More on collage with watercolor

The Iron Gate

To apply collage to a painting, you will need:

    mat medium

    old brush for applying the glue/medium

    possibly tweezers or something to hold small pieces

    variety of papers such as listed in the last post (masa, inside of envelopes, rice paper, magazines, etc.) These can be pre-painted with acrylic or watercolor.

After painting as much on the steps and walls as I wanted, I cut strips from the paper I'd prepared to use for the iron grating. This black was fluid acrylic painted on the inside of envelopes, then spattered with white and rust color.

I use mat medium for the glue. You can apply the medium to the painting itself or to the pieces of collage. Use a brush that you don't care about, because the mat medium will make it unusable for anything else. After you place the pieces, brush over again with mat medium.

Below is strips cut for the iron grates, glued on with mat medium. 

I wanted to add some texture to some of the stonework. I used the pieces of masa paper that I'd painted on. I tore them to give them a rougher look, but you can cut them instead. 

I added the points onto the iron rails. I used the dark blue to collage the post. The knob on the top of the post is from the inside of an envelope.

I used strips cut from masa paper for the wall in the back. I used bits of torn

green for the foliage growing through the rocks and the foliage at the top of the wall. 

I painted in some lines between the stones. 

I painted the shadow on the steps stronger, and painted in the small shadows from the 

railing. At the top I painted lightly some black railing over the green. I also painted in

the grass growing over the sidewalk.

I put in some darker greens to bring out the foliage and used white gouache

to make small dots for flowers in the greenery.

To finish I added some more railings in the gate. I also collaged some thin strips of green at the bottom of the steps and on the sidewalk. 

Keep working on the collage until you are happy with the results. Here are some student works, some finished, some in progress. I am missing a photo of Barb's...she did her collage stonework with a magazine photo of butterfly wings...it looked really neat. Bolder than I would have done on my own.

Margaret painted the iron work, then collaged in the stonework and greenery growing on the walls. Looking good!

Dolores collaged in the roof with rice paper that was painted. She used masa paper on the flowers.

I love the light airiness of the picture, and how she put just enough collage on it to bring out the 

most interesting bits.

Here Dolores took a painting of an historical cabin she'd done before. The sides of the cabin are collaged with envelopes with wood grain pattern painted brown. The redbud tree buds are rice paper painted pink. I wish I'd taken a before and after photo. This looks so neat, and somehow the

collage really pulled it all together.

   

    Kerry painted everything, then used bits of masa paper, torn, on some of the leaves in the foreground.

Also torn masa for the stonework on the chimney. He cut strips for the roof of the house, and rectangles for the windows. 

Shirley did a loose painting for the cabin and trees. She used some black magazine for the shadow on the roofline; torn masa for the chimney; cut masa (painted in gray tones) for the fence line. She's not finished, but it's already looking good. Knowing that the fence would be collage allowed her to paint over that area in her initial wash and not worry about painting around the fence.

More work, but not collage:

Kerry's most recent: rustic windows. The cool in the glass really plays well with the rich warm in the wood.

Vicki's first negative painting.  Also not finished yet, but

definitely getting there. I think we decided to turn the painting to a landscape position, and it looks better.

Sylvia's barn scene, watercolor and some pastel in the sky. This is a full sheet

of paper, and very ambitious. Not finished, but I'm hoping to get a photo of it

completed.

Iron Gate/Part 1

 Beginning a painting with watercolor and collage together.

Collage can be an effective way to add interest and texture, or even correct problems in a painting.

You can start with any painting you've done, but aren't satisfied with and feel safe in playing around with.

Or you can start a painting with the idea in mind that part of it is going to be collage, such as this one with the iron gate. This is a reference I took myself in Aurora, Indiana along the river.

I started with a sketch with the bare essentials, the stairs and the wall.

I didn't even draw in the gate, except for the large post.

I painted the background in cool colors and the steps in warmer colors.

Dried. Then put in the shadow part of the steps, painting over everything that

might become part of the gate itself.

When I got to the post, I just continued color into the post as I painted the steps.

For the lines that form the stones in the wall, I used the long side of a credit card. Just make a puddle of mixed colors, drag the edge of the card through it, and press it onto the line. It makes a nice, broken looking but sharp edge. 

 I drew the railings in and first went over the rails with water, pulling up the paint from the steps into it. This removes the hard edges of the steps from where you want to paint the gate railings. Bonus, I didn't have to paint around all the rails.

After that I painted the gate and other iron works, shown below.  But on this project, I'm going to collage them in.

I am also going to collage in the greenery growing in the cracks.

So this is what I have to prepare to complete this project. You can use just about any papers for collage, but I prefer rice paper, masa paper, and the insides of envelopes (that my bills come in) that have interesting patterns. For the railings I painted the pattern envelopes in indigo and black acrylic. When they dried, I spattered white and rust colored acrylic. For the greenery, I painted a variety of greens on rice paper and masa paper, and also on some blue envelopes. For stonework, I painted a variety of colors on masa paper. 

Masa on left/rice paper on right (kinwashi)

Inside of envelope painted green, spattered with white

Inside of envelopes painted with acrylic black/indigo blue and spattered with rust and white to give rusty look. (I painted the darks with acrylic (fluid) so that the paint would not run and smudge when applied onto the lighter background. The masa paper is painted with watercolor. 

These papers will be used in specific places on the painting to create interest and texture.

I plan to cut straight strips of  the black and blue for the railings, and tear other colors for the greenery and stonework. You can also use magazines, newsprint, origami, wrapping paper, and other things to add color and interest. I try to keep to light-weight papers if I'm using 140 lb watercolor paper as my base for the painting.

Below is a barn that started out as a failed watercolor painting. Most of the trees are collaged in with masa paper torn into small bits. The barn wood is also masa torn in longer strips. The roof is mostly masa, an the dark shadows are black strips cut from magazines. The chickens in the front are the inside of envelopes. The foreground and sky are watercolor.

Next week, we'll demonstrate how to apply the collage using an old flat brush and matte medium.

Another negative painting--peaches and grapes.

 

Two weeks ago, we made a background wash by soaking a sheet of paper and adding 3 colors that blended softly together, no hard edges.

Last week, we drew a picture onto the background, trying to keep the center of interest in a place that had either white space or some interest to it.

I pointed out an article in Watercolor Artist magazine, spring 2022, by Mary Elle (p. 10) called Betwixt and Between. It was describing negative painting, a subject that I am very enthusiastic about. Linda Kemp is another artist that paints negatively...you might say she wrote the book on it. (because she did)

Here is the background that I painted. I also did another background that I put a different picture on.

Pardon the yucky picture...color looks weird. But you can see the sketch of peaches

that I did.

My first step was to choose a color that was contrasting, and I painted around the two most important shapes, the peaches in front. Brush the colors away from these shapes...you can even use a fine mist sprayer to allow the paint to gently drift into the background, yet leave a hard edge around these shapes.

Don't try to work too darkly at this point. Take your time with layering. 

The next step was to "find" more shapes by painting around the leaf shapes and enhancing the peach shapes also. Work a little at a time, keeping the area wet enough to allow the color to blend with the background without hard edges, except around the shapes you want to bring out. 

You are working backward in layers. The greatest contrast will be around your center of interest.

Keep working around shapes until you have the effect you desire.

When I'd painted all I wanted to negatively, I did some positive painting. My original intention was to paint it much darker in the background, but I changed my mind. So I added some green to darken the leaves and used french ultramarine and burnt sienna on the stems. 

I deepened some of the peach colors, especially in the back peach. For those color

I used warm yellow, transparent pyrol orange, and alizarin. I only used a blush on the bottom one, wetting the peach and then dropping in color. I emphasized the "dimples" in the peaches with some alizarin. 

For the leaves, I negative painted the centers (see my last post on leaves), and did very faint veins.

On this one I did a sketch of grapes. (The background really isn't that dark, it's just the photo)

This color is off, but it shows that the first thing I did was lift out some of the dark blue in the top, where I want light. I like to lift with a Winsor Newton #4 or #6 filbert Monarch. They are not too expensive and don't tear at the paper like some lifting or scrubbing brushes will. 

I did my first layer of negative painting with some blue on the bottom grapes and top grapes.

Here you can see I've painted between the top leaves and stems and around some of the leaves.

I've done some positive painting on the leaves, but then negative painted around the veins after the first layer dried. I added some purple as I painted around the green grapes, then when that dried, 

negative painted in some dark grapes. I also started to negative paint the grapes.

To do the negative painting in the grapes, you simply paint in the spaces between the grapes where it would be darker.  You can also see where I've added even darker blue at the very top to negative paint in some grapes. Then I lifted some hi-lights on those grapes.

I also painted some grapes very faintly at the bottom to look like they are in the background.

Ready-made (or convenience) Greens

Wow! We discussed all kinds of things today.

First item of business was to create a background for next week's lesson. We got the paper wet on both sides and put it on a board or piece of plexiglas. No need for tape.....it stays on its own if wet enough.

Then we mixed 3 colors of choice and let them run together, turning the board at angles to keep the paint flowing. We're looking for all SOFT edges and a nice blend of colors....no hard edges and no splotchy looking spots in the background. Just a soft, light to medium value of colors. While wet, use a tissue to blot out some white spots where your center of interest might be.

Leave this to dry overnight. 

NEXT ON THE LIST: seeing what your convenience greens can do for you.

Point one: I have probably 15 different tubes of green, which I rarely ever use. I have them mostly because they were recommended for one workshop or another. 

But a common thing for painters to do is use too many different greens in your painting, and end up with colors that seem to clash. They lack color harmony. So here is one thing you can do.

Start with a small square in the center of a scrap piece of paper. Fill it in with one of your convenience greens, like sap. To the left add hansa yellow (or a light lemony yellow). To the right add a blue, such as ultramarine. Directly below add a red, like alizarin. Directly above add a warm yellow, such as quin gold. On the bottom left corner the green is added to orange. On the bottom right violet is added. Top left is burnt umber and top right is neutral tint (or paynes gray). 

Below is a grid I started with chromium green oxide.

chromium green oxide plus hansa yellow

chromium green oxide with all the other colors added in respective boxes

A sheet with five different greens, using the same colors in the same places.

Top left is pthalo green blue shade; top middle is permanent green.

Bottom left is sap; middle is serpentine; right is hookers green.  

Just by looking at each grouping, you can see that some of those colors do not look good with colors outside that group. But you can create so many shades of green with just one, and they all work together in harmony. 

So if you really want to use a convenience green, use other colors with it to create other tones of green for shade or to make a green look like it's in the light. 

Part 3 was to make realistic looking leaves. Your painting might look great, but then, instead of taking as much time on the leaves as you did with other parts of the picture, it looks odd....almost as if you used two different styles. Even with "loose" paintings, you want it to be believable, not just slapped on randomly.

So here are a few tips on leaf making.

5-minute video on leaves with veins

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W8k8fyZVtk

Angela Fehr shows 13-minutes of 3 types leaves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyJHmdrzpl8

I do mine a bit differently. Especially rose leaves and stems, which nearly always have reds in them.

I usually start with painting the leaf with a yellow (Hansa light) or yellow green.(Hansa + sap) If there is red in the veins or tips, I paint those in either before or after a basic glaze of yellow/green.

Rose leaves: on left, underpainted with red tips and center vein (use very small brush);

middle leaf underpainted yellow/green; right leaf underpainted with yellow.

After that is dry, I negative paint around the veins with a darker green. (a medium shade, just darker than that yellow green). Here I used sap green, since we're discussing convenience greens. 

Adding reds to the tips of middle and right leaves after the second glaze.

Adding blue (pthalo) to the sap to darken. Also adding reds and blue to the stem.

I look for bumps and shadows, and paint those in a bit darker. 

When all is dry, I glaze over the leaf either with cerulean or just with water to take some of the hardness out of the lines. Some hilight might need to be lifted.

Glazing over the entire leaf to soften edges and blending the veins into the leaves.

More work on lamb and ewe

 The next step to working on the wool is to create some soft textural lines in the wool. The lines will do two things: add to the feeling of the softness of the wool; and show the contours of the sheep. When adding these lines, avoid making them the same distance apart or the same length. Also, some parts will be darker than others, showing deeper separations in the wool.

With that disclaimer, let's get started.

You can and should work this in small, manageable areas. If you have lost your lines, lightly draw in some lines to indicate the separations in the wool. Lines along the sides will be more vertical; then round a bit at the top and bottom.

Mix up some paint using the raw sienna and burnt umber, basically the color you used before to form the color of the sheep. This should be a fairly creamy mixture. Experiment on scrap paper. Have some french ultramarine handy to create darker areas.

Wet an area about 2-3 square inches. Dip a small pointed brush into the mixture and gently TAP paint along the line you want. The paint should spread out slightly, creating a fuzzy look that is still a line.

If it is too uncontrolled, either let the paper dry a bit or use less water in your paint mix. 

If it is too dark, play with the mixture until it is the value you want. 

Make some of your lines shorter, especially near the top; make some converge or appear to converge; near the head, make short curly lines. In some areas, drop in blue or darker color in some places. These will look like shadows made by longer deeper wool areas.

If color looks too dark when dry, wait until completely dry and wash over with clean water....or just loosen the paint with a clean brush in places. If too light, you can go over it again after it dries.

The FACE AREA & LEGS

This may sound weird, but wash over the entire face, ear, and top of the lamb with pink. I used magenta, but any red can be watered down enough to pink and used. While that is drying, I moved to the leg area.

Use your brown mixture and some of the blue. I am creating a HARDER edge between the legs and wool of the body. I wet the top of the leg first in a wiggly motion to indicate the wool. I added the brown mix and dropped in some blue to create the dark at the top of the leg, which is shadow from the body.

I pulled down the color with my brush, then added blue wet on wet to the knee area. (sheep knees look a little dirty at all times). I did this to all the legs, paying attention to which sides of the leg is darker and more in shadow and which parts are catching light from the right.

I used the blue and the brown to make a gray mix. I wet the face again (over the pink) and painted the gray mixture onto the face. I layed down the darkest on the edges where the wool and ear meet the face, and let it spread over the rest of the face, except the eye. I left the muzzle white.

For the baby, I glazed over the pink with raw sienna and aussie gold (you can use burnt sienna) and mingled them on the paper. The color only goes down to the top of the baby's legs.

I used blue with a bit of umber to make shadows on the left sides of the legs, the tail, and the rear leg that is completely in shadow 

To complete the face of the ewe, I added a little gray over the ear, but much lighter than the face.I tried to leave a rim of white on the ear. I painted the eye in with a golden brown (umber with a little yellow), then let it dry. I used a black fine tip marker to go around the eye and also to make the horitzontal slit of the pupil. (If it had been bigger, I would have used paint....but my hands shake a bit, and pen works when it is to small for me to control.)

I painted in the nostril and the mouth. I tried to leave as much pink in those areas and the ear as I could. 

The color of this baby is its skin...there's no wool yet. So you can see its ribs. After I got the color I wanted for the lamb, I used a little cobalt to shadow the belly and the face hiding behind his mom. I used a tiny lifting brush to lift out some hi-lights in the ribs. 

Finishing grass and background.

You have choices in finishing. The original photo reference has them against some very dead grasses and straws, so that the background was nearly the same color as the sheep.  I wanted it to look more like spring. So I used a combination of greens to create grass that looks trampled The shadowing beneath the sheep keeps them anchored to the ground. Plus the edges between hooves and grass are blurred and obscured, which also keeps them anchored.

If you're wondering where the 2nd lamb in the original painting went, well.....

