By Sue Doucette

Once you have arrived at your location and found a subject you like, begin by making two or three “thumbnail” pencil sketches, being sure to state your values clearly. (Values are your lights and darks. Three to four shades between white and your darkest dark are enough. These quick drawings will guide you as you are painting.) This is the time to clarify your composition as well. These drawings are quick and spontaneous and should measure about 3″ or 4″ square. After you’ve completed your thumbnails choose the one you like the best, then set up your equipment. Now you are ready to paint.

Set up your work station so you are not looking directly into the sun. Clip your paper to your board in preparation for sudden gusts of wind and keep your thumbnail sketch handy. Remember when painting with watercolor, to leave the white paper where your whites will go, then sketch your subject matter onto your watercolor paper. It is helpful to spray the back of your paper with water before painting. This will keep it from curling up when the front becomes wet.

The background is where you will start your painting. Sometimes an underpainting is done to certain areas of a watercolor. An example of this is a warm mix of Gamboge with Rose Madder Genuine. Apply this with your two inch wet brush to a large area (such as the sky.) After this dries, paint Cobalt Blue over this. Use large confident brushstrokes without painting back and forth over the same area. This will keep your painting from appearing overworked. The warm underpainting will shine through the cooler blue, giving the sky much more interest. By the time you have reached this point you will notice the light is constantly changing. This is when your thumbnail sketch will be very helpful in keeping your painting on track! Remember to refer to your sketch often.

Next paint your middle ground. Don’t fill in the details yet; just get the colors and values in place. This can present a challenge as the paint dries quickly outside (although very humid weather prolongs the drying time.) This is something you will become accustomed to, the more plein air painting you do. If for instance, you are painting a boat in the harbor, get the basic shapes and colors in place. Save the white of the paper where you have planned your whites. Concentrate on placing the lights and shadows, using your thumbnail as your guide.

As you begin your foreground, make sure there is something there to differentiate it from the middle ground. This can be done by adding something which may, or may not, actually be there. Examples of this might be a person, tree, seagull, etc..) Again just get your colors and values defined.

Once your background, middle ground, and foreground have been painted you may begin filling in the details; the name on the boat, the detail on the flag, the eyes on the bird. You will have a clean fresh painting, unlike anything painted indoors, and hopefully you will have enjoyed the spontaneity of plein air painting!

One suggestion before I end, I would like to share with you: When you return to your studio, dampen the back of your painting with water, then press between two boards (I use the smooth sides of two pieces of masonite). Place some heavy objects such as books, on the top piece of masonite and leave overnight. I use five plastic gallon jugs filled with cement to weight it down. In the morning your painting will be completely flat, and you can admire your work, while recalling the pleasure creating it gave you.

Sue Doucette, Author/Artist

http://www.CapeCodWatercolor.com

I have been painting with watercolor for twenty five years, and I am happy to share what I have learned with you. Many artists want to keep their painting “tricks of the trade” secret, but I am happy to share with you what I know. My hope is that you will come to love painting with watercolor as much as I do!

Please visit my website http://www.CapeCodWatercolor.com and check the “news” section for my monthly Helpful Hints For Painters. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. I also paint commissioned watercolors, and can work from your photograph.

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About Arnold

Arnold Lowrey has been painting for 36 years. He has regular exhibitions of his paintings in the South Wales area and has had work accepted and exhibited in the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. He has won several prizes for his paintings in a number of Art Exhibitions.

He is a painting demonstrator for major art material suppliers e.g. Winsor & Newton, . and Art Profile and regularly provides painting demonstrations to Art Societies throughout South Wales and Southern England.
He has demonstrated for a number of years with Winsor & Newton  in Zurich, Switzerland, and has tutored workshops and painting holidays in Portugal and Texas.

Over the past eighteen years, a considerable number of artists have attended these courses, which  cover watercolour, acrylics, pastels and oils. The subjects of his paintings vary from landscapes to still life, portraiture, abstracts etc. The weekly courses are currently located at Taffs Well Rugby Club, Taffs Well, Near Cardiff.
His motivation is a desire for good shapes and texture in his paintings but foremost is his desire to interpret his feelings for each subject using colour and luminosity.

