| Here
are some highlights from the current classes being offered so you have
an idea of what we did this week in class. If you missed class, this may
be helpful.
If
you are visiting town and want to take one of the classes, contact the
studio at (802) 457-2020 to join us for the three hour session.
Individual
classes are $45 per class.
Homework from Week 1
Homework from Week Two
Homework from Week Three
Weeks 4 & 5 Early Greens and the Angle of the Sun
Week 6 Enhancing Color from Blooms
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WATERCOLOR TECHINIQUES FOR THE SPRING LANDSCAPE
Spring 2011 Thursdays 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
COURSE OBJECTIVE: To explore various techniques in watercolor to elicit a response from the viewer. Each week a new approach will be explored including color, content, technique and composition. Students will be given problems to solve and questions to answer. Work will be viewed as a group, so that various artistic approaches can be viewed at once. Remember, there are no right answers but always a unique way to explore possibilities.
April 14, 2011 WINTER'S LINES
Through dry brush, etching and expressive brushwork, we’ll work on painting trees without foliage—a typical sight during this time of year. We will explore earth pigments such as Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Sepia. In class, we worked from life. Each of us had a unique branch with buds on it. Some with pussy willows, others with lilac buds. By selecting three earth colors in a light, medium and dark tones, we are able to create a palette that works in harmony with the cool evolution of spring grays and greens.
Note in the example to the left, I painted a pussy willow branch in a six color palette: Aureolin (a transparent liftable color); Yellow Ochre (an earth with a sedimentary characteristic); Burnt Sienna (another earth with sediment); Permanent Alizarin (a staining color with high tinting strength); French Ultramarine (a sedimentary blue for strong granulation) and finally Sepia (a staining color made from Squid ink that produces luscious darks).
Much of the early spring landscape relies on coolness and moisture, hence the cool palette. And due to the rains, we often experience a great deal of exposed earth to produce muddy patches in the landscape. No need to "make mud" by mixing too many colors together to get those browns, just employ a palette with some earth pigments in it to get a natural looking landscape.
The "underpainting" of a landscape we experienced in the small thumbnail sketch we did on our technique page. Using a photograph of a complex image of a "stick-scape" during early spring, we were able to see "THROUGH" the sticks to underlying colors that we could place wet-on-wet on our paper providing the lightest and darkest values of color. As we build up darks in the shadow areas with the sedimentary colors, we get richer darks established right away.
On a larger painting for homework,my first "pass" at this landscape from Brandywine country in south eastern Pennsylvania set the initial tones of light. Note that I used masking fluid to "save" the white paper for the daffodils in front that will be removed after I've established the foreground. Then I can use pure yellows to acheive the luminosity of the flowers. My goal in this painting is to show the stark contrast in the foreground tree with the cool, lumious haze on the distant hills. I etched with the back of my brush into the wet pigment to get the feeling of a 'stick forest' in early spring. In the second pass, I was able to establish some of the earth tones to create the middle values. As a final piece I used the black mixed from Sepia and French Ultramarine to contrast starkly with the delicate greens and pinks of early spring. This painting is a good example of the following challenge for the week:
CHALLENGE for week before April 19, 2011: Can you convey the personality of a tree as it exposes its silhouette during this time of year? How can you echo the linear aspect of the tree in the landscape to create a poetic rendition of late winter or early spring.
April 21, 2011 SHAPES OF GRAYS: The Abstract Landscape
A mass of trees, rocks or a field creates a fascinating challenge for the painter challenged by the texture of the spring landscape. Can you use color mixing to provide interesting forms advancing and receding within your composition to provide the feeling of the early spring landscape? How do shapes of color respond to these grays?
This week, after reviewing a beautiful crop of paintings on trees in the early spring landscape, we started with the challenge of mixing four different triads of primary colors to create a variety of grays. Yellow, Red and Blue, when mixed together will generally provide a neutral of either brownish hue or bluish hue. These neutrals are divided into either tans or grays depending on the proportion of warm or cool primaries. In fact, this triad of yellow, red and blue can actually provide a naturalistic green because red is the compliment of green. Any time you add a complimentary color to another, you desaturate it into a brown or gray. This is how the term "Making Mud" became popular if someone were to mix more than two colors together. However, during "Mud Season" in Vermont, making mud to express the landscape couldn't be better!
We used several images of the Maine coast for examples of how to mix these "rock colors" and use them in a composition. At the same time, we explored some "microcosmic" still lifes to allow ourselves the chance to explore how these gray tones can take on colored hues. These temperature shifts from warm to cool can help the illusion of space be created within a painting. In this landscape from the top of Isle Au Haut in Maine helps illustrate this point. Note how the foreground rocks take on yellow or orange tones while as the rocks progress back they go from rose to bluer and cooler tones ultimately settling on a distant violet that allows the diminished shape of the rocks to accentuate the idea of deep space.
Don't be afraid to use this technique in a still life to create the same kind of illusion. Within a short space of 4-6", you may still want to emphasize that objects are receding in space. This helps create the realistic illusion in your two dimensional space.
