Homework 11/9/11 Shadow Pattern on Portraits

Look for a photo of a head that features a strong shadow pattern. Imagine it as a series of layers: First, an overall pale wash to represent the illuminated skin tone, into which color variations of similar value can be placed. Then, a shadow pattern, which can also be given soft edged variations, and, finally, the few darkest darks, like pupils and nostrils.

Keep it simple!

Workshops

Date and descriptions of four upcoming workshops have been listed on my website, www.hoffmannwatercolors.com

Paint Science
Landscape Elements
Oaxaca
Puerto Escondido

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Beginning and Intermediate Watercolor homework 11/4/11 Shadows

La Soledad, Oaxaca

The shadows in this painting may look very complex at first, but they are primarily a middle value layer laid on top of the lights. Each shadow is a purple shape, with warms and cools touched in while the purple is still wet.

In the case of the Cathedral facade, the warms and cools within the basic shadow shape play a big role in suggesting the changing planes of the sculpture. Shadows are often simpler, falling on flat planes, like the walls in the following scene:

In both images, though, the local color of the surface is painted first, as an overall wash. The shadows are applied on top of the sunlit area, not adjacent to it. There is no benefit to leaving the shadow area white, and then painting it in next to the sunlit part. It is more efficient and more convincing to put one layer on top of another than to try to match the edges of adjacent shapes.
Thinking in layers takes some planning and practice. Using the images you borrowed in class, or any photo or live scene that presents an interesting shadow pattern, start by blocking in the light first layer of the major shapes. Then apply the shadows. To be sure your shadows are an acceptable color and value, try them out on a patch of the local color made in advance on practice paper. Do not correct your shadows on the painting. Really. Don't fix them. Make another painting if you're not happy with the shadows. The skill you need to practice is not how to rescue the shadows, but how to get them right on the first try.
Have fun

intermediate homework 10/29/11 The illusion of space

You've heard this before, but it bears repeating:

Start your treatment of a new subject by identifying the major shapes. Which parts of the composition need to be separated from each other for the feeling of space to be apparent? Consider which variables you will use to enhance the feeling. Generally speaking, it takes two, or more of color, wetness, value and composition working together to establish a clear separation.

Joyce Hicks, Pennsylvania Idyll, 18 x 24

The location of each shape in the illusory space is obvious in this landscape. Which variables are at work to make it clear?

Stanislaw Zoladz, Lofoten

The big change from foreground to background is brought about mostly with color temperature, but there is more to it than that...

Make a study of a new subject that involves believable space. Be thoughtful in your consideration of the feeling of depth you want, and how to create it. Be prepared to describe what your plan was to the class. Have fun.

Beginning Watercolor homework 10/28 refining a subject

You might characterize what we did in class this week as refining a subject down to its essential parts. At first a new subject is overloaded with information, and you may be drawn into rendering it with undifferentiated specificity. After a couple of versions, though, the most telling aspects of the subject a begin to reveal themselves. Compared to these features, the rest seems optional. you can include it if you like, but it is not essential to a description.

Look for an object that you can see as a series of layers. Set it up under a single, strong light source, so it casts a noticeable shadow. Paint a monochrome study first, then make a simple version in color. Try describing in words what you see as the most important aspects of your subject. See if you can identify the visual characteristics that correspond to these essential features. Go down the list: Value, color, wetness, composition. Save the important parts, lose the rest, and paint it again. And again. Keep painting new, refined versions until you can make one from memory. Keep it simpler.

intermediate homework 10/20/11 The important thing...

Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon, also wrote a wonderful book called The Important Thing, in which she talks about familiar things, listing their features. Snow, for example, is cold, and it falls from the sky, and tickles your nose when you tilt your head back to watch it, but the important thing about snow is that it is white.
We are doing something similar when we paint. The many features of our subject present themselves, all jostling one another for the spotlight. To know better what needs to be in the picture and what is optional, it helps to decide what the important thing is to you.
Find an image that appeals to you and take time to identify what you want to focus on in the scene. This is not necessarily a "focal point", or a center of interest. It may be a feeling, rather than a particular spot on the page. Keep it in mind when you make decisions about palette, cropping, how the page is oriented, which shapes need to be separated and which combined...everything, in other words.
When we put them up on the wall next week, we can try guessing what the important thing was to you.
Have fun

beginning Watercolor homework 10/20 shadows

Hi Folks
While you're all tuned up to see in layers, the time is right to practice making shadows as a layer that goes directly on top of the sunlit light shapes. Hopefully, the weather will offer us an opportunity to work from life, but if not, here are a few vignettes that feature shadows:

If you are not yet in the habit of having a piece of practice paper handy while you paint, this exercise is a good time to establish this essential bit of housekeeping. When you decide on the color and value of the lights that will have shadows cast upon them, make a big patch of the color on the practice paper. Then, when you are mixing the shadow color, you can try a stroke on the practice patch and see immediately if it works.
Don't forget to practice the kind of edge you want, too. Some of these are soft.
Have fun

Intermediate homework 10/12/11 Combining shapes of similar value

       As part of our recent exploration of the role of the mid-tones, we have been combining shapes that are close in value. Looking at the image with an eye toward how far you could go without lifting your brush is a useful to discover similarities.
       Once you have assessed a scene to read which layers carry the most content, you can make informed choices about how much you can afford to simplify the other layers. Combining shapes is a very effective form of simplification.
       The idea is to make it easier for the viewers to take in the main message at a glance. Once they feel anchored in the story, the subtleties can be savored at leisure.
The following images offer opportunities for combining lights, middle values, or darks, or maybe even all three. Try a sketch first, then see if you can use this approach to refine a proper painting.

Combining shapes means letting go of non-essential information. Some lights will be important to save, others don't matter. The same goes for texture.

Could the car and its shadow combine to good effect? Could they both combine with the building in back? Which lights need to be reserved?

Have fun

beginning Watercolor homework 10/13/11 Layers

Here are a couple of images that suggest a series of layers as a means of translating them into watercolor.

Look them over with an eye toward which layers carry the narrative content and the illusions of light, space, and substance. Squinting helps.

Just in terms of total space, the middle values dominate this scene. Are they also responsible for the content?

Here there is more dark than middle value. Would the darks alone tell the story?

If you were making a painting of one of these in layers that progress from light to dark, at which stage you would have to start being careful. 

Many of you brought home the images you were working on in class. Using those or one of the above, make a simple version of the scene by blocking in the lights, laying the middles over them, and, finally, adding the darks.

Have fun

intermediate homework 10/6/11 middle values

How important are the middle values, painting by painting? 

To answer this question, it seems like a good idea to practice seeing the middle values as an isolated layer, apart from the influence of the lights and the darks. Just as we sometimes paint the darks alone, to see how much of the story they tell, the same approach may reveal the role the mid-tones play in a given image.

Here are a couple of images that seem to rely on the middle values for essential information. Try quick rendering of only the mid-value shapes. Keep it simple. Lift your brush from the page as little as possible. 

If the layer goes on the paper good and wet, you will have time to vary the color of the wash without creating overlap lines. The fewer individual shapes you use, the easier it should be to get an instant "read" of the content.

This one is mostly middle-value

So is this one

Keep it fluid! Colors added to the wash will run together somewhat, but those few darks will pull it together later.

beginning Watercolor homework 10/6/11 Layers

Here is an exercise from a previous term that addresses the concept of seeing in layers. it should be useful as an intro to the three version project we discussed in class. Remember? There will be one version of the first layer only (lights); then a second piece of paper with two layers (lights and middle values); and, finally, a third study that includes three layers (light, middle and dark). It might be informative to de-construct a painting, instead of a photo. Here's one that resolves into layers pretty well:

Translating an image or a scene into watercolor is easier if you can envision the painting as a series of layers. Using the image you selected at the end of class, make a simple study along these lines.

Start by identifying the major shapes that comprise the image. These are the shapes that need to be separated from each other for the pictorial space to be apparent.

This market scene depicts a shallow space, crowded with shapes. It is important to make clear where the individual components are, relative to each other. I would want it to be obvious that the car is closer than the umbrellas, which, in turn, are closer than the sunlit people. Beyond them are more people, subsumed by the deep shade. For each of the major shapes in your scene, draw a simple outline to locate it on the picture plane. Remember, this is meant to be over-simplified. We only need to know where the shapes are, not what they are.     

