Rocks and Water--a stream bed

ROCKS AND WATER-a stream in Gatlinburg, TN 

There are many ways to make water effects, but I am going to show how to make rushing water using plastic wrap.

Sketch your picture. Use a wax candle, paraffin, or white crayon to save the whites, especially where you have some foam and at the top of the rocks where the water flows over them.

Wet the water area, keeping the rocks dry. I used cobalt blue as a base color, and then dropped in some violet, turquoise, and some raw umber . While this is wet (shiny, not puddly) stretch some plastic wrap the direction the water is flowing...in this case, horizontally--and lay it over the water area. You can manipulate the plastic wrap a bit to get the ripples you want. Weight the plastic down and allow it to dry on its own for about 15 minutes. (If you remove it too soon, the paint will move and you will lose the effect.)

I treated the rocks as one "formation," painting it all at one time. I started with some ochre, dropped in burnt sienna, some purple for color, etc. , leaving some light areas where the sun would hit. While wet, I lay wax paper over the rocks. The wax paper should be flat, not wrinkled up. The wet paint should hold the wax paper down, but you should put some weight on it until it dries a bit. Again, about 15 min.

Below you can see the painting after the wax paper and plastic wrap have been removed. I've darkened some of the rock where it comes out of the water. The rock on the bottom right is half in/half out of the water. The top edge will get a hard edge, and the bottom edge of the rock will get a softer edge to make it appear to be under the water. Rocks that are totally under water, but visible, will have edges that are a little softer and lighter. 

Next week we'll put in a background and shadows in the rocks and do finishing touches. 

Plastic wrap can make lots of effects. Below I've stretched some over a mix of browns and purples to create a tree trunk or driftwood. Vertically, it could be rugged mountain or cliffs. The green patch is where the plastic wrap is scrunched into a tight ball and set over wet yellows, greens, and blues. It could be the start of a jungle background or garden with dense foliage. 

Simple water with some waves:

Make a graded wash, darker at the bottom, lighter at the top. (Sky is darker at the top, lighter at the horizon; water is usually lighter at the horizon, darker toward the bottom--closer to you)

While damp, make horizontal streaks through the water. In the distance they will be thinner and closer together, disappearing all together toward the horizon. Closer up, the waves will be farther apart and wider. While damp, you can lift a white cap with a thirsty brush. 

Reflections in water. See the link below to another blog on reflections in calm water.

Other types of water on my blogs:

reflections

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/1249924456979765332

ripples

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/477440005936212597

sea foam and starfish

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/1962020858131315252

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/602026742145686472

Texture methods for painting rocks

INDIVIDUAL ROCKS

In order to show different methods of creating rock, I first drew a cairn (stack of rocks used in national parks, Iceland, and other parts of the world to navigate trails in the wilderness). I made it similar to one of these (photo from unsplash, by Daniel Tellez Cabrere).

 

There are two or three important things to remember when painting rocks, or any object outdoors. The first is to establish your source of light, and keep it consistent throughout the painting. In this one, I chose to have the light coming from the top left. (See the pretty sun?) That means that surfaces that the light hits directly will be the lightest; areas where no light gets in are the very darkest (like the underside of the rocks). Other areas that do not receive direct sunlight are a medium value.

The second is that you need at least three values --light, medium, dark--to depict a 3D object. There are a lot of other things you can learn about light--reflected light, cast shadows, etc.--but for now, your rocks will be believable if you make sure that you have those 3 distinct values.

Miscellaneous tools used in this exercise were: salt, cut credit card, wax (from candle, crayon, or paraffin), wax paper, alcohol, sponge, and fan brush (or hog bristle brush). Colors used were mostly cobalt (or ultramarine) blue, burnt sienna, ochre, and burnt umber. Keeping it simple.

For the first rock, I just gently rubbed a stick of paraffin onto the rock surface. Then I painted a medium wash of burnt sienna and cobalt over it. When it dried, I darkened the shadow area by adding some burnt umber.

The second rock you see below was the same burnt sienna/cobalt mix with a little ochre to warm it a bit. While shiny, I added some table salt and scratched into areas with the point of a cut credit card. (Other tools can be used to do that) After it dried, I darkened the shadow underneath. Last, I sponged some green over the top left to look like moss.

