NEGATIVE PAINTING/ZENTANGLE CHRISTMAS CARD

This project can be done with any repetitive shape: trees, snowflakes, etc.

        

1.       Begin by taping down card if doing card size, leaving ¼ inch edges. 

2.       Draw some circles for ornaments. Leaving some white, paint background and add some salt for snow effect.

         

3. Paint around the other ornaments in the next value. I plan to go greener as I go, so I used cerulean and pthalo.     With each new layer, before the paint dried, (but was still damp) I spattered with water to keep the snow effect.                                                                                                                                                                        

 

                                                                                                                                                    

4.       Draw in some small background circles for ornaments.

Paint around those with darker value…I used turquoise and green.

You can go darker if you choose. As the paint lost its shine, I

Continue to spatter with water droplets for snow effect. I also darkened some “shadow” areas on the small blue ornaments.

                      

5.       I added some color to the ribbons.

 

6.       I outlined with ultra fine sharpie. Then I used the Sharpie to create a zentangle design on the ball I left white. I could also do the zentangle on some other places.

 

7.       To finish, I cleaned up some of my edges. I added a small touch of quin gold to the white zentangle ball. I also lifted out a faint ribbon for the blue ball beneath the white one. Then I spattered with gouache.

8.       WHAT I COULD CHANGE: I should have been more careful with making the ribbons perfectly vertical. I could add iridescent medium, but I am printing this, so will wait to do it on printed cards.

MORE ABOUT NEGATIVE PAINTING

Before going into the lesson, let me cite several good references on negative painting. Steve Mitchell's Mind of Watercolor youtube has a very good lesson on negative painting. I highly recommend it. Linda Kemp has written two books on the subject, one of which is Watercolor: Painting outside the Lines. Gordon MacKenzie's Complete Watercolorist's Essential Notebook
has several good pages on negative painting. See the end of this blog for 4 other blogs on the subject.

Today we did three exercise to try to understand what negative painting is. Here is a simple explanation: The positive is the shape of an object and the negative space is the space behind the object. In this picture (the stencil) the positive shape of the leaves is on the left; the negative shape is on the right.



To do the first exercise, first use two colors to create a background. Salt to create a little texture.
When it is dry, trace the stencil and paint a color two values different around the shape. That is the negative. When that is dry, draw another shape, and paint around both of those shapes slightly darker values. Dry, and continue to draw and paint around the shapes until you are pleased with the picture.




For The second exercise, draw three circles onto the paper, and paint BEHIND them. I used yellow. T
Dry and draw three more circles, some ovelapping. Then paint around all the circles. (I used pale green) Now you can see white and yellow circles with green background. Then make three more circles, and paint even darker around those. Now I have white, yellow, and pale green circles with a darker green background.

The third exercise is pretty simple monochrome.  Draw a wavy line at the bottom of the page, and paint everything above it a pale value. Dry. Draw another wavy line above the white and into the blue. Then paint everything above that second line a darker shade. Dry, draw a third line, and paint everything above that line darker. Continue until you have several values of the same color. It will look like mountains or ocean waves. 

So why do negative painting? Rarely are any of my pictures totally negative painted. It's usually a combination of positive and negative. Negative painting can make things such as a grove of trees easier to do. 

You can see several of my other blogs on negative painting for more. 

8/13/17  water lilies

8/04/17 Trees

6/03/16 leaves

5/26/16   leaves

Pen and Wash

In class I demonstrated three ways to use pen with watercolor. The pens I used were Sharpie ultra-fine, Micron 005 and Micron 003. You need to use bleed proof, permanent inks, not waterbased.

Pen and Wash: Bee Eater,inked first

Probably the most common method is to ink the drawing first, and then apply washed of water color. When inking you can use several techniques to shade: cross hatching, stipling, scribbles, etc. This bird is a bee eater, and you can use almost any colors, since there are many varieties of color in these birds. I used cross hatching (curved around the branches to accent the roundness of them) and some stipling. It was a snap to wash over these with bright colors.