Next, block in each of the shapes with a first layer. The layers will progress from light to dark, allowing each successive layer to be applied on top of the previous ones. To help see a couple of layers ahead of yourself, try asking, "Is there a way I can paint the entire shape with a wash that will underlie everything that will come later?" 

There is another progression that parallels the movement from light to dark. Thinking of the information that is being depicted as starting out very general and becoming more specific, layer by layer, is a good way to keep from putting in more than the viewer needs to be shown. In the deepest shade in the market scene, for example, it is difficult to know exactly what those dim shapes are. Instead of leaning in very close to the picture to try to make them out, lean back, and let them be vague. Give the viewers an opportunity to interpret part of the scene for themselves.

Some parts of the picture will be sufficiently depicted after two layers. others will need three, or maybe four. If you feel the need to use more than 4 layers, it's time to rethink your approach. This is meant to be too simple. It is not a painting, it's a tool for learning how much information is enough. Just because you can see it, doesn't mean it belongs in the picture.

Use three colors, one red, one blue and one yellow, to make all the colors you see.
Have fun

Intermediate homework 9/29/11 warm/cool/layers

Hi Everyone
Here's an old exercise, revised to extend our investigation of warm and cool.

intermediate Watercolor homework 3/4/11

....more warm and cool
I thought it would be a good idea to integrate the warm/cool concepts into the familiar layer approach to planning a painting. The goal is to make awareness of color temperature an instinctive part of your thinking.

When you are making a picture that involves definite warm and cool statements, you may have to commit to the color temperature right away.

Most of the major shapes in this image need to be warm or cool right from layer number one. This does not mean, however, that you would be obliged to duplicate these relationships exactly. You're in charge of all the decisions. Knowing where you would like to depart from accuracy applies to color temperature, too.

 Look at the three shapes in the central strip, for example. The middle shape could stand to be a bit more separate from the one on the right, so we could read the space more easily. Imagine the picture if that shape were a bit cooler than the right hand shape, while still warmer than the one on the left. 

Consider the value spread between the left and right shapes. Could you see darkening the central form a bit? Or lightening it?

How about that shadow on the right? What would you want to do with that, in terms of color and/or value?

At what stage of the painting would you make your changes? 

Look for an image (or use one of these) that invites a warm and cool treatment. Plan some changes that make the picture more to your liking. These could just be to make it easier, or they could be simply experimental. Write down where in the sequence of layers you plan to make the changes.

Have fun

Beginning Watercolor homework 9/29 layers and value

Greetings, painters

Please read through this article, then look for a photo that presents a wide range of values, from very light to very dark. Try your hand at the process described here. If you have time, and are inclined, see how what the value study teaches you informs a color version.

Five Value Monochrome Study

What role does value play in the relationships between the big shapes?

As a first treatment of a new subject, it would be hard to find a better exercise than a value study. Understanding the dark/light relationships between the big shapes in your composition is an essential step to making a painting that is cohesive. A five-value version  (white, light grey, middle grey, dark grey, black) can be done quite quickly over a simple drawing of the big shapes. It also provides good practice for seeing in layers. Choose a color (just one) straight from the tube, that can get dark enough to represent black. It’s better not to make a color by mixing, since that introduces another variable. This exercise is designed to focus on value only. Similarly, all paint should be applied to dry paper, to keep wetness from distracting your attention from value.

If you are tempted to get fussy about edge quality, or texture, or any kind of detail, remember, this is NOT A PAINTING, and it is supposed to be too simple. A door may be important, but the doorknob probably isn’t. I have seen some so-called value studies that are, in fact, very carefully observed monochrome paintings. They may be quite beautiful, but as tools designed to reveal the essential elements of the scene, they are not very useful. The best way to find out if something needs to be in the picture is to leave it out.

After each step, while you’re waiting for the paper to dry, assess how complete the illusion of light and space and substance feels.

Light is an important component of this image. Isolating the variable of Value should reveal the role it plays in creating the illusion of sun and shadow.

                      

In your drawing of the big shapes, try to keep the number down to ten, or fewer. The profile of each shape is all you need to draw. The idea is to locate the shapes, not to describe them.

               

· Starting with the light grey, paint the entire page, except for any shapes that need to stay white.

Is there a feeling of light in the study? What about space? Substance?

                   

· When that layer is dry, paint the whole page middle grey, except for the lights and the whites. If you can’t decide whether a shape should be light or middle, round it off one way or the other. The finished study will reveal whether you made the right choice.

Again assess the state of the illusion: Light? Space? Substance?

                  

· When layer two is dry, apply the dark grey over everything except the middle, light and white shapes. Now that the background figure has a dark grey layer, and the section of wall behind him does not, notice how effectively the two separate, compared to the previous stage.

                  
Finally, paint in the darkest darks.

The role of the darkest darks in creating an illusion of light, space and substance is clear even in a radically over-simplified image.

Where do I need more subtlety or specificity?

When the value study is finished, it can be compared to the source image or the scene to see where adjustments need to be made. Having come way over into the realm of too little information, we now have a basis for judging how much more needs to be included.  Don’t skip this step.  A study, as the name implies, is a learning tool. Your painting process will be more efficient and your paintings more cohesive if you extract all the lessons you can from your preliminary work.

In the photo, the two mounds of dirt are so similar in color and value it seemed sensible to treat them as a single shape. But the study reveals that it would be better to separate them, making it clearer that the one on the right is in front. It is also clear that the mound on the left does not separate sufficiently from the wall in the background. It looks ok where there is a shadow behind it, but where the wall is sunlit only the pencil line separates the two shapes. Perhaps lightening the left mound a little could solve both of these problems. Five values, in this case, are not quite enough. This is an example of the need for more subtlety.

The little raised frame beside the doorway that catches the sun is a fine feature  of the photo that I miss. It does an important job, describing the light. It is a bit of specific information that will add significantly to the picture without becoming a distraction.

It is surprisingly easy to see what is missing and what needs to be changed when the image has been over-simplified. If I had made a complex first attempt it would be difficult to know which of the (too) many elements were not necessary.

Intermediate Homework Sept 22, 2011 What color are the darks?

Socks                                                           Mary Whyte

              The colors in the background of Mary Whyte's gorgeous portrait are clearly related to the palette she has established in the figure. As a result, figure and ground are part of the same world. I would not jump to the conclusion, though, that the darks must be a version of the dominant foreground color. There is plenty of blue in the figure, and the artist could have made the background mostly dark blue instead. The resulting image would have had a very different feeling, but the integration of the parts would still have been strong. If she had chosen to make the background neutral black, however, the figure would have been floating in a context that might as well be outer space.
Make  a study of a high contrast image in which you allow the darks to have a noticeable color. Base the color on the palette you have used elsewhere in the picture. If you have time, try another version, using a different color as the link to the darks.

Beginning Watercolor Homework 9/22 Limited Palette

Using the photo you took home, or one of your own, paint a simplified version using only one set of primaries to mix all the colors. Choose any red, yellow and blue, and stick with that set. You can switch to different primaries on the next version. Have fun with it. This is more about color mixing than it is about making a painting. In fact, it is NOT a painting. Take your time with the colors, but don't correct the paint application. Let the mistakes show, take notes, and make another version. The second one will take half the time of the first.

Color mixing: Beginning Homework 9/15/11

If you haven't yet gotten your good paper, you can do this exercise on just about anything. The object is two-fold: to awaken your instinct for color mixing, and to strengthen your awareness of the role the primary colors play in creating neutrals.

Part one:
Choose one red, one yellow and one blue, with an eye toward the ones that will "go both ways". Look for the yellow, for example, that will make good greens and good oranges.
Mix together two of the three colors, adjusting and fine-tuning until neither one dominates. Make a small patch of the new color on your paper.
Now add the third color to the mix, until none of the three dominate. Make a patch of the new color on the paper.
Make the darkest version you can of the three color mix, making sure no one color dominates. Just keep adding pigment to the puddle (but no more water). When the paint is so thick that it looks shiny even after it's dry, you've gone too far. Add a little water, and try a patch on the paper.

