added to the golden color I had already mixed on the lighter side (this was a little burnt sienna, a little orange and a little yellow if you need to mix the color again) you should have a bit of the dark left over from the pots or boat, to create a shadow color for the rope. Remember that the rope is round so your strokes should be curved. Some of you have gone to great lengths to create the spiral texture of the rope when you don't need to do that much detail, you just need to suggest it that's all, the viewer will fill in the rest otherwise it looks too cartoony. When it was dry I came back in with a little bit darker color into the coils of the rope and suggested the coils I did not make a complete spiral I just suggested spiral, I also came back when it was dry with a blue gray color and put a shadow from the pots over parts of the rope.

The boards on the dock can be made with the same brush the same dark color as we've been using and just suggest cracks and crevices in the boards. Remember if you want this to look flat your lines have to be parallel to the top and bottom or mostly parallel and as they go back they become closer together and less intense in color to create the idea that it is going away from you also use this dark color to create shadows under the ropes on the dock and under the pots to settle them down on the dock. On some of the boards you can even put some of that dark color to suggest holes and cracks o into the pilings to suggest bigger holes, have fun with this and see what happens, nothing's going to get hurt, this is where you can learn.

Finish up your painting the way you want to finish it up if you don't want to put in any more detail don't put it in if you want to have more detail get out that reference photo of the boat and go for it, this is your painting so finish it up the way you want to finish it, however, we are done with this project so the next time we meet please have something that you want to work on with you and I will help you get started I will do spot demos as is needed and will help you with anything that you are having trouble with. Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Watercolor Safe Harbor Week 3

The first thing we did in class to begin with is to strengthen our colors of the boat, the buildings on the dock, the water and anything that we need to do or feel we have to do before we can take off the masking fluid. Be sure that your boat is dark enough and that you have everything that you want done to your buildings complete at this point before you take off the masking fluid.

On the buildings and on the dock in the foreground, I did what is called dry brush. Dry brush means that there is very little water on your brush, mostly pigment and little of that as well. To load your brush pick up some color, work it into your brush and then you take your paper towel and squeeze the base of the bristles to suck out any excess moisture. Then with your fingers squeeze the bristles so they flay out. With light strokes go over the area that your painting. For instance the dock in front and buildings and back might be old wooden

buildings by dragging your brush across these areas you can create what looks like wood grain. Dry brush is a very effective way to add small amount of color and it also allows you to create texture.

The next thing I did was to bring the color of my water up so that it was as dark as I needed it to be. That doesn't mean that you paint over everything that is there it just means that you're adding another layer of color. Remember to leave the water in the background lighter and less colorful than the water in the foreground. To the water in the foreground I added sap green, Hooker’s green, purple, blues even my cerulean blue to bring up the value and intensity of the color of the water.

One thing I did do because I did not like what I had from last week, was I thought I had brought the reflection color of the boat too far down in my water, so before I started on the water I lifted out some of that dark color and let that area dry before I went over it again with new lighter colors. You don't need to do much to suggest a reflection so be careful of getting your water too dark too far down or too far over.

When you have everything where you like it and you can't find anything else you need to do, let your painting dry and let it dry  completely because when you take off the masking if there is any wet paper there is the possibility of tearing the surface of your paper, so make sure it’s good and dry before you remove the masking.

To remove the masking you can use your finger or you can use a piece of tape turn so the sticky side is out or if you have a rubber cement pick up which are available usually at most office supply stores (I didn’t find them at OfficeMax though) where they have the rubber cement. You can feel any masking that is on your paper by lightly rubbing your hand over the surface if it feels tacky that's probably the masking. Make sure you have it all off before you start this next phase of your painting.

Many of you have wondered about how we're going to use this masked out area we've created, with the masking off we are going to start shaping them into the things that are

there. The color for the netting and some of the equipment that's on the top of the boat I mixed up a gray color (remember that is your blue, burnt sienna, and purple with water to make it grey) to make a medium dark color. Use this color to cut down the size of the mast and antenna area leaving bits of the white paper that becomes the highlights. The same color can be used in the back for the ramp thing that's on the back of the boat and also for the netting. Just start cutting down some of the light area and adding dark to it to shape these things you just want to leave some of the light but not all of the light so these things have some highlights.

