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.

A Halloween Spooky House--More Pen and Wash

A Spooky Halloween House--Have it Your Way!

This lesson is designed to teach several things: 

1. Atmosphere (mist, diffused light, etc.)

2. The "target" method

3. More tips on pen and wash

4. Making the composition your own

Here is the reference photo from Facebook Photo References for Artists. The photographer is William Powell.

Begin with a sketch of the house (I added the front porch and steps) and lightly ink the outline.

The house should be either on the right or left, not center for the effect I'm after. You can draw your own house or another you find interesting. 

I am going to show two ways of creating a harvest moon effect.

 The first way is to draw a circle the size and placement for your moon. You can put it behind the house or to the right or left. Paint in some yellow and drop in oranges. Let it dry.

Then wet your paper with a large brush. Paint in loosely some yellow/orange in the windows.

Doesn't matter if it bleeds onto the house. Start painting in circles around the moon, beginning with orange. As you move away from the moon, add blue to your oranges, and let it blend wet in wet. (I used French ultramarine, but you can use indigo or any dark blue.) As you get to the outer edges of the paper you will be painting dark grays, over the house and background. ((try to avoid the windows)

 This video is sort of what I mean:

Liesl's Artistic Studio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AMV0VfHRnc

Method #2

Get some gum Arabic and paint it over your moon and dry it.  Then start with orange and paint a circle around it, adding blue to the orange as you go around, making a "target" effect. Then remove the gum Arabic with a wet brush, smoothing the edges next to the color, and drop in yellow/orange/brown to create a harvest moon. 

Before the paint dries completely, drop blues and oranges into the drying paint where you want some misty distant trees (like on the right). You can just drop in water too, until you get the effect you want.

With a thin brush, draw in some background branches (like behind the house) while the paint is still damp, but lost its shine. You can also score in some branches with a cut credit card or the wooden point of a brush.

When the painting is dry, do some pen and ink details on the house. 

Here I used some bat stencils over and around the moon. I painted in a dark tree on the right. 

I used penned in some squiggly lines to create the branches in ink. 

Finish inking. Add ink to the house or other areas where you want to add some details.

Here are some fun Halloween YouTube's to try:

Paul Clark Spooky Halloween pic (you can download a pattern from his website)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCPF43vCbLM

Emma LeFebvre does a cute ghost in a spooky woods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYSwSSrqFSY&t=622s

Some pictures from last week's project. Hopefully I got the names matched up with the pictures.

Sarah added jack-o-lantern faces and spider web stencils in the background

Barb B added a loose warm background

                                            Bev

Sylvia added some interesting details

Jackie added a loose background

Vicki used different colors of ink

Pam anchored the pumpkins with a dark table underneath

Carol Schell

Meg

Francis

 

Pen and Wash project

WHY LINE & WASH?

Previously we'd always call it pen and ink and watercolor. But for several reasons, it is now referred to as Line and Wash. First, because the "line" can be pen, pencil, watercolor pencil, etc. Second, because the "wash" can be watercolor, acrylic ink, watercolor pencil, stains, etc. I am focusing here on waterproof ink with watercolor washes.

Ink and watercolor are super compatible for almost any subject. It is especially nice for highly textured surfaces, such as trees, rocks, etc. It combines the best of both worlds--the soft, airiness of watercolor and the precision of a pen.

Using this photo from Facebook's Reference Photos for Artists by Kepi Hurt

I added some embellishments to make the picture look less "boxed in."

Transfer your sketch onto paper. If you are doing wet washes, watercolor paper, either hot or cold press, is best. Hot press is smooth and easier on the pens. Cold press gives texture and more broken lines. 

If you are only planning one layer of color, you can use less expensive watercolor paper, such as Canson XL, or even Bristol board.

SIZE: Choose a size that suits your goal. If you go too big, you may become discouraged from all the line work. If too small, you may not be able to experiment with line and texture. For this project, I am choosing a 7 x 11 size. 

Watercolor first? Or INK first?

Some purists insist on using pen first; but since I don't consider myself a purist, I just do what I feel like. I am going to teach this pen first just because I want people to familiarize themselves and get comfortable with the line work. At the end I've included a tutorial by Karen Rice that illustrates the watercolor done first.

WHAT KIND OF PEN DO I USE?

Generally speaking, any pen that is waterproof. However, one that is not waterproof can be used to create special effects. 

Here is Mind of Watercolor's review on pens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snu-A21f33k&list=PLiMPR1KaCr-kWhvPYCWTycnEqXvVBNyDZ&index=3

For my purposes, I intend to use the Micron pens, different sizes.

The line work may not have as much "character," but this is for a class, and I don't want to risk knocking over ink.

Pen Strokes

Here is a basic video on pen strokes. There are 7 basic strokes: hatching, cross hatching, stippling, scribbling, wavy lines, contour lines, and crisscross lines.

When inking, you don't want to combine too many of these techniques in one picture. You DO want to vary the width and lengths of lines to create the feeling you want to express. 

The closer the lines (or dots) or the more they overlap, the darker value you create. Thin lines can indicate more distant objects. Broken lines can create soft effects. 

Pen and ink basics drawing and painting Virtual Instructor

This video describes basic strokes and tips to be successful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoyFjDK6GII&list=PLW-5Pa-fZ-c9u9ENT0VKOYjKuhAxnr6h9&index=2

Painting the Fall Scene

First sketch your picture. You can do it in pencil first, then go over it with ink.

