Intermediate Watercolor, 9/26/19 What is Style?

Style is what makes one artist's version of a subject different from another's. How we use color, value, edge quality, composition, and complexity varies from individual to individual.

George Post

Tony Couch

The trees in these two paintings are similar in composition. In both they form a band of green across the top half of the page. But the feeling we get from one version is very different from the other. What have the two artists done differently?

Let's consider one variable at a time, edge quality, for example. Couch lets his trees merge where they meet the ground, making them into a single shape. Post maintains a hard edge between the individual trees, keeping them more separate. As a result, Couch's trees play a supporting role in the scene while post's are the stars of the show.

Try looking at The differences and similarities of color and value. 

Style emerges from our distinctive use of the medium; How  one painter loads a brush, which brush is selected, where on the handle the artist holds the brush, everything, in other words. You don't need to deliberately seek your own style. It will find you.

Here are two images. Choose one or paint both if you have time. We will see how we approach the subjects in our own way.