Workshop: Integrating Paper and Paint

 Diane Johannigman's Workshop

On Sep 27th SIAG (our art guild) hosted a workshop by Diane Johannigman, a Cincinnati artist who experiments combining paper with acrylic paints. Here are some of her recent paintings:

About Diane:

Diane  was born into an artistic family, with her mother, a Cincinnati artist herself, ensuring she had lots of opportunity to learn and express herself. She graduated with an art degree from Houston, Texas. However, traditional methods and "rules" seemed too confining for her, and she decided she wasn't going to make a living at it. 

Just before Diane retired from Costco as a manager, she decided to re-explore her innate desire to create art. She started attending Sandy Maudlin's open studio, working with water color and yupo, taking every opportunity to expand her vision. The environment of Sandy's open studio encouraged risk taking, especially when Sandy invited artists to do workshops at her studio.

You might say that workshops with popular Canadian artist, Jean Pedersen, opened the creative doors that led to Diane's current work. More about Jean can be read here:

https://www.jeanpederson.com/artist/

You can discover more about Diane on her Instagram account.

https://www.instagram.com/dianejohanni/?hl=en

About the process:

You can do this either on watercolor paper or canvas. Most of us began with putting drops of heavy body acrylic paint from the tube directly on the canvas. (3 colors) Some of us used canvas with previous unsuccessful paintings as a first layer, but we still did this step. With a large flat tool--a squeegie, credit card, etc.--we scraped the paint in several directions. Then we let it dry, which didn't take a long time.

When dry, we tore pieces of collage papers into various sizes. These could be napkins, wrapping paper, tissue, newspaper, magazines. So fun to pick out papers. Then we used matte medium (or Modge Podge) to randomly apply these papers to our painted surface.

Then we used stencils, often trying to unify the painting with these stencils. That part was also fun.

Then we took a single watered down color (usually with Fluid acrylic instead of heavy body) and washed over all the painting. This sometimes unifies the painting or calms down areas.

You can continue this process--paint/collage/stencil--until you are satisfied.

Here are some of the pictures just after the first layers and before adding an image.

Next, dry the painting completely. We used this step to check out the local restaurants for lunch.

The final step is to take a picture we had drawn or enlarged from a drawing, and traced it onto our ground.

**(Ground just means a surface you have created to put a painting on.)

You can use dark or colored graphite paper, since gray will probably not show up much. Some of us freehanded the picture.

Either lighten the background space so the picture comes forward, or lighten where you want to paint the picture. 

Then use a combination of paint/collage/stenciling to bring your image to life. You can add inks, Posca pen, anything you need to enhance your image. 

Here are some of the results:

    

 

Painting mouths, ears, hair, etc.

I use a white 3 x 5 card with a hole punched in it to look at skin color and value. I have to use devices like this because it forces me to see things I easily could miss. By laying it against a flesh color, I can more easily see if it is yellowish, orange, pink, blue, or even green. It's surprisingly useful. 

I forgot last week to include info on painting a mouth. Here is Yong Chen's video on painting a mouth, including an open smile. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkXLkcHu7wQ&t=188s

To paint an open-mouth smile, teeth showing, there are a few tips.

1. to do teeth, paint the gum line around the teeth

2. the inside of the mouth is warm, not gray or blue

3. the lower lip is almost always wider than the upper lip, and lighter in color.

4. Paint the midline of the lip first.

5. The upper lip is thinner and darker because it is more shadowed and it has more blood vessels.

6. The teeth are usually not pure white. And the further back in the mouth they recede, the darker they are. Otherwise they make the mouth look quite flat and clown like.

Painting ears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhR9TIgB0uE

Painting hair. Basically, you start with the lightest value, dry; next value, dry; and finally darkest values.

It is surprising how dark blonde hair can be in the shadows, and how much color can be reflected.

Kirsty Partridge Art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7aiE8cQCSs

Yong Chen's video on hair

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxZC60siH4Q

Try not to get overwhelmed with the hair. Leave highlights, even in very dark hair. I usually paint the skin color right into the scalp before painting the hair. Most hair is a combination of 2 colors, burnt sienna and blue. The darker and more burnt sienna, the browner. Even blonde hair is shadowed with a light version of these colors. Black hair, if it has blue highlights, can have undertones of blue. I still don't usually use a black paint, but a dark versions of burnt sienna and French ultramarine.

If a highlight is white, I will mask out some curls or highlights. But not much.

FINISHING THE LOOSE PAINTING

Now that you have a background, you basically need to find the darkest spots and paint those shadows in.

First I paint in things I want to be flesh tones, so I don't lose that color. You'll see there is a lot of yellow on the left side. I painted in the nostrils and lifted a little on the tip, then added a red on the very tip of the nose. 

Then I concentrate on shadows and deeper tones. You don't necessarily use flesh tones in these areas, depending on the age of the person.I darkened beneath the chin. 

On the hair, I just painted in some shadows. 

FINISHING THE REALISTIC

I wet the skin again, and paint in shadows around the eyes, paying attention to my cools and warms.

I gradually build up the forms wet into wet for the first few rounds, especially the largest shapes.

Here I've rewet the face and put in a more dense version of the skin color.

Focused on putting a more dense paint of the basic skin tone around the nose and areas of shadow.

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I put in some blue shadows around the shadowed cheek, under the hat, etc. I also began painting around the eyes.

I painted in the base color for the hat. I put a layer of yellow paint on the entire face. Dried and painted in the lips.I started putting in details of the ear. 

Then I made a dark background of deep green (made from sap green and purple), and painted in the lips.

I painted eyebrows and nostril and darkened around the hair. I repaired the eye on the right.

 Then I used a lifting brush around highlighted areas: the lips, nose tip and outer nostril, and repaired the eye. Then I put in a highlight in the eyes and hair wisps. 

Favorite watercolor portrait youtubers

Here are a few youtube artists that give great suggestions on painting portraits. If you have any others that you admire, let me know so I can add them to my list.

The artist I learned the most about portraits from is named Chris Stubbs.  (See the above portrait) She doesn't do YouTube, but travels doing workshops. I need to give her credit for what I know about facial structure. But the following can give you some simple instructions that will lead to better portraits painting.

 Eric Yi Lin

While he mostly paints landscapes/city scapes, I love his gentle approach to portrait painting. Here he discusses several things about preparing the painting, and mixing flesh tones. 33 minutes. His portraits are looser than most.

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

Jordan Rhodes

Dark skin with the undertones painted first. about 25 minutes. I don't "follow" him consistently, but I like the simplicity in this painting.

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

Jane-Beata

Very realistic. I love how she keeps to just 4 colors. About 55 minutes. But worth watching for sure! She emphasizes tilting the board, softening edges. She has several tutorials, each one using different combinations for skin tones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peJcRuJ0qz8

 Yong Chen 

painting blonde child...27 minutes. Pay attention to how he does blonde hair...you will be surprised. OK, surprised is mild.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRuhWCPym7c&list=PLL7LdMfGvoxpRaZSvolvGWCszVOKA5_hy&index=2

Emily Olsen

Doing a baby's face

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlnCxtHxaL8

Color Portrait and making paint

 Making your own paint from pigment and binder:

Please see my NOv. 5, 2020 post on creating your own watercolor paints.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/2181838827245295013

instructions from Jackson's 

https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2020/09/25/making-handmade-watercolours-with-jacksons-artist-pigments/#:~:text=With%20a%20glass%20muller%2C%20I,was%20happy%20with%20the%20result.

Painting a loose portrait

I am attempting to show two ways of painting a portrait, one loose and one more my normal style.

For the loose one, I am using a photo of my youngest grandson, Owen, who is 2 1/2. This can be tricky because it is SOOO easy to age a child so they look older.

Here is the color photo

Photo turned into 3 values on notanizer

Photo turned to 4 values on NOtanizer

I made my drawing using both of these because I wanted the hair to show up better, as it does in the 2nd photo of the Notanizer.

When I was happy with the drawing, I wet the paper (except where I wanted pure whites), and began putting color into the background. This is a very blond little boy, so I used some blues and greens in the background. The face has some blues in the shadow areas, yellows on the sunlit side. I get some back runs, but they are not in important parts, so I just leave them. I want this to look like he is just stepping out from the background.

When it was dry, I began using actual skin tones, starting with the shadow areas.I'm painting in some shadow areas of the hair. The tip of the nose gets some warm red, but it fades, as you can see. Don't like the chin, but I will fix this later. My goal isl to touch it as little as possible. 

For the color painting, I am again using the cowboy hat photo of daughter #2. This time I will need to refer to the color photo also to get warms and cools and skin tones. I am also going to use hot press paper, which will be a little harder for me, since I don't use it much.

