Practicing for Grisailles

 Here are some practices you can do to prepare to do a grisailles. 

Draw some shapes that have volume on your watercolor paper. You can just trace circles from a jar lid to make it easy.

Choose some colors that are staining and can go from very light to very dark. Neutral tint will also work well. You want a color that doesn't move if you glaze over it.

Shade each shape using a different color. I used neutral tint, burnt umber, Day's gray, Dioxizine violet, sepia, and pthalo green in the sample below.

Here I used cobalt, pyrol red, phthalo blue, and BrushO (just for fun) light brown.

When they are completely dry, choose one color to glaze over each one. (You want to just touch the color on lightly, not pressing or scrubbing with the brush, trying not to move the color underneath. )This is the control of the experiment. If you know you want to paint something blue, paint blue over each one. If you want to paint yellow, put yellow over each one. This is for you to see how a color would react if underpainted with another color.

So, I know that I want to paint a portrait. So I used my general portrait mix (raw sienna, coral, and magenta) over each shape. I'm interested in it making a natural looking skin tone.

You can see that cobalt granulates even when glazed over. I was surprised that I like the BrushO one. But I will probably use burnt umber or sepia for this painting. Although the green looks interesting.

Anyway, experiment and see what you like best, whether doing a portrait or a still life or a scene.

The difference between thumbnails, value study, and color study

 Why use a thumbnail? A value study? A color study? 

Here is a photo of a picture taken from Unsplash (see previous post for credits):

Here it is changed to a black and white.

Here are some questions to consider before I paint this:

1. What do I love most about this picture? Is it about the lighthouse? Or something else? 

2. What do I find distracting or uncomfortable? (like that big dark spot on the log on the left?)

3. What details are important to keep? (if I want it to be a specific recognizable place, especially)

4. Is there anything that makes it feel off-balance? 

5. Do I want to keep the mood created by cloudy skies, or change it?

6. What shapes can I combine and connect to give the painting continuity?

Here are three thumbnails done of the photo to explore possible compositions. 

A thumbnail is generally a very small (like 4 x 6 or smaller), usually pencil, sketch. It lets you quickly compose different possibilities for framing your subject. It doesn't take more than 5 minutes to do, and can be done several times to compare possibilities. 

This first sketch, about 2 1/2 inches by 4 inches, shows the composition as it is in the photo. I've drawn a line through the centers to show that the lighthouse, which I want to be a center of interest, is smack dab in the center. I also included the log on the foreground on the left, which I don't want in my final picture.

It also shows me that maybe I don't want all that heavy dark in the trees. 

For this second thumbnail, I moved the lighthouse to the left and up a little bit to make it more important.(aiming for a good center of interest) This also raised the horizon line to above center. I lowered the trees a bit also and put more space in them. 

I removed the foreground log I didn't care for. I like this composition better. I just need to make certain that I don't make my middle ground, foreground, and background equal in size.

Just for funzies, I tried a thumbnail on a vertical. Again I divided it into thirds. When I do this, I can drop in my center of interest and draw around it. If I did paint this, I would not put in the trees as they appear in the photo. It throws off the balance of the picture.

Now for the value study.

This is only 5 x 7, a very loose sketch with the most important shapes in. Using just one color that can go from very dark to very light (paynes gray/burnt umber/sepia/dark blue/ etc) I loosely painted in my values. It lets me know immediately where I might need to make changes in the darks and lights.

So, can you use your black and white copy as a value study? Ummmm, sure. But keep a white and black marker handy. There may be details you want to eliminate; values you want to make darker or lighter; an important detail to add in or move to another place. A shape to adjust.

Color study. (also a 5 x 7)

I wanted to play with color that would create the same mood as I get when I see this photograph. Maybe I want to recreate the colors exactly. But maybe I want to be more playful and see what I can get with other color combinations. I try to pick just three color that I think will work well together, not get too complicated. It may take more than one color study to decide what you like. If nothing else, you'll discover what NOT to use.

