Negative Painting - Again

Negative painting in its simplest form:

To do a simple demonstration/exercise to understand negative painting, we drew some simple shapes on white paper, just a few. (The lower picture) Then we painted around those shapes with a light value. (White shapes were painted around with pink)(You can vary the colors, but the value is light here). When dry, we added a few more shapes, overlapping some of them. Then we painted around all the shapes with the second value. This top picture shows more pink shapes added, and then painted around with blue. 

More hearts were added, then everything was painted around with a darker value blue

.

Finally, more shapes added, then everything painted around with dark blue and purple.

There is a similar exercise in my blog of Nov 1, 2018

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/2455209220739325711

We also made a background for next week's process, a negative painting over a background with texture.

You make that by wetting your paper, then randomly add color, keeping it fairly pale. You can cover it with plastic wrap, bubble wrap, wax paper, or other texture making materials.You can salt it, score it with the edge of a credit card or comb. Just make some texture on it. Leave any plastic wrap on it until it is dry completely. Save it for next week.

Here are some previous blogs on negative painting:

Trees:  https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/8804002223729928397

Peaches--part negative/part positive: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/1859509093000056145

Lily: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/633548238412726277

Here is a good YouTube describing the process, by Elaine Rimmelin. I chose this one out of many because I wanted you to see how she used several colors, not just one color for each layer; that the emphasis is on increasing the VALUE of each layer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iynw_WaVdQs&list=PLi6GQwdqc7fqtIPe3H8Ovu-Ml1OK1Ed00&index=2

Experimenting with a Limited Palette

WARM AND COOL

Trying to figure out what is "warm" or "cool" in paint terms can be confusing. This is actually just a way of saying how a color makes you feel: yellows/oranges/reds are generally associated with the sun and a warm day. Blues and violets are associated with cold. 

But each color has a warm and cool on the spectrum, but it is actually more that it has a BIAS or it leans toward a warm or cool color. Example, all blues are COOL in that big category of warm or cool. But some lean toward green, which gives them a green bias. Other lean toward violet, which gives them a violet bias, so they are considered a "warm" blue.  Yellows are ALWAYS warm: but they can have a BIAS. A lemony yellow has a green bias....you don't see any orange in it. So that yellow is a cool yellow. But it's still a warm color.

Painting with a Limited Palette

Why paint with only a few colors?

The experiment today was to choose a set of primaries and see how many colors you can make with it.

You can change how much of each color is in a mix. Make light values and dark values. Make browns and grays, and neutralized colors by adding their complement.

Here is a set of 4 pictures I did that demonstrate. The colors I used were permanent rose, French Ultramarine, and a medium yellow.

Top left, I mostly used the French Ultramarine and rose to make snowy blues and violets. I mixed all three to make the brown for the tree, and muted the red barn with some blue/yellow to create gray.

Picture #2, the spring scene. Same colors. The blue was muted a little with an orange made from the yellow and red; the green is French and yellow; pink is just very watered permanent rose.

The summer scene: yellow and blue to make a natural green; a little yellow in the rose to make the barn bright red. And in the fall scene, orange made from the rose and yellow; grass a more muted green by putting a little red in the green mixture.

Four season, four different feelings, with 3 colors.

So choose three primaries you want to experiment with. Here's a hint: what is the most important color that you want to make stand out?  If you want a pretty green, choose a blue and yellow that leans toward green. If purple needs to look pretty, choose a cobalt or French, which leans toward purple, and a magenta or permanent rose which lean toward purple.

Do a sample of each color and the secondaries (orange/violet/green) you can make with them.

Then find a picture with simple shapes and experiment to see how many colors you can create.

Here I used a warm yellow (Quin Gold); Cool Red (Alizarin); and Warm Blue (French ultramarine)

In the one on the left, I opted for a lot of grays, with a pure yellow shining. (Grays are just opposite colors, or all three colors, mixed together. The orangery the mix, the browner it will be; the bluer the mix, the grayer it will be) In the second one I began making a very warm background with the gold and red, which makes the blue in the lighthouse stand out.