Pen and Wash: Old West Cabin, sketched in paint first

IN Watercolor Artist magazine, December 2012, DeAnn L. Prosia presents a different approach.
You first draw the basic shapes with your watercolors, not drawing or tracing in pencil first. Lay down sections of color that represent shapes in the image. In this first picture, you can see that I've just sketched with paint.



The second step is to go over the picture more exactly. Draw the actual image on top of the shapes of color. She uses black colored pencil or pen for the foreground, dark indigo for the middle ground, and a medium warm gray for the background. Parts of the drawing may match up to the sections of color that were first laid down and some may not. But it adds interest to the picture.

Then you can go back with a second layer of wtercolr to give more depth. Sometimes more drawing is needed.




Pen and Wash: Old West Cabin, over toned paper

Wet a piece of paper and apply some spatters of color. Allow to dry.



Then, using an ultra fine pen, draw in the picture. Then use smaller pens to add details. Fill in blocks of color. I just liked this with just two colors.

San Jose Mission Part 3

This first photo shows a few steps, especially adding shadows. For the bushes, I wet the bottom half of the bushes and applied blues and purples at the very bottom, and let them "bleed" upward. The shaddows underneath the bushes are also French ultramarine and violet. The important thing about these shadows is that the edge that goes over the sidewalk is horizontal, not slanted. Otherwise the sidewalk would look tilted. If you look closely, you'll see the shadow takes a "step" over the edge of the sidewalk. I then shadowed the pot beneath the tree on the right and the pots in the foreground. 

In this picture, I have painted the low stone wall next to the sidewalk. Leaving much of the edge between wall and sidewalk dry, I wet the top of the wall and applied burnt sienna and coral.  After that was dry, I indicated some cracks and separations between stones with mostly horizontal lines. When dry, I painted the vertical side of th wall with burnt sienna and French ultramarine. 

I began making the trunks of th palm trees and shadowed the pots. To make the dirt in the pots,

just apply French, burnt sienna, and a bit of purple or burnt umber. I also put some red and yellow blossoms in the trees and bushes. Then I darkened the posts in the background. 

In the finished product I emphasized some of the arches and finished the foliage on the plants. Be sure to leave whites in the palm leaves, or they will fade into the bakground. 

For extra texture on the sidewalk or walls, you can wet the area with clean water and use sandpaper and watercolor pencil ... see the blog on watercolor pencils. 

STUDENT SHOW AND TELL

I just wanted to post some student work. I didn't get as many pics as I'd like, so hopefully next week I'll remember.

SAN JOSE MISSION PART 2

After the first coat is on the arches, I wet the bushes and added yellows throughout, still using a FLAT BRUSH.  While the yellow was still wet, I added in some blues and greens where it will be darker. 

While that was drying, I mixed burnt sienna and French  ultramarine and painted the outer part of the arches on the top. I kept it on the warm side, adding a little quin burnt orange in places. Then I did the lower outside arches with the same mix, but a little more French ultramarine.I also darkened the second row of arches. 

 For the little tree on the right I wet the tree, then painted in some yellow, adding French on the underside, and a little sap green as it went toward the top of the tree. When the tree dried, I added some purple shadow to the right and underneath. 

I removed all the masking fluid. For the sidewalk, I put a light coat of quin coral with some burnt sienna to tone it down, and painted right into the flower pots. I added some French into the flower pots while wet. I rewet a few areas and sanded some brown colored pencil into the pots and sidewalk.  

I began darkening the bushes on their shadowed side. Working upside down, I wet the dark side, added French ultramarine, and then added sap green as it came closer to the top of the bushes. I let that dry, and then painted the side of the bushes that face the sidewalk with a green and some French. Even though my reference shows the side areas of the bushes to be about the same value, I wanted to emphasize the square shapes of the bushes by making the values of the top and sides different. 

As the paint was drying, I spritzed soe water into the green to get a bit of texture and shaved some pale green colored pencil into the top. At this point, I still haven't used anything except a FLAT brush. 

