Intermediate Homework 4/25/19 Variety

The potent sky scenes you all invented yesterday in class were individualistic, to be sure, but they also had a couple of features in common: saturated color and soft edges. Having spent some time now working with relatively thick paint and diffuse edges, let's practice using those features in some places and not in others, so your paintings display a range of qualities.

Here are a couple of Gerhard Richter's watercolors:

In this painting, the paper appears to have been dry everywhere, except for that pink shape at the top.

Here the opposite is true. Almost everything is soft edged.

And here there's a mix of edges that gives emphasis to the hard edged darks. Deciding deliberately what kind of edge you give to your shapes puts a powerful tool in your hands.
 Choose a photo from those below, or use one you find on your own, and adjust the edges as you please. You might try different versions that shift which edges are hard and which are soft.

Beginning Watercolor Homework April 25, 2019 Seeing in Layers

Beginning Homework  Thinking in Layers

To extend our classwork into the realm of understanding a painting subject as a series of layers, I'd like everyone to make a demonstration piece comprising three separate sheets of paper. One will show only what the first layer looks like (the pale under-painting of the major shapes). Then another that shows the first and second (lights plus middle values), and, finally, one that shows three layers (light, middle and dark). The idea is to show the layer by layer development of your painting.
The process breaks down like this:

Start by identifying the major shapes in the image. There should be no more that 10 or 12.

Make a simple drawing that locates the shapes.

Paint in the first layer - the lights - of each shape, keeping the treatment as simple as possible (no texture or detail).

Now make two more first layer pages, so that you have 3 more or less identical sheets.

Put the second layer - middle value - on top of the first layer on two of your 3 sheets.

Finally, apply the 3rd layer - the darks - on top of one of the second layers.

When the process is finished, you should have one sheet that just has the first layer, one that has first and second layers, and one that has three layers. Please bring all three, plus the photo in to class.

In case you missed class, here are a couple of simple images that will resolve nicely into three layers. If you think there should be a fourth layer of super darks, put them on top of the three layer treatment.

Please read all that again. It's a little confusing, I'm afraid.

Intermediate Watercolor Homework 4/11/19 Descriptive, Symbolic, Abstract

In between realism and abstraction there is a broad arena where artists such as Jill Maclmurray, George Post, and Charles Burchfield roamed.  

                                                             Jill McleMurray

Charles Burchfield

                                                                     George Post

These are definitely realist paintings in some ways. We can recognize their subject matter even though it is more symbolic than descriptive. It seems fair to say that the artists want the viewer to be able to identify what is being interpreted, but rather than simply observe and duplicate the subject  they devise a symbol based on the essence of the content.
An emphasis is put on abstract elements, such as shape and color, by distilling the subject down to a simple but unmistakeable form. In context, Maclemurray's sage brush is easy to recognize, even though she is not describing specific individuals.

Here are a couple of images to experiment with:

Beginning Watercolor Homework 4/11/19 Thinking in Layers, Watercolor Skies

Here's a good sky photo to use for practicing painting clouds. It's very similar to the one we made in class; white, light gray, darker gray and blue. For simplicity's sake, let's proceed as if all edges are soft. I recommend reading the description of the step-by-step process a couple of times before launching into your first try. Use good, 100% cotton paper if you have it. It will greatly increase the chances of success. 1/4 sheets (11 x 15") or smaller are good for this exercise.

First, wet the paper on both sides so it will stay wet long enough to mix and apply your colors. Use a big brush to work the water into the fibers. Put a little extra water around the edges of the paper. They tend to dry faster than the middle of the page.

Second, add some blue to the brush and mix it on the palette so the paint is uniform. Surround your cloud shapes with blue. If you want to get fancy, you can use two different blues, one for the upper portion and another for the lower. See the difference? Experiment on a piece of cheap paper to see which colors work best for you.

Third, add a very little bit of orange to the blue that is left on your brush. There is no need to wash off the blue before you add the orange. Stay out of the water bucket, please. You already have all the water you need on the paper,  plus whatever is left on the brush you used for wetting.
When you are mixing the blue and orange together, try to balance the mixture so neither color dominates. That should produce a good gray. If you find you're getting a purple, add a tiny bit of yellow.

Fourth, notice where the gray occurs on the clouds. I see it on the lower half of the white shapes. Apply the gray accordingly.

Fifth, add a little more pigment to your brush to make a darker gray, and apply a stroke or two wherever you see it in the photo. This step is often overdone.

The sky is a very forgiving subject. Just about anything you create could actually happen. Given this variability, resist the temptation to fiddle with your clouds. Take what you get. As soon as you paint something in front of the  sky, like a steeple, or a telephone pole, the whole thing comes together. Below, here are a couple of sky paintings you can copy for further practice.

Give this exercise a few tries, and bring them all to class. The failures are more informative than the successes. Stay relaxed.

Intermediate Homework 3/9/19 General to Specific

Most watercolors proceed from light to dark, since it is easier to put a dark on top of a light than to do the opposite. At the same time, the trajectory of a well-planned painting moves from broad, general statements toward more specific passages.
Select one of the following images or the ones attached to the beginning homework from this week. All are fresh photos, never before painted, except one that actually is a painting.
Stay loose until you have at least applied the middle values. I believe it's not the artist's job to make sure the viewer can tell what they're looking at, especial;ally in the early stages. To make sure you don't get specific prematurely, try wetting the whole page before you block in the lights.

Gage classes will be working from a model this coming week. If you have any large sketch paper, please bring it along. We'll use it for the short poses.

Beginning Homework 3/9/19 Light, Middle, Dark

Most images or scenes can be translated into watercolor with no more than three layers. The transparency of the medium suggests that we start with the lights and progress through middle value to dark. The following images are all new. No one has painted them before. They have been selected for the ease with which they can be seen as a series of layers.
I like to start by identifying the major shapes and outlining them with pencil or very pale paint.

Sky, hill, ground, trees. Keep it simple, and notice that any white you see in this picture is in your imagination. The darks here are very linear. You could easily make too many hard-edged, dark lines. Remember what Eliot O'Hara said about how many are enough, "Fewer than half as many as you think".

                             

The key to simplifying this scene is to paint the cluster of sheds, vehicles blocks and fences as one single shape. Save a few whites within the overall shape and paint the rest middle value. Then put in a few dark rectangles and Bob's your uncle.

A patchwork quilt of rectangles. Graffiti or no graffiti?

Let's not all paint the snow scene.

Have fun

Gage classes will be working from a model this coming week. If you have any large sketch paper, please bring it along. We'll use it for the short poses.

Intermediate Homework 3/1/19 Keep it Simple

How do you know when you've done enough to describe the subject matter in a painting? There always seems to be a little more that wants to be included. I think the key is to look inside rather than at the scene or the photo. You have to trust your gut feelings. 

In the alleyway sketch, above, the most important aspect is the sunlight. That's the story I want to tell, so if the shapes appear to be lit by strong light, the essential information is there. I could stop even though there is plenty more optional information I can see. On the sunlit side of the garage the siding is described with a few swift strokes. I haven't made clear whether the siding has corner boards or mitered corners. Should I add more information to make sure the viewer can tell? 

What about that brown shape in the lower right? I'm guessing no one but me knows what that is, but the sun is shining on it, and it contributes to the feeling of a cluttered alley. That's enough.

In this scene of headlands in fog Eliot O'Hara uses the foreground shape to tell us what the shapes in the background are. Only the closest form needs any detail for the viewer to know all they need to understand what the rest of the painting is about. Try closing one eye and covering the foreground. Without that information the background is insufficiently described, but when there is a clear context there is atmosphere and light and space. This is a painter who knows when to stop.

The following images present opportunities to tell a story that can be complete even though there is more that could be added. Decide for yourself what the most important thing is. Once that is present, that could be a good place to stop. Err on the side of too little information rather than too much.