I use a very fine pen (.03 or .05) to outline the sketch first. Then gently erase any unwanted pencil lines.

I started with a .05 and .1 pen and began to ink in the darkest parts: the inside of the pad, the shadows on the rear pumpkin, dark areas. I used cross hatching in these very dark areas. Mostly I used contour lines on the pumpkins.

For the pot, I used contour lines to indicate the round area at the bottom. I keep the lines thin, parallel, and broken to indicate a smooth surface with reflection. They are also not as close together as the darker lines. One the spout, I used parallel hatching going in the direction of the metal. I also did the shadows around the handle. There is a tiny bit of stippling on the tip of the spout.

I continued mostly with contour lines around the pumpkins, using heavier marks in deep shadows. I used a very thin (.03) pen for shadow areas that are very light. Also used .03 on the leaves to indicate the direction of the veins. (not on all)

Finally ready for color. I washed the pumpkins with a bit of yellow and some green in some areas of the back pumpkin and stems.

I put a gray/blue wet in wet on the watering can, and used my favorite Transparent Pyrrol Orange on the pumpkins. 

I added a little orange reflection on the can, and added some turquoise to the can's color. I colored in the leaves on the right and painted the handle of the can with purple .

then I decided the left side needed a lift, so I painted in the leaves, dried them, then inked afterward. The twiggy branches are painted with just that--a twiggy branch from my backyard, dipped in dark brown watercolor.

I have to say, I am really happy with the results. There's something relaxing about inking, and I love watching the values bring it to life. And then the magic of washing in color. Perfect.

BOOKS AND VIDEOS USED IN THIS SERIES

Below are some excellent instructors on using pen and Wash (or line and wash). My favorite, of course, is Mind of Watercolor. He has several inspiring YouTube's. He has done some Inktober projects in the past, so simply Google Mind of Watercolor Ink and Wash.

Anne Kerr - discusses 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZavpmIXQ-rU

Karen Rice beginners - flowers--a beginning ink and watercolor tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONO17FVws3s

Karen Rice beginners WC and wash (includes a review of a travel palette)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5_LpK1BhFQ

Karen Rice does a loose street scene in WC first, then using pen for details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThUPmia1DxA

The Art of Beatrix Potter by Mind of Watercolor  15 minutes--loved this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbLlbe-qJVE

For books on line and wash, I am referring often to Claudia Nice's books, Creating Textures in Pen and Ink in Watercolor  and Painting with Watercolor, Pen, and Ink. The first 100 pages of each book are nearly identical, but the second half of the books cover different subjects.  Painting with Watercolor, Pen, and Ink includes some patterns in the lessons.. 

Workshop: Integrating Paper and Paint

 Diane Johannigman's Workshop

On Sep 27th SIAG (our art guild) hosted a workshop by Diane Johannigman, a Cincinnati artist who experiments combining paper with acrylic paints. Here are some of her recent paintings:

About Diane:

Diane  was born into an artistic family, with her mother, a Cincinnati artist herself, ensuring she had lots of opportunity to learn and express herself. She graduated with an art degree from Houston, Texas. However, traditional methods and "rules" seemed too confining for her, and she decided she wasn't going to make a living at it. 

Just before Diane retired from Costco as a manager, she decided to re-explore her innate desire to create art. She started attending Sandy Maudlin's open studio, working with water color and yupo, taking every opportunity to expand her vision. The environment of Sandy's open studio encouraged risk taking, especially when Sandy invited artists to do workshops at her studio.

You might say that workshops with popular Canadian artist, Jean Pedersen, opened the creative doors that led to Diane's current work. More about Jean can be read here:

https://www.jeanpederson.com/artist/

You can discover more about Diane on her Instagram account.

https://www.instagram.com/dianejohanni/?hl=en

About the process:

You can do this either on watercolor paper or canvas. Most of us began with putting drops of heavy body acrylic paint from the tube directly on the canvas. (3 colors) Some of us used canvas with previous unsuccessful paintings as a first layer, but we still did this step. With a large flat tool--a squeegie, credit card, etc.--we scraped the paint in several directions. Then we let it dry, which didn't take a long time.

When dry, we tore pieces of collage papers into various sizes. These could be napkins, wrapping paper, tissue, newspaper, magazines. So fun to pick out papers. Then we used matte medium (or Modge Podge) to randomly apply these papers to our painted surface.

Then we used stencils, often trying to unify the painting with these stencils. That part was also fun.

Then we took a single watered down color (usually with Fluid acrylic instead of heavy body) and washed over all the painting. This sometimes unifies the painting or calms down areas.

You can continue this process--paint/collage/stencil--until you are satisfied.

Here are some of the pictures just after the first layers and before adding an image.

Next, dry the painting completely. We used this step to check out the local restaurants for lunch.

The final step is to take a picture we had drawn or enlarged from a drawing, and traced it onto our ground.

**(Ground just means a surface you have created to put a painting on.)

You can use dark or colored graphite paper, since gray will probably not show up much. Some of us freehanded the picture.

Either lighten the background space so the picture comes forward, or lighten where you want to paint the picture. 

Then use a combination of paint/collage/stenciling to bring your image to life. You can add inks, Posca pen, anything you need to enhance your image. 

Here are some of the results: