PLAYING AROUND

One of the things I've been working on personally is practicing "strokes" such as those used in toll painting and Chinese painting. Loose floral painters often rely on these strokes in their paintings.

So I turned to youtube to help with those, especially learning the roses. Here are two fun youtubes that I used to play with these cute little birds and roses. Check them out.

deWinton Paper Co.

5 tips on roses: focuses on "C" curve stroke

10 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXB1Z7dEljA

deWinton Paper Co. - cute robins - 12 min

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

deWinton Paper Co. --winter foliage (pine, holly, etc) 24 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBkTjtev3Uk

Bet you'll be speaking with an English accent before you're done!!!!

 

CHRISTMAS SNOWGLOBES

Lately I've been fascinated with painting snow globes. I wanted to see what I could create. So I started with putting a picture of my house in it. The first one I did I put a black background on. The second one, I didn't. On the third, with the kitten, I wanted to paint something for my youngest granddaughter, who is obsessed with kitties, but can't have one bc of her mom's allergies.

The black background was easily done with black wc ground.

Messing with the base for the globe.

Made the base look like Santa's body just for fun. 

My house.

Just start by tracing over a round lid. Size of lid depends on size of paper. I used a cottage cheese lid on a 7 x 10 piece of paper; a smaller one for a 5 x 7 card. Then draw a base. You don't even need to draw a base if you want it to look like a glass globe ball on a tree.

Here are some fun youtubes to give you some instruction on painting them.

cute little bear in a globe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65MP1S2obBI

a winter tree scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyiBI32sMCk

The only supply that was not my normal watercolors was white gouache to sprinkle on the snow at the end. I also used black ground on one of them, but you can use black watercolor, gouache, or acrylic for a dense, flat look. 

 

CREATING A DISTANT LOOKING BACKGROUND

FROM THIS: 

TO THIS:

The first photo is one taken by artist Bonnie Sitter, from Paint My Photo. The challenge was to create a distant background that still reflects all the beautiful fall colors.

I have to admit that I drew this picture loosely and quickly. Not sure if you can see the sketch that well, but I placed the barn first where I wanted it; then I sketched the large shapes of foreground and background--the hill in front of the barn; the grassy area in front of the hill; the valley line; the tree line of the closer trees behind the barn; and then some areas of the distance.

To do the distant background, you need to follow the rules of aerial perspective.

Objects in the distance are:

1. cooler in color  2. more muted or neutralized in color 3. have less detail 4. are not as hard edged

First I wet the background, damp but not puddly. I chose sap green, lemon yellow; burnt orange; and violet to mute the yellows.  I first put in the yellows, then dropped some oranges in. When I was happy with the yellows, I dropped in greens that had been  muted with some violet. Even the yellows have a tiny bit of violet to mute the color just a tad.

You want the paper to be wet enough to keep the paint flowing, but dry enough that it isl more controlled.

I let all that dry before taking the next step. I wet the entire midground that is just behind the barn. I did the same procedure as before, but my paint is more concentrated and has no blue or purple added. I again began with yellows, then oranges, getting those patterns in first. Then I began to drop in greens. The green is a combination of Hookers and apatite genuine. Dry it.

Next I painted the valley behind the barn. It's a pretty flat neutral color, so I used a combination of yellow ochre and green.

I painted in the hill in front of the barn with stronger yellow ochre and some greens. Then I painted the barn itself. I just used neutral tint. I applied it under the eaves and used a stiff flat brush to pull it down, dry brush method, to make the boards appear. In areas that got too wet, I scratched in verticle lines with a credit card.

 I painted in the door and some small barn details. Then I worked on the trees around the barn and some foreground trees on the hill.

 

 I was completely unhappy with the mushy mess in the foreground. So I brushed in some grasses and put more detail in the trees in the foreground. I spattered some darks in foreground trees and barn. Then I carefully spattered some white gouache mixed with ochre over the grasses, using a toothbrush for finer spatter. 

I felt like I lost some of the yellows in the background, so I added some on the right and behind the barn roof. I added a little dark shadow underneath the windows and behind the little tree on the right of the barn to make it stand out a bit. 