In this third one, I muted the blue a little for the sky, leaving some soft whites for clouds. I mixed some greens for the hill in the foreground. The brown is a thicker version of adding all three colors.

You can also try different combinations until you get a combination you like.

Why try a limited palette?

• Color Harmony and Cohesion: Because all colors are mixed from the same few pigments, the finished piece possesses a natural, unified, and harmonious appearance.
• Improved Technical Skill: It forces artists to master color mixing, understand color relationships, and focus on the "value" (lightness or darkness) of a color rather than just its hue.
• Simplified Decision Making: A limited selection reduces the overwhelming choices of a full palette, which helps in avoiding "muddy" colors and simplifies the painting process.
• Efficiency and Cost: It is more economical and requires carrying fewer materials, making it ideal for plein air painting.
• Specific Mood Creation: Using a restricted range allows the artist to evoke specific, deliberate, and sometimes moody feelings in their work. 

Before I make a detailed painting, if I take a few minutes to do a small version of the basic shapes and paint it different ways, I can make better decisions about what colors to use. This avoids making mistakes that would be hard to correct later on.

PAiNTING WET TO DRY

One question we had was "Where do you begin a painting? With the center of focus? With background?"

That doesn't really have one answer, but I found this interesting video that you might find helpful, especially with landscapes.

painting and chocolate landscape wet into wet

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/35H-vH8qF_I

Below I tried a version of that process doing a lighthouse.

First, I wet the entire paper, making sure it was wet but not puddly. Just shiny. I painted in the softest blends. As the paper loses its shine you can paint in things that will have soft edges or are more distant.

The dryer the paper becomes, the more control you have over shape and edges. So on the left I painted all my soft edges and distant hills. I left the lighthouse area dryer. Then when it was completely dry, I could paint in the hard edges and details of the lighthouse.

WATERCOLOR MIXING

 SOME HELPFUL TIPS FOR COLOR MIXING

I wanted to help students become more confident in their color mixing. It seems to be a problem even for more experienced painters. So today the emphasis was on color in watercolor, rather than technique.

WATERCOLOR has unique properties that other mediums do not. They include: transparency, flow, granulation (some), staining or lifting, and permanence. (some colors, such as opera, are notoriously "fugitive," meaning they fade with light and time). But for now, we are mostly dealing with their color(hue)  and how to make secondary and tertiary colors, how to neutralize color, and how to change its value.

I generally try to use 6 basic colors: a warm and a cool Red (warm=toward orange; cool = toward violet or pink); a warm and cool blue (warm=toward violet, like French ultramarine; cool=toward green, like Pthalo or cerulean); and a warm and a cool yellow (warm=toward orange, like new gamboge; cool = toward green like lemon or hansa light) PLUS trusty burnt sienna for texture. From these colors you can create almost any color you want.

We started with an exercise using just six colors. Make greens using mixes of your 2 yellows and 2 blues. You should end up with 4 color mixes: warm yellow+warm Blue; warm yellow +cool blue; cool yellow+cool blue; cool yellow + warm Blue. 

Make oranges using mixes of reds and yellows. Make Violets using mixes of your reds and blues.

I showed several methods of creating colors--in a journal, on a sheet of paper, mixing on palette or mixing on paper. Different students chose different ways, but all should be labeled as to what color was used.

In the method below, I taped off rectangles. I wet each rectangle and painted yellow on one side and a blue on the other side, allowing them to mingle to a green in the middle of the rectangle. On the sheet on the right, I used the same colors, but began mixing on the palette, the left color being the pure yellow, the right being the pure blue, with a little blue added to each stripe to get variations of green. And I labeled the colors (HYL= hansa yellow light: FUM is French ultramarine, etc.)

Note the bottom two are unusual: yellow with paynes gray and yellow with neutral tint make green!

In the method below I painted pure color at each end of the stripe and let them run together.

We used burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue to create grays.

Now, I don't really like the terms "warm" and "cool" when color mixing, but that is how the art world refers to them.  I prefer the term "leans toward". For example, if I want a "pretty" color of green, I want a yellow that "leans toward" green (doesn't have any orange in it) such as lemon or hansa light PLUS a blue that "leans toward" green, such a Pthalo or Cerulean or cyan. If I want a green that is more natural and earthy, I'll pick one primary that doesn't lean toward green, and one that does.