The next rock also began with cobalt/burnt sienna, but a light wash first. When that was dry, I rubbed some wax over the surface, and covered it with a darker (medium value), and dropped alcohol into it while it was damp. Drops of alcohol create small circles, while streaks of it will push away paint. When dry I darkened the bottom and a little of the right side. Then spattered over dry paint.

This 4th rock was a lot of fun. I made a grayer version of the cobalt/burnt sienna mix just by adding more blue. After adding the initial coat of paint, I spattered into it while the paint is wet. I tore strips of wax paper, and lay it over the wet paint. After it was dry, I removed the wax paper, and got these lovely marks on the rock. After the entire thing was dry, I again darkened the bottom, added some lines for cracks, and did some spatter. I did add a little green moss with the sponge. 

To make this bottom rock, where it meets the grass, I used a granulating paint, like lunar earth, for a medium value. I wet the bottom of the rock, leaving the very bottom 1/2 inch dry, and added dark paint about 1/2 inch above the very bottom. Using a fan brush (or hog bristle brush), I brushed the dark rock color, from top to bottom, over the grass area. That should have created some white grassy looking spaces.

I waited until the shine had gone from the paint, but it was still damp. Using the small flat side of a cut credit card, I pulled out some whites from the paint.

When the rock was dry, I completed the grass effect by painting in some greens just below the rock, and then using the fan brush, brush upward from the green into the whites left on the rock. Leave some of the whites.

I spattered and strengthened some of the cracks with a small brush. 

PAINTING GROUPS OF ROCK

From left to right: Top row: The triangle method; cut wax paper over colorful wash; torn wax paper vertically over wet wash; Middle: negative painting; bottom, rock practice using salt in paynes gray; rock with wet spatter, small grouping using negative painting. 

Mound of rocks using negative painting.

What I like about this method is that you do all your main color and texture at one time.

First paint the entire area with colors you like/see in the mound. You can use wax resist, wet spatter, water droplets, alcohol, or wax paper to create your texture at this point. Dry.

Draw in the rock formations. Then, beginning at the bottom, paint the negative spaces between the rocks. Apply the darkest paint at the bottom of a rock, clean the brush, and gently soften the paint into the rock above. 

Do this with all the rocks, and then add a few details. 

INVENTING YOUR OWN ROCK FORMATIONS

This is a good exercise I got from Joye Moon's book, Exploring Textures.  Gordon MacKenzie has a similar exercise in his book The Complete Watercolorist's Essential Notebook. 

Start by painting triangles wherever you like: long and rounded triangles, big and small triangles.

Paint circles to connect the triangles and identify rock shapes. You can paint more triangles as you go along to fill in rounded shapes. Think of the triangles as shadow shapes where two or three rocks come together. 

Using dry brush or other methods, finish the rocks and contour them. Apply the darkest paint in shadow areas. You can even add small rocks inside the shadows. finish the rock by intensifying forms and shadows.

WAX PAPER CUT

This is a pretty way to make rock forms, especially those you see underwater.

Simply make a wet into wet wash, dropping in colors you like. I did this the same way I did the background for bokeh...in little circles of color. While wet, lay cut circles of wax paper over the paint. It should stick on its own if the paint is wet. Weight them down if necessary. Allow it to dry on its own and remove the wax paper.

Making a Bokeh Painting - Bird Part 1

SECRETS TO CREATING A BOKEH EFFECT 

Bokeh is a photography term used to describe a soft, out-of-focus background. There are often round circles of sunlight in it.

I've tried several different techniques for creating bokeh in watercolor, and have been mostly successful. After watching a Karen Rice method of doing it, I decided to add that to my repertoire, with a few changes.

The two main things I learned were: 

    A. Use only lifting colors (I'll list some of them below)

    B. Apply background colors in circles, wet into wet.  

Step One: Wet the background (shiny, not puddly), and start applying color in circular shapes.

       

Keep adding colors, also in circular shapes. These are lifting not staining colors. For this exercise, I used veridian, cerulean blue, Hansa Yellow, and Quinacridone gold. 