None of these steps should take very long. Mostly because you are only dealing with your basic shapes.

The point of these steps is to eliminate as many painting mistakes as possible before you commit to the final painting. 

1. Thumbnails: to quickly discover a composition that you like

2. Value study: to quickly see where your lights and darks should go.

3. Color study: to quickly decide on basic colors for your composition.

These are like the ABC's of starting a painting. In reading, you don't always consciously think about each letter as you become more proficient at reading. And you may not consciously do each step as you paint. But you can save yourself a lot of grief if you at least consider each step before committing paint to paper.

More about composition...making value studies...perspective

 The value of a value study

In class each person brought a reference photo of their own. We discussed how to create a value study...again combining smaller shapes into larger shapes...and again painting wet, and changing color, not necessarily value, in the first washes of the value study.

A value study allows you to make decisions about your painting on a small scale before painting the final product. You can eliminate distractions; add a shadow; move an object; change the focus. This is all on a small scale. 

Can you use your black and white photo as your value study? Sometimes, yes. You can begin with the b/w photo and use a marker to add or eliminate details and to darken or lighten areas. You can use the marker to make connections between shapes. 

You can also use apps to help you do some of these things. I like to use Notanizer, which costs $3 to download to your phone. It allows you to change a photo to a black and white, to only 2 values, 3 values, up to 7 values. It lets you adjust each value also. This is a great way to help you see large shapes.

Eric Yi Lin recommends Snapseed. It has a lot of features and does more than just adjust values. It takes a little playing with, but I can see its uses.

Below is a youtube by Eric that he made after attending a workshop by Andy Evanson. He discusses Snapseed. He also does a good job of demonstrating the importance of a value study. (I have seen him do one on almost every painting demo) Eric has several others just on value studies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIvHjb8QXio

Doing outdoor scenes almost always involves knowing a bit about perspective. Here are a few I've found.

Youtubes on Perspective

This is by Eric Lin...he discusses doing perspective on buildings, keeping it simple, not mathematical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBrMVl6ZbJQ

Perspective from Liron Yanconsky

Perspective Drawing For Painters - Tips Tricks and Techniques - YouTube

Perspective from MIchele Weber

How to Draw in Perspective for Beginners - YouTube

Advice on composing your own painting

 2022 Happy New Year!

Starting out this year with a request....to help understand how to compose your own original artwork from a reference photo. We all need help with this topic. So I will humbly bow to artists more experienced at this than I am. Here are two youtube videos you will find especially useful:

Eric Yi Lin - A loose painter who lives in Seattle area, gives three pointers

Real Secret of a Loose Painting - Visual Language - YouTube

Eric talks about communicating through visual language. He gives 3 basic steps: 

1. observe

2. analyze

3. Process & interpet

You might also look at his Oct 7, 2020 youtube How to prepare for watercolor painting - 3 questions to ask yourself. In that one, He asks

1. What attracts you?

2. How to bring it to focus?

3. What to add or subtract?

Dragonfly Spirit with Lynn Bower

Three Simple Strategies for Designing Your Own Watercolors (even if you're a beginner) - YouTube

She focuses largely on

1. how to combine "things" into larger shapes (sillhouette paintings)

2. How to plan lights and whites

3. How to suggest with brush marks

She said that technical skills are not as important in composing a painting as those 3.

So in class we tried to put some of these principles to practical use by taking a reference photo and asking some of these same questions.

Since the youtube was using a lighthouse, I chose these photos from Unsplash. 

by Pete Nuiz

by Peter Burdin

The first photo was a little hard to do step one, which was combining shapes into two major shapes, which made it more complex, so I chose the second lighthouse photo to demo. 

Often we watch an interesting video, but it doesn't sink in unless you try to do it yourself. So I had the class choose a photo and decide which shapes they wanted.The first step, as you'll see below, is COMBINING shapes into larger shapes as much as possible. The lighter lines show some possiblities I considered; the dark shape is the one I decided made the best sillhouette.  I could also have made changes at this point, possibly making the land shape more dramatic, changing the size of the lighthouse, etc.