Part two:
Look in magazines for pictures with areas of solid color about 1 1/2" square, or bigger. Cut some out, paste them onto your paper, and try to mix a perfect match. Use the same limited palette you used for part one. Make patches of your attempts beside the cut-out.
Now try to match the same colors using a different set of primaries. Write down the colors you used near the patches.
Have fun

Intermediate Homework September 15, 2011

What Not to Paint

Finding the essential elements of your image

Since so many of us tend to put more information in our pictures than we intend, we will concentrate for a while on ways to distinguish the essential from the optional. Here are two potential approaches to sorting out what has to be there in the finished painting and what does not. They can all be thought of as deliberate over-simplifications of the image:

   

1) If the image or scene has a pronounced dark/light pattern, try just painting the darks as a collection of black shapes, and leaving out everything else. The result should reveal how much of the job of telling the story is done by the darks. If the narrative content is clear, then you know you can be casual with the initial light and middle value layers.

2) Make a version of the scene in which the major shapes are simplified almost to pure geometric shapes, eliminating subtlety of outline. Treat each shape as a flat wash, with no texture at all. When you assess the result, look for the places that really need more subtlety or specificity, and take note of any places where what you thought was too little information turned out to be enough.

Both approaches can help you see at what stages of the painting you can be carefree, and when you will need to be careful. Write down what you discover, and have fun.

Beginning and Intermediate Homework

The "two minute" studies appeared to shake loose many assumptions and blow away distractions. There is a lot to be gained from letting go of the need to do justice to the details of your subject.
Ideally, you come away from this brief exercise with a more objective view of what really needs to be in the painting, as well as some evidence of how fresh and exciting the paint looks when you don't have time to "perfect" it.

Using the images you brought home, or ones you already have in mind, make one or two very rapid studies. If you find yourself slowing down as you get farther along, this probably means you are becoming invested in the study as a painting, and trying to make it a good one. Let go of that, too. Instead, leave out too much, and use what you learn in the next version. Keep refining the image, one version after another, adding a little of what you feel is missing, and editing out what seems to be unnecessary. Work small - no bigger than 1/4 sheet - and stay swift. Oh, and have fun.

Intermediate Watercolor Homework 5/26/11

Letting Go 

Charles Burchfield

We have practiced several approaches to deliberately oversimplifying an image, with the goal of discovering what needs to be in a painting, and what can be edited out. Somehow, though, the information often remains elusive.
I would like to see what happens if you get really serious about refining your image down to its essence. Make a study of the major shapes in which you assign each shape a single color and value, with no texture. That should strip away anything inessential, and probably some of what you wish were still there. Take notes about which is which, and make a more personal version, putting back the minimum amount of what you feel needs to be included.
This isn't new stuff, but I think it bears repeating.

George Post

Beginning Watercolor Homework 5/26/11

Put the paint down and leave it alone

Most of you brought photos home from class, I believe.
Make an oversimplified study from your image, and then spend some time taking note of what needs to be included in a painting, and what can be left out. Actually write it down.
Now make a more refined version, working from general to specific. For this one, please don't correct anything. Let the mistakes remain, and take note of what caused them. Try a more efficient approach to the problem areas on practice paper, then make another painting. Keep it VERY simple.

Do as many versions as you have time for.

Intermediate Watercolor Homework 5/19/11

Letting Go

This twenty year old picture resurfaced today, and I saw it with new eyes. But this was not one of those lucky moments when you discover that the painting is really good, you just had to forget your original intentions. Unfortunately, it is at least as bad as I thought when I painted it. The good news is that now I know why. 
All these years the painting has puzzled me. If you had suggested that there were too many focal points, I would have said that the buildings in the background were very simple, with no detail, so they shouldn't be the problem. But, in fact, they are even more assertive than the ones in the foreground. They have more intense color, a wider value range, and sharper edges.
This is a perfect example of why it is often helpful to combine shapes.
Imagine if I had painted a single shape to represent all the background stuff, reserving a few hard-edged lights, and inserting a couple of accents. It might have looked something like this:

To my eye, this is a more cohesive picture. In the original version, I had to actively ignore parts that were shouting for attention. Now, instead, I can imagine them if I want to know what else is going on inside that shape, nome sain?

Here are a couple of familiar images that lend themselves to a similar treatment. Look them over, with an eye toward what can be hinted at, or left out altogether. I think it's fair to say that more than you think is actually optional information.

Many thanks to Alvaro Castagnet, whose work helped make this clear.