Street Scene: The rest of the story

 FINISHING THE CITY SCENE

After doing the windows, it was time to make a wash over the buildings. So I did a wash over the buildings, OPPOSITE of the background. You can see the tops are warm (using quin gold or raw sienna), adding magenta, then cooling off with blue at the bottom. You can also see a bit of tentative greens where there might be window planters.

I painted the blues on the roofs using French ultramarine grayed down a bit with burnt sienna. 

I decided the sky was too gray after it dried, and washed over it lightly with some cerulean, then adding the red above the center building.

Here I started filling in more details in the windows. I used a base of cobalt teal blue for the shutters, not really sure if I liked that color with the color scheme I have going. But it's a common color in Europe, so I went forward with it. I darkened the window sills, making shadows around the windows. 

I wanted more of a feeling of depth, and felt I needed to darken the sides of the walls. But I also wanted to stay with my efford to keep it warm to cool on the buildings, and at the same time add a little bit of texture. I used a wash of lunar red rock on the top and lunar blue on the bottom to make it gradually darker on the sides. (Starting on the far edge of each side, and stopping around the middle of each building.) This pushed the light to the center of the picture. I used burnt umber and purple for the shadows on the ground, leaving some light around the walking figure.

I got to practice with my new needle nose brush from Cheap Joe's, a birthday present from Glenn. I used it for some of the fine details on the window bars and the sculpture. I strengthened some of the shadows in the windows. I still tried to keep the windows cool on the top and warm on the bottoms, using French ultramarine and purple for the cools; quin burnt orange and burnt umber for the warms. 

I taped off some squares and cobblestones on the ground and lifted them with a brush. After removing the tape, I put a few shadows under the cobblestones and spattered the ground.

The last thing I did was add my figure. 

I also wanted more emphasis at the top, so I lifted a little on the top middle building and strengthened the contrast between roof and building by darkening close to where they meet using lunar blue.

So this was not so much a tutorial, but walking through a thought process. I am convinced that had I done a value study first, it would have been better. What do you think? If I had any personal connection to the place, I would consider trying again, maybe with another technique.

Street Scene- First Attempt

 There is never just one way to accomplish what you want with a painting. Especially with landscapes and city scenes. I don't consider myself accomplished at buildings for several reasons. It is a real wrestling match deciding over what would be the best way to paint. 

So here we go. I have no idea if this will turn out well, so you'll get to watch me, step by step, sink or swim.

First, I pulled this picture from Paint My Photo. It was very skewed, so I used photo shop to straighten it out a little.

 Sketching it took a lot of time. There are so many decisions to make: loose or realistic? colorful or muted? what details to keep/leave out? How can I unify the picture? 

I decided to paint very wet at first, but I didn't want to redraw important details. So I took a page from Alex Hillkurtz and used a pen to sketch in some of those details I didn't want to lose. I was going begin by painting a bullseye, as he does. However, the idea of painting the background cool to warm and the foreground warm to cool had more appeal for me. 

I put some tracing paper over the top to decide where I want my warmest colors.

I wet the entire paper with a large brush.

Using French ultramarine, magenta, and quin gold, I painted the background cool to warm, beginning with French ultramarine, adding magenta, and then quin gold at the bottom. I was trying to follow my plan. 

I painted on a slightly tilted easel using Arches 140 lb rough.

Then I tackled the window areas, painting those top to bottom, cool to warm. 

(still using the same 3 colors)

More next time.

FINISHING THE SAILBOAT SCENE WITH TEXTURES

 Below shows the next steps to the sailboat scene.

First, I drew a horizon line across the page, across the tops of the sailboats. I wet two inches above that line to create a tree line. (It could be mountains.) Then I used burnt sienna, french ultramarine, and yellow. Holding a flat brush with the bristle horizonal, I dabbed in bits of burnt sienna, followed by blue. I added a little yellow to create a green. Before it dried, while still shiny but not puddly, I used a credit card edge (or pen tip or palette knife) to scratch in some tree trunks.

To do the sailboats, put a hard line of color vertically parallel with the sails. Clean the brush, and with a damp brush, soften the bottoms of the boats to appear that they are sitting on the water.

Use the gauze technique with greens and burnt sienna to create a texture of foliage on the left side. You could also do this with a sponge.

This is the most fun part. Make a puddle of water on the bottom right edge. Starting with green (I used sap), drip color into the puddle and begin to blow with a straw. Add some blue and blow some more, trying to get the colors to blend. then use quin gold or another color. Make a puddle of that in the corner and blow it into the mix. I love how the colors mix this way. 

I wanted to create an extra sailboat third from left. Easy. I taped off the outside edges of the triangular sail, right over the water and background trees. Using a damp Mr. Clean, I gently wiped off the sail. 

Remove the tape when dry, and then paint the sail and bottom.

I covered the top of the picture with paper towel (or wax paper, plastic wrap, anything to protect it.)

Then I spattered quin gold and burnt sienna to create a sandy look. I decorated some of the sails. Those farthest away have greyed down sails. I also made suggestions of reflection in the water. 

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More texture to try

GAUZE 

the top texture here uses gauze. There seems to be a trick to it. The gauze I am using is regular gauze that can be stretched into different shapes and doesn't remain in tiny squares. You have to experiment. You can use cheesecloth too.

You lay dry gauze over dry paper, then with the brush, brush color into it. It's not a thin puddle of water, more intense but not thick. Put a weight on it and let it dry on its own. Below is pictured one result. 

You can try making a wet wash of color then applying the gauze and letting it dry. I'm not always successful with that method, though.

IMPRESSIONS

Below the gauze is a leaf impression. It is simply a wash of color that I've impressed a leaf into while shiny. I put a weight on it and let it dry. Using a leaf that has strong veins in it helps. 

Mostly this is to show that you can impress objects into your paint to get interesting texture. Look around for other objects in your yard, your house, even your refrigerator. (Spinach leaves work)

BLOWING WITH A STRAW

Is just plain kindergarten fun. You just put a wet dot of paint on the paper and blow it with a straw.

Put a dot of another color next to it and blow it. Try to make them cross paths for color change and interest.

These can be wild weeds on the side of a road or just fun texture.

Beginner class on sailboats on lake

 

I was going through some old paintings from when I first began to paint, and came across a lesson from Sandy Maudlin's. I thought, with a few adjustments, it would make a good lesson on textures, specifically fog, using masking tape, usuing a straw, and making impressions.

So here's the start. First, lightly divide up your space with a pencil: about 1/4 up for shoreline, middle 1/3 for lake, rest for sky and maybe mountains or treeline in background. Then tape some different size triangles cut from your painters tape. Put the larger ones lower on the lake area, smallest on the upper part of lake, middle sized in between. This will create a feeling of distance and perspective.

For the foggy effect, begin with your sky color. Honestly, it doesn't have to be a sky color, but I did it for this demo. Slightly tilt the paper and wet the top half of the paper. I used a 1 inch flat brush for the wash. Starting at the top, apply the sky color, and grade the wash until it disappears by the time you reach the center.

Then I turn the paper upside down (because it is more comfortable for me when doing washes to work dark to light). Then I wet the bottom half (ending just before I got to the wet top half) and did a wash of raw sienna. It needs to fade to almost nothing in the center. If the two halves' colors mingle a bit, it's not a big deal. 

You could do this monochrome, with the top and bottom halves the same color.

Easy fall tree or snow scene

 These two pictures are done almost exactly the same, just using different colors. The first time I posted on this blog was July 5 of 2016, so you can look there for more detailed instructions and some of the student work.

Basically, you tape off trees with torn masking tape. In the snow scene, we also masked off a cabin in the background. You can spatter some miskit onto the paper then. (We didn't do that today because of limited time in class.) 

For the snow scene: Paint blue over the entire paper, darker at the top. I think I used French ultramarine. Leave some whites for snowy areas. Then sprinkle some salt.

 For the fall scene, wet the top of the paper and drop in your favorite fall colors. While paint is still shiny, drop in salt. If the paper is still damp enough, use the tip of a brush or credit card to score in some distant small branches. (You can see those on the right)

You can paint a little blue or green on the bottom, turn the painting upside down, and let lines run through the tree colors to appear like trees in the distance.

The pic on the right shows after I've removed all tape and salt. On the left I've begun to paint the trees, as explained in the July 5 2016 blog. Going about 2 inches at a time, paint dark paint (you can use burnt sienna with french ultramarine or whatever you choose), wet onto dry paper. Scrape a butter knife or side of a credit card , starting on the paint side, through the tree side to side. To create even more bark-like texture, drop some clean water into it as it dries to create small blossoms. 

For the hills on the fall trees, paint the farthest hill in blue and drop in a little orange to dull it.

then paint the forward hill with some green and spatter oranges and burnt sienna into it to create the look of fallen leaves.

For the hills on the snow scene, darken the area between the hills with blue and soften the edge that goes toward the top...this will look like snow is on a hillside. Paint in some tree shadows.

Then, with white paint, spatter over the blues to create even more of a snowy effect. 

SALTING TIP: The larger the salt, the larger the blossom effect, so I used table salt or popcorn salt for snow falling; kosher salt for puffs of snow. Any salt for the leaves on the fall scene.

Put a little salt in your hand. Holding your hand 10-12 inches from the painting, gently pinch a little at a time onto the wet paint. PAINT NEEDS TO BE SHINY, not puddly or drying.

