Watercolor with Tissue paper and gesso

 

Tissue paper and gesso

I wanted our last flower of the season to be super fun and loose. So we're trying gesso with watercolor.

Here are the written instructions for applying gesso to your paper. In this case, you don't need good watercolor paper...your cheap stuff will do, because gesso changes the texture and absorbancy of the surface anyway.

https://mindywara.squarespace.com/studio-journal/creating-texture-with-tissue-paper-and-gesso

And here is a video. The first part shows how to apply the gesso; the rest is doing an abstract with it. There are other videos if you want to Google "watercolor with tissue and gesso." This is from Blake's Studio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkHgk086vS0

There are two ways to apply the gesso for textured effects. The first is like in the above video, where the entire piece of paper is gesso and tissue. The second way is to gesso the paper, and while wet, apply the tissue in small clumps to represent flowers, rocks, water, trees, or other objects. Whatever method, the gesso needs to be completely dry. I dry mine overnight, but 4 hours is usually enough. It can be dried with a hair dryer also.

TIP: 

*Use only old brushes to apply gesso, and rinse immediately.

* I have used a very thin rice paper in place of tissue....both work very well.

* If you want to use a patterned tissue, you can get CLEAR gesso. In my example below, I used clear gesso over tissue with polka dots in it. You can see the dots. 

* Remember to tear the edges if you are doing just the spots. Torn edges blend better with the paper. 

* You can add another layer of tissue after the first is dried, if you don't feel you have enough texture.

Below is a painting done with all the page covered with tissue.

Below is the second method, with small bits of tissue (about 2" crumpled) applied where I want the flowers to be. The entire page has gesso, but the tissue is only applied in certain areas.

First, on scrap paper, we practiced some loose flower painting methods using brush strokes: roses, petunias, cone flowers, poppies, forsythia, etc. This was a warm up to get inspired for putting the loose flowers onto the dried gesso paper. If you REMEMBER TO KEEP WHITES, it will look great.

For background, I did paint this in last, but it doesn't make much difference. Enjoy the unpredictability of this painting!

Here are some short videos with loose flower practice:

Emma LeFebvre - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9-ZSvmHfl8

Roses by Ellen Crimi Trent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PGMzaf-h1U

Emma LeFebvre - 5 flowers including pansies, tulips, hydrangea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hokPklKqbWo

Can't wait to see your finished paintings!!

Finishing the rose

First a quote...how do you know when someone is serious about watercolor?

When the hairdryer is no longer in the bathroom but in the paint area .thanks, Sarah.

Working on the leaves

For the leaves and stems, under-paint it all with yellow or yellow green.

With a sap green or a mixed green ...I used french ultramarine with yellow or pthalo with quin gold...paint around the veins. It may help to lightly draw in veins first. Curve the veins to match the curve of the leaf. When you are done with this step, the veins will look yellow. 

This step you need cerulean blue...or a green blue...and red or orange for the tips. When the leaf is dry, glaze it with cerulean. This should not turn the leaf blue, just change the green. While the paint is wet, with a small brush, dab orange or red into the tips of the serrations, letting it bleed into the blue green of the leaf. The orange should not be watery, but a thicker consistency than the glaze color. Otherwise you might get blossoms instead of a blend.

For stems, mix your green and have an orange or burnt sienna ready. Cover the stem with green, and while wet, drop in orange (or b. Sienna or warm red) along one edge of the stem to create the reddish variations you find on rose stems. Also wet the thorn areas and drop paint in the tip of the thorn. I used the same pink as the flower.

For the bud, paint it in the rose color and dry. Paint in the green, and darken one edge to create a rounded effect. When it is dry, darken the underside of the sepal on the right.

Painting the petals is often a lot of push and pull between darkening shadows and lifting hilights, and adjusting warm and cool colors. In the picture below I want to show the value of having a transparent blue to cool areas. I love using cobalt blue in cooler areas, such as the petals that face the sky.

When you want a petal to show a curve or curl, you take advantage of three things: change of value, change of temperature, and soft rather than hard edges. The inner edge may be warm, the outer side cool, with a soft highlight lifted at the curve.

I always save lifting for the last step bc it can damage the paper. For achieving a soft edge I just use clean water on a brush, lift paint, and blot. But for a small, hard edged area, like the center of this flower, I use masking tape, leaving an opening where I want to lift. Then I can use a damp sponge or mr. Clean to remove the paint. Wait until it dries to remove tape so you don't risk tearing the paper.

