DAN WIEMER WORKSHOP: WATERCOLOR AND HEAVY ACRYLICS

 DAN WIEMER

 "Yellow on Blue" by Dan Wiemer

I fell in love with Dan's style after seeing some of his work from friends who had taken a workshop from him in 2024. I was so excited when a friend gave me the opportunity to take a 4-day workshop with him.

I wanted to blog some of the things I learned, mostly so I would remember the major points that meant something to me.

To see some of his work, please go here to his website:

https://danwiemer.com/

1. Using acrylic with matte medium for darks.

Dan mixes heavy acrylic with matte medium for darks. It not only thins the acrylic, but also makes color more matte, blending more seamlessly with watercolor look.

2. Considering paths of dark value or white value first.

And using masking fluid to mask off all areas that are not the darkest values. In the process, he leaves little spaces of paper to help create a wood cut effect.

Even though I "preach" value a lot, doing it this way (masking off all values that are not the darks) makes your "path" more clear. Because it is unmovable acrylic, you can freely paint over it. It made the painting of these trees much more alive than trying to positive paint them.

After removing masking around the trees, it was easier to paint in the background and foreground with watercolor. One of Dan Wiemer's signature bits is to leave these "wood cut" marks from spaces left in the masking process. Notice the scratchy, dark marks around the branches.

(Using Dan Wiemer's reference)

3. If you want colorful areas to show up, consider painting around them with their neutralized opposite. For example, If you want a gorgeous orange to be emphasized, surround it NOT WITH PURE BLUE, but a neutralized blue. 

Let me show you how I FAILED at this.

In the picture below, somehow everything is bright and pure color. (This is all acrylic on a canvas, and I am obviously not an acrylic specialist). If I had neutralized some of the background area, or some of the water, the pure color areas that I want to be noticed would show up better.

(Using Dan's reference: Sedona)

Below is a color chart made by Dan that really emphasized the pure color vs. neutralized colors. A true complement is a PURE color against its NEUTRALIZED opposite.

The outer circles are pure colors in the color wheel. The triangle beneath each color represents that pure color with 10% of its opposite to create a neutral. 

4. Painting in "jelly beans."

 "Winds of Change" by Dan Wiemer

This is very distinctive in some of Dan Wiemer's work. He emulates some Canadian painters, especially the Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. He enjoys making it have a woodcut look to it. This is achieved by 2 things: masking in "jelly beans" or painting in "jelly beans." 

That is using a large round brush (about size 12), and applying either paint for mask in a long hot dog or jelly bean shape. The paint looks scooped out. You can notice this in many of his paintings if you look at his web site. Personally I never caught on to this, but I will continue to try. My best success was in the dark wall on the left of this picture and the whites in the water.

Tennessee Falls - my own photo reference

 

5. Keeping the colors clean and pure. Even though he uses neutralized colors and pure colors, Dan's work is always very fresh and clean looking.

6. Another distinctive style embraced by Dan is a very abstract background such as in his duck, koi fish, and yellow boat. You will notice shapes that look like scribbles, but the background is more muted tones and the foreground will have the brighter tones.

7. Your reference is not a dictator. You can move things, change colors and value, eliminate detail, and stylize however you want.

One last thing that we did in class was this Aurora Borealis (northern lights). We made the rock area first, masking around cracks in rocks and trees. Painted the rock cracks and trees. Removed mask and painted loosely for rocks. 

For the lights in the sky, we wet the entire sky, then applied pure color--bright yellow green and some quin rose for me -- tipping the paper in the direction we wanted the lights to go. While very wet, we painted in a dark--for me it was indigo and Pthalo blue--around those bright colors. Used a misting spray to encourage the flow. When you get the effect you want, you let it dry flat.

The only thing left is to paint the water in the foreground.

Here is a painting that I did for our landscape class, using some of the things I learned.

I'd already begun the background and one of the trees, so I couldn't switch styles too much. Only the tree trunks and shadows are acrylic. 

Park Reservoir in the Big Horn Mountains

My own photo reference from 2022

Dan's tips on masking fluid.

He used Winsor Newton white masking fluid, and is not stingy with it. He used a large round brush, one exclusively set aside for masking. He thoroughly wets the bristles. He soaps the brush, not just the outer bristles, but pushing the soap through all the bristles. He also uses a blow dryer on it! I've always been told that's a big no-no, but it works for him.

One thing I tried doing differently: I loved the idea of doing the darks first, but I wanted to do it all with watercolor. I experimented and found that I could mix a dark watercolor, add a little matte medium, and it would stay put when it was dry. 

Excellent workshop, Dan's a great teacher!