IF YOUR PAINT GOT TOO DRY, try spattering drops of water over it for a similar effect as salt. It will create tiny blossoms on drying paper.

SUNFLOWER INK AND WASH

 LAST POST I SHOWED HOW TO MAKE A LOOSE WASH. I HAVE BEEN WANTING TO DO SUNFLOWERS, AND MY FRIEND GAVE ME SOME LOVELY SUNFLOWER PHOTOS FROM HER GARDEN FOR REFERENCES.

First, I made some drawings of potential subjects on tracing paper. This way I could hold it over my painting and see which ones fit the painting best. Since it is transparent, I could also flip the image over if I wanted to.

Second, I positioned the drawings where I wanted them and drew them onto the painting.I've used two examples, since I did two washes. 

I'm going to use the second drawing for this demo. 

After drawing, I did some more negative painting to bring out some of the details, not all.

Then I added some color (especially greens) where it needed it. I'm going to put a bumble bee in on the top flower also, so I lightly painted that in. 

I could have just done negative painting and stopped. I really like the lost petals. But since it is an ink demo, guess I'll press on.So I added inks to the petals, bee,and center of flowers. I lifted out some messy spots and darkened others. I thought there was too much unbroken dark on the left, so I lifted out a stem and petal.I also darkened some of the greens in the bottom right sunflower. 

My husband liked it, but the first thing he said was, "Flowers? Again?" I think he wants me to get busy on his dad's portrait. Lazy me.

A LOOSER WAY TO INK: WASH FIRST

As promised, here is the beginning of doing a pen and wash doing a wash first. 

Step 1: Find a subject you are interested in painting. In this case it is sunflowers and daffodils.

Step 2: Do a wet into wet funwash, using the purest color of your main subject, plus a few analogous colors. (This is to keep the color fresh from the start)

Step 3: Make sure to leave lots of white.

In this one, I know I want to do some sunflowers, so I found a few references. I put the main yellow and orange and pink colors generally where I will position the flowers. But the color is other places also.

NEXT STEP; Lightly sketch in generally where some important shapes might be. 

Then, with background colors (I used blues, pinks, and greens) I negative painted around some of the important shapes, WET INTO WET. While wet I put wrinkled plastic wrap over it and let it dry. 

In this case, it is done twice because I couldn't keep the whole painting wet enough.

I'll finish that one later. This pic below shows what my daffodil picture looked like after the first steps.

I then found a number of daffodil references and drew in my composition with pencil. Then I inked the outlines. Please notice: My flower petals often are drawn right into green background. That's more than fine...it adds interest. I'm not trying to make perfect static looking flowers.

Now I begin to ink places that I want to have more definition or value. I mostly used

contour lines, going with the shapes of the petals and leaves. For most of the inner lines I used an 03 Micron black.

For the final steps, I lifted out some areas, such as the blotchy green on the left leaf; the green on the tip of the lower petal; a highlight on some of the petals. Then I plushed over it with some pale pink in areas.I also darkened some green leaves where it needed more contrast in value.

I like the way it turned out. And the process was fun. You do a lot of composition on the fly,

allowing the background to help make decisions about placement of objects. 

SOME MORE LOOSE FLOWERS

OCCASIONALLY I LIKE TO SHOW SOME STUDENT WORK, BECAUSE IT IS OFTEN BETTER THAN MINE!

This past class was showing how to make some simple loose looking flowers.

The first is a carnation.

Step 1: using at least 2 analogous colors, make a circular or fan shape, and drop other colors wet into wet. 

Step 2: While it is still shiny wet, crinkle plastic wrap and set it on top of the flower. Weigh it down until it dries. (Don't try to rush the drying process.)

Step 3: Once it is dry, use a small, pointed brush to make sharp jagged edges that look like carnation petals. Begin in the center, and work in a spiral. Don't overdo it. You just want enough to give the impression of a carnation. 

Below are some student paintings of carnations. 

Below left is a carnation. The rose on the right is done the same way, except the spiraling strokes are smoother, and petals overlap more.

The stems you see below are done simply. You wet the stem area, then drip green into the top, holding the paper at a slight angle so that gravity pulls the paint down the stem. I often put some of the flower color into the stem also. 

The violet or 5-petal flowers are started with 3 dots in the center. You put 3 dots where the center of a petal will be, and turn each into a petal. Touch the dots with a round damp brush, then flatten it a little to create a petal shape. You may have to shape it a little more with the tip of the brush. Then, while wet, add a little darker paint to the center. After the 3 dots become petals, then add 2 more dots and turn them into petals. 

Below are some that are done in the method shown in my May blog post.

Below is a link to how to do the layered flower petals below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ymuPJniZp8

It is by Emma LeFevre, and she's good at teaching very simple flower techniques. Worth a watch.