I lifted areas that I want to feel more rounded 

Here you can see where I lifted highlights on some petals 

Last week I showed creating the background first. You can also do it at the end. After your painting is dry, tape off a window and loosely paint in the colors you want for the background. Dry before removing the tape.

 

Pink Roses and Karlyn Holman

I wanted to do show some of Karlyn Holman's techniques. My main purpose was to do the opposite of the daffodils: paint a light background first; and lay in the color washes and then shade the flowers.

But first, here is an idea for your daffodils. If you want to, you can use a stencil and a damp sponge in the dark of your background to create interest. Just tape the stencil where you want it, then wipe with a clean sponge, blot with towels. Some of the color from underneath shows up through the black.

Second, I wanted everyone to prep a piece of paper for our last lesson, a very loose floral.

You will need some watercolor paper--this is a time to use that cheaper paper. Cover it with gesso, and while the gesso is wet, lay wrinkled tissue or rice paper over it. Press down, trying to get wrinkles in it for texture. Then cover the entire thing with gesso again.

I made two: one with clear gesso over a tissue with a little print. The other, I tore small pieces of tissue and only laid them where I wanted to put a poppy flower. (You can select where you want texture this way)   Then gesso over the page. Let it air dry for 24 hours.

Clear gesso over print tissue

regular gesso with tissue placed only where I want texture

So on with today's lesson: beginning a rose Karlyn Holman style.

The first thing we did was draw the rose, and lightly erase lines. 

Then tape around where you want a border to be. (This step can be done AFTER the rose is painted, but I wanted to show doing it first. The effect is different)

Here is the pattern from two roses from my garden. The dark is for if you only want one simple rose. The green you would add if you want both roses. The pink frame line is where to put tape for the frame.

After taping off the frame, wet the paper and lightly drop in color, avoiding the place for roses. If SOME of the water/paint seeps into a leaf or rose, that's fine, as long as there are no hard edges. Leave whites.

When the background is dry, remove the tape gently.

Then choose a warm and a cool Red. I am using permanent rose and quin coral. 

I wet the petals all at one time, and painted in a pale cool pink. While it was still wet, I dropped in the warm pink (coral) in the centers where the flower color will be warmer.

When that is completely dry, I began separating the petals from each other. The paint is more of a cream consistency. I wet the area, painted the dark against the edge where petals meet, and let the color fade into the body of the other petal.

Here I've done the inner petal and one outer petal. 

Continue separating the petals. Use warms toward the center of the flower and cools on the outer petals.

Next week: finishing the flowers and working on leaves.

 

Finishing the Daffodil with background

 Finishing the Daffodil

Painting flowers is a lot like acting on a stage. In order for people to see you from a distance, you need overdone make-up; you have to emote when speaking; you have to create the drama. When you paint flowers, you can't be afraid to make strong colors and contrasts to get your message across. So when I use purple to shade a yellow flower, that is what I am doing--

Working in negative painting

Make a dark green (I used Pthalo and quin gold) in a fairly thick mixture. If it is too watery, the value will never get dark enough to make a black.

Use this dark green to paint behind all the petals and leaves. I want the top and right side to gradually get lighter, so I am wetting that area more and letting the green mix become weaker in those spots. Let the water do the work. Dry this all completely. You need to be sure you are getting a dark green color.

Next make a dark red orange, in a heavier mixture.  Paint this orange over all the dark greens and places you want to be black. In the picture below, you can see how where I have painted the orange has become dark brown. I left a little green at the bottom so you can compare. Dry all the paint. (In place of orange, you can use burnt sienna with a bit of red in it)

Next make a dark violet mixture. Paint over all the areas you want to be black. I've painted the left hand spaces with violet, left one space with just green and orange, and the right spaces with just green so you can see the progression.

The order of placing the colors can be switched up. You can even use primary colors instead of secondary colors. I just like using secondaries better.

Finishing the petals

When you are satisfied with the background, remove all the masking. 

(I use a rubber cement eraser, very inexpensive, but you can use your clean fingers or masking tape rolled around a finger ) 

To be honest, I don't love using masking. I could have painted the flower first and then masked off the edges to protect them from the darker layers of paint. Masking can leave some very hard edges and look contrived.

With a small brush, paint in some yellows over the frills. If you have lost some of the shadows, make a watery violet, (or raw sienna) and paint over some of the shadows. Use this to create some shadows in the frills too. You can paint some fine lines for veins. In the trumpet of the flower, be sure that the veins curve with the shape of the petals, always radiating from the center.