Just a little bit more to go!

JUDI BETTS STYLE

This is from a lesson we did this summer, but my computer was on the fritz, so I didn't get to blog about it. Thanks for the reminder to post it.

In the August 2014 issue of Watercolor Artist magazine, page 61-65, Judi Betts discusses "toning" watercolor paper to get some beautiful effects. She starts out by dividing the paper into four rectangular shapes, each a different size. She then tones each section with a different color, each painted a light value. (Don't use purple or browns or greys) The yellow should have the same value as the green, blue, and red.

Draw your picture right over the toned areas. When painting, use the complementary (opposite) color of that area. If you have toned with yellow, use purples in that area. (see top left boats). Over orange, use shades of blue. (top right boats) Over green paint reds (bottom left), and over blue, paint oranges.(bottom right). 

It's a challenge, and a bit freeing, not to be constantly asking myself, "What color should I use here?" 

The object is to notice that you don't have to leave white whites for something to look sunlit, as long as you are using darker values. And the use of complimentary colors enhances the look. 

My reference was a picture I found on Pixabay, a free photo site. So this painting was done for my own use, to experiment, not for sale.

When you are painting near the border of two colors, do a little overlapping to obscure the border. For example, have some of the purple painted a bit into the area you would otherwise paint red. 

Judi Betts has examples of this on the internet and in this article. She also suggests using five organic shapes instead of four rectangular shapes as a background. 

PAINTING WITH A FLAT BRUSH/SAN JOSE MISSION PART 1

THE FLAT BRUSH

If you are cooking, you likely have several tools at your disposal: different spoons for different jobs, different knives for different cutting needs. You COULD cook your oatmeal or fry your bacon with a teaspoon, but that's not the most efficient way to do it. Likewise, our cell phones can do some amazing things, but if I don't take the time to learn, I miss out on knowing how to edit a picture, take a video, keep a calendar, or use the GPS. 

Any job has specific tools for specific occasions. For artists, one of our most valuable tools is our brushes. We can have an arsenal of wonderful brushes, but if we don't know how to use them correctly, we miss out on making our painting experience more enjoyable.

Sometimes I see a student struggling with an area in a painting that could be resolved more easily using a different brush. So I'd like to take a little time to talk about the uses of a FLAT brush. Flat brushes can be considered "wash" brushes or "brights." "Flat" has longer bristles, and brights are shorter. "Angle" brushes will have hairs that are cut at an angle, often used by watercolorists as "blending" brushes. 

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

I usually work with a 3/4 inch or 1 inch flat, depending on the size of the painting. If I am doing detail brick or something smaller, I'll use a smaller flat. I like the brush to have some spring to it when it is dry or wet. When it is wet, you should be able to press the fibers through your fingers to make it come to a sharp chiseled edge. You don't want the hairs to separate or have loose hairs. 

USING THE FLAT BRUSH

A lot of people keep their flat brushes handy for making large washes in skies and other parts of the painting. They make short work of a smooth or graded wash. But there are other great ways to use it.

#1 PAINTING THE SIDES OF STRAIGHT OBJECTS, SUCH AS BUILDINGS

Just hold the loaded brush against the side of the object and pull the paint out. This is also great for those smaller areas that are square. 

#2 PAINTING LONG STRAIGHT LINES, SUCH AS FENCE OR SIDING

Work from the tip with brush almost perpendicular to the paper. Just tapping it down makes a great line. For a fence post, hold the brush on one side of the post and drag it across the width. 

#3 TRIANGULAR/CONE SHAPED OBJECTS OR FLOWERS

Hold the brush nearly perpendicular and pivot 

#4 TINY DOTS OR OBJECTS

Using just the corner of the brush, you can fill in small shapes or create dots.

#5 DOUBLE LOADING

Load the left side of the brush with one color and the right side with another. 

#6 BLENDING/CREATING SOFT EDGES

Using clean water, run the brush alongside a shape you want to soften

while the paint is still wet. The width of the brush provides a larger wet area for

the paint to soften and run into, creating a very gradual move of paint. Notice how the left edge of the brush catches the wet edge of the paint, while the rest of the clean water in the brush creates a wet area for the paint to run into. 

#7 PALM LEAVES

Hold the brush nearly perpendicular. Pull the brush straight in a short line, then lift

in the direction of the palm leaf. 

#8 GRASSES

Splay the bristles a bit by separating them with your fingers. This will make it behave

much like a fan brush. (dry brush technique)

#9 BRICK (not shown)

Use a smaller flat, depending on the width of your brick. Starting at the top of the brick, paint down

to the bottom of the brick. A "bright" brush is sometimes good for this because it has shorter bristles and retains the shape a bit more. 

NOW TO PUT IT INTO PRACTICE: SAN JOSE MISSION

My youngest daughter's father in law took us to see the San Jose mission in San Antonio in 2008. I used one of my photos from that for this reference. 

Below is the pattern for the San Jose Mission painting. There are some changes in the final painting: I took out the fence in front; added another pot in front; simplified some of the arches. 

#1 Miskit. I only miskited the foreground trees and spattered some where I want to have some red or yellow flowers. Always use a brush designated only for applying masking fluid. Wet it, put soap on it, then dip it in the masking fluid. 

Here are the ways we have used the flat brush so far.

#2: The sky

The sky is done wet into wet. I used cerulean, but you can use your favorite blue. The flat brush was used to wet the entire sky, starting with the hard edges of the building and working into the body of the sky. Then with the flat, I applied the paint to the wet paper, starting where I wanted it to be darkest, against the building. You can encourage the paint to flow into the water either by brushing side to side or by tilting the paper on its side. 

While it was wet, I pulled out some clouds with a "thirsty" brush (one that has been dampened and then the water pressed out with fingers or on a cloth) and some tissue. Also, while damp, I added some raw sienna to the background trees. (around the arch on the right) I wanted them to be very soft edged and a more muted color so they would look more distant. 

I then went back and painted the sky inside the arches, also wet into wet. 

#3 Underpainting the mission building

I want a warm undertone for the stonework in the building. I also wanted to suggest texture early on. I used four colors: Lunar Earth, Raw Sienna, Lunar Red Earth, and French ultrmarine, because all of them granulate. Other combinations can include burnt sienna, Indian Red, Ochre, anything warm and granulating. 

I wet an area and just put down warm colors all over and let them blend together randomly. I did this to ALL of the building, not paying attention to the inner lines that I will later define. After the paint lost its shine, but was not completely dry, I spattered some clean water into the area. This created a more mottled texture in the walls. 

 (Because I had miskit on the palms in the front and the little one on the building, I could easily paint right over the walls without trying to work around small shapes.)

SO FAR, EVERY STEP HAS BEEN USING A FLAT BRUSH, FROM WETTING THE PAPER TO APPLYING THE PAINT.


Next week: Finishing the mission; underpainting the green bushes;

WATERCOLOR PENCILS TECHNIQUES

WATERCOLOR PENCIL TECHNIQUES

Today's lesson was about some water color techniques. Here are some web sites/youtubes

that can help refresh your memory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN2g5Z6WhGQ

Mr. Otter Studio 4 WC pencil techniques

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRVkG6HhwBE

 Bob Davies , How to Use Watercolor Pencils

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcx1A64OT-4

Bob Davies mallard duck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVCRT5338qM

Frugal Crafter – Daffodil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KuIPQFq_6U

Julie Davis, Cheap Joe’s--a time lapse 

The name of the book I showed pictures from is Water-Soluble Colored Pencils by Gary Greene. (Northlight Books 1999)

Square 1: color some pencil on the top of the square. Wet it and create a graded wash. When that is dry, try lifting some of it with a stiff brush.

Square 2: Apply dry pencil on the top, and another on the bottom. Wet the colors and blend ink the center. When dry (you can use a blow dryer), GLAZE a third color over it to show that you can create a beautiful glaze.