As it dries, after it has lost its shine but before completely dry, spritz a few drops of water over the paint. 

This is not squirting it to soak it, but sprinkling a few drops on to create small soft effects. (See the little snowy drops?) You can just make drops from the tip of a brush instead. 

Next use a template or stencil with different sizes of circles. You can buy one or you can

use a piece of yupo (or other thin plastic sheet) and punch circles in it. Lay the stencil over

the dried painting where you want a circle. Use a soft sponge (or even a Mr. Clean sponge) to gently lift circles. Blot the area with a paper towel or tissue. Overlap some circles. Don't overdo it. 

Below you'll see some circle stencils (courtesy of Dollar Tree) next to a piece of white yupo and a hole punch. 

Below you'll see bokeh done in different colors, and listing some possible lifting colors you can use. (The ones I used are highlighted)

For Blue:  Cobalt, teal, cerulean, cobalt violet, ultramarine turquoise

For red/orange: Quin. coral, burnt umber, magenta, quin gold, hansa yellow, quin burnt scarlet

(I did use magenta, which is slightly staining, but mixed with all lifting colors, it's OK)

For yellow/orange: Quin gold, hansa yellow, burnt sienna, burnt umber, quin burnt orange, Transparent pyrol orange

For green: Hansa yellow, veridian, hookers green, cobalt blue, cerulean blue, quin gold

Starting to paint the bird

I got this photo reference from Paint My Photo by Chrissy M.(It is a red bellied nuthatch)

Sketch the bird and tree trunk onto 100% cotton paper. Put small bits of masking on the dot on the eye, the beak, and a few tiny feathers on the wings. (Karen Rice uses a paperclip to make the small liles of masking) Use an old sponge to mask on bits of rough bark up and down the tree trunk. (When the masking tried, I roughed it up by rubbing my finger through it.)

Choose the color scheme you want for the background, and wet the background, avoiding the bird. Do one side of background (beside the tree trunk) at a time, so your paper doesn't dry before you are ready.

Apply the paint as described above. 

DRY the background.

In class I went ahead and demonstrated the bokeh, Using circle stencils in several sizes to lift the bokeh. Overlap some of them. Make some more white and distinct than others to increase the feeling of depth. But I'd prefer doing it after painting the bird and trunk.

TRUNK

Remember, there are patches of miskit on the trunk, roughed up a bit. Don't allow it to be in "chunks," as it needs to look rough for the bark.

I used a mixture of quin gold and ultramarine to create the mossy green. I wet the trunk, then painted in the greens on the left hand side, using the point of a credit card (or other sharp object, like bamboo pen) to pull out strands of green to look like moss. While it was wet, I then painted burnt umber and burnt sienna, allowing it to blend into some of the green. 

 Before it dried, I used the point of a credit card to create some ridges of bark, indenting the paper in ragged lines.

Dry the trunk.

Remove the masking fluid.

There will be some hard edges, which I want, but I don't want the white. Using gray (paynes or neutral tint) or burnt umber, lightly wash over the entire trunk. Drop in darks (greens and browns) to enhance the feeling of bark. 

I went a little further to enhance the feeling of bark, but you don't have to. I painted in some dark, small lines to indicate the bark. I also added some more greens where I thought they got lost. 

Two other things you can do are: scrape areas of the bark with a craft knife blade; and use some pastel in areas to make it look like bark.

THE BIRD

I still have masking fluid on the bird. I used cobalt grayed down with a little burnt sienna for the top of the bird.

I made an underpainting of gray on the belly of the bird, rounding it with some shading. 

After it dried, I glazed over with some orange. I painted the black over the beak and the eye with neutral tint mixed with ultramarine blue. I waited until it was dry to paint the foot. (cobalt blue grayed with burnt sienna)

To finish, I painted in some thin dark feathers and the seed in his mouth. I also deepened the blue on his shoulder and near the beak to round the head a little bit more. 

Before I added the bokeh by lifting circles, I made sure the colors surrounding the bird were the value I wanted. I wanted them a little darker around the belly so that the belly would show up better. It could be a little lighter over the head and back because that area of the bird is darker. If I need to darken an area of the background, I have to do it before I start adding circles.