I decided it took away from the story. I couldn't exactly erase it. I tried to lift some. No matter what I did, that extra lamb showed up. Since these sheep live on a farm with an old stone fence, I decided that might help the painting a bit. So that's where the lamb went....behind the fence.

Did I use any whites? Well, I did use a bit of gouache on parts of the stonework and on a hi-lited spot on the lamb's foreleg. I also used a bit on the ewe's face under the eye. 

Here are some nearly finished ones from class:

Water consistency/Lost and hard edges

PAINT CONSISTENCY

One of the main things a water color artist needs to tackle is how much water to add to the paint.

In the picture below, you can see 4 different paint to water ratios. The first (some people call this mustard consistency) is about 90/10 paint to water. The paint doesn't move around on the palette and is very dark.

Second is about a 50/50 ratio. There is enough water to make the paint easy to move around, still dark, but more transparent. Some refer to this as "cream" consistency. The third is about 25/75 paint to water. YOu can call it "coffee" or soy with wasabi. Color is lighter, the puddle of color moves around easily. The last, about 10/90 paint to water. Some refer to this as "tea", another artist calls it "soy sauce." This last is often used as a light first layer or wash.

Here are some bad habits to avoid.

1. Mix up enough paint ahead of time to cover all you want to cover. That way you can avoid having to make more at an inconvenient time. And you won't have to worry about not mixing the exact same color.

2. Don't keep dipping your brush in the water to rinse it if you are using the same color. Each time you rinse your brush, you are adding more water to your mixture, making it hard to make darker layers. Instead, mix enough of the consistency you want, and when you run out of paint, just dip your brush into the puddle of paint. When you want to change color, rinse your brush, dab the water out of it, then dip it into the new paint.

LOST/HARD/SOFT EDGES

You'll want to practice this a little before starting the sheep painting.

A HARD edge is a very precise edge formed on dry paper. It is painted with a wet brush on or against a dry area of the paper. 

A SOFT edge looks fuzzy, indistinct, like a cloud, fur, cotton. It is formed by wetting the paper first, then painting into the wet area. Wet means it is shiny, not sopping, no puddles of water. You can experiment with different consistencies of paint into the wet area. Below on the left you see lines made by a thin brush onto wet paper. You have some control. On the right is a "puddle" of water, and shows that

the paint is far less controllable. 

Below is a practice to learn how to do the sheep with LOST and SOFT edges. Lost edges occur when you create a place where the edge seems to vanish into the background. It is just no painted. YOu can

see the edge here that is mostly soft, then disappears, then continues on the right.

To practice making a soft edge and lost edge for the sheep, wet the area above and below the line for the sheep back. I turned it upside down to work, then applied the paint along the edge of the back and LET IT FLOW DOWNWARD, away from the edge of the sheep. If it begins to run too much into the wool, just take a thirsty brush and pull up the paint while wet.

You can work in small sections, as long as it is wet. Practice skipping a part to create a lost edge. 

These pictures came from my friend and farmer neighbor. Her lambing season just finished, and these babies were newborns. 

When you feel you are ready, make a soft edge on the painting. Wet not only the edge, but into the wool also. Turn the painting upside down, apply the paint along the edge of the back, and allow the

paint to flow AWAY from the sheep. Do this on edges you want to keep soft.

When you have done the entire background, dry the painting. Then wet the sheep where it will look woolly. Mix raw sienna and burnt umber for the wool color. Starting at the bottom of the sheep, where it will be darkest, apply the paint and let it run into the upper part of the sheep, trying to keep the top of the back white. You can add some blue to some dark areas at the belly and legs while wet.

Gently add a pinch of salt grains onto the sheep wool. 

This is where we ended this week. Next week we'll work on the wool coat as in the picture below.

Here are some good very recent youtubes on these topics. Worth watching.

Louise DeMasi on water consistency and fixing mistakes 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsZh4wKTKGQ

Louise DeMasi sheep partial tutorial/lost and hard edges

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s32PTPeXJsg