Looking at it again, I may have to add more dark greens in the background, but I'm pretty happy with it as is.  And my main intent was to create a muted background that still looked like colorful trees, so I think I accomplished that.

Loose Pussywillows

 I found a picture of pussywillows in Jean Haines' book, Atmospheric Flowers in Watercolor, page 49.

There were no instructions how to do it, but I remembered a class I took from Sandy Maudlin years ago, so here is how I would paint this picture. 

First, using a large brush, wet the paper and make a wash with several colors. I did mine vertical, but it doesn't have to be. I used ultramarine, pthalo blue,  quin gold, magenta, and lemon yellow. TIP: try to use non-staining colors for your first try. (don't use pthalo or carbazole violet). You will be able to lift out white much more easily.

WHILE THE WASH IS DAMP, I pulled out some oval shapes with a thirsty brush. (wipe off a shape with a brush, wipe off the brush, rinse and repeat) You can use tissue also. This leaves a lot of very soft edged areas. If paint runs back into the shape, you can later put a little water on the brush, and refine the oval shape a bit.

Choose just a few colors for the insides and shadows. I should have kept to blue, magenta, and yellow, but I got carried away experimenting to see which colors I liked best. You are not trying to fill in these shapes from edge to edge--you want that outer edge left soft. You are just putting some color near the bottom of the oval shape, keeping that soft also.

Next, I used quin burnt scarlet (you can use burnt sienna or other color) to attach the ovals to a stem. I just dropped a bit of color at the bottom, pulled down a stem, then softened where the base meets the oval. The hard edges are the stem and some of the outer bottom of the brown.

 

Watercolor always dries lighter, so I was now ready to strengthen some of the 

background behind the pussywillows. I wet an area I wanted to darken, added some turquoise around the left side of this stem, and dropped in some ultramarine. Now the pussywillows really show up. I'm careful to keep the edges of the ovals soft. 

On mine, to create some continuity in the background, I started each area with some turquuoise, but varied the color I dropped in so it didn'g get boring: yellows on the left, blues and violets toward the right. 

Last step was to lift out and soften a few of the buds that got too hard-edged. I even lifted out a few more buds that were not originally there. Now that I'm looking at it, I think I want to strengthen some of the stems just a bit. But done for now. 

. 

In Jean Haines' version, there are more dark vertical streaks of green and burnt scarlet at the bottom. 

OK, couldn't resist...added some stems and dark green at bottom. Did I mess it up?

MAKING YOUR OWN PAINT

Years ago an art teacher friend visited Roussilon, France, which is known for its ochres. The entire village is painted only in ochre shades. She returned home with some ochre pigments from Roussilon, and together we figured out how to turn them into watercolor paints.

Your watercolor paints are generally made of 3 things: a pigment; a binder (traditionally gum arabic, but QoR has its own); and something to make paint flow, such as ox gall. Other possible additives are honey and glycerin. 

There are no set recipes, but in general the ratio of binder to pigment is 2 to 1; some say 1 to 1. You may have to experiment.

Pictured above are the simple supplies needed: Left to right are: ox gall, gum arabic, glass muller, pigment, half-pans (or other containers to put paint in), palette knife, and glass dish. I used premixed gum arabic, but there is a video linked below that explains how to mix your own from the powder. (much cheaper)

To make a small amount of paint, pour a T. of gum arabic, a drop of oxgall, and a drop of honey, if you want it, onto a glass plate. Mix well with your palette knife. Add a T. of powder pigment and mix together. If it seems too thin, add more pigment, a bit at a time. 

When it seems to be the right consistency, use the glass muller to grind and blend the mixture until you don't see any more granules.

Scoop off the plate with a palette knife and into small containers. Allow to dry for a few days. 

The glass plate should be of sturdy quality, such as the glass in a microwave. I don't have a muller (because of cost and because I don't do this often), but I use a glass that is perfectly flat on the bottom.

Below are short videos describing the process.

From Owens art--about 11 minutes. Simplest explanation with simple tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdP2xSWHvRw

Arleebean explains how to make your own binder (using ground powdered gum arabic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_779MFFtF0

Oto Kano describes paint making process with more professional supplies

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

Below are the 4 shades of ochres I was able to make from my pigments.

