Painting Three-Sunshine at Castle Island

Sunday, July 12, 2009

This is a little watercolor depicting summer trees and sunshine(at last) in Southie.  I added a warm green color to my pallette -sap green.  It saves a lot of time mixing but it would be a worthwhile exercise for you to try to mix your own greens from the blues and yellows for a while before doing the same.  The composition depended on a seesaw armature.  In addition to the sunlit effect I was striving to achieve balance and movement.  I am still struggling a little bit with the application of watercolor as I am sure you are.  It is something that just requires a lot of practice.  This is only painting three of my goal of one hundred so I hope by the end I will be fluent in this beautiful language.  The order of painting was sky - graded wash of cobalt blue down to horizon line.  When that dried, I focused on the focal point tree.  I laid the following colors in wet-in-wet moving from sunlit side to shadow: lemon yellow and sap, add ultramarine to mix, add paynes gray to mix.  So there are three values in this one shape.  I repeated the same process in the subordinate tree on the right.  When this section dried I used a midtone to lay in the wall and distant trees.  Now I could concentrate on the foreground washes - bright wash of lemon yellow and sap in the sunshine and same wash colors with ultramarine blue for shady foreground grass on the right.  Then I laid in a light graded wash for road shape using diluted raw sienna in rear adding slight amount of burnt sienna in immediate foreground wash.  When these foreground washes were completely dry the fun part began: I got to lay in the dark shadow color shapes under the tree and across the road.  I used a darker tone of green in grassy area and a violet gray made by mixing ultra with light red for road shadows. Notice how I left some very light streaks in the grass on the light and shade sides to show the movement of the sun.  This is an easy thing to do in watercolor(if there is such a thing).  The play of warm/cool and light/dark gives an immediate illusion of reality for little effort. 

Finally, I added my three sisters, entitled it Sunshine at Castle Island, signed it, put it in a mat ready to be shrink-wrapped for future study and sale.  

Final thoughts:  I think trees are an excellent subject for you to work on as they require a manipulation of shape, value and color application that will benefit you greatly regardless of whatever subjects you choose to paint.  Just remember to vary your greens as much as possible.  Some artists avoid green altogether because they believe it is a hard color to mix.  I think that is a big mistake.  Give it a try.  I'm sure you can find a tree or two out there in your neighborhood. 

Please comment or email any questions you have about this painting or anything else you are working on.  By the way, I am trying to get an idea of how many people might be interested in attending another classroom session this fall at the Tynan.  I am thinking of 4 weeks in September.  The cost would be $100 again and we would just focus on still lifes.  Please let me know if interested. Unfortunately, I would limit this class to those folks who already have some experience in watercolor.  Beginners will have to take my beginner course next spring.   

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Sunshine at Castle Island.jpg

BobbyFarrell

Jul 12, 2009

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