Square 3: Practice dry strokes: cross hatching, small circles, stipling, etc.

Square 4:Wet the paper. Use sandpaper on a dry pencil to create texture on the square.

Square 5: Sandpaper some dry pencil on a wet square. Then, using a flat brush, drag the brush across the shavings to create an effect that looks like birch tree bark.

Square 6: With a damp round brush pull some color off a pencil. At the top, paint color with it.

Wet the bottom of the square, and pull color off a pencil. Paint wet into wet.

Square 7: With a damp FLAT brush, load color from one color on one side of the brush, and another color on the other side of  the brush. Paint a stroke, like a rainbow, on dry paper. Then try it on wet paper.

Square 8: Create a "Palette" of colors. Just apply dry pencil in a circle, over and over, until you have a thick layer of pencil on the paper. Use several colors. Wet a brush, dip into a color on the palette, and paint as you would regular paint. (In last square)

Square 9: Wet the paper. Draw directly onto the wet paper with pencil. It creates very dark color.

Square 10 and 11: Color a few areas of pencil. Spray with water and let it drip. 

Square 12: Paint in from your palette in square 8.

The above picture uses at least five different methods. (1) The background is wet, then color is pulled off a blue and green pencil and applied wet into wet. (2) The blue and purple fish is colored by coloring dry pencil onto dry paper. I have used several colors together before wetting to blend. (3) While the blue fish is wet, I SANDED to create some texture. (4) One the blue and orange fish, I wet the paper, then used two blue pencils to create squiggly lines across left to right. Then I wet over it again to blend a little. (5) I LIFTED hilights on the top of the yellow fish and orange clown fish. 

WHY WATERCOLOR PENCILS?

1.       They are easy to travel with.

2.       Easy to get smaller details.

3.       Can be used dry like colored pencil or

moistened to look like watercolor.

4.       Can make corrections to over-worked paper.

5.       They can be subtle or vibrant.

6.       Use with yupo paper when paint won’t stay

7.       Can draw with them first, then paint over.

8.       Can use in sketch book, and come back a month later to paint

9.       CONTROL over paint

10.   Less likely to accidentally spatter

11.   Paper usually gets less wet.

12.   Can be used in combination with water color, colored pencil,  or by itself

13.   Adjacent areas can be painted sooner bc they dry faster

14.   Very little mess, clean-up

15. Great with kids!

SOME TIPS

1.       Wet from white or light to the darkest to avoid losing whites

2.       Don’t over use the water.

3.       I try to use two or three colors together for more natural color.

4.       Use water color paper

WHAT BRANDS SHOULD I BUY?

You might watch Steve Mitchell's youtube on watercolor pencils. He favors 

       Faber-Castell's Albrecht Duhrer set. I generally use Derwents, often their Inktense line, which dries like ink instead of watercolor. There are several very good brands: Prisma, Caran d'Ache, Kohinoor, etal.  The differences lie in, first, the solubility of the pigment, and second, the intensity of the colors. 

Whatever you use, be sure to make COLOR SWATCHES of your set, because the dry color looks very different from the wet color. You can buy pencils individually or in sets. 

Portrait Repair

Here is an example of a painting that needed some help. I started this in watercolor and loved most of it.(first picture) But I'd started this not knowing that this surface would not lift. (It was Arches board). I had used miskit on the hair, and did not like the effect, and could not lift it off.

Someone suggested doing the hair with pastels, which I'd never tried before. So I did.

 (second picture)

I am pretty happy with the result now. My youngest grandson. 

Note pastel used on hair and some of the green shirt.

First Aid for Water Color

Some helpful tips to ‘save’ a painting.

The first 9 are taken from Birgit O’Connor’s article, “Watercolor SOS”, in Watercolor Artist, August 2018, page 20-24. This is just a summary, but see the article for more details.