Follow this link to visit Arnold’s Website

The Control of Water in Watercolour

I see so many watercolours fail because artists have not come to grips with the control of water in their paintings. Many books on watercolour concentrate more on pretty pictures and the materials used, rather than tackle this subject, which is vital for success.

Most watercolours fail because too much water is used and the results are a wishy- washy mess. So, let’s come to grips with this important subject.

The question you must always ask is “Where is the water? – Is it in the brush, the palette or on the paper?”

If you have a lot water in your brush and water on the paper, the result is two lots of water combining and flooding everywhere out of control. To have full control of water, you must have a palette with a flat mixing area that does not collect unwanted water. It is also advantageous to have one with open-ended colour wells.

So here are the five most important ways of water control.

• Dry on Dry
• Wet on Dry
• Wet on Wet
• Dry on Wet
• The Half-loaded Brush

Dry on Dry

This is where the paper is dry and all the water is squeezed out of your brush, so that when you pick up paint and paint it on the paper, virtually no water is involved and the result is a scumbling mark.

(No water on the paper and virtually no water in the brush.)

Wet on Dry

If you load you brush with wet paint and paint on dry paper, an area is produced which is soft and flowing in the middle but with hard edges.

(No water on the paper and water in the brush)

Wet on Wet

When the paper is wet and the brush is fully loaded with wet paint, the result is two lots of water on the paper. Consequently, the paper can’t handle this amount and the paint pigment flows on the surface. Tipping the paper will allow the pigment to flow around creating a lot of interesting shapes but accurate control is missing. Useful for backgrounds but you are relying on “happy accidents” to produce any meaningful shapes.

Dry into Wet

If you paint an area of paper using “wet on dry” above and then squeeze all the water out of your brush, you are able to lift the paint off the paper.

This is because you are using a “thirsty brush” i.e. there is less water in your brush than is on the paper. The water travels from the paper back into the brush leaving an area of paper dryer than that surrounding it. (This is the same effect as wringing out a sponge and soaking water out of a puddle.)

If you now repeat this, but having squeezed all the water out of your brush, you pick up some neat pigment (no water!) and paint it into the wet, you will find that you can place it accurately without it flowing all over the place. Water has, again, traveled back into your brush so that the new painted area is dryer than its surroundings.

Watch how the wet area tries to attack the dryer area and softens the edges. This is ideal for those soft-edged misty trees in the background of your landscapes or soft reflections.
To lighten the tonal value of the added colour, drag out some of the pigment from your brush onto a dry piece of paper before applying. This will ensure the brush stays “thirsty”.
(Paper wet but virtually no water in the brush)

The Half-loaded brush – Mingling

Dry into wet techniques tend to replace the existing paint with the new, so if you wish to create an area (say skies) by accurately painting into another whilst the paper is still wet, this method is the only way it can be done.
Mix your first colour with water (on a flat palette) to a suitable tonal value. Paint this first colour on the surface wet on dry.

Clean you palette and repeat this with the next colour. If necessary thin the colour with water so that tonal value is near the first colour. However, before you pick up the paint, squeeze out your brush, then pick up the wet paint with one sweep only. The brush loads from one side of your brush and is half loaded. This allows you to paint the new colour into the wet area without it flowing all over the place. You have total control. This action can be repeated as many times as you like as long as you keep the paper wet. All the different pigments mingle down to one layer and you keep the resulting luminosity.

What about “Cauliflowers” (back runs)?

These are caused by painting wet paint into half dry areas. The water in the new paint leaches into the old causing strange light shapes.
This often accidentally when water drips off your brush into a newly painted area which is “damp dry”. Do not, ever, try to paint this out while it is still wet – you only feed the cauliflower with more water and it gets worse.

Here you can see where a drop of water accidentally was dropped into an area of half dry paint.

Glazing or Mingling?

Glazing

The traditional watercolour techniques, which are so often taught, create a series of glazes, (wet on dry), allowing each one to dry before the next is applied. Each new glaze stacks on top of the next, making the thickness of the overall paint greater.

This method can produce some effective results.
However, the down side is that every time you paint on a new glaze of colour you reduce the luminosity of the painting, as light, which creates the luminosity, has to travel through these layers and reflect back off the paper.