FINISHING TOUCHES ON STARFISH

 MORE BUBBLES?

I was so fascinated with the idea of using bubbles to create sea foam, that I added some more. First I tried Jean Haines way, applying soapy bubbles with a spoon onto an area and dabbing wc paint on top of them gently. Then I tried a bubble paint recipe using white paint, about a teaspoon of liquid dish soap, and a cup of water. I blew through a straw to make it bubble a lot. Then I scooped out the white/paint bubbles on top of dark areas. I really loved the effect.

You really need to be patient with this. There is no rushing, and it needs to dry naturally to be effective.

Below are  some close ups of the bubbles after they are dried.  

Then I thought, What else could I do to make the edge of the water look like sea foam?"

Spatter? Sponge some white paint? Both would make cool textures. But I'd been playing with making some Christmas cards and had used some pearlescent watercolor ground. What about that? 

So the next pictures show the watercolor ground sponged onto the sea edge to make foam. Then I spattered it with a toothbrush afterward. I really like it now. Lacking ground, you can still spatter or sponge on Titanium white or white gouache. 

Now I just had to finish the starfish. 

First, finish the dot patterns on each arm, darkening a few. Try to keep some of those whites formed by the salt to create light ridges in the starfish. 

Then work around the edges. Using a small brush, I started along the bottom of one edge with quin burnt scarlet. Instead of using a smooth brush stroke, I sort of jabbed the paint in in short, uneven strokes to create the feeling of the starfish texture, softening the edges over the sand. I dropped in some purple where I wanted it darker.  (Hard edge on starfish/soft edge toward sand)

Be careful not to make it looked outlined. There are some places where you might want to make the starfish appear as if it is partially buried in the sand. In those places, you won't darken the edge so much. 

Also, the light is coming from the left, so most of the shadows are going to be on the bottom right edges.

Just for fun, I opened up my buff titanium ground. Using the edge of a credit card, I popped some of it where I wanted a little rough texture on the starfish. 

Using a complementary scheme

Disclaimer

Except for a few variations, I have taken this project from Jean Haines. If you want to see her excellent tutorial, check into her online art school. I chose it because it is such a good example of a complementary color scheme and used several fun techniques.

Supplies

100% cotton paper, quarter sheet or about 10 by 14. 300 lb is best, but 140 cold press is fine if you tape it down.

Tube paints: I used ultramarine turquoise, cyan, quin burnt scarlet, aussie red gold, ochre, and burnt sienna, with a bit of purple at the end.

Kosher and or table salt

Toothbrush

plastic wrap

Optional: soap suds

Objectives: to show how to make colors you don't have in your palette

To show a completed painting in complementary colors

To show some texture techniques

DECIDING ON COLOR

Jean Haines uses a technique she calls "dancing ladies" to determine colors for each painting, and to experiment with color. First, she puts a dot of tube paint from each color she wants to experiment with across the top of a scrap of paper. She wets the area below it to create a place for the paint to flow. She then touches the dot of paint with a wet brush and connects it to the wet area, allowing paint to flow down the paper. She does this with each dot of paint to see how they will look together. You might drop one color into another to see how they blend together.

Since not everyone had the exact colors I used, we used this to also discover what colors to mix together to create similar colors. For example, if they didn't have quin burnt scarlet, they could use burnt sienna with a warm red; if they didn't have aussie red gold, they could create another sand color that they liked, perhaps raw sienna or gold ochre with a touch of heat from orange or burnt sienna.

Now, I'm aware that that picture does not look lovely. That is because, after I was done deciding on my colors, I could use the dots of paint for a palette. So I also painted a lot of my picture with those dots.

CREATNG THE WASH

You have to be prepared to work quickly, wet into wet, so have all your supplies handy: plastic wrap, salt, toothbrush, etc. Beginning with just water, and holding the paper at an angle, wet some areas with a large brush in the direction you want the water to flow. Then apply some turquoise, leaving some areas white. You can add a little ultramarine blue or other blue to enhance the turquoise. Then add aussie red gold to the sand side, adding some other sand colors. 

