Watercolor Spring 2012

WATERCOLOR – Backgrounds Using Mask Demo

There are many ways to do similar things with watercolor you can either paint around something and go by sections or you can use masking fluid so you can do it all at once, you need to try both to see which one you like because they both have their places and I do go back and forth depending on what I'm trying to accomplish.

When I need to get a soft, "out of focus" background often times I will use masking fluid to protect the subject and any area that is in the foreground, then I can wet the background and work without worrying about painting around something. This is also particularly handy when you have a lot small detail you want to avoid.

First I started with my drawing. I like to draw to scale. What that means is I like to have my drawing the same size as I'm going to paint so that it makes transferring easier. To get the right size for my watercolor paper, I use a mat that I can buy anywhere and mark out the inside dimension on my paper so I know how big I need to make my subject. I work on drawing paper or tracing paper because I can make my mistakes on there then I don't have to worry about hurting my watercolor paper's surface with erasing.

When I have my drawing the way I want it, I use a black felt pen to go over all my lines, then I can either use graphite paper or rub pencil on the back of the drawing as sort of a poor man's graphite paper or as I did in this case, I taped it to my back sliding glass door then tapped my watercolor paper of it in lieu of a light table (another option) and with a #2B pencil, I went over my lines also marking the corners of the matt dimensions.

After I have my drawing on my watercolor paper, I tape it down to my support using the matt corners as my guide, I tape just outside the corners so my painting area is large enough that when I go to matt the painting I won't have any white edges showing.

I then get out my masking fluid and mask my ENTIRE drawing. When you use the masking fluid it is best if you use an old brush or a cheap brush, have an old bar of soap or liquid soap handy and soap up the bristles wiping any excess off before dipping into the masking fluid. A couple do's and don'ts when it comes to the masking: DO NOT SHAKE IT! Even if you want to use one with a colorant in it you want to gently turn up and down to mix the color. When you shake it you create foam that won't go away for hours and if you use it on your paper the bubbles will break leaving your paper exposed and you will get paint where you don't want it. It also introduces oxygen into the fluid and will cause it to cure so when you go back to use it all you have is a chunk of rubber in the bottle.

Do not leave it in a warm area or where the sun will hit it or you will have a chunk or rubber. When not in use, keep the lid tightly closed or again, you will have a chunk of rubber. Rinse and re-soap your brush often – about every minute or so – to keep the fluid from curing in your brush creating a little chunk of rubber on the end of your brush. Clean your brush well after using  and even a cheap brush will last a long time.

When you apply the fluid be sure that you put enough on, don't try to spread it out so thin that you end up with gaps and be sure that you paper is dry before you put it on (you can use masking fluid in between washes as long as the paper is dry first) then let it dry completely before you start to paint, about 20 – 30 minutes generally. I let my mask dry naturally IF you use a hair drier be sure that you use one that has a low heat setting and hold it back at least a foot or more. If the masking gets hot it could melt into your paper and will tear the paper when you go to remove it.

Once the masking is dry you and paint and wet the paper to your hearts content. What you do is going to be influenced by what you are painting so be sure that you have your reference photo handy so you can decide what colors need to go where. If you need to, you can do another layer before you take off the masking just be sure that when you do take the masking off that the paper is totally dry. If you have lots of little spaces between the areas of masking, the water and paint can pool up there and make the paper wetter than other parts of the paper so it is better to be safe than sorry and leave it for an hour or more even over night if you can wait that long or use a hair drier (see above caution) because if the paper is wet and you try to remove the mask, you can tear the paper. If you are using a soft surface paper be extra careful, always rub into the mask not out towards the painted area. Sometimes you can get it started and it will just pull off but you may need to get a rubber cement pickup or you can turn tape so the sticky side is out to save your poor fingers from being rubbed raw.

This technique is very useful and can save a lot of time but you do need to plan ahead and once you have the mask on you want to work quickly so you can remove it as soon as possible. I have left it on my paper for a month with no problems, I made sure it was in a cool dry place but to be safe you want to get it off within a couple of weeks at most, don't think you can come back 6 months from now and be able to remove it because it will become part of the paper and will not come up.

I will think of something else to demo for next week, I hope to see you all soon.

Spring 2012 Watercolor Class

Watercolor – Apple Turnover Week 4

(They have "improved" Blogger so if you have any problems with the blog or the picture page link, let me know.)

In the last class at Torrance, I continued to add intensity to my colors. Intensity is different than value, whereas value is the lightness or the darkness of an area, intensity is the richness of the hue of a color. For instance, if your apples look too pale or pinkish you need to intensify the color, e.i. add more red. If your shadows aren't dark enough, they will need to be intensified with more blue and purple.

Remember with watercolor we need to sneak up on our color. It is much better to intensify a color in a series of washes than to cover it all in one step. You will loose the transparency of the watercolor if you do. I did add a light wash or orange to the apples in the sun that gave them a bit of a glow.

I also added a bit more to the texture of the basket/bucket buy using more dry brush to add more color inside and out. I also added color to the bands around the basket starting near the top with orange and a touch of sienna, bleeding it up into the lighter area and down a bit into the next darkest area continuing to work wet into wet by adding sienna to the next area, then sienna and purple to the area that is going into the shadows, then a bit more purple into the sienna as it goes into deep shadow. I worked wet into wet to get a smooth transition of color.

I added color and detail into my grasses using greens and sienna, some orange. I did lift out some bent over grasses and added color when I thought it needed it, the one thing I didn't do is worry over this process. I have my values in place all I need to do it add color it should be there when I'm done.

In the grass around the apples and basket, I just suggested texture and some shadows where the apples are sitting but again, less can be more.

The bale of the handle (that is the wire the wood handle is attached to), I lifted out with my brush and added a dark shadow to the back side of it.

The spaces between the slats on the basket and the knot holes I did with my small angle brush but they can be done with a liner if you feel more comfortable with that brush. I mixed up a dark color using my blue, purple and a touch of sienna to make my UNEVEN lines for my slats (remember it is old cheap wood) and any other detail  thought it needed.

Finish this up how ever you want. You can be very detailed or not, it is up to you. I am stopping here because I really don't think I need to do much more but I do want to live with it for a while before I make my final decision. This is a habit you need to get into as well, stop before you think it is done because if you are looking for things to do you could over work it and ruin what you have.

Have something you want to work on in class in both Torrance and PV because I think we might finish up at PV in our next class, I will do demos to help you and the class on specific problems. See you in class.

Spring 2012 Watercolor Class

Watercolor – Apple Turnover Week 2

Torrance class, I went back a step and did a demo using just one apple so you could see what these layers of value can do for your painting. It is easier to see just one apple than the whole lot of them but big or small the technique is the same: One wash at a time.

If you need to review the procedure, see last week's blog. PV students you may need to do that at this point.

In the Torrance class, I still had a couple of washes to put on to get my darkest darks before I started putting on color, I let it dry before I went ahead adding color.

I have what is called a "grass comb" brush that I used on the basket to create old wood texture. It is designed to split at the end which makes it great for fur, hair and dry brush, I used this brush to add the texture to the basket, however, if you don't have a comb brush you can use a fan or you can spread the bristles out on a flat, angle or round brush to get the same effect. A small bristle brush would work but if it has EVER been in oil pain DO NOT USE IT! Acrylic paint is water based so that would be okay but an oil brush will always have a bit of oil in it and it can ruin you painting.

Remember to use lighter colors in the sunny area and darker colors in the shadow areas just like you would normally do. Also notice that I have not started to add any detail like the slats or cracks to my bucket, that will come later.

The apples were basically just napthol red, it is the gray under painting that is giving them shading. The green apple was a mix of sap green and a touch of yellow. I lifted out highlights just to show how to do it, that could change as I work on this painting.

Take your time. Watercolor is not for the impatient. Let things dry before adding more layers. Think about what you are doing before you do it. Most of all, relax and have fun. This isn't rocket science you should be enjoying the journey.

We (I) may get this done next time, I'm not sure, just be looking for you next project because that is what you will be working on for the rest of the semester. See you all in class.

Spring 2012 Watercolor Class

Spring 2012 Watercolor – Apple Turnover

Before you start you will need to have the reference photo and the drawing, you will also need to have a good drawing on your paper before you start.

Torrance students I think I pushed you off in the deep end when I should have taken you into the shallows first so I will explain what I did at PV and what we are doing might make more sense. (See photo page)

This is a lot like the ink wash painting we did a couple of semesters ago except we will be using grays we make from our palette. I learned this technique from a man named Don Andrews and it is a very effective way to get more value in your paintings but it does take practice. I find that I will start many of my paintings this way or at least parts of my paintings depending on what I think it will need.

If you have different values of blue starting with cerulean, cobalt and ultra marine, plus have orange and burnt sienna on your palette, this will help. If you only have one or two blues you can still make this work, the end product will only be a little bit different. (See photo page)

The following instructions are the same for the practice apple as well as the project itself so I won't repeat the steps for the project but will give some suggestions for handling the brush when I'm done with the practice apple.

The first thing you need is a good drawing on your watercolor paper so you know where your highlights and shadows will be. On the practice apple I used lines to define the lightest to the darkest 1 being the brightest highlight and 5 being the darkest shadow. The light is coming from the upper left hand side so the basket and the apples will have their high lights on the upper left hand side. I know that sounds obvious but it is easy to loose track of your light source when you are blocking in your painting. Yes, this is coming out of my mind but if you have any doubts take an apple, find a single light source such as a window or a lamp (all other lights need to be out) and see for your self.

IF you feel more comfortable masking out your brightest highlights now is the time to do it before you start painting, I just painted around the lightest areas.

Keep in mind that watercolor is a transparent color, each layer you put down effects the next layer you put on top of it (when it is dry) so you can build your values and build the intensity of your color by doing layers of washes. You will want to start out with a light wash, if you have your value scale get it out and use it because you don't want your first wash any darker than the value next to your white, on a commercial one it would be the 10% or less.

