Intermediate Watercolor, 4/23/20 How are the Shapes the Same?

Eugen Chisnesian

Look beyond the hard-edged darks in this floral display to see what was there before the final layer was applied. I think the paper was mostly wet, which allowed the green and purple and brown to flow together. The purple patches in the center area were all one shape. As the paper dried the large shadow (bottom left) was painted, giving hard edges to some of the individual flowers and the sunlit portion of the vase. 

Looking at the center portion of the bouquet you can see that it didn't take much to show what all that color was about. Just a few dark strokes on the now dry paper were enough to establish the separate components of the subject.

During the early stages of a painting it is often appropriate to put the emphasis on what the various shapes have in common rather than how they are different.

Here's another Chisnesian painting to consider

                          

If we zoom in, you can see that much of the group of buildings has been initially treated as all one shape. Some whites were reserved, but most of the shapes have in common that they are in shadow. The artist is focussing on how the shapes are the same first, then shifting emphasis to how they are different. The progression is from general to specific.

                        

The following images are good candidates for painting in this manner. Make a couple of sketches first, exaggerating the sameness of adjacent shapes. Then see what you can do with the hard edged darks. The idea is to gain confidence that the layers that  come later will provide sufficient opportunity to clarify the content. Take care not to over do the hard edges. Better to err on the side of too general than too specific.

Beginning Watercolor Homework, 4/22/20 Neutrals are Everywhere

Look around your living room. Most of the colors you see in the sofa, the rugs, the ceiling, just about everything is neutral, or at least somewhat neutralized. The exceptions are usually manufactured objects, like throw pillows, or art on the walls.
In nature, it's the same thing; the color of the majority of what we see involves all three primaries.

 For homework, find two neutral-colored objects, one warm and one relatively cool. Using one red, one yellow, and one blue, combine the colors to match your objects as nearly as you can. Make a patch of your colors on paper. Take note of the colors you used.
Now choose a different red, yellow and blue and match the objects again.



We'll spend some time next week laying out your palettes, so bring all your colors.

Tom

4/16 Adjusting and inventing

Last week we experimented with the concept of adjusting variables to create an illusion of space in a painting. Here's another common use for turning the dials  that is all about what to do with large areas of deep dark value.

This image has no white at all. Even the lightest light is a middle value. In order to display those subtle clouds the camera phone sacrifices the large ares of dark. They look pretty much like solid black. That's a lot of nothing happening. 

What can you do to enliven those patches of flat black?

The profiles of the landscape elements suggest what you might hint at. It isn't necessary to make careful rendering of trees or rocks. They are already present. Just a little bit of variation in the black should be enough to encourage the viewer to meet you halfway. Try lifting some of the dark, or let the smaller darks within the large shapes have soft edges. The idea is to do as little as possible

Below are a few images that devote too much space to nondescript dark.Try adding or removing a few strokes that will give the viewer something to grasp.

Considering how close to the front of the space it is, that dark shape in the right foreground needs a little something to suggest some texture, but just a little. It doesn't really look bad in the photo, but in a painting it would be a black hole.

There's plenty of recognizable context to identify what comprises the shape. Any marks you make there would be understood to be foliage. See how few touches of the brush the shapes in the middle distance needed. Don't go crazy and start painting every leaf.

All Levels Homework, 4/9/20 Adjust the Illusion

When you are working toward an effective illusion of space you may want to turn up the differences between the foreground and the background. In this photo, for example, the sense of distance is tenuous. C.olor, value and edge quality are very similar:

Increasing the difference between the foreground and background would make them different enough to describe greater depth. How about changing a combination of variables, like color and edge quality. I see a hint of purple in the background. Increasing the presence of the purple might push the headland further back across the water. How could you use hard and soft edges to create a more potent sense of distance?

Please experiment with these adjustments. The variables can be thought of as a set of dials that you can adjust, labeled Color, Value, Edge Quality, Composition and Complexity.

Send me your versions, which I will put into a slide show.

Have fun

Intermediate Homework 3/15/20 Reading the Layers

The standard approach to making a watercolor goes by many names, such as, "wash and stroke", or , "wet to dry", but the common denominator is that most paintings progress from general statements to specifics. Here are a couple of finished paintings that were created mainly as a succession of layers beginning with pale, soft edges and becoming harder and darker;

Trevor Chamberlain

Can you imagine what the first layer looked like by itself? When did the soft-edged grey shapes become trees?

Trevor Chamberlain

The tree in the middle distance, although it is treated as a single shape, is more complex than those in the background. It displays a few specific marks (branches and openings).



In the following paintings the layers remain visible as successively darker and hard edged;

Torgier Schjolberg



 

Torgier Schjolberg

Light, middle, dark. Some images may require more than three layers.

Please make a simple, three or four layer painting from one of the photos, below, or try copying one of those, above. You may want to desaturate the image to more plainly see the layers.

Thinking Abstractly to Keep Your Realism Fresh

This dramatic sky wanted to be painted! It's a little intimidating, though, with all that activity in the sky. Rather than try to duplicate that complex array of marks, I'll look for guidelines that will lead toward an interpretation that feels similar. 

The warm wash across the upper sky portion seems simple enough, but the array of grey brushstrokes requires some analysis. It helps me to ask a few questions the answers to which provide guidelines for approaching the subject in a general way.

What proportion of the sky will become grey?

60%, roughly.

How are the grey strokes distributed?

The majority of the marks are spread across the center of the top half of the page, extending from one side to the other, running right off the page. Mostly clumped together, with a couple apart from the group. Only one or two strokes touch the top of the big shape.

What kind of marks are they? (organic? geometrical? Horizontal? Vertical? Hard? Soft?) 

Soft-edged but still distinct, roughly horizontal, irregular and varied.

The answers to these questions are abstract, in that they don't refer to content at all. Theoretically, following them will lead to a passage that reads as a tumultuous sky. It should be possible to turn your back on the scene (or turn the photo over) and still make a convincing version without mentioning the words "sky" or" cloud". Thinking abstractly eliminates the profusion of associations that come along with naming content. 

This approach is basically an act of faith. It requires letting go of the usual process where we keep checking to see if we've made sure the viewer will know what they're looking at. The viewers may be hypothetical, but they still deserve respect! Trust that they'll be willing and able to make sense of what you offer, and that they'll appreciate the opportunity to participate in the interpretation. 

The following images might seem more approachable if you observe them as pure form and leave content at the door:

Beginning Watercolor 3/5: Essential and Optional

How do you know what has to be in the picture and what can be excluded? Take a look at the pictures, below. As painting subjects, do you feel more attracted to one than the others? Can you tell what it is that appeals to you? What gives the picture its uniqueness? What would you not want to change?
Go down the list to see what jumps out as the important thing;
Value, color, edge quality, composition.
It's perfectly OK to be drawn to an image because it looks relatively easy, by the way.

Value and color

 

Simplify!

Shape first, then texture, if necessary

                            

Let's use this industrial cityscape as an example.

 I like that the sky and the water are soft-edged, while all the man-made stuff is hard edged (EDGE QUALITY). I also think it would be fun to mix several neutrals, some warm and some cool, and use them in all three areas of the scene (COLOR). I see the strips of docks, containers and skyline as opportunities to combine adjacent shapes (COMPOSITION). As is so often the case, I'll want to get the (VALUES) in the ballpark.

Identify the major shapes and make a  simple pencil outline. 

Decide whether and where to wet the paper. 

Block in the lights.

Take a little more care with the middle values.

Place the dark strokes. Remember, the best way to find out if something belongs in the painting is to leave it out.

Stand back. You're done.