Before the water area has a chance to dry, you can stretch some plastic wrap across it to creat wave paterns. Leave the plastic on while you work on the sand area.

Create sand textures by: spattering in color with a toothbrush, like burnt sienna, quin burnt scarlet, blue, ochre, etc. Add salt (I used kosher salt). Drop droplets of water on areas as they lose their shine. When you have the effect you want, let everything dry.

AN EXTRA EFFECT: Mine didn't turn out because I didn't give it time, but you can use soap bubbles to make more texture.  Make bubble from dish soap. You lay bubbles on a white of paper and then gently drop paint on top of the bubbles. You can do that on areas you want to look like sea foam.

STARFISH: Brush away all salt after drying thoroughly. I gave out a pattern for the starfish, but I will also tell how Jean Haines drew hers.

Find the center and make a small circle. You want to place the starfish somewhere that you have some salt reactions that left white. This creates nice hilights. Make a dot at a place that looks like an arm would end. Then create a double row of dots from there to the center. Jean uses aussie gold or other light color at first so that if she doesn't like it, it easily washes away with water. Find each arm and make a double line of dots from tip to center. When you are happy with them, darken the center and dots. 

In the picture below you can see where I've completed the arm on lower right. I have also shaded the part between the arms--they look like upside down v's--just lightly to give dimension.

Planning to finish this up next week. 

WATERCOLOR ARTISTS THAT I FOLLOW

 Below is an update on artists that I occasionally follow on youtube and why.

Eric Lin/Cafe Watercolor

Eric is a talented young artist that has a very relaxed style that I find refreshing and unrushed. He will discuss a subject briefly, then do a demo that illustrates that subject. His paintings are often loose landscapes or city scapes, but he does other subjects. He emphasizes the feeling of light and connection in his paintings.

He also offers online classes, but I get a lot out of his youtubes.

Louise DeMasi

Louise is a lovely Australian artist who paints the way I'd love to paint. She does a lot of birds and animals, and has wonderful tips. She often paints wet into wet, and you know I love that style. Check out her youtubes...there are quite a few.

Jean Haines

Jean was a botanical artist from Britain (I think she's Welsh) who challenges herself to keep her work exciting. She now paints in a very loose manner and has a wonderful enthusiasm to go with her wealth of knowledge. And she prides herself on sharing her paintng secrets. She doesn't have very many youtubes to follow, but she does have a website and online art school. (Just google Jean Haines Online Art School)  A free subscription gives a few tutorials and practices; or you can join by the month or year. (It's about $20 a month). That gives access to all her tutorials and practices. She has also published at least 4 books on loose painting.

Andrew Geeson

If you want just a short fun practice, try Andrew Geeson. This is another Brit who has several tutorials on youtube. If you join his website, it costs $10 a month, and you have access to about 140 or more tutorials. Each one is short and usually done on small paper. The tutorials on his website are a little more detailed than what you find on his youtubes. I have several friends who go on there weekly to do the new one. I took my computer on vacation so our group could do a painting together (and I didn't have to be the teacher). I like to go there when I have a half hour or hour to do a warm up or just get out of a rut.

COLOR SCHEMES PART 2

Before I start, I'd like to recommend a website that takes the guess work out of color schemes. On colorsupplyyy.com (yes, there are 3 y's) you will find a simple to use color scheme finder. Click the right or left arrows by the color wheel to choose analogous, complementary, etc. Then move the circles to a color. The chart to the side shows how variations of that scheme will look, using more intense, shaded, tinted, or even muted colors. Check it out. I got this web site from Dr. Oto Kano's youtube on tetradic color schemes.

ANALOGOUS

Three or four colors next to each other on the color wheel. These are colors that play nicely together.

ANALOGOUS + A COMPLEMENT

Three colors next to each other on the color wheel PLUS a complement of one of the colors.

TRIADS

Three colors that form a triangle on the color wheel. 

MUTING COLORS BY ADDING COMPLEMENTS

You can keep colors on the scheme that are muted variations of a color. (or less intense) You accomplish that by adding a little of it's complement. For example, If I want to use a triad of red, green, and blue, I can dull one of the colors, say red, by adding a little green to it to make it less intense. 