Notice that the shadow glaze has been painted over the windows. This unifies it. If the windows had been painted in afterwards they would have a “stuck on” effect.

Mingling

Mingling is achieved by using the dry into wet or half loaded brush technique shown to the right. Painting into wet areas allows the pigment to settle on one level instead of stacking one on top of the other. Luminosity is retained

Another mingling example:

Keep the paper wet and pump in new colors with a half loaded brush.

Wet on dry – the windows have sharp or rough edges

This painting uses most (although not all) of the previous techniques. Remember, if you have control of water you have control of watercolour.

Dry into wet allows the door, steps and handrail to be placed in the wet and the images to be retained with soft edges.

The Finished Painting – “Orange Wood Cottage”

Spending the time to come to grips with these techniques will move you forward with your watercolour. The above techniques are important keys to practicing your watercolour crafts and mastering them will allow you to concentrate on the importance of the art in your paintings. Composition, design, unity, value, colour, intensity, etc. which, when applied properly, will put you a step ahead of the crowd and help you to sing with your own voice!

Keep painting and good luck!

Arnold Lowrey

(A special thank-you to Phyllis Franklin (llis) who worked with me as editor for this article!)

About Steve Fleming

Good art is the result of hard work and dedication. It only happens when the artist finds his or her own story to tell and then learns to do so with his or her own unique language.

I am an artist who works in watercolor and acrylic, and I teach both for The Art League in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as workshops across the country and abroad. My goal as an artist is to be creative; my goal as a teacher is to help my students learn to interpret the world around them, not to promote the belief the goal of art is the perfect rendering of a subject. One of my core messages: art is a creative process and is not just the sum total of the work we sell. In this era of digital cameras, I caution artists to look — really look both inside and outside — for the subject matter that lights our artistic fires. Otherwise, our work will be lacking everything but technique.

Click over to my blog for behind-the-scenes insight into some of my paintings in progress, musings and a few complimentary lessons for you to take and learn from.

Enjoy. — Steve Fleming

Creative Jumpstart

The “Creative Jumpstart” section of  Steve’s blog is designed to help all artists, regardless of medium, with ideas to get them thinking in expressive ways. They are intended to take about 30 minutes to an hour to finish and are warm-ups not finished paintings. Each one has a specific focus, such as gestural drawing with color accents, and they will be of value to artists of all levels. I plan to do at least 1 per week and hope to challenge readers to really broaden their horizons and move beyond their comfort zones. Along the way the artists will enhance their skills in drawing, color usage and have general less fear when being creative.

Follow this link to learn more!

Abstracting the Shapes, Simplifying the Message

(Click Images For Larger Views)

(“On the Rocks, Bass Head Light” watercolor on paper) The idea in this painting was to create on big shape using the shadow shapes and using that compound form to move the viewer from the upper left corner of the painting down through the figures and out on to the rocks where the people are moving about on the rocks. It leaves some really nice white pieces of paper to contrast against the abstracted shape.

When painting it is easy to become so involved in the subject matter with all of the details, textures, and colors presenting so many possibilities that our paintings never quite have focus or a feeling of unity. Sometimes we achieve nothing more than to present to the viewer either a collection of random thoughts about a place or detail laden color drawing. We paint around the subject never quite making a point. The work lacks creativity and artistic involvement, and the painting lacks a dominance of major shapes. By not focusing on the major shapes we are forced to paint a collection of things and this is a difficult and tedious task.

Sometimes it is a worthwhile exercise to minimize the complexity of the subject matter and reduce the shapes down to three to four major shapes. We need to look at each of these shapes for the quality of their shape, what relationship they have to the other shapes in the painting and what would be the best way to contrast these shapes against one another. Several ways I contrast shapes is by color, value, and texture.

If I am looking for a really dramatic statement I push the relationships between the shapes as far as I can. I use big value jumps, lots of line and texture at the edge of the silhouette, and look for color chords that are rich, expressive, and complementary. I make sure that the edge of the shape is where I create focus and is where I define the identity of the objects. Remember if you put good information at the edge of the shape then you need less details in the interior of the object. Although you have reduced the subject matter down to major shapes in the design phase, you will be able to clarify some of the individual shapes inside the big shapes during the painting process. The goal will be to keep a big shape feel to the painting.