The beginning step is to find a skin tone mix that you like. Make plenty of a paint mix. Also prepare a cool and a warm to add when you need to. I covered the entire face, wet into wet, with a pale skin tone. While wet, I put the cooler magenta on the right side of the nose, on the neck, under the chin. I put a warmer color on the cheek bones and left side of the nose. This has to dry.

Here are some results from one-color portraits so far.

I am pretty impressed!!!

Painting noses; One-color portrait

Building a face by layering values in a one-color portrait

Doing a one-color (monochromatic) portrait helps you understand the features without worrying about "what color do I use?" or "warm or cool?". Below is a finished monochrome of my #2 daughter. I used burnt sienna throughout, and when I needed to darken the hues I used bits of French ultramarine and less water when burnt sienna would go no darker.

For this demo, I am using French ultramarine throughout because it can go from a very pale blue (when watered down) to a very dark value. 

First mask out any pure whites you want to save. I only masked the highlight in the eyes and a few things strands of hair and a small highlight on the tip of the nose.

When masking is dry, cover the entire face in a pale wash for the lightest values. If I feel confident enough, while the first value is damp, I create a slightly darker wash (by adding more paint to the puddle I've created), then paint over everything that is darker than the first wash. You should now have two values painted, but they should blend softly, no hard lines between the values. Dry the painting.

In this blue version,  you see where I wet the entire face and hat, then put a very diluted solution of paint for the lightest layer. Since it was still wet, I put in my second value in any place that would eventually get darker: under the hat, on the neck, around the eyes near the upper nose, under the chin, etc I was using the water to keep the edges very soft at this point. BUT IF your first layer is not damp all over, dry it first. Then wet the area and put in your second value anyplace that is darker than the first value.

I am using my 3-or-4 value from Notanizer to give a general idea of where to place the next values. BUT this does not mean this will only have 3 or 4 values. I also look for nuances in the black and white photo to make decisions.

Here is my next layer of value. 

Wet the painting again only in areas where you want to paint values darker than the first two. Large areas--under hat, around nose, chin, neck, etc--are wet in wet. Smaller areas--ear, iris, mouth, are on dry paper. Increase the darkness of your paint by adding more paint to your puddle, and again add darker paint to anything that is darker than the first two values. Dry the whole painting.

This next layer is completely on dry paper, as I'm dealing more with small spaces with some hard edges. I've painted in the mouth and eyes and some details and shadows on the hat. Dry again.

I've added another darker layer beneath the hat and some background. For this darker layer, I added some indigo to the French ultramarine mixture. Dry again.

I added some background. 

Finally, I reached a point where I can do some lifting and corrections. I removed all miskit, then lifted just beneath the eyebrow; on the cheek; on the lips; a little around the mouth; some softening around the nose. I'm not completely happy with the chin, but if I mess too much with it it will make a mess. Mostly it has been a process of adding one value layer over another, then sharpening some details. 

By the time you have 3 or 4 values, the spaces you paint will get smaller and smaller. You can switch to the wet on dry method, but you are always smoothing the edges to keep them soft. Examples of this would be around the nostrils, which gets pretty dark, but must be softened into the lip and cheek areas.

This is the most valuable skill for painting portraits: learning to keep the edges soft. When you need to soften edges that are still damp, apply the paint; then clean your brush, dab the water out of it, and use this to pull out the edges so they are softer. 

TIP ON MIXING YOUR PAINT:

FIRST put the amount of WATER you want to use on the palette well. Since you will be using the same color over and over, make plenty so you don't have to keep mixing it up.

Second, add the paint a little at a time until you have a very diluted mix. Test it on a scrap of paper to see if it is dark enough.

REMEMBER that this is wet in wet, so your color will be even lighter because you will be adding the paint to the wet paper.

When you have your first layer, then add a little more paint to the water mix to kick it up a value or two.TEST it on scrap paper to see if it is dark enough (or too dark). Adjust the paint to water ratio until you get the next value. Make sure there is enough to paint the space you need to cover so you don't have to keep dipping into the paint and remixing.

Painting Noses in Watercolor

Here is a short YouTube on painting a nose in watercolor:

https://www.google.com/search?q=painting+nose+in+watercolor&rlz=1CATRIY_enUS1088&oq=painting+nose+in+watercolor&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyCQgAEEUYORigATIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRifBTIHCAUQIRifBdIBCTczMTRqMGoxNagCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vhid=lZHstyBTeucikM&vld=cid:9ec2fc96,vid:kYmNGO8C9jg,st:0&vssid=l

You can also refer to my blog of May 2017 for nose

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/7104778837003534086.