THE PROJECT CHALLENGE today was to draw a simple landscape and show each of the four seasons using different color schemes. Color choice is usually very personal--what speaks of spring to me might be different to someone else. I might choose pinks, yellow greens, and pale blues; someone else might choose yellows, greens, and lavender. 

Below you'll see spring and winter. For spring I chose a tetrad of magenta/yellow green/blue/orange. I used a tint of red for the pink trees; cerulean for the sky; yellow green for the grass; muted orange for the barn; shaded orange for the path and tree trunk.

For the winter scene I used analogous cool colors: blue/blue violet/violet/red violet to create a very cold feeling. 

Below you see autumn and summer. I used the neutralized versions of each color to demonstrate that it is still part of that color scheme if you use tints, shades, and neutrals. It s a tetrad of blue/orange; red green. I muted the blue of the sky with a little orange to create a grayer sky; I neutralized the red of the barn wth a touch of greeen; the green grass is neutralized with a drop of red so that it looks more like autumn. I used the orange in the tree as an intense color to bring out the tree. 

 The summer picture I used with a triad: blue/red/green. I kept the colors pretty bright and pure because to me, summer means bright lights, lots of contrast, and a very warm feeling.

If I hadn't wanted blue for the skies, I would not have needed to include it in my color scheme. I could have used a violet sky, or orange sky, or gray, and it would have changed what I could use as a color scheme.

It was interesting in class to see how differently each student perceived the seasons.

For more in-depth videos on color schemes, Dr. Oto Kano has 11 on youtube on color theory.

COLOR SCHEMES 101

 USING YOUR SPLIT PRIMARY COLOR WHEEL

Here is my completed split primary color wheel. I used only the primaries labeled to mix the other colors.

I made a chart for the middle to find different color schemes. (NOTE: IF YOU DON'T CENTER THE MIDDLE OF THE CHART WITH THE MIDDLE OF THE COLOR WHEEL, IT DOESN'T WORK)

RED LINE: Line it up with a color, and the other end of the line points to its complement. In the above picture, it points to yellow and violet.

BLUE/RED LINES: SPLIT COMPLEMENTARY. Point to a color with the red line. The two blue lines on either side of the complement indicate the two colors for split complementary color scheme.This split comp. consists of yellow, blue violet, and red violet.(or find the complement and the color on the left and on the right of it are the colors you use)

PURPLE TRIANGLE: TRIAD. A triad can be any triangle that is a logical arrangement of colors. A split complement is a sort of triad, but I think of it separately. In this picture, the triad is orange, green, and violet.

THE GREEN lines indicate a TETRAD, or four colors. The square is also a tetrad. In the RED tetrad above, the colors are yellow, blue green, violet, and red orange. (Notice the two pairs of complements: yellow and violet; blue green and red orange)  In the green rectangular tetrad below, the colors are yellow orange, red orange, blue green, and blue violet. (the two pairs of complements are red orange and blue green; yellow orange and blue violet)

NOTICE that in any tetrad you form, you will end up with two pairs of exact complements.

In class we did not cover some color schemes yet, such as analogous, analaogous + complement, and odd triads.We did however discuss MONOCHROME. In monochrome you choose a color and use it either full strength or with tints or shades. You create a shade with black (or in this case, neutral tint), and tints are created by thinning the paint. (Or you can use white if you don't mind the opaque)

FOR THIS PROJECT you need to find a simple design and copy it four times onto a sheet of paper. I taped the sides and center to protect it and to give a crisp, quilt like effect when finished.

The first square is done in monochrome, using Alizarin Crimson. I watered it down for tints and added neutral tint for shades. Blacks and whites are usually ok in a monochrome.

The bottom left here is complementary using red orange and bue green. Some of the greens are darker, some lighter, but it is the hue that matters not the value.

Top right is a split complementary using orange, blue green, and blue violet.

Bottom right is a tetrad using Orange, yellow green, blue, and magenta. 