The same thing in the water if you put masking in the water for highlights take your blues your purples and greens and cut down some of the bright white.  I had a problem with saving whites where I had not gotten color behind some of my pots and I had removed my masking before I spotted the problem so I had to go back in on the lower pots an add blue behind it “dots” to represent the see through spaces in the net. This technique is called negative­ painting, basically I was painting the holes in the netting so that I left the highlight and later I will come back in and put the netting and the framework of the pots.

Last but not least I started on the pilings in the front doc there is a dark side in a light side using my half inch angled brush. I mixed a dark color that is on the brown side with the

sienna, blue and purple and using the very edge of my brush and making little vertical marks in the direction of the wood grain of my pilings. I started in the shadowed area then working around to the sunny side, I added touches of sienna until I came into the light area where I added orange and yellow to create a rounded piling.

This is where I stopped and we probably will have one more week on the boat. Start looking for something you want to paint because you need to understand how to work on your own projects and how what you have learned from the class project and how it will apply to the subjects you select.  Be sure that you have your reference photos with you, the reference photos are important when you are trying to finish up your paintings.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Torrance Class Week 2

Watercolor Safe Harbor Week2 (Palos Verdes class)

(Torrance we will be doing this step in class on Monday, See the above blog post for what we did in our last class)

This week I started working to bring up colors in my water and to start adding some color to the boat and the houses on the dock. We have to work in layers when working in watercolor even though it's tempting to go straight to the color but with watercolors it is difficult to remove color once it is down so it is best to work in layers or washes.

I started by working on the body of the boat which is a dark color but it is not a solid dark color. Look at your reference photo, you will see that there are some lighter areas and some detail, if you can bring it up on your computer you will see the subtleties in the dark color. Rather than working with black I mix to a dark color. I use my ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and my purple plus I want to keep this color to the cool side so there will be more blue than sienna. I put it down one layer at a time building up the density or the value the color. This may take several washes or layers, letting it dry in between applications of paint.

The wheelhouse has two sections: On the top shaded section I added a light blue color by using ultramarine blue and a tiny, tiny amount of purple with a lot of water. The lower section I left white for now.

On the Tarp areas I mixed some ultramarine blue with little bit of either Sap Green for hooker’s green. The shadows were made by adding more blue and a little more purple, basically you want a darker color so use less water when mixing the color.

The roof on thebuildings in the back of the boat were a light, muddy yellow color I had on my palette, probably my cad yellow and a touch of orange. I under painted one building on the dock behind the boat in a light pink color using my red and lots of water, the other building I added a little more yellow to the money yellow I was using for the roofs and a lot of water.

When everything is dry you can start bringing up the value of your water. By using several light washes you could make the water look like water just remember it is not just blue. I used green - mostly my sap green - and little touches of very dilute purple so it was only a light lavender tint and I used long horizontal strokes with the end of my brush, to create the water starting in the back with light blue and working forward. I kept most of the green and the lavender colors from the back of the boat to the foreground and in the area where the boat will be casting a reflection I used a darker version of my colors by adding more pigment and less water. The more water you use to pigment, the lighter your value will be so if you want a dark value you use less water.

The water is very darkunder the pier behind the boat I added a darker color under the pier and when it was dry, I used a damp brush to lift out shapes for the pilings and boards that make up the dock.

In the foreground I under painted the pilings and the dock with light sienna and yellow painting over the area being sure to paint over where the crab pots will be.

I will do detail later for some of the buildings on the dock behind the boat for now after the buildings have dried, I took a light lavender color and painted in the shadowed sides of the buildings also the windows and the door.

On the boat in the sunny part of the cabin, I took that light lavender shadow color and looking at myreference photo first, I painted the shadows that go across the sunlit area of the boathouse. Please note that the shadows are not straight they follow the curve of the wheelhouse cabin, this is important because it shows the shape of that cabin.

Torrance project week 1

Lastly I wanted to put in some of the pipes and rigging on the boat. I mixed my dark color again - (see the mixture above) do not use too much water or it won't be dark enough - and I painted in the masts and the pipes and all of the rigging that is on the boat that is dark along with the portholes on the wheelhouse cabin and right over any masking that is there.

This is where we stopped; try to have your painting to this point by next week. I have not removed any masking fluid yet we will do this probably the next time we paint. Keep painting and I will see you in class.