Take a look at how my landscape of Brandywine country continues to evolve in the next stage of layers I've been working on.
CHALLENGE for week of April 28, 2009: For homework, complete one of the two paintings in class utilizing two triads of primaries (Six colors in all: two yellows, two reds and two blues). Or set up your own still life, or take a walk in our gray landscape looking for ways to employ "colorful grays" to produce the idea of distant rocks and close foregrounds through temperature. Remember "warms tend to advance and cools tend to receed!"
April 28, 2011 RUSHING WATERS, FOG AND MIST IN THE LANDSCAPE
Spring provides the rising waters; we provide a range of techniques including masking fluid, salt, sedimentary colors and ideas to describe value in streams, waterfalls and rivers. Using lifting, lost edge, sponging, Chinese white and liftable or sedimentary colors we’ll explore how to create the atmosphere of rivers and mist in the landscape.
Our first demonstration included a gentle palette of light value colors that enable the transparency of the color to affect the value. In other words, what colors would you layer to provide this moody scene of late spring I call, "Clouds over Thetford, Vermont"
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- The objective I have for most watercolors is to “see through” the landscape to what might be the white paper
- Then I plan a "gentle palette” of Seven colors: Aureolin, Rose Madder, Cobalt Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Indanthrone Blue and Sap Green
- I use "Lifting" as a technique in the liftable pigments to produce the sky/fog/mountain relationship which provides the mood of the piece.
- Violets/Golds/Greens build up through the middle tones with lots of warm Burnt Sienna to advance the subject forward.
- Plan big shapes and go for the “feeling” rather than the “facts”
- Long shadows are as important as the mist to convey the moisture in the air at this time of year.
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For a completely different mood and feel, lets look at painting a Waterfall from northern Vermont in April.
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- I started by laying out a drawing of rocks on a half sheet of Arches 300 lb. Paper
- I used masking fluid to isolate the white areas
- I segregated water from rocks for each had a distinctive warm and cool relationship to one another. This will help create distance in a small space.
Using a combination of sedimentary, earth and staining I got the strength from using: Quin Gold, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, Permanent Magenta, French Ultramarine and Indigo (Staining and earth).
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In class, I
demonstrated WET-ON-WET with using a progressing from light to dark in the water areas. Granulation and Salt and Spatter all create the drama of the large rocks in this painting.
CHALLENGE for week of May 5, 2011: Ground fog is a natural occurrence as the earth warms and the moisture of snow dissipates. From an image of mist, see if you can make a believable landscape using some of the techniques covered in class of mists on off a river or across some mountains.
May 5, 2011 EARLY GREENS
From a still life in the studio, we will explore the possibility of color in new growth. A new palette including Naples Yellow, Cinnerous Blue or Cerulean and Permanent Rose or Opera will be added. This week we may add the use of white gouache to our work for added drama.
Pansies were the subject of this week's class. How to compose a dramatic composition with a simple spring flower: we tried both open and closed compositions in a variety of palettes.
These flowers have a strong color in general, though they are a gentle flower. Hearty in the cooler weather, they may require a more delicate hand to paint effectively. To find that early spring delicacie, try a palette of higher key colors like Naples Yellow, Cinnerous Blue or Cerulean and the pinks like Permanent Rose or Opera. This palette helps acheive the softness of the moist, spring landscape.
CHALLENGE for week of May 12, 2011: Do a still life of your choice from a similar window from week one with a bit of new growth in front of it, maybe a young plant or dish of sprouted bulbs. Consider what backlighting does to your composition.
May 12, 2011 ANGLE OF SUN CREATES MORE SATURATION
As the sun gets higher on spring days, the colors become more intense. Can you incorporate the purity of a color with the extremes of contrast necessary to depict strong light? We’ll explore some more new palette options.
In this class, we divided up a sheet of paper to explore the change in weather through the selection of three different palettes. The first is primarily an earth palette of YELLOW OCHRE, BURNT SIENNA & INDIGO. We noted how desaturated this palette can be.
The next palette offered the opportunity for sunlight, even if we were working on an image that was without a light source. Simply by changing your three colors to bright, staining colors, your increased saturation in the pure pigments will enable you to get sunlight, especially if you don't heavily mix the colors. Try THALO BLUE, OPERA, CADMIUM YELLOW for saturation.
If you want to acheive the light saturation of spring time in this area, consider that the shadows have not gotten profoundly dark yet. You may be able to get away with a quieter palette of the liftable paints. Most of these are organic, so they are fragile and can be easily removed. They are: AUREOLIN, ROSE MADDER GENUINE & COBALT BLUE.
As we progress into high summer light of June and July where the soft spring greens have changed to dark, rich shadows against high yellow greens you can employ your dark stainings again to guarantee drama. Try: THALO BLUE, QUINACRIDONE GOLD & ALIZARIN CRIMSON. You might even choose a light palette and a dark palette (six colors total) to give yourself the opportunity to "play" the full range of saturation in a given painting.