I mixed a gray using my cerulean blue and a tiny touch of cad orange. The orange can easily over power the blue so if it looks too yellow or greenish add more blue, this should be a cool gray. Use a lot of water to make a light value and you will want to use a large brush like a wash brush or a 1" brush because this will go over EVERYTHING EXCEPT the lightest highlight whether it is on the practice apple or the project. Remember to paint around your highlights if you have not put masking on them but paint everything else, DO NOT paint around anything except the highlights. If you only have cobalt and Ultra marine or just Ultra marine don't worry, this will work just the same your grays will be a slightly different color (hue).

If you have done this right, you should barely see where the highlights are once the paint has dried. It may take a couple more washes of color before you start to see things appear. Be patient you will see things soon.

The next layer I used the same two colors in a slightly stronger mix. It is still light in value so add plenty or water, this time, not only will you avoid the highlights, but you will also avoid the NEXT LIGHEST VALUE. Look at your reference photo or apple before you start this wash, see for yourself what is the next lightest area if you have to mark them on your paper. Hint: the apples inside the basket are several values darker than the apples outside the basket because they are in shadow so you can paint over them but don't forget the highlight on the inside of the basket. Each of the apples will now have a light and dark side. On the practice apple, right around the highlight is the next lightest area and part of the leaf and stem. Everything else gets painted with this next wash of gray. See this first, don't just start painting.

This is how you will proceed with each wash of gray: Leaving the next lightest value but painting everything else. You will want to negative paint around the brighter grasses or where the grass comes up in front of apples so you don't have to lift later but continue to add gray values until you get to your darkest darks.

You will have to switch from cerulean blue to cobalt and cad orange if you are using all 3 blues after about the third wash again, if the gray looks too muddy or yellowish, add more blue. If you need to get an even darker gray switch to cobalt and burnt sienna then finally switch to ultra marine blue and burnt sienna with maybe a touch or purple as well for your very darkest darks.

Like everything else, this takes practice to see and to do but it can be a very good way for a lot of you to paint especially if you want to get more values into your painting, this is a good way to start if you try plein aire painting because of the changing light you need to capture your lights and darks right off the bat because they will change minute to minute, then you can add the color later once you have established your values. Take your time, ask questions if you have them and I will see you next time.

Winter 2012 Watercolor Class

Watercolor – Techniques for Texture

I love to do things that have texture and character like old wood and rusty things watercolor makes them with little effort if you just trust the watercolor.

Rust and peeling paint – Paint the color of the object you are going to add rust to, don't worry about painting around the areas because it doesn't matter, the rust will cover it up and it will actually help the final look o the object.

When the area is dry you will be using the following colors in a fairly liquid form: Orange, sienna, red and sienna with purple. Your paint should run a little bit the drips help. Have the top of your paper elevated so that gravity works for you and your paint doesn't pool up, this is just SOP with watercolor. Start with the orange in the area where you want rust. You can let it dry just a bit but it should still be dame between each color. Next add sienna and touches of red into the same area starting at the top and letting the color mix with what it all ready there. Again, you can let it dry a bit. With the sienna and purple, make a dark color, this is a shadow color and goes next to the area that is suppose to be peeling paint. If you have an angle brush or a flat brush, load it on the tip or corner and put the brush with the paint next to the area that is suppose to be paint and with the all the bristles in contact with the paper, paint in the shadow. If you use a round brush this will take two steps: first paint in the shadow then rinse and remove excess water and run the brush on the side of the paint you just put down that will be in the rusted area. You may have to do this again to get it dark enough.

To create the effect of the paint peeling up, lift a bit of color at the edges of some of the paint areas next to the rust, you can also add cracks using that dark mix and a liner brush.

Polished wood – Wood comes in all colors and patterns so do some research if you want a specific kind and color. I use the edge of my angle brush and make long "s" shapes (direction depends on the angle of the wood) just keep your strokes following the natural growth of the grain. Use more than one color and use colors you may not think about such as if it is a light wood it may have pinks and yellows, dark woods may have reds or blues or even green running through them. Let it dry and with a liner brush you can add darker grains and knots, just be sure that you follow the grain of the wood.

Old wood – Old wood can come in a variety of colors as well please find examples and keep them for reference. They are going to have a rougher surface because of weathering and they may have been just rough cut to begin with, I used shades of gray but I also added green and orange and blues for the under painting, same as above suing long "s" strokes following the grain and let it dry. When it was dry I use a darker version of the colors I used in the under painting but this time I used my angle brush in a dry brush technique with little paint and spreading the bristles at the end then wiggling the brush as I followed the grain of the wood. With a liner I added knots and cracks.

Tree Bark – Again, all trees are different have your reference handy. I used my small angle brush on its edge and made small choppy strokes down the branch of the tree using lighter colors in the sunny area getting darker into the shadowed side. On the branch that sticks out, I used short "coma" strokes because the branch is foreshortened.

Salt for texture – Salt can be use for all sorts of texture these were just three examples: Stucco, distant trees and rocks. Timing is everything with salt so you will need to practice to get it just the way you want but basically you put the paint down then wait until the shine of the water just starts to fade. If it is too wet the salt dissolves too fast and spreads out too much; too dry and it may not spread at all. It is a fun thing to use and does a lot of the work for you.

Remember to sign up for classes and bring things in for critique.

Winter 2012 Week 5

Watercolor – Waterfalls and Still Water Studies.

Torrance class: You will need to look at the blog from a couple weeks ago to get the recap of the lighthouse. We will be moving on to studies at our next classes and I would like you to find images of rocks to bring to class to have as reference and start looking for water because that will be next.

PV Class - Waterfalls: Waterfalls require you to practice up on your dry brush technique. Before you touch brush to paper it is important to make sure that you lightly squeeze the bristles near the metal ferrule to get out any excess water in your brush otherwise, your paint will come off too solid and not leave the white of the paper you need to get the look of falling water.

Practice this stroke by first dragging your brush across the paper horizontally then, without lifting your brush, go vertically. This simulates the water flowing along then finding a drop. The harder you press your brush to the paper, the more paint you will put down so keep your touch light for the full effect. This takes practice but you will need it when we get into wood grain.

Still Water – This is any water that is in a lake or ocean or pool that doesn't have a lot of movement, but even still water has slight ripples from breezes or drips or something making the water move, it also makes your water more natural looking if it has some variation in lights and shadows.

I use long "u" or "bow" shaped strokes to create still water. The longer and flatter the stroke is the calmer the water looks. I leave areas unpainted so the white of the paper becomes the highlights and I overlap and congest my strokes while trying to keep them mostly horizontal. I change color to make darker strokes but each time I am leaving some of the previous color to be highlights and various degrees of shadow. Again, this takes practice and most of you seem reluctant to overlap your strokes or congest them up but this is important to the look of your water. You should not have a series of dots and slashes you should have some solid areas of variegated color.

I would like to work on reflections in water and maybe start on some wood grain so I would like you to bring you own photos to work from. If you need to you can Google "water reflections" in the images tab and you will find more than you need. See you in class.

Winter 2012 Watercolor Classes

Watercolor Week 2 – Foggy Point Vencente

We are now up to the fog and this step was a combination of adding color and lifting color depending on the area and the need. Take your time and keep a paper towel handy as you work.

I wanted a line of fog behind the point of land with the lighthouse that went along the horizon and continued past the lighthouse almost to the edge of the paper. However, when it got into a darker sky area near the edge it went from adding color to lifting color so keep that in mind as you paint.

I mixed a gray color with my blue, a touch or purple and orange. Usually I use burnt sienna but the orange seemed to work better for me this time, a word of warning a little orange goes a long way so if it gets too orange, add more blue, you want a nice cool gray.

I applied this at the horizon area and just a bit lower using quick circular strokes, these are basically clouds I'm painting so I want my strokes to mimic the bubbling and boiling of the clouds. I was also rinsing my brush and with just water, softening some of the areas at the top of the fog and also all along the bottom of the bank of fog so I didn't have any hard lines. I also occasionally dabbed with my paper towel to lift a bit of color. I repeated this process behind the cliffs until I got into some darker sky, then I switched to just water on my brush, using the same stroke to lift some of the existing paint, then pressing my towel to the paper to lift the rest of the color.

I also lifted color along the bottom of the distant cliff, the rock in the water and the area between the closer cliff and foreground, sometimes I added color to a lifted area while it was still wet, other times I just left the faint hint of what was behind there so it looked like thin areas of the fog. Another word of caution as you try to lift the color off, don't work in one area too long because if you keep trying to lift color the paper gets too wet and you run the risk of damaging your paper, it is best to work around you paper when lifting letting the paper dry a bit before going back into to lift more.

The weeds in the foreground are just there, I didn't want them to draw attention away from the lighthouse so I kept them in muted grays so they looked like the fog had come up over the cliff making them almost like ghost shapes. I did lift out a rock in the corner but that was just to show how, it isn't necessary.

Using my small angle brush I lifted out the shape of the lighthouse before putting in the trees. Don't make it too big because it is far away and don't do too much detail on it for the same reason. There are some other buildings that you can just lift out some shapes to suggest they are there, the viewer can fill in the rest.

One thing you want to make sure that you have before lifting the lighthouse, is that the area behind it is dark enough because you need the contrast so the lighthouse will show up against the darker fog bank. I didn't get my quite dark enough on the one I did at PV so I need to remember that when I'm working at Torrance, my fog could have been a shade or two darker and it may have been but just went down the page because I have to work upright.

With your liner brush you can add in the palm trees and some of the bushes around the lighthouse if the area behind it is dry. This is a gray/green color so you can add a touch of Hooker's green into any of the gray you have on your palette to get the color. These are just shapes, these trees are too far away to see any detail and they are planted so close together their parts run into each other, so just make a series of marks to indicate "palm trees" and don't over think it.