 We then made a graded wash over the entire thing. I used blues and magenta. You'll notice that I also cropped the picture in, elongating it to show more lighthouse.

I then used the same colors on the lighthouse, beginning at the top and continuing to the bottom of my sillhouette shape, changing color gradually as the video recommends. 

The last step in this sillhouette shape was to find shapes you might want to make lighter or white by adding gouache. (a white opaque watercolor paint that mixes well with watercolors) First add the darker shapes. (I darkened the bottom of the island, separating it from the ocean). Then add light and white shapes. (I made two lighter hill shapes behind the island; whitened the glass part of the lighthouse; did some dry brush in the water at the bottom)

The original photo had interesting clouds in the sky, which I chose not to put in. But if I had, I would have tried to connect as many as possible into one big shape in the study to see if it added interest or took away from the painting. Also in the reference, the lighthouse was reddish and white, and I chose not to do that in the study. If, for example, I needed to paint this specific lighthouse, then those colors would have been necessary.

Remember, this is a STUDY, not a finished product. (but sometimes it turns out pretty well). 

Eric Lin is also one who, from the very first stages of the painting, tries to combine small shapes into larger shape to create unity and harmony in the painting. I think these videos discuss the same principles in a different way. 

What is odd, is that when you begin a painting thinking about shape that is interesting, after a while, your brain seems to be sensitized to looking at shape instead of other elements (color, texture, etc).

The other emphasis in this video is making subtle color change to suggest objects within your sillhouette. This can really be an important skill in watercolor painting. 

Next week, we're taking a reference photo of our own choosing and putting these principles and others into practice. KEEP IT SIMPLE

BONUS Christmas Card: Using Brusho

 BRUSHO Christmas Trees: Easiest cards I've ever made.

To make 6 small cards, you will need:  

                         card stock-- 4 pieces (at least 1 white) or 6 cards and 2 pieces of white card stock 

                         glue

                         sheets of foam or sticker dots

                         brusho in several colors (If you don't have Brush-O, use watercolor on an inexpensive                                 watercolor paper.)

                         saran wrap or small bubble wrap

                         colored paper

                         spray bottle

(if you don't want to bother with making the BrushO paper, use any colorful cardstock weight papers you may have on hand)

The first step is to make the paper trees. Put some paper or wax paper over a cookies sheet to protect it. 

Put two sheets of white card stock on the pan and sprinkle with desired colors of Brush-O.

My top sheet has violet, cobalt blue, and Alizarin. Bottom sheet has olive, yellow, and sea green.

Spritz with water to reactivate the Brush-O crystals.

Quickly, while very wet, put on plastic wrap or bubble wrap. (plastic on top, bubble on bottom). Allow to dry completely.

(You can also apply the brusho directly onto the bubble wrap, then STAMP it onto the paper.)

When dry, cut (I used a paper cutter) simple triangles, some 4 inches tall, some 3 inches, some 2 inches. (If you want to use another shape, like circles, etc., that works too. Just different sizes) Here is the way I cut it to get at least 6 of each different size from one sheet:

Cut colored printer paper into 3 1/2 by 5 inches (for a 4 by 5 1/2 inch card) rectangles.

Cut white card stock into 8" by 11 inch pieces. (One piece makes 2 small cards) Or use pre-made

cards. I get mine at Hobby Lobby--50 cards and envelopes in a set for $9.99, often half off.

To assemble the card:

1. Center and glue colored paper onto the front of a card.

2. Glue large tree onto the card.

3. Put foam dots (or glue foam ) on the backs of a 3" and 2" tree.

4. Apply those to the card wherever it looks good to you.

5. I added some foam stars and dots to decorate, just because I had some leftover from another project. Buttons would also look fun.

DONE.

I know you'll figure out your own style and use your imagination with these. 

Christmas Cards: Doves in negative painting

 

One painting technique I find useful is negative painting. So today I showed making a card with that process. Below are a few others I've done. The mistletoe I found on Skillshare. 