The painting of mist done over two weeks to the left illustrates this six-color palette idea witht the transparent liftables and darker saturated colors. I added a seventh tube green: Sap Green to help acheive the clarity of the greens.
Color awareness and the understanding of your palette is key in developing the subtlties of the spring landscape.
CHALLENGE for week of May 19, 2011: Paint a local landscape in late afternoon or early evening to see if you can achieve the strength of contrast to convey drama.
May 19, 2011 ENHANCING COLOR FROM BLOOMS
Focus on color and how neutrals can force color into your composition even when beginning with grays or browns and moving outward into saturation. Introducing permanent magenta in a palette of secondaries including Quinacridone Gold and Thalo Green.
Using those dark staining colors can also provide interesting glazes to help you play with depth in your paintings. Here is a demonstration of a wet-on-wet prelude to a reasonably realistic depiction of the Norwich Congregational Church in the spring. Note how the red and pink blooms are accented by the darks from blacks created with opposites.
Try mixing THALO GREEN with ALIZARIN CRIMSON which is one of the best blacks particularly in a red/green composition like this one. Or test out "Payne's Gray Violet" from the mixture CADMIUM RED and THALO BLUE. This helps offset pinker reds as in this image. While pure Thalo Green can be a tad "toxic" for a whole painting, when mixed with Aureolin it produces a near day-glo chartreuse. Or try SAP GREEN and CADMIUM RED for those warm brown-greens you see in the background trees in this one.
I took much artistic licence with the tangle of leaves in the foreground, but it gets the message across. The big compositional struggle is the white tulip hiding behind the big red one in the lower right. The intention was for it to direct your eye back to the church and the road in front of it. Or do you end up "stuck" because of the high contrast? Thankfully, it can easily become a pink tulip if it begins to grate on me. Stay tuned for a change. The dark neutrals around these blooms counteract the red/green compliment so for the most part you can pass through these "shocks" of color relatively easily.
CHALLENGE for week of May 26, 2011: Do a painting of spring flowers in your garden or a still life of spring items in front of a sunny window. Use neutrals to increase the drama of the colors you have chosen.
May 26, 2011 ON LOCATION
Our local trail system near ARTistree provides ample observation of the spring landscape. If the weather is pleasant, we will go outside to explore what we have learned thus far on location. Concentrate on greens. Or given the weather...we may be inside...so hard to tell this spring!
CHALLENGE for final week of June 2, 2011: Go on location to create a sketchbook spread of information about the spring landscape. See if you can incorporate your notes into an abstract painting related to the topic of spring in Vermont.
June 2, 2011 IMPROVING PAINTINGS
Though glazing, cropping, and even collage, we’ll look at how we can improve our paintings. Bring a few old works that may seem unsuccessful as well as all your paintings from class. We’ll have a demonstration or if weather cooperates, return outside for some painting. Also, bring your favorite two paintings from the class that best show the difference between your interpretation of winter to spring.
HOMEWORK: Keep Painting and join us for another class.
Suggested Materials
PAINTS
Your usual palette of colors including the following will be helpful:
Transparents:Aureolin, Rose Madder Genuine and Cobalt Blue
Stainings: Alizarin Crimson, Winsor (thalo) Blue (red shade) and
Quinacridrone Gold
Sedimentary: French Ultramarine, Cadmium Red Light and Cadmium Yellow
Other key colors are: Indigo, Winsor (thalo) Green (blue shade) and Sap Green
Possibly New to you—
Earths: Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Terre Verte
Opaques: Cerulean Blue, Indian Red and Naples Yellow
Printer's Colors: Lemon yellow, Permanent Rose or Opera, Peacock Blue (Holbein)
Chinese White watercolor or White Gouache may be helpful too.
BRUSHES
• Either synthetic or real sables that point nicely in a size that relate to your work: i. e. small brushes for small paintings vs. large brushes for large paintings
• One 1" Flat wash brush in sable or synthetic
PAPER • 5-8 sheets of cold press paper available at the studio from Richeson or Fabriano
WATER BUCKETS: Two big Mason Jars, ceramic jug or Ricotta Cheese container works: nothing too tall or too tippy, since we work in close quarters! Do have one for "clean water" and one for dirty — we have extras available at the studio for use here.
PAPER TOWEL: Bounty only: The others do not absorb.
PALETTE: I like the John Pike Palettes from Jerry's or Cheap Joe's
MASONITE OR 1/4" PLYWOOD BOARDS
ARTIST'S TAPE IN 1" size — this is a paper tape from Cheap Joe's
SPRAY BOTTLES: get a clean one from the pharmacy. Most "soap" bottles will retain a residue you won't want on a watercolor!
SPONGES – natural ones are best
MASKING FLUID – I like Cheap Joe’s best
SALT in a portable shaker
RULER: available to use at the studio if needed
PENCILS : 2H to B, otherwise, they smudge
KNEADED ERASURE
SKETCHBOOK to work out thumbnail sketches of compositions and to take notes
CAMERA for reference photos
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