I am going to be doing some studies on various things like rocks and waves maybe some bark, if you have watercolor cards, this is a good way to practice, if not, have paper with you so you can do several, I will look for reference photos but you can also find reference photos to work from. See you in class. end#

WINTER 2012 WATERCOLOR CLASSES

Watercolor Class Winter 2012 Week 1 – Foggy Coast

Torrance students you will be a couple of weeks behind PV so use the older blogs to see what we did in class. It will be very similar.

PV class, I started by getting my drawing on my paper first. Because there is water in this painting be sure that you get the horizon straight or your ocean will look tilted. You don't need to do all the detail on the top of Pt Vencente for now, just indicate where the two bluffs are and the little pile of rocks, that is really all you need.

Once your drawing is on wet the entire paper. You can use your sprayer or a big wash or haki brush or both you want to get the paper wet so it stays wet for this process. Keep the top of you paper elevated an inch or two so the paint doesn't pool up, you want it to move a bit.

Starting at the horizon with cad yellow and a lot of water, paint all the way across the paper at the horizon line. Don't worry about the drawing at this point, it really doesn't matter. Do be sure to dilute the color down and get this color in both the sky and water areas.

Next, use your cad orange on either side of the yellow while you paper is still wet. Start just above or below the yellow depending on if you are in the sky or water and let the color find its way to the yellow. You may need to encourage it a little but this is why the paper should be wet so the paint can do its own thing.

You need to work quickly so don't fuss with this step, just put the paint down and move on to the next color which is your napthol red or alizarin crimson. Again this color goes into the sky and the water but it shouldn't be to intense so add water before going to your paper.

The next color is a mix of ultra marine blue and a TOUCH of purple. I saw a lot of students with purple skies while it isn't life or death the problem with the purple is it is hard to lift when it dries and we will be doing some lifting throughout this painting so just a touch of purple and again, keep the color pale and this goes in the water and sky but this time, in the sky, start at the top of the paper and let the paint flow down into the other colors, it will give you a natural gradient to the color. Now, let it dry completely.

This kind of painting works better if you let it dry naturally rather than taking a blow dryer to it so resist the urge to hasten the process. If your paper was wet enough, these colors with continue to move and blend for several minutes giving you smooth blends and interesting colors, if you try to force the blends and then drying it you can end up with mud and hard lines, just let the watercolor do its thing for a few minutes before halting the process with a dryer.

This is your under painting and it should cover your entire paper, the water should be a reflection of the sky colors. I did not paint around anything so I will have no pure white on my paper, things will look white by comparison so I'm not worried. Watercolor dries lighter so if you kept your colors pale, this step should have pale colors as well.

When it is completely dry, I want to start back up in the sky with an intense blue color. This time I used the same ultra marine blue and purple but I didn't use as much water. If you want to make your watercolors more intense (darker, more colorful) use less water, if you want to make them light and less intense, use more water. I know it sounds simple and logical but many of my students struggle with this, amounts of how much water to use can be mystifying, just remember if it dries too light you can always add more washes. It is better to have to add color rather that try to lighten a color so error on the side of too light. In this case, you can be pretty dark so add enough water so the color will flow off your brush.

I hope that you are all able to down load and print out a copy of the reference photo, my printer was out of ink last week so I wasn't able to print off copies for class, I was using the photo for reference for the upper part of the sky, I liked the way the clouds were breaking up and it is something you will see when fog rolls in and out.

I do want to point out that your brush is a tool to create many different kinds of looks and textures. Many of you just use it one way in long sweeping strokes, which is fine for some things but not all. When I was making these clouds I wasn't just applying color, I was trying to create a texture around my clouds so I was mostly dabbing around the edges alternating between adding color and water to move it around. The clouds were done using a negative painting technique, I was painting around the clouds with the dark sky color that is behind them. I just laid down a small area of the color, then I rinsed my brush and with a damp brush with just water. I went back into the edges of the clouds, dabbing and moving the color, even lifting (removing) color in some places, then painted another dark area around the clouds to repeat the process until I had my clouds the way I wanted them.

Basically, I was working wet into wet because I could get the desired look that I wanted, this can cause blooms as wet paint or water moves into a drying area, but this really works when you are doing clouds, learn to use these tendencies of watercolor to your advantage because it is one of the beauties of the medium.

Once I had my upper sky the way I wanted it I added color to the cliffs starting with the furthest with the lighthouse. Again, I was dabbing but I was angling my brush diagonally so that the brush marks were going in the direction of the erosion of the cliffs. I used several colors including burnt sienna, orange, grayed greens (hookers with a touch of purple) and touches of some of that sky mix to suggest shadows. I was working wet on dry but as I painted, it became more wet into wet, this creates texture.

In the water I used a dilute mix or UM blue and water, then with the flat edge of my brush I created a series of horizontal lines some closer together as they got closer to the shore but I did want to leave some of the under painting for the highlights (see photo page).

This is where we stopped, I will probably finish this up in the next class putting in the fog and finishing the cliffs and foreground. Think about something you would like me to demonstrate, I am open to suggestions. See you in class.

Winter Watercolor Class 2012

Hi Everyone

I hope that you all had a great holiday vacation, it is now time to get back to work.