Just doing words. I started with the bottom word, painted around it; did each consecutive word, one by one, painting around everything each time, getting darker and darker with each layer.  The Stems and pink looking JOY are painted with pearlescent watercolor paints OVER the black. 

Final dove painting

Another dove 

Find a simple pattern you like and can repeat in the painting. 

First make a light wash background. You can texture it with salt or saran wrap.

Dry that. Then sketch your first object, in this case, as dove. I just cut around the sketch, taped it in place, and used Saral (graphite transfer paper) to transfer the sketch to the card. 

After drawing the dove, I painting around it with a darker blue. This makes the dove appear.

The trick is to keep the area wet so that you don't get any hard edges. For example, I will wet about 2 inches out from the object, then paint closer to it and allow the paint to disperse into that wet area, keeping the edges soft, except around the dove itself.

Dry completely, then sketch in two other doves that will appear farther away. They will be darker because they are drawn over the paint from painting around the first dove. Then paint darker around those two new ones to make them appear.

You can keep doing this process until you have as many and as dark as you want.

I painted in the olive branch last. 

I have one suggestion if this is the first time you have tried negative painting. Try to stick to just a few colors, getting darker with each progressive layer. For example, go from magenta to blue to purple; or yellow to orange to red to brown; or yellow to green to blue. 

Most paintings are NOT done completely in negative painting. Google negative painting, and you'll see some pretty interesting paintings.

I have several other posts on negative painting also. See Sep 8, 5, and 2 of 2020; Nov 1, 2018.

Tape Batik Christmas Tree Card

Tape edges of the card to protect them and make a nice edge, about a 1/4" border. LIghtly sketch a triangle representing the size of the tree. Then, using inexpensive masking tape, tear tape into small pieces. It's important the tape be TORN. The more expensive type will not "bleed" or leak under as much as the cheap stuff.

Next step: wet the entire paper, including over the tape. Then add stripes of color, whatever you like. On some I used greens, blues, and gold; on another I used alizarin crimson, blue, and violet.

Now WATCH PAINT DRY. If you want to use salt, put it on while the paint is wet. But this time, I allowed the shine to leave the paint, and dropped clean water into the drying paint. It should make little bursts of blossoms. You can also spritz lightly to create small droplets. 

Allow the painting to dry completely. You want the paint that leaked under the tape to be dry as well as the background. You can use a blow dryer, but on low only. You don't want to glue the tape to the picture.

When dry, remove the tape from the tree. Don't worry if it didn't bleed as much as you might want...you can always add small lines with brush or pen. When finished, you can add gold paint or irridescent paints. I kind of like it as is, though. 

For more about tape batik process, google Sandy Maudlin tape batik, and you'll see some fabulous paintings. This is a process she created, and it can be done on yupo as well as regular watercolor paper.

You can click on these below to see a few. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.campusce.net%2Fthevillages%2FCourse%2Fprint.aspx%3F700&psig=AOvVaw2AQLHFyYcmXzLkPPVG4rZD&ust=1637364637055000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCKik-t6Io_QCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAG

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_VArxNCrNvYs%2FTKvCfAaoF1I%2FAAAAAAAAGBw%2Fo1cEr1Hn3lM%2Fs1600%2FIRISH%2BEYES.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fsandymaudlin.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F10%2Ftape-batik.html&tbnid=verEL_Vk8Pl9WM&vet=10CA0QxiAoA2oXChMIqKT63oij9AIVAAAAAB0AAAAAEAg..i&docid=3XBtE9u5_76VZM&w=548&h=360&itg=1&q=sandy%20maudlin%20tape%20batik&ved=0CA0QxiAoA2oXChMIqKT63oij9AIVAAAAAB0AAAAAEAg

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsandymaudlin.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F10%2Ftape-batik-in-france.html&psig=AOvVaw2AQLHFyYcmXzLkPPVG4rZD&ust=1637364637055000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCKik-t6Io_QCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAO