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.

Winter 2015 Watercolor Classes

WATERCOLOR: Class Project: Safe Harbor

(Torrance watercolor class the posts I do for the PV class will be the same posts you will review if you need to they will be a week ahead of you so you can read what will be coming up in our class.)

I started my watercolor by first transferring my design onto my watercolor paper using a

pattern and transfer paper. Next I went over the areas that I wanted to save with my masking fluid which included some of the netting, the crab pots on the dock, both of which are just suggestions of net, quick strokes, and sparkles on the water.

When the masking fluid was dry I started in my sky area and painted the area with water so that my paints would flow. I used a light yellow near the horizon painting all the way across the horizon, painting around the boat and around the buildings, though it really doesn’t matter if you go over them.  For the next color I used a red which could be a alizarin crimson or napthol red and then finally I used all through marine blue in my sky area. If you want, you can paint this with your paper turned upside down so you don’t get a green or muddy sky. Let gravity work for you so your colors blend naturally.

To create the backgroundI used water to wet the area because I had let the background dry, if you want to save this step, wait until the background color is just starting to dry and then you can do this step but, if like me, you waited too long rewet the area and then I used a cool red color (alizarin with blue will work) and I painted shapes along the horizon. It doesn't matter what the shapes are because it’s just stuff. It could be a city back there; it could be the rest of the harbor; it could be mountains or trees or whatever, it doesn't matter, they're just shapes. If you paint the background in and the sky is still too wet and your shapes blur, don't worry, just let it dry a little bit more and go over it again it will look like layers of all those things in the background but don't try to create any definite shapes just stuff and let the people decide what it is.

Next I painted the water and you can wet the area for the water as well if you want, it'll help make the colors blend a little better for the water. I used my ultramarine blue and touches of Hooker’s green and a little bit of dioxazine purple starting at the horizon, I painted over parts of the dark areas of my boat and I painted under the pier, I also painted over parts of the crab pots sitting on the foreground dock, you can paint over things that will be dark because it won’t matter and you can paint things like the crab pots because, 1, you should have protected the bright areas with the masking fluid, and 2, they need to have this color behind them because they need to have the color coming through them so don't be afraid of painting over items in your painting because it either doesn’t matter or it needs to be there anyway. I added green and I added purples to my water because water isn't just blue, it has many different colors in so don't be afraid to use more than one color in your water. I did keep this this wash very light by adding a lot of water to my mix, you don't want to get too dark too quickly this will be highlights later on and where you put the masking fluid in the water that will become sparkles but for right now this is just one layer we will have several layers as we progress.

This is where we ended and we will continue next week. Keep painting.

WATERCOLOR FALL PROJECT: Cloud Study

PV before.

Since this blog has been written after I have my PV class, I thought I was basically done with the painting in the last post and for my Torrance class this is probably true because when I got home and started looking at my PV version of the project, I wasn’t happy with my foreground, when I did my demo at Torrance, I corrected that version of the painting and I liked it better. I decided to correct what I didn’t like to my PV version and I like it better. This is what I did to the PV painting

Torrance version.

just so you know that even with watercolor you can make changes if you need to.

The mountain ridges in the PV version just didn’t look right to me so I looked at the photo on my computer so I could see what was really going on because the print really didn’t show much detail. I discovered that there were more ridges than I thought and had combined 2 ridges into one I also didn’t get the value of that ridge dark enough but it was just the right value to be part of the ridge behind.

PV After.

All I did to correct what I didn’t like was to make a darker, greener wash and reshape part of the ridge line. While the green was still wet, I just touched some sienna in to give some suggested detail to the ridge again because the wash mostly covered what I had. I even took some of that dark green and made some closer pine trees in the right had corner, you can finish up your own painting any way you feel you need to.

Please have something you want to start in the next class since both Torrance and PV are done with the clouds. See you in class.

Revised PV finished

Torrance finished

Watercolor Class Project Week 3: Cloud Study

I finished up the Cloud Study at PV in the last class, Torrance we will be done this in our Monday class though I do have some work to finish up my clouds, I do think we will be finished with our clouds as well so start looking for your own project to start the following week. PV students you will need to find a project you would like to do or finish up the clouds when we have class, I will be around to help and do spot demos for problem areas.

Once you feel you are finished with your clouds the final thing to do is put in your mountains and foreground. It is best to start with the mountains that are furthest away. They should be softer and grayer than the mountains in front but they are close enough to have a little bit of color. If you have some gray left over on your palette you can use that (one of the reasons I don’t clean off my palette, I may need a color that is already mixed) but if you need to mix gray remember it is ultramarine blue, a little burnt sienna and a touch of purple with enough water to dilute it to a medium gray. To this gray I added a touch of orange and a bit more sienna, I want a warm gray. This color should also be a stronger value (darker) than the grays in the clouds. The reason for this is it is closer than the clouds and as objects come closer they become more intense in color, less gray. This is how you get depth in a 2 dimensional painting.

I painted this color onto the ridge on the right side. If you can’t see it, make it up. You are the artist and you can create things if you think it will help your painting. While that area is still a bit wet, mix up a touch of orange, with the mud that is on your brush and a bit more water to create a soft orange color and lightly touch your brush to the wet paint to create ridgelines and subtle details in the distant mountains. Let the watercolor do all of the work, just touch the tip of your brush to the paper, make a line and let it go. If you mess with it too much you won’t get the look you want and it is an aspect of watercolor you need to understand so you can make it work for you not against you.

The next ridge has more color so to that same gray I used on the last ridge, I added some hooker’s green and a touch of blue to make it more colorful and a deeper value (it is closer so it needs to be a deeper value).

While that ridge is still wet I added a bit more sienna to that gold color I used on the other ridge and did the same thing: created some detail by just touching the tip of the brush to the wet paper. I also picked up a little blue and went on the shadowed side (right side) of the mountains and just touched to createsome shadows. These mountains are closer so you might see those shadows.

With each closer ridge I added more color into the gray until I got to the tops of the trees that were closest to the viewer, I under painted with a light green (sap green with yellow will work and add water to dilute) and while it was wet I did a similar thing to what I did in the clouds: I added darker greens in shapes leaving some of the light areas to show highlights.

Let this dry. If you feel you need to go back in to add color or value wait until it is dry so you know exactly what you have to do. If you like it the way it is then it is time to move on to something new. I will see you all in class.

Fall 2014 Watercolor Class

WATERCOLOR CLASS PROJECT: Cloud Study

(Torrance class this is the post you will reference for the demo I will do in this Monday’s class. Look at the post before this one for what we covered in our last class.)

Before you take off the masking from your painting be sure that the areas around the cloud tops are dark enough and/or intense enough in color. Watercolor always dries lighter so you may find that your blue sky doesn’t look so blue after it has dried and to make this painting “pop” you need good contrast meaning dark values so the light ones will jump off the page. I thought that my sky was too light so before I took of the masking I went over it again with another wash of blue to intensify and darken the sky.

While that was drying, I did a wash of light gray over the landscape which I could have done the first week but didn’t. And while that was drying I looked for dry areas that didn’t touch any of the wet areas and started removing the masking because it does take time. By the time you have those areas clean of masking the other two areas should be dry enough to remove the masking there as well.

HAVE YOU REFERENCE PHOTO IN FRONT OF YOU! When I am doing something like this my eyes are going back and forth between my paper and the photo so I can see exactly what I should be doing. I can’t give you a blow by blow to paint these clouds because it really doesn’t matter if your clouds look exactly like mine or not, you just have to be close and you need to see how much movement there is in a cloud. The photo or nature are your best teachers, you need to be observant.

If you don’t have any gray mixed up you will need to mix some more before you start mix it to a medium value – midway between light and dark – if you need it lighter you will add more water either on the palette or better by rinsing your brush and using clear water to move what you have on your paper; to make it darker you can add touches of blue, purple or sienna to increase the value. You can even add touches of green or red/crimson to the mix if you want to because if you really look at clouds you will see all colors.

If you want, because it will make the paint move easier, wet small areas as you go but don’t go all the way to the edge with the clear water (look at the photo) to keep them bright white. I was using my ¾” angle brush and was dabbing on the color and letting the paint and water do most of the work. I would soften the edges of the darker areas with just a damp brush with water on it or as an area was drying I would add more wet paint to darken an area and hope for blooms, or I rinsed my brush and dropped water or touched areas with small amounts of water and let the watercolor do the painting. I let the photo guide me which is what you will also need to do.

I have a bit more work to do on the clouds and the landscape and we should be able to finish up this project next time. You may want to start looking for something you want to paint for your own project for the rest of the semester and I will be doing misc. demos and requests as needed. See you in class.

Fall Watercolor class 2014 Week 1

FALL 2014 WATERCOLOR CLASS

Project: Cloud Study

Torrance students, you will use the PV blogs to review what we do in class. It does give you an advantage if you read it ahead of time or print it out that way you are familiar with what we will be doing in class since PV will be a week ahead of you.

As an artist there are times when you just have to get out of your comfort zone and try something very different, and that is what we are going to do with this cloud study. At least for me this is going to be something I haven’t used in a painting before but it looks like a perfect subject.

If you have been painting in watercolor for any length of time you have probably heard time and time again if you are using masking fluid you need to use it on dry paper, that is what I had heard from day one many moons ago, then I went to an artist’s talk and the man is a very good local watercolorist and he uses masking by dropping it onto wet paper to get natural looking clouds and sea foam. I asked many questions about this then did a sample the next day to see how it worked and it looked very promising. We will all be learning something new this time and I think it will be a lot of fun.

Remember it is important to do studies like this occasionally because it allows you to make mistakes. Too often we are all painting our “masterpieces” and are too afraid to try something different because we don’t want to mess it up. However, doing studies where you can work out your problems or try new techniques will give you the confidence to use them in your “masterpieces” and bring the finished work up to a new level. You won’t know until you try and that is what studies are for when you are an artist.

There isn’t much of a drawing for this project and if you feel confident enough you can just freehand the drawing onto your paper. HAVE THE REFERENCE PHOTO IN FRONT OF YOU. The drawing doesn’t need to be perfect but you do need to get some dynamic shapes into your clouds, so LOOK at the photo before you start drawing and refer to it often as you are drawing. The mountain ridges are simple but you do need to create some interesting shapes in them as well, I don’t want to see a series of “M” mountains and they can start up from the bottom between a third and a quarter way up, I have mine a bit higher so they can be seen when I am demoing.

Have your masking fluid ready to go, have your reference photo in front of you and have your paper flat before you start wetting it with just water. You want the paper wet but do try to avoid pools of water, move the water around so you have a nice even covering of water, the whole paper should have a shine. Dip your masking brush into the masking fluid and just on the inside of the lines for the clouds WHERE THERE WILL BE LIGHT AREAS (look that

the photo to guide you), drag and touch your brush to the paper. You will have to reload often and you will need enough so it can do its job but let the masking fluid do its own thing. You are not outlining all the clouds this is just in the areas where the sunlight is the brightest. Thick lines, thin lines and blotches make up the bright areas of the clouds don’t try to make them all even. When you are done, let it dry completely.

Our first wash of color will be a soft gray and it can go on everything even the mountains if you want. The masking fluid is protecting our white areas so everything else on the paper needs to have color and/or value. We are going to have to have contrast to make the whites look bright and we start with the next lightest value.

The gray I used was my standard gray and one you really need to commit this mixture to your head. It is Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna and a touch of Dioxizine Purple. I want this to stay on the cool side so it has more of the blue but to warm this up add more sienna, it is a very friendly gray and can be used in many situations. I also added enough water to make it a very pale gray so on a scale of 1 – 10, 1 being white, 10 being black this would be between a 1.5 to 2, it is more a tint. If the color looks too dark when you put it on your paper, don’t panic just quickly rinse you brush and take clear water to dilute what is on your paper. This color can go over ALL THE PAPER including the landscape. Don’t try to paint around the masking, just paint over it because that is why we put it down in the first place, just cover the entire paper with this light gray then let it dry. I used my biggest brush for this wash of color.

The next and subsequent washes will be a bit more specific so you will be using a medium sized brush (I was using my ¾” angle brush) and I was looking at my reference photo before I started painting. What you will be doing is what is called negative space painting because what you will be doing is finding the areas around a cloud and adding a darker color behind the lighter cloud in front. Watercolorists have to work from light to dark so you need to learn to see these negative shapes.

I was using the very same gray color I was using before, if it is a bit too light add just a little more of the 3 colors to give it more value and look for those darker areas to add the next wash of gray. If you need to, you can turn your painting upside down and let gravity help you get a soft blend and/or you can wet the area to help the paint move a bit. Do not go over everything you painted with the first wash, just the darker areas, we will do the detail of the clouds later, at this point we are just trying to define the clouds.

If you want to add a bit of color into the sky area you can do it while the paper is still a bit wet. Use the ultramarine blue and a little touch of purple (no sienna this time) start at the top and corners and let the blue fade down into the clouds. There are some high, wispy clouds behind the big clouds so you don’t want to add the blue everywhere, again, look at the reference photo BEFORE you start adding the sky color.

We have some work left to do on the sky and then we will start with the clouds and landscape so don’t try to get ahead of me or you could have problems. Good start on this, see you all in class.