Below is my blog of Jan of 2025 that describes this split primary way of thinking.

A previous posting on how to make a split primary color wheel.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/5080489554816836458

Hue, Chroma, and Value defined

https://www.watercoloraffair.com/the-dimensions-of-color/

Above is a pdf that defines these terms and why it is helpful to understand them. Hue is basically the color name. Value is how dark that color is, and Chroma is how INTENSE that color is. You change or neutralize the hue, often by adding small amounts of its complement, to change the intensity or Chroma.

Practice taking a color and see what neutrals you can create by adding a little of the complement; then a little more; then a little more.

COLOR INFLUENCE: TINTING STRENGTH

Some color have more influence--tinting strength-- on other colors and some have very little. Yellow has the least.

So if you are mixing a color with yellow in it, then start with a lot of yellow, then gradually add the blue or red (both of which have stronger influence). IF you tried it the opposite way, beginning with the stronger color, you might take a long time adding yellow, then adding more yellow....  Another reason to start with the weaker color is that yellow especially is easily contaminated. One speck of red and your yellow is no longer yellow, but orange. But if your clean brush pulls out yellow first, it's less likely to get contaminated.

Louise DeMasi: 13 essential tips for mixing watercolor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_KhI2auRZA&t=829s

I love her paintings, and she gives some helpful ideas and reasons why they help with color mixing. I think it's only about 20 minutes long. Some tips are simple, such as having 2 water cups and a clean palette and using thicker paints from the tubes for darker colors. 

Two I'd especially pay attention to are:

a. blot excess water from your brush so you don't accidentally dilute your paint more than you want. (so many times people keep trying to add paint to darken an object but the water from the brush keeps the paint light)

and 

b. Don't over-mix your paint....you are not baking a cake that needs to be evenly distributed, but a painting that can show the nuances of a mixed color.

Blue Bird Winter Card

 Blue Bird Winter Card

I am posting this a little early because I know some people can't make it to class:

Here is the project for Nov. 20:

The reference for this is from Carol Locey, a member of the class with photographic talents.

She agreed to let me teach from this reference. Thanks, Carol! She used AI to substitute the branch for pine and put snow in the background. 

Step 1: Draw and ink the blue bird. I drew an oval around it to give it some emphasis. (But you don't need to do that)

TIP: I drew the oval in watercolor pencil so the color would just dissolve into the background.

You can position the oval vertically or horizontally, to give the picture a different effect.

I made sketches in different sizes, so choose small if you want a card size, large for a 9 x 12.

Make sure you add the details you want to include in your drawing. For example,  Carol wants to put a Santa hat on hers!

Step 2: Spatter some masking fluid onto the background for snow.  You can also mask out a few areas where pine needles will show through the snow. Lightly paint the breast with a gray (I make mine from burnt sienna and French ultramarine) watered down, with some ochre or raw sienna added to the bottom. Add some popcorn salt to the bottom

When dry add a layer of blue to the head and a layer of orange to the body. While the orange was still damp, I dropped darker orange (quin burnt orange) into that area to give it dimension. (the blue can be cerulean or Pthalo or manganese)

Make a gray for the background and paint the background with that gray. While wet (but not puddly), drop in table salt to help create snow effects. Don't go too heavy on the salt. You might try using larger salt for the clumps of snow area around the branch, but you can always add a little snow later. 

Tip: Your background color needs to be a value dark enough to show up the salt, but light enough not to overpower the bird. I made my gray with French ultramarine and Burnt sienna so that I could warm it up with some burnt sienna. But you can choose the color for your background.

I added some large clumps of snow with bleed proof white and spattered it onto the background. When it all dried, I removed masking, darkened the oval with blue, and added some pine needles in the snow. 

I thought there were just a few places I wanted to shadow the large clumps of snow, so added some shadow to the snow on the branches.

If you are doing this as a card, you can either use a 5 x 10 piece of paper and draw the picture on the RIGHT side of paper, so you can fold it up and have an instant card. Or you can just do it on a 5 x 7 piece of paper and mount it with double sided tape to card stock.  When doing it as a card, I usually tape it down to a small board to make a border and keep the edges clean. 

Can't wait to see what you all create!

Finishing the Wren

Completing the wren pen and wash

Here are a few tips for finishing this bird. 

First,  I completed the inking. I used a size .005 for the fine feather detail, always following the reference to see the direction of the feathers. I didn't ink much on the belly...I was letting the watercolor and salt give the impression of those tiny soft feathers.

In the inking process, I wanted to be sure the branch the bird sits on to appear to be heavy enough to hold the weight of the bird. I inked some texture into the branch, especially on the bottom of that branch. The branch behind the bird I left with less detail, as I wanted it to appear more distant.

The eye: be sure your eye looks round. We tend to try to give animals human eyes, but birds are more round. In this reference you'll notice 3 things: there is some white on the left edge of the eye, but that is FEATHERS, not eyeball; you need to include the dark round on the outside of the eyeball, which is its eyelids, but on birds it appears like a round circle, and it needs to be included; there is a tiny part on the right of the eye that points outward, but keep it tiny. I doesn't take the shape of a human eye.

Also, give the eye a tiny white light point. You can add it in with white gouache, bleed proof white, or scratch it out with a razor blade.

BACKGROUND

If you are not happy with your background, change it to what you like. You can make a bokeh effect by using a round stencil and removing paint, or by painting in some circles with watered down gouache. You can re-wet the surface and add more color (I added some pthalo blue to mine)

The Body: Many times we are not happy with a picture, and can't quite figure out why. The first solution I look at is, "Did I lose my whites?" Second question I ask is, "Are my values right? Are they showing what I want to be important?"  Third question is, "Do I have both hard and soft edges?" On this project, it's easy to lose the whiteness on the belly that makes it come forward and appear soft. Sometimes, just lifting some of the paint where the belly is roundest helps a lot.

Here are student interpretations of this project. I feel like a proud mama!

Sarah darkened the bottom branch, and even created a shadow underneath the branch. 

Meg also kept it light and airy. It looks great!

Francis also didn't like her background, so added a bokeh effect. She began lifting some color from around the bird to get more glow back. Not finished yet, but looks good so far. And it's OK to leave the branch light, as long as it doesn't look like you forgot it. 

Carol L. made a beautiful background adding some blues, and still maintained the glow I was hoping for. She darkened the stem underneath so it really looks like it can hold the weight.

Bev kept it light and airy, and it looks beautiful. Very nice pen work, using it on the belly a bit to create some form to the belly area.

Vicky wasn't happy with her background, so she created a lovely bokeh effect. It almost looks like it's raining.  This was a case where lifting some of the color off the belly made it look softer.

Pam M used purple in the background. Notice how she brought some of the purple from the top into the rest of the painting to unify it. And kept the background branch in the background with less detail and softer edges.

Carol S. did a beautiful job creating a glow around the wren. Her pen work is really good too.

Barb B--free-handed her bird, and used a pale cool background, which shows up the bird nicely without overpowering the picture. She limited the pen strokes to the head and wings, and the effect is soft.

I didn't get everyone's pics, (I was late pulling out the camera), 

but thanks to those who let me post theirs. You all should pat yourselves on the back on this one.

Wren: Pen and Wash with hombre background

 WREN WITH HOMBRE BACKGROUND

Here is the photo reference from Alicia Beasley from Facebook References for Artists website.

First I made the basic pen work in brown ink with a dip pen and brown India Ink. Not too much detail at first.

Then I painted the fuzzy breast of the wren. I used raw sienna mixed with some burnt sienna, wet into wet. I concentrated darker color around the edges of the breast to make it feel rounder and fuller. While it was still shiny, but no puddles, I dropped a tiny bit of popcorn salt. (You want to hold it about 12 inches above the paint and sprinkle. Too much salt or too much water and it will be nearly impossible to remove the salt when it dries.)

Notice the fuzzy effect the popcorn salt gives.

After the salt has reacted as much as you want it to, you can dry with a hair dryer and brush off all the excess salt.

The Background

I wanted to give the background a sort of hombre effect, with a glow around the bird and darker as it reaches the edges. First I wet a section. The branches give me a natural stopping place. So I propped the page at an angle (so the paint will run). Starting at the outer edges I dropped in yellow paint. On top of that I added some raw sienna and let that drip in. The last color is quinacridone burnt orange. (you can make a similar color with burnt sienna and a bit of red) All of this was wet on wet.

Some people wanted it even darker. You can add indigo or French ultramarine to the last layer.

The background is wet but not puddly, just enough to let the colors bleed together.

When one section was dry enough to stop running, I turned the paper upside down and did the bottom the same way.

At this point, you can ink more or you can begin painting. When doing a bird's feather, I like to use a small pointed brush, and paint short strokes that follow the direction that the feathers are growing.

I'll put down a very light layer, let it dry, then put down one or two successive layers, each with short strokes, and each layer a little darker than the previous. 

Colors I'm using on the bird are raw sienna with a little purple (to make it less yellow) for the light areas; burnt sienna, burnt umber, and French ultramarine for the darker areas. 

OF course, this isn't the only way to do it. You can just wash in color, then when dry, go back over it with a layer of small strokes to indicate feathers. The main thing is to keep strokes going in the same direction as the feathers, and you'll have to pay attention to the reference for that. 

Next week we'll finish the bird's feathers and make adjustments with inking or paint as needed.

Below is Judy's finished haunted house. This project really was fun!

Finishing the Halloween House

Making a spooky atmosphere

This week we continued the Halloween themed house. Those who missed last week, I showed the target method of paining a gradual spiral around the moon in the last blog. Also from last week, I retaught how to create distant looking trees.

This week I brought stencils and ideas for finishing the house. I was cracking up at the ideas people came up with. So here's show and tell ideas for finishing the Haunted House. (I am missing a few and will add them as soon as I get them. Sorry)

Judy...just getting started, added a fence and a road

Kathy J..kept it loose and colorful, but still evoking that spooky atmosphere

Meg...Added tree, bats, and a fence with a cat

Carol Schell..found inspiration for the fence in a catalog

Vicki...using purple and yellow complementary colors

Sarah

Bev.. "Jut experimenting..." she says. I love how she's handled her house and background, then added some jack-o-lanterns for fun

Sylvia...used a real building for the reference

Francis?

  Pam has a ghost in a graveyard

Lisa P's

Not finished, but well on its way

Carol L... don't miss the owl

FROM OUR FIRST PROJECT

Judy--love the cat!

Sylvia--So detailed!

Shirley--looks more violet in person. Love it

Cathy J's....love the changes in composition to

make it more dynamic

Just some tips from today

STENCILING WITH WATERCOLOR

I use an INK BLENDING BRUSH for stenciling.  They are really inexpensive. It has many fibers. You make a thick mix of paint...if the paint is too wet, it will soak underneath the stencil. Let the brush absorb the paint, dab it off if it's too wet. Then brush over the stencil that you want. Using this method, you can stencil over any paper surface, including printer paper, card stock, etc. 

By the way, I learned about stenciling from Jackie Hernandez. 

7 minutes--loved it!

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

To use a stencil to remove paint, use a damp (not wet) sponge. Put your stencil where you want it, then remove paint over the stencil with the sponge. Good for ghost or making light forms over a dark paint.

FIGURING OUT WATER TO PAINT RATIO

You often hear artist talk about tea/coffee/milk/and cream thicknesses for paint. This past week I saw an artist, Dan Mondloch, that gives an optional way of thinking about it....How runny is your paint?

So, when thinking about light value paint, it is watered down and runny. You will see through it to the white of your palette, and if you tip it, it easily runs down the palette.

For more medium values, medium thickness of paint, you'll have less water. The paint will run around a little, but not like for waterier paint. Also, you can see less of the white of your palette.

For thicker, dark value paints, you will not see the white of your palette. And the paint doesn't move when you tip the palette a bit. This is the thickness you need if you are going to stencil.