Use the shadows to create a hard edge separating  the petals, so they stand out more. Apply your paint where you want it darkest, and then spread it out with clean water so you have no hard edges in the shadow.

Here I've removed masking and started to add some shadows in the frills. I've also darkened the shadows between petals.

Here I've added a few veins in the trumpet. I will also lift a little on the frilly edge of the trumpet. 

For the white flower, use your cobalt blue to darken the center. Water it down a bit to add light shadows in the frilly part of the trumpet.

To separate leaves, decide which leaf is forward and which is behind. The forward one casts a shadow on the one behind it. Where the two meet, darken the behind leaf to make a cast shadow, hard edges where the two meet, and softened on the behind leaf. Do this on each side where the two leaves/stems meet.

The final step is "lifting" with a stiffer brush. Please don't use your good brushes to lift. Find an inexpensive, stiffer brush (see the prior blog for suggestions) so you don't wear out your good tips.

Generally I use lifting for three things: 1, to soften a hard edge (like the Miskit); 2, to clean up edges and mistakes; 3, to lift a highlight to softly round an area. (like in this yellow bud)

I also use it, as in the picture below, to  "lift out" a few distant leaves just with a brush and some water.  (See the very dark but softened leaves in the background) You can't get this effect unless you paint your darks in layers. 

There is a brownish papery covering over daffodil stems near the flower. I just lifted a little and used some burnt umber, watered down over the area. I used dark brown for the tiny area at the top of this. 

I still have to finish the darks and clean up some edges, but it might look similar to this.

Daffodils are gorgeous, and there are so many right ways to do it, both loose and tight.

I chose this way to teach about using underpainting to get in believable shadows, and to teach how to get rich darks in a background.

Starting the Daffodil: underpainting, glazing, and negative painting

Daffodils: Two versions

Here are the sketches for the daffodils, one from my photo reference, and a more simplified version: fewer frilly ruffles, more simple petals.  Kier Insight Archives from Unsplash is where this reference is from. For reference for yellow colors I used Catrin Ellis photo from Unsplash.

 Simplified Sketch

More complex sketch

I had those who were doing the very dark background mask off the frilly edges with masking fluid, only because it is easier to keep the crisp edges after going over it with three or four layers of paint later.

(These have already been painted a bit so you can see better where I've put the masking fluid)

You can also put the masking over the edges AFTER you have painted in the yellows and dried them.

Put if you are not doing a background, no real need to mask.

The first order thing after masking is to underpaint the shadows in the flowers. Last week I tried different colors for this shadow, and chose raw sienna. I could also have used violet (very pale), ochre, or yellow mixed with a bit of violet.

I used cobalt blue for the shadows in the white flower and some of the shadows on the leaves and stems.

When those had dried I flooded the page with yellows, hansa light and new gamboge.

(If no background, just wet the flowers and lightly brush on yellow colors)

NOTE: Do this with a light touch. If you brush hard or over and over again, your underpainting may get lost.)

I also added in blues and greens in the leaf area, trying to get a variety of shades, because I am going to negative paint over those. Those who want no background or light background will put the leaves in with positive painting.

I built up the bottom part until I was happy with the color and texture. Then dried the entire painting.

I began negative painting to make the leaves stand out. I began with a dark green, but will build it up with other color later until I have a very dark background. 

Here is an effective way to build up blacks in a picture. You will see it at the top of this chart.

I used dark versions of every secondary color: orange, violet, and green. You can see I started with orange; dried that, then did a layer of green; dried that, then did a layer of violet; dried that. For the final layer I tried different darks: first sepia, then sodalite, then indigo, then Paynes gray, then pthalo. I lifted a line through the entire thing so you can see what colors will appear if you lift anywhere.

The bottom left shows two layers of different blacks. To the right of those is that black painted over different colors. Your underpainting determines the temperature and appearance of the black.

This chart is one you can make at home. The left side is under-painted with yellow, then glazed with violet. To the right of that square is yellow and violet mixed on the palette, with more emphasis on the yellow. Below that is an under-painting of violet, glazed over with yellow. The right of that is violet and yellow mixed on the palette, with more emphasis on the violet. They are labeled so that the first color in the label is the underpainting, and the second color is the glaze. I hope you can see the difference in effect of using a glaze.

You get a VISUAL or Optical mixing. 

Here I'm using a very dark green to negative paint around the leaf and petL shapes. Negative painting is simply painting what is not the object.

This green was french ultramarine with hansa

Later I'll continue painting layers of negative painting until I achieve a dark I like. More next time .