I am going to show you how to create different moods using a reference photo. All the fog we had lately got me to thinking about how interesting fog can make a painting but it is kinda hard to photograph because everything has to come together at the right time and place and I just don't have that kind of time. However, I am an artist and I should be able to use what I know and apply it to the scene I want.

I am using a photo I took of the light house at Pt. Vencente looking north and I've made a simple drawing both on the picture page but if you would like to do something of your own feel free to do so.

I'm getting antsy for class to start, I like my time off but I love my classes. See you all soon.

WATERCOLOR FALL 2011

Watercolor Demo - Backgrounds

There are many ways to start a painting and one of my favorite ways to start a painting is to do an under painting that establishes my light source, this sets the mood for the painting from the start. It can seem scary at first but once you get past the fear and try it a time or two you will see what a dramatic difference it makes in your paintings.

While I can visualize how a photo may look using this technique you may what to look for photos that have a strong source of light and deep shadows until you feel comfortable enough to "ad lib" on your own.

Once you know where your light is coming from and were it is going to be on your paper choose a color for your lightest area. It can be any where from paper white to a warm color like yellow or orange or pink to a cool color in blues or violets or greens, this is totally up to you and the mood you are trying to set.

In both demos I did I wanted to establish a sunny warm feel so my lightest area was a cad yellow. After I thoroughly wet the entire paper – I wanted it very wet so it wouldn't dry out while I was painting my background - I started with the cad yellow in the sunniest area painting a rough circle slightly bigger then the area I want this color. Keep your colors light, use lots of water when mixing.

Mixing in the same area of my palette I added a slightly darker color for the bamboo background, it was orange, the other a light green, and water and painted this new color overlapping the outside of the yellow and into an unpainted area in a rough circle around the yellow. I continued this process each time mixing in the same area of my palette, just adding a darker cooler color such as to the orange I added a touch of red and to that red a touch or sienna and to the sienna a touch of purple until I was using the purple mix in the corners and the areas that would be my darkest, coolest areas. The key is to go from your lightest warmest area where your subject will be to your coolest areas when your painting is done it will give a very strong sense of light to your painting almost like a spotlight, it can be very dramatic.

My goal as a teacher is to expose you to different ways of using your watercolors because no two people are exactly alike and what may be fun for one person is tedious for another so I try to give you enough information and some different ways of doing things that you will try something new and different even something you have seen in a magazine or at a gallery, what you as a student need to keep in mind is you are learning. The things you see me paint or the things you see in magazines or galleries are from artists who have been painting for years. Let me repeat that: ….Artists who have been painting for years! Every artist has to start someplace and they all have a learning curve. They weren't perfect their first time out or even their second, they had to experiment and find teachers who could guide them, a process that can take years or even a lifetime to perfect as they develop their style.

I took classes for over ten years just like you are doing now until one of my class mates decided I needed to be in front of the class, not in it. I would have never thought to do it myself but I am so thankful that she pushed me past my reluctance because I truly love teaching each and every one of you and I marvel at the improvements I see in my students. You may not see it but I do and your classmates do, so please remember that you are learning at this point and while what you are doing may not be perfect, with each painting you are getting more skill and knowledge with each brush stroke. When you don't have to think about which brush or what color and just paint it is like learning a musical instrument when you start playing the music not worrying about which fingers go where.

When I can find them on TV, I watch other artist paint regardless of what medium they are using because I can always learn something and I think it was the late Bob Ross who said don't focus on the things that you don't like about your painting, focus on the things that you do. Pat your self on the back and blow your own horn because if you don't know one else will. He called his show "The Joy of Painting" because that is what it should be. If it isn't you may need to rethink why you are painting in the first place, art should be an expression of who you are not some other artist. Learn what you can but make it your own and celebrate the difference.

See you in class.

FALL 2011 Watercolor Class

Watercolor Demo – Sketching with Pencil and the Brush

Most of you who have been in my classes for a while know that I encourage all of you to draw as well as paint. While drawing is an art to its self, it can also be a tool to use to make a better painting. You can work out problems or designs on sketch paper long before you ever get to your watercolor paper.

Whether you are doing a full blown drawing or just a few sketchy "thumb nails" drawing will help you in your painting. You can use it when you are on location or doing "plein aire" painting or you can use it when you are going thru your photos and you find an image you like but maybe the composition needs work. Or you may want to combine images from one photo into another this is called a composite painting because you are using elements from different sources to make one painting. I do this a lot and more often than not I just do a few thumb nails to work out my composition and many times I look at these sketches and wonder what someone else who didn't know what I was trying to do would think because it often resembles a bunch of chicken scratches on the paper but I know what I mean. It's like shorthand for painting and we all can develop our own "shorthand" it just takes practice.

Always keep a sketch book or a sketch pad with your art stuff. If you are using a large pad you can divide the page into several smaller squares and try different designs in each square. If you are working from a photo, try to imagine the scene in both vertical and horizontal formats, if it is a landscape try different times of the year. A good "rule of thumb" is if the subject is vertical, it works best in a vertical format. Be sure to use all of the space and move things around so you know where the best place is for all the elements you plan to put in your final painting.

I started out with 2 photos I took on a trip a few years ago. I really liked the house but the surroundings were real special except the tree. Same with the hand pump. I liked the pump itself but I just couldn't get the right angle for the pump and get a decent background so I took the picture of the pump for reference. When I was looking for images for this class I went thru my photos saw the house and thought I could use that then came on the pump and presto! I had my demo for the class.

In class I showed how to do a few thumb nails placing the house and the pump in different places and settled on the one that places the house in the background and the pump in the lower right foreground.

Now one of the "tricks" to sketching is not to hold the pencil like you are writing braced between the index and middle fingers with the thumb on the back and the pencil resting on the space between the thumb and index finger, instead hold the pencil between the thumb and index finger so that the back end of it is in your hand. This will let you have freer movement when you are sketching so you can twist it into a position to get the stroke or shape you need.

Once I decided on the design now it is time to paint but I'm not going to draw the design on my paper first, I am going to use my brush to do the sketching. This is a technique that can work very well when you are out on location and it is another way to sketch plus you get the benefit of using color, just not as easy to erase as pencil.

For most of the painting I was using my ¾" angled brush because it gave me a lot of flexibility from big broad strokes to finer detail on the tip but you can use a round brush or a flat brush and remember to use a large brush to start out with, keeps you loose.

I mixed a gray color with my cerulean blue and a touch of orange and fairly light, I just want to use this color to sketch in my elements so I want something that is fairly neutral in color. If I don't get it right I can just put come clear water on it and lift it off but do not worry if you can still see the lines, they will disappear as you paint.

I started to add color by adding the lightest version of the colors I saw such as for the house I used a watered down cobalt and painted all the walls. The trees behind the house were the gray I was using with a touch of burnt sienna in it. The path was a touch of burnt sienna and yellow. All of these colors were their palest color. Things like the trees and grasses were done very loosely but my brush strokes followed how they grow: Grasses were shaggy and sort of vertical though not straight up and down they had curves and angles to them. The trees grew in clumps so my brush strokes reflected that but all these strokes were not little, dainty, precise strokes, they were very wild and free. I also didn't worry about covering every square inch with color, if I left white spots of paper that is a good thing. This type of painting you will see a lot of that because the artist wants to continue painting so will leave little slivers of dry paper so they can paint another color next to a wet area and the two won't bleed into each other.

Once I got my under painting done I started to deepen the colors where I needed to like adding shadows into the building or into the trees. I detailed out some of the areas like the pump and the path. I added the red trim to the house as well as windows and I repeated that red on the house in the flowers in the foreground. You can do as much detail or not once your under painting is established. If you want you can do a bit of pen and ink work on it, I use a Sharpie for this if I do it, it is less messy.

Painting like this really demands that you concentrate on shapes and the shape of the colors. This is a more suggestive way to paint, it is looser and freer than what we have done in the past and can be a bit scary at first but some of you might embrace this technique or try it when you take a vacation or when you are working from a photo you want to give your own personality. I do hope that you try it and maybe paint out in your yard to try and capture the essence of what is there rather than the detailed thing. It is good experience.

Please be sure you have something to work on in class, this goes for both PV and Torrance. Not sure what I will demo yet, still thinking about that so it may be a surprise to all of us. See you soon.

WATERCOLOR CLASS FALL 2011

Watercolor Demo – Using Watercolor for Value Under Painting.

I continued working on the painting of the Colorado lake and fall colors to show how the value under painting using shades of gray made by using various blues and oranges and be a great way to start a painting. It doesn't mean that once you have your values established you can't go back in and tweak them as you apply color, it just gets you headed in the right direction. As you add the color you can fine tune the values where you need to or change something if you need to, we are working on paper not stone so make adjustments, they are part of the process.

Never be afraid to try something new or different or even take classes from other teachers, you can always learn what not to do but more often than not you may learn a new technique that you really enjoy. I should have had all my classes at the TAG meeting last week because we had a watercolor painter who works very differently than I do but I really enjoyed his process. While it may not be for me in a total change of the way I do things, it did give me ideas on how to do sketching with my brush and how to use one photo several different ways. If you want to do plein aire or if you like to take your sketch pad with you when you travel, you might enjoy this. This is new to me so I will be learning along with you but it should be fun.

See you all in class.

Fall 2011 Watercolor Class

WATERCOLOR DEMO – Values using Watercolor.

A few years ago I went on a week long watercolor seminar up in the Big Bear area, it was a fabulous learning experience and I often start my own painting the way the artist – Don Andrews – showed up how he painted. I like it because it establishes the values of the painting early and it sets the mood for the entire painting, besides, it is a good way to work.

Just like we used the ink washes to create the different values in our last project, we learned how to use our watercolor to do virtually the same thing starting with light grays and creating darker and darker mixes to get our values, then finally adding color. The results were quite satisfying.

A former student sent me the lovely fall photo that is on the picture page, it shows the fall color and is quite peaceful as well as being simple enough that I could do most of it in a class or two. I did adjust the composition a bit by moving the foreground tree closer to the right side, as an artist, I am the ultimate in Photo Shop so I can move trees if I want, whereas when you are the photographer you may not have the option to move something to get the photo you want, so you take the picture, you will be using it for reference only. Never look at a photo as the goal of your painting, you already have the photo if that is what you want, as a painter you need to add your feelings and interpretations to your paintings.

The biggest reason I moved the tree is it created 2 pictures. There was the main picture of the lake and hillsides on the left side of the tree but there was also a picture that demanded almost as much attention on the right side of the tree with the bright reflections surrounded by the dark tree and shadows. By moving the tree more into the shadowed area, those areas that were asking for attention become part of the larger image and therefore less distracting to the eye. Be aware of this when you are taking your own photos, bright things will attract attention and hard lines like the trunk of that tree can divide your image.

As I do with all things I am painting, I first look at the reference to see where my brightest highlights are and my darkest shadows. One thing I noticed about this image was there were no white whites. If you don't believe me, take out your value scale and place it on those white clouds. They are not white. The brightest thing I see is the tree trunks on the left and it is on the tan side but I did want to protect that brightness so I masked out the two trunks. EVERYTHING ELSE was given a wash of gray.

To mix my gray I started with my lightest blue on my palette, for me that is my cerulean blue and a touch of orange. The orange is a powerful color so a little goes a long way but it makes a very nice gray and I used a lot of water. I just wanted a tint of color this is where some of you get a bit heavy handed and you start out way too dark with your colors then have no way to get back to the value you want. It is better to have to put 2 or 3 washes of color on then to try and take it off if it is too dark.

I used this mix of cerulean and orange, mixing a bit stronger each time for the first 3 or 4 washes, then I switched to a darker blue – I have cobalt on my palette – and orange for another 3 or 4 washes. When I want my darkest darks I use my ultra marine and burnt sienna. Each time I paint a layer of value I am doing exactly what I did with the ink, I am leaving the next lightest areas unpainted until I have my full range of values.

In the sky, I lifted out clouds with a paper towel at the second and third washes of grey and because the sky is a fairly light in value, after about the third wash of gray, the next wash was cerulean blue and cobalt I made sure to lift out my clouds. The water is darker in value (use the value scale) but I did the same thing as I did in the sky only I waited to the third and forth wash to pull out the clouds and the 5^th wash was color (cobalt, ultra marine and a touch of my Andrew's Turquoise). I waited to add color to the trees and hills until I was closer to being done with the washes.

One thing to remember when you are painting the water is to keep you brush strokes parallel to the top and bottom of your paper. This will make your water lay flat if you happen to leave streaks with your brush.

I will finish up the painting in class so you can see what I am doing, if you have any special requests let me know and I can do a demo for the class because chances are if you have a question someone else will also have a question.

See you all in class.

WATERCOLOR CLASS FALL 2011

WATERCOLOR DEMO – Values and Color.

Torrance Class – You will need to go back a couple of weeks to get the first part of this value study, I did post a picture of the one I am doing in class so you can see where we are. I also posted a photo of my drawing for this version of the value study. This is good to note for both PV and Torrance classes because if you want to do detailed paintings in watercolor, you need a good drawing.

I started by transferring the drawing I posted on the picture page but then I took the reference photo and carefully went over the image looking for detail that wasn't included in the original drawing (figured it would scare the pants off everyone ;-) . I looked for shapes in the vase, and in the reflections, I also found that I had mis-drawn the leaf that is below and behind the flower so I corrected that. I put as much information is as I thought I needed to help me with my washes. You DO NOT need to do this! However, if you want to do more detail in your paintings, this is what you will need to do.

PV Class – I decided that I had most of my values for this study about where I wanted them so I switched from the diluted ink I had in the bottle to straight drawing ink because I wanted to get the black areas black. That is not to say that I didn't go back into some areas with a diluted wash, but I could just add water to the ink to make it lighter when I needed it.

There were many areas that needed to be almost as dark as the background, especially around the flower itself. To make the flower look light and bright, I really needed to get dark around it. Many of you were still way too light right around the flower petals so you flower didn't quite jump off the paper. I took my full strength ink and put it in between and around the petals, rinsed my brush and with just water, pulled the ink out to blend it in with what was there. I did this a couple times until I got the darkness I needed behind my flower.

This is the point where the artist has to make decisions: How much detail do I put in and do I add color? I added quite a bit of detail by using the reference photo and finding where I wanted/needed to add more values or darker values. When I was done I let it dry for at least 20 – 30 minutes so I was sure that the ink was completely dry then I came back in and added some color to the flower, leaves and vase. I did this so students can see what it is like with color, the one I am doing at Torrance I will leave black and white for comparison.

Next week I am going to do a demo using my watercolors in a similar way to build values, I will be working from a photo from a friend and former student Kathleen Russo who graciously said I could use it in class. However, I am not going to use this as a class project it is a demo, if you want to paint it you can, or you can find something else you would like to paint and just watch the demo.

I hope that students will find a project of their own to get started on so I can help you with it during the rest of the semester. See you all in class.