Lighthouse Painting week 5
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
I want to remind you of the steps I take in approaching a subject outside and apologize for a couple of oversights during last night's paint-along:
1. format choice-is the scene horizontal or vertical?
2. What is my focal point and where does it S-I-T on the picture plane?
3. What is my color scheme; do I want a cool or warm dominant picture?
Now at this point I would also examine the light source - what direction is the Sun coming from? Perhaps because we haven't had any sun for three weeks I forgot this important step. Oh well, so we will make this step number
4. Establish source of light.
5. Now this is the biggest mistake I made last night and I apologize. I think because we had the postcard there which of course was my original sketch I made on Nantucket years ago I felt that we did not need to do a value sketch. Well, after class I realized that in the future you will not have a prepared value sketch available and therefore must produce a road map before painting. This, after all was the whole purpose of the course-to emphasize the need for a value study (squinting) and creating a notan (black and white linking passages) so when we got to the painting stage we would have a blue print for success. I am especially sorry to those few who didn't even have the postcard to use as a value sketch. My bad, so we will call number
6. Prepare a value sketch. Remember this should be small (no bigger than 5x7) and should be done in the same format that you will be using in the painting, i.e. horizontal or vertical. Do as many as these as necessary to feel good about what you want to say in the painting. At least do three -remember S-I-T.
7. Finally, what method of painting am I going to use to paint the picture? There are hundreds of ways to paint a watercolor. Last night I showed you one that should guarantee color harmony and eye flow. Using our biggest brush we laid in our dominant temperature midtones in all but the areas we wanted to save as white. As you could see this is not as easy at it sounds. Although we all know how important it is to keep areas white the tendency is to cover up everything with paint. One thing you can consider starting out is actually ripping pieces of white paper and taping them on your paper in areas you want to keep. Make the shapes bigger than you need. You can always go back and glaze over a few. After laying in the midtones and adding a treeline wet-in wet along the horizon we added our darks; remember linkage. In the foreground we created some Charley rocks and drybrush for texture. In the midground we wiped out some lights for boats and masts in the water. Then we refocused on the focal point, tightening up the drawing and contrast to make it attractive using a 1-inch nylon flat. Finally with the rigger we added some verticals and birds to offer balance and variety to the many horizontal lines in the picture. The entire painting took about 30 minutes to complete once we started painting. This is about right for a watercolor painting. I hope you will all try this painting again in the comfort of your homes. Feel free to alter the composition in any way you like. Take your time and do each step as carefully as you can. Make sure to tilt your paper about 15-30 degrees so the water flows down. Don't use colors that are too bright. And please don't forget the value sketch before painting. Finally, Julie asked a question last night and I didn't get a chance to answer it. Her question was how do you avoid making mud? Well, there are several ways to make mud: using the wrong colors in combination. The colors that I recommended are all transparent and if used quickly and confidently will not produce mud. However, you should not mix more that two colors together and even then you should lay the mixtures on the painting not the pallette. Overmixing the number of paints or beating the paints to death on the pallette are two sure ways of making mud. Lastly, and this is the one I think Julie is guilty of is fiddling on the paper. By this I mean going over strokes on the paper after the original stroke is made. Mix the right color and right amount of water and put in the right place and leave it alone. That last sentence summarizes success in watercolor and will take you a lifetime to master but what a fun way to spend a lifetime. Warm regards, Bob
P.s. you now have the ability to post a comment on this blog page so please feel free. This means after the course is completed next week as well . Jackie Mullen wanted to mention that the South Boston Library is looking for local art work to be displayed July 16 and 17. This would be a great goal for you guys.
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