(“Rockport Village” 18 x 24 Watercolor on paper) I have used all of the areas of light and invented a few more and the tied them all together into a shape that moves the viewer up into the painting. Along the path of the light I have added details, textures and color to create a reason for the white paper. It is one shape made up of multiple objects.

It is important to understand that although a shape can be a singular object, it doesn’t have to be. It makes for a really great painting when you can tie several related objects together and create a very expressive shape. As an example Try linking figures together as one value shape, or take a row boat, a figure, a rock and a pole and hook them together into one shape. When we begin to see objects in terms of their potential joining with other things to make larger more dynamic shapes we make a huge jump towards becoming creative shape makers. I believe this is one of the great goals of an artist. This allows you to rearrange the scene in front of you to tell your story with clarity and focus. I believe very strongly that no amount of detail and finish will make a poorly conceived painting work.

(“Camden Harbor” 18 x 24 watercolor on paper) This scene is very complicated and I took all the pieces and made on shape out of them. They are related to each other by a similar value, dark middle value, and again I have only put in the details that are necessary to move you through the painting.

What makes a good shape? A good shape should have a significant difference in it’s width and height. It should have movement or direction, a static shape is not as exciting a one that moves through the picture space. Good shape should have a variety of edges, hard, textured, and soft or blended. It should have a exciting silhouette, exaggerate the position of elements to improve the edge.

Remember the edge of the shape is what defines it, not the interior, so put a lot of interest and defining information at the edge. It is good to try to get some gradation across the shape for instance from warm to cool or intense to less intense, or one hue to another hue. A good shape should tie into the background or foreground at several points, try to invent a rock, a fence, or a figure to help attach the major shape into the adjacent shapes. Lastly and of utmost importance this wonderful shape must not have major value jumps across it. You can have some slight changes in value, but you can’t jump from light to dark to light to dark or the shape will fall apart into value pieces. You can make many color changes and they will not tear up the shape but big value changes will destroy the continuity of the shape.

(“Plains Virginia”, Shacks, 15 x 22 watercolor on paper) The dark shape is a very dynamic one it has a nice variety of edge and definitely moves across the paper.

To begin a painting with a focus on the big shapes it is best to start with a value pattern in your sketch book. Look at the subject matter and mentally organize the different pieces of what you are looking at. Think about which small shapes could be moved around or joined to other shapes. The goal is to connect minor pieces together as one big interlocked shape. At this stage don’t concern yourself about which shapes are lighter or darker in value because you will change their value for the purposes of the painting. Also mentally try to eliminate the shapes which are not going to help in creating good big shapes. Remember this is going to be your painting and you are under no edict from the painting gods to paint everything you see in front of you. Only use what you need.

Once you have thought about what to make your big shapes roughly sketch them onto the page in your sketch book. Analyze and adjust the shapes to follow the rules of a good shape. Remember to incorporate the unique features of the subject matter to enliven the silhouette. Make sure the shapes have an interesting relationship to the other shapes in the painting. Always work from the largest shapes to the smallest shapes and leave out all consideration for the details of the shapes until all of the shapes are well established on the page. Try to have all of the major shapes be a different size, make sure exterior angles are not the same and make sure shapes do not enter and leave the paper at a similar place on the opposite side of the paper.

Assign each shape a value and try to keep your lightest value shapes next to your darkest value shapes this will create the strongest focus and contrast. It is always a good idea to put your center of interest where the strongest value change is located. Once you have the design finished sketch it on the watercolor paper and paint it remembering to follow the value organization. Put some change of color, texture or value in each shape and watch that the edges have variety. Keep the painting simple. When your are done try reversing and rearranging the values of the major shapes and changing the color chords. This will result in some exciting variations on a simple theme.

(“Avon North Carolina” 18 x 24 Watercolor) The shapes are the light and I have played with them to create a nice passage through the painting. Keep thinking movement and attaching objects by using similar values. You will get this abstract shape idea.

(“Avon North Carolina” 18 x 24 watercolor on Paper) This is the same subject as the painting above I just took a lot of liberties with the shapes and colors, but I really have thought of good shapes and movement. Art is about invention and interpretation so loosen up on those shapes and have a good time. Allow yourself to make a few clunkers to get to the gems.

Exercises

• Take a subject with a strong shadow pattern and just paint the shadow areas. Play this pattern against a light middle value
• Take a black and white newspaper photo and with a small view finder, a 35mm slide holder is perfect, pick a interesting dark shape and use for the shape in your painting.
• Extract the key elements from the photo and make one large shape against a light midtone background

About Steve Fleming

Good art is the result of hard work and dedication. It only happens when the artist finds his or her own story to tell and then learns to do so with his or her own unique language.

I am an artist who works in watercolor and acrylic, and I teach both for The Art League in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as workshops across the country and abroad. My goal as an artist is to be creative; my goal as a teacher is to help my students learn to interpret the world around them, not to promote the belief the goal of art is the perfect rendering of a subject. One of my core messages: art is a creative process and is not just the sum total of the work we sell. In this era of digital cameras, I caution artists to look — really look both inside and outside — for the subject matter that lights our artistic fires. Otherwise, our work will be lacking everything but technique.

Click over to my blog for behind-the-scenes insight into some of my paintings in progress, musings and a few complimentary lessons for you to take and learn from.

Enjoy. — Steve Fleming

Creative Jumpstart

The “Creative Jumpstart” section of  Steve’s blog is designed to help all artists, regardless of medium, with ideas to get them thinking in expressive ways. They are intended to take about 30 minutes to an hour to finish and are warm-ups not finished paintings. Each one has a specific focus, such as gestural drawing with color accents, and they will be of value to artists of all levels. I plan to do at least 1 per week and hope to challenge readers to really broaden their horizons and move beyond their comfort zones. Along the way the artists will enhance their skills in drawing, color usage and have general less fear when being creative.

Follow this link to learn more!

Watercolor Painting Tutorial – Value Pattern

When organizing your painting it is important that you spend some time before painting thinking about the arrangement of the lights, darks and midtones in you painting. This planning stage will give you a better chance of painting a focused and entertaining painting. Due to watercolors’ unforgiving nature it is important that we do not begin to paint without some understanding of where we are going . It is much easier to change the value pattern than to change the painting once we are putting paint on paper. Most good artists do not overlook the planning stage and it is the fastest and most effective way to move past strictly replicating photographs.

When we talk about values in painting we are discussing the lightness or darkness of the pigment when it is applied to the paper. Paint straight from the tube without any water added is the darkest the pigment will read on the paper. Of course we can darken the paint further by adding black, or a complementary color or by moving towards purple on the color wheel. By adding water to the pigment we can lighten the pigment. The more water the lighter the wash of color. Each pigment has a dark range so try not to be confused by the more light reflective colors like yellow because they too have a very dark characteristic if they are applied straight from the tube.

When we begin to put together our value patterns we should start with a drawn format box that has a shape and dimension that comes close to the actual paper we are using. Without the format box it is really hard to get the feel for the placement of the value shape on the paper. For full sheet, half sheet, and quarter sheet paintings, I use a box approximately 3.5 to 5 as a relationship. This will work either horizontally and vertically. Remember if you move to a different painting shape you change the format shape of the value pattern.

First I must emphasize that a value pattern is not a drawing or a finished sketch. It is simply an organization of the lights, darks and midtones of the planned painting. The major shapes of the painting are put in but details are kept to a minimum. It is a good idea to put notes on the outside of the value pattern which give you direction in the area of graded washes, dominant elements, and contrast areas. You can also circle areas in the value pattern and show drawing details outside on the border. If for example you had a specific boat or group of figures you wanted to use you would draw them as a detail outside the value pattern with an arrow to its’ placement on the painting. All of this pre-planning gives you a familiarity with the subject matter that will improve your understanding of this paintings’ agenda. It will also help you to understand the sequence of paint application you will use. Another wonderful benefit of a well thought out value pattern is that when finished you understand the paintings’ structure better and can approach your work with a more creative and expressive attitude.

Begin the value pattern by drawing the format box in your sketch book not on your watercolor paper. Then look at the reference sketch, photograph, or nature scene and put all the values into only three categories. The lights will be everything that is the lightest values your are looking at, but they are not exclusively white objects. An objects local color does not matter in its’ lightness or darkness. Depending on the mood, time of day, or effect you are trying to create the lights can be any value as long as it is lighter than the midtones and darks. Just before sunset when the light levels are very low the lightest value you will want can be a middle value and in this situation their will be no traditional light value. Normally the midtones are the values that fall in the middle of the value scale again remember that these will be relative to the desired effect or lightness or darkness of the source material. The darks are the darkest objects in the painting. For designing purposes, you should merge your values into only three ranges. This helps to clarify the value arrangement, and simplify the designing process. Once the painting begins the nuances of value will interpreted within the value pattern, but the goal is to keep the integrity of the pattern. At this point in the process color is not the major consideration remember that each color has a complete range of value. Keep your concerns to the relative value of the major shapes and choose your colors later.

Using a soft pencil cover all areas of the format box that are going to be the midtones leaving the lights as white paper. Remember to leave the white paper or white area as a well placed, well designed shape. It is at this point that you begin to think in terms of the quality of the shapes of your painting. Does each major shape conform to the definition of a good shape. After you cut around the white paper you must consider the placement of the dark areas. As a good starting point you should make sure that the majority of your lights and darks are in close proximity where the center of interest in you painting is going to be. Again the dark shape needs to be analyzed for its quality as a shape or shapes. A key element in the arrangement of values in the painting is that all of the three values should be unequal in size. I think to begin with it is best for you to keep the midtones the greatest portion of the painting with the lights and darks splitting the remaining portions of the painting into unequal pieces. Make sure that you assign each shape in the value pattern a value. This is important because areas that are not resolved now will definitely be a problem later.

After you have made the value pattern you can look at it to see if it reads well and has a good design. Are the major shapes interesting? A good shape has a different dimension in length and width, has movement, has a variety of edges, is attached to the surrounding shapes in the painting and has a slight gradation of color or value from one edge to the next. Is the center of interest in a good location? Is the movement of the painting headed where you want the viewer to look? Does the space division complement your paintings intention? Are the value areas too equal in size, shape, and direction? Is the center of interest where most of the main activity of the painting is going to happen? Is the value arrangement appropriate for the mood, time of day or type lighting you are looking for? This type of analysis of the value pattern will give you the needed feedback for design modifications. If you need to make changes then go ahead. It is easy to make the changes now and not so easy once the paper is wet and the paint is flowing.

Once you get comfortable with using value patterns you can begin to design paintings based on what you want to paint not what you see. By learning to reverse the values of the major shapes and changing their proportions you can create works of artistic expression and free yourself from the total dependence on the scene you are looking at. You can change the mood or feeling of your painting by adjusting the values of the major shapes in the painting. The process of learning to invent and rearrange value patterns will take some work and initial struggle but the rewards will be fantastic. Soon you will be inventing your own shapes, taking more chances and creating better and more satisfying works. Although the process seems like it will create overly tight paintings in fact the opposite is true. By having a familiarity with the subject and a solid plan for the painting you can approach the painting with a more loose and free attitude.

When you are happy with the value pattern sketch the major shapes on your watercolor paper. Do not shade in the values on the paper or the graphite from your pencil will dirty your washes. It is a great help to mark the middle of your value pattern with a cross and make the same cross on your watercolor paper. This will help you align your drawing correctly. At this point you should use your source material to put in the amount of detail you are comfortable with. Try not to overdraw your painting, leave some things loosely indicated, and let the finish come to you as you are painting. Set your value pattern where you can see it when painting. It doesn’t make sense to create a terrific road map and then totally ignore it once you start on your journey. When I paint I rarely look at photos once I start. I look at photos only for reference when dealing with complicated subject matter, interesting local features, or specific placement of figures. I turn the photo over and I make all of my creative decisions based on the evolving painting and the value pattern. I look for areas to contrast colors, darken or lighten value chords, improve a shape, create texture, soften or harden an edge. These decisions are determined by the painting not the photograph or the source material.

I have always used this method when painting. It has served me well over the years. Although a lot of my paintings do not turn out even with the use of a value pattern to paint from, my successes are much more frequent than on those rare occasions that I choose to proceed without one. Designing the painting will engage your brain, your memory, and your artistic talents. Give it a go.

Exercises

• Do several different value arrangements of same photo or sketch.
• Take several failed paintings and correct the values by making a new value pattern and re paint
• Change the mood or time of day of photo or source material
• Make several value patterns a day.
• Show two illustrations of the process with notes.
• Analyze two illustrations for their worth and make changes.
• Show value range in black and white and several colors
• Reverse the values in several value patterns
• Explain relative lightness sunset, and backlit white subject

Value Pattern	Painting

About Mara

I enjoy being an artist! And I’ve been at it longer than this internet blogging stuff. In fact, blogging is all new to me! So I will start by telling you a little about myself. Our nest is not quite empty because we still enjoy the presence of our college-aged kids at home. And because they are busy with work and school I am able to enjoy uninterrupted painting sessions during the day-light hours instead of in the middle of the night like I did when they were little. A bit here, a bit there and I keep my projects alive! One project I’m working on is a cookbook. Originally written for my husband and children, I re-structure classic recipes we love, to make them healthier. I’m also writing and illustrating a series of children’s books. Finding time to Draw, paint, and teach has been a challenge while raising a family but finishing a project is very rewarding to me. And I hope you like my artwork and lessons and enjoy watching my progress with various projects!

Please follow this link to visit Mara’s website to view more of her art lessons.

How to Mix Grays in Watercolor for Atmospheric Perspective

(Click Images For Larger View)

I have gotten several inquiries about mixing warm grey and cool grey with watercolor. It’s really very simple to do with the three primary colors of blue, red, and yellow.

Some art teachers say, “Never use black”. I say, “Use whatever you want if you like it!”.

But if you go outside and really look at grey shadows on the ground or on the side of a building you will notice that they are not really light black…I mean if you look really, really hard! Shadows and grey actually have a lot of different colors in them. Some are warm grey (with yellows and reds) and some are cool grey (with blues and greens).

An example of cool grey would be snow-covered fields on a cloudy day.

An example of warm grey would be a bonfire on a beach with a fiery orange sunset.

Or you could have both warm and cool grey in a cold, dark cave looking out the opening into the warm sunshine.

Above are three greys. The one on the left is cool with more blue in the mix. The middle one is neutral with equal amounts of blue and red. The one on the right is warm with more red in the mix.

I hope you’re not tired of perspective…because there is another kind of perspective that shows distance called Atmospheric Perspective. When you look at mountains or water far in the distance it looks faded. Colors look bright up close and cool and faded when they are far away, especially on a hazy day.

This lesson will prepare you for painting a beautiful lake scene in a few weeks. Start by tearing some strips of paper. Place strips one at a time on a piece of watercolor paper as a guide to draw the outline of the top of some mountains. Start about 1/3 from the top of your watercolor paper.

Use another torn paper strip or flip the same one over and draw a second row of mountains a little above the first one.

Do a third and forth row, a little closer together than the first two because things look smaller in the distance.

Draw one last line on the bottom that is a little more flat. If your lines are too dark erase them a little with an eraser.

Now mix a bunch of warm grey (Look back up to the beginning example of the three grey colors I mixed in the first picture) with the three primary colors. Test your color on a scrap piece of watercolor paper and paint in the first row of mountains.

Add a little blue to your mixture to make a more cool grey. Paint in the second row of mountains.

For the third row of mountains add a little more blue plus some more water to your mixture to make the paint thinner. This will look lighter when you apply it to your white watercolor paper. Paint the third row of mountains.

Now add even more water to your paint mixture, test it on a scrap watercolor paper to make sure it looks very light. Paint the fourth row of mountains.

I noticed that my second row of mountains looks a little too dark. So I am going to lighten that section by applying clear water with my brush, then blotting it with a paper towel. I could do it again if it is still too dark.

Now the sky! Prepare your paint mixture first, by adding some blue back into it and maybe just a touch of red. Test it. Add a touch of yellow if it is not grey enough (if it looks too purple). Remember it should look very pale and not very colorful because it is far away on a hazy day.

Then paint clear water onto the entire sky area.

Turn your paper upside down and start from the bottom (top of the sky) and paint in your sky paint mixture onto the wet area (wet into wet). Let it settle so it is darker toward the edge of the page. Let it dry.

There. You have a mountain ridge on a hazy day! Try painting in a foreground that gets more intense with color as it gets closer to the viewer. See what you can do and have fun!