Below is another pattern with the same idea. Monochrome on top left; Complementary with orange and blue on top right; Split comp. with yellow, red violet and blue violet; and last a triad with orange, violet, and green. (the other doesn't include a triad)

When doing the above project, try to keep a warm or cool dominance. (monochrome excepted) For example in the design in the top right above, there is a cool dominance: there is less of the orange (warm) than of the bluet, which is cool. 

COMPLEMENTARY COLORS

Complement means something that completes. Think of a color, say red. What are the 2 primaries missing? Blue and yellow. Together they make green. So green is the color that provides what red is missing. If I have orange, which is made of yellow and red, the primary missing is blue.

I have a blog on January 29, 2020 that gives some reason for using complements. It also contains a chart for how to neutralize colors using their complements, creating browns and grays.

SPLIT PRIMARY COLOR WHEEL--WHAT'S IN YOUR PALETTE?

 I like to discuss things I wish I had understood earlier in my painting journey. Things that would have made for less frustration. So I assume that if I didn't get it, maybe some of my students have a hard time with the subject too. I would never claim I wasn't taught, just that I didn' get it. 

For the first time ever in a dozen years of teaching, I decided to talk about the color wheel. THE SPLIT PRIMARY color wheel. 

Most are familiar with the general color wheel, with primaries of red, yellow and blue. And  that red and blue make purple, right? So why is my purple so muddy? Yellow and blue make green....so why does my green look so gross? 

This is because, in reality, it's hard to find a true primary red or blue in paint form. We solve this by having a warm and a cool of each primary color: warm red looks a little orange next to a cool red, which looks a bit pink. A warm yellow looks a bit orange compared to a cool yellow, which has no orange in it, or no RED BIAS.

BIAS is the color your paint leans toward. To make a pretty, intense green, you want a blue that has a green BIAS, or leans toward green, like pthalo or cyan. To make a pretty violet, use a blue with a red bias...(not that it looks red or purple, but it leans more to violet and has no green in it) and a PINKer red, which we say has a blue bias. It has no orange tendencies.

(If you have difficulty trying to find the bias of a blue, mix a little lemon yellow with it. If it makes a pretty green, that blue has a green bias. If it makes an olive green, that blue has a red bias)

In class we created a split primary palette. It's important to make it from the colors in your own palette, what you have. It helps you determine what colors you can make, but also what colors you may need to add (or subtract) to your palette.

Below are two helpful youtubes from Dr. Oto Kano. The first is on the basic color wheel and what makes a warm and cool color. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5IO4uSDQps&list=PLpD2RS3zo8zRBXGjKjp_5ZWBTZnKW-4XE   about 17 min

The second explains in detail what a split primary palette is and why it is useful.

https://youtu.be/AjGvtp0lOtw     about 19 minutes

After we made the color wheel, I asked students to find other colors they have and find out where they would fit on this color wheel. We labeled the colors with the brand names on the tubes instead of the generic hue name.

You can see in the unfinished picture below (I don't have violet or blue violet in there yet) how I've created a split primary color wheel, based oncolor bias. The dark lines represent a division. If you keep your color mixing between those line (ex: warm yellow to warm red; cool yellow to cool blue; cool red to warm blue) then your colors will remain unmuddied and intense.  

The tiny dots represent a brand color name that would fit close to that area of the wheel.

Neg painting revisited

 The Potter's shelf

I drew the picture on and then created A background. This one was created by wetting the paper and spattering blues and some quin burnt orange, then dripping some magenta and yellow. These will be my colors throughout.

It is often done creating background first and then drawing.

Next step is to go around all the negative spaces. I did not try to make it dark or keep it one color. Working a small space at a time, I wet an area, then dropped small dots of color, a little orange, a little magenta, and a bit of blue. The moisture spread the paint. 

You always have to keep a wet edge, and fade the color away from the object, using a brush with clean water.

Below is how it looked after the main negatives were painted. Just dark enough for the picture to start appearing.

Now you have to work on the interior. Remember, any space around a positive image is it's negative. So part of the jar that is behind another is it's negative. It will be hard edged next to the image, but blended away as you get further from the object.

So find areas behind jars, darken and shade. This makes them come fully into view.

Very few paintings are entirely negative painted. You can refine this by adding shadows on one side and shading rims on the ceramic jars.