1.       PROBLEM: Studio Lighting Issues. Birgit O’Connor suggests full-spectrum natural lighting is best, so you want to come as close to that as possible. Use compact florescent bulbs or LED bulbs. Basically, you need a clean WHITE light cclosest to daylight without being too blue, 5000K should be fine.

2.       PROBLEM: Messy, undefined edges. This is a mistake made by painting an area too soon, efore the adjacent areas has had time to dry completely. SOLUTION: walk away and let the painting dry completely. If you need to clean up a messy edge, dry it completely, and use a wet on dry technique to clean it up.

3.       PROBLEM: Trouble determining values. There is a saying: value does all the work, but color gets all the credit. The quickest way is to make a black and white photocopy. (I often take a photo on my cell phone and turn it into black and white.)Or do a small thumbnail sketch in pencil or single paint color, such as gray. The other way is to hold a sheet of RED PLASTIC OR ACETATE over a subject. The red color shows the ranges of values.

4.       PROBLEM: Unintentional blooms. These occur when parts of the painting dry more quickly than others.SOLUTION: allow the painting to dry completely. Then try to lift or soften edges with a melamine foam eraser. Or, while still damp, add more water and allow the puddle to move around the surface to spread the water more evenly.

5.       PROBLEM: hard rings of color. These occur when you apply and reapply too much water, lifting pigment and pushing to edges.             SOLUTION: Dry completely, then reapply color in layers.

6.       PROBLEM: Muddy colors. SOLUTIONS: * DON’T MIX TOO MANY COLORS AT A TIME. * Don’t overmix colors on palette. * Work with the most transparent colors.* Avoid mixing cadmiums, opaques, and earth colors. * Don’t overuse mixed complements. * Be aware that every color has a warm or cool bias. * Allow each layer of color to dry completely before applying the next.

7.       PROBLEM: COLOR MATCHING ISSUES: Each brand of paint may have different names for each color. But also, they may use a different formula for the same name. SOLUTION: learn to read a tube of color.

a.       Pigment code: Tells the pigment(s) name(s) used

b.       Transparency code: Transparent, semi-, or opaque

c.       Lightfastness rating: you want a I or II. It refers to the permanence or chemical stability of a color, especially whether it fades over time with light.

d.       Series number: This indicates PRICE. Series 1 is lowest priced.

8.       PROBLEM: STRAY BRUSH HAIR IN WET PAINT. SOLUTION: Don’t leave it and don’t try to remove it with a fingernail, which can dent your paper. Use a small stiff synthetic brush, like a #3 round, to gently lift it out.

9.       PROBLEM: THE ENTIRE PAINTING IS A MESS.  Birgit O’connor suggests removing all color by placing it under running water using a faucet or hose or submerging it in a tub. While the surface is still wet, use a large soft brush, or Mr. Clan Magic Eraser, to gently wipe surface. If you press too hard you can damage paper fibers.

AND THAT BRINGS US TO THE CHALLENGE: CAN THIS PAINTING BE SAVED?

Here are more ideas you can use when you run into problem #9. You are ready to throw this thing in the trash. But before you do, ask if there is something redeeming about the painting, other than the fact you have poured hours of work into it.

1.       CROP.

2.       SOAK OLD PAINT OFF

3.       WHITE OUT

4.       USE BLACK OR VERY DARK PAINTS TO TURN IT INTO ABSTRACT

5.       USE FLUID ACRYLIC OR GOUACHE TO RECLAIM YOUR WHITES

6.       USE COLLAGE

7.       COVER PARTS WITH RICE PAPERS

8.       USE YOUR COLORED PENCILS

9.       TRY GOING OVER PARTS WITH PASTELS

10.   COVER WITH MAT MEDIUM OR GESSO

11.   RUB WITH A SMOOTH STONE (for paper that has become rough from overuse)

12.   USE IT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO TRY SOMETHING NEW

a.       Stenciling

b.       Stamping

c.       Gels and mediums

13.   TEXTURIZE

14.   CUT IT UP INTO BOOKMARKS