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As a retired architect and urban planner, i look back on the many small communities that i had the honor of working with throughout the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and Alaska. Within those communities, usually resource based towns for lumber, fishing, maritime activities, mining etc., there are the physical leftovers from past cultures that tell us stories of the past and provide us with possible bridges to the present day and future. An example is an old military fort in Haines Alaska, Fort William H. Seward, constructed in and around 1914 and sold to private veterans after WWII. I label it a remnant that has survived as an element from a larger pattern, possibly with a future reuse within the community. Fort Seward is now a residential neighborhood, art shops, art studios, bed and breakfasts, hotel, restaurants and more, along the shores of Lynn Canal in southeast Alaska, about 90 miles nw of Juneau.

Capturing these remnants is an enjoyable aspect of my watercolor efforts. see images below of the barracks building and view of Lynn Canal watercolor sketch.

the image on the left is an example of merged washes and the sketch on the right is a watercolor sketch plein air. (images may be in different locations on final blog(

Another example of a remnant is the Old Olympia Brewery in Olympia WA on Tumwater Lake. Vacant and waiting for some form of rebirth: the first image is again using merged washes to avoid cumbersome detail in the massing and the second image is a study, lacking some drama, of the larger complex and the lake.

The last example on the right is unfortunately no longer with us, but at its resting place in the Hoquiam River WA. the Robert Bush dredge, with so much history and stories in its making and utilization. At least i found it in time to capture some of its magic in watercolor .

More examples may follow if some interest. Enjoy, Ron K

Painting our furry friends is always a challenge to me due to the subtle light patterns in the soft fur coats. I use a merging and mingling technique and then over the dried first washes, i do some stronger color strokes to get complexity and variety in the colors and the brush strokes.

"Yahoo" is my favorite wolf image with lots of variety in the fur, accented with cadmium orange; so essentially i did a softer merging wash of multiple colors as first wash, then when dry i did a heavier wash with more hard edges and brush strokes.

In "Griz", i used an intentional movement of brush strokes, somewhat circular to achieve the complexity in the fur, again with Cadmium Orange, which my daughter thinks is my fav color, really? ha.

and in "Bear Beware", i used some strong dark shadows to emphasize movement upo to the head; and in "Griz" i focused on the shadow shapes around the eyes.

Okay, while i still have a few readers, let's discuss the challenges of using greens, a secondary color composed of yellow and blue. and that is part of the challenge!

If you restrict yourself to just yellow and blue in any color family (delicate transparent, staining intense, opaque chalky) you limit yourself and usually wind up with greens in a higher intensity or brightness then you desire. S0 how do i increase the range of greens, especially for your specific ecological region (southwest vs. northwest for example)?

Green grays!

when red is added to the yellow blue mixture, the green can decrease in intensity. For example, architects and other designers are found of olive green as it has a richness yet not a brightness to dominate a graphic presentation. well, olive green is a green gray, with red in it.

As an exercise, take each of your color families yellow and blue and add the family red to it in various quantities to bounce the green over a range of affects.

aurelian or azo yellow, cobalt blue and rose madder

winsor yellow, winsor blue and winsor red or alizarin crimson

yellow ochre, cerulean blue, and cadmium red

these are all green grays and the range of affect is extensive!

the following examples highlight the various green gray applications. of course if you want bright sunny intense greens then avoid the red and make sure the yellow blue mixture is applied to white paper! not over another color.

Okay, here are lots of green combinations, applied with merging on the paper. notice the extensive use of reds in the greens, an occasional cadmium orange, and to really get darks i do add indigo blue as in the left and middle or upper and middle images. the end images are actually 8 inches square.

green grays, luscious and varied. ron

HI, just a short blog on the use of warm and cool temperatures to indicate distance and depth in your paintings. Warm colors make objects appear closer and cooler temps make this more distant. Why? Particles in the air, albeit smoke, water droplets, smog etc. the air acts as a filter and as light moves through it to and from distant objects, it loses its warm colors. Look at the distant foothills and see the same trees be a cooler green than the ones in the foreground.

the image on the left, "Incoming" does two things: one lightens the wash in value and cools the colors in temperature to indicate distance; the image on the right, has coolor and lighter greens in the background to achieve the same affect with the mid and foregrounds occupied by warmer temp colors. the small cluster of orange and green trees is the focal point, accented by the white ground plane.

Happy Thanksgiving

Ron

Composition and Value Patterns

Many experienced painters will underscore the importance of composition and value patterns, with some even stating that they are more important then color. Why?
Because composition is the relationship of multiple shapes in a composed structure that illicit a story or feeling or expression on the part of the artist.

Value provides the mood and emphasis withing the composition, highlighting and strengthening key aspects of the composition. Value is the relationship of light to dark, and the contrasts that result from that relationship.

Composition

To compose, to bring together in a harmonious whole. the key aspects of composition are as follows:

center of interest

overall structure

movement

direction

connectivity

Let's begin with center of interest. The Center of Interest is exactly that, it is where the artist wants the emphasis or AHA to be in a painting composition. The artist can place the center of interest wherever he/she wants; and there are some true and tried principles that  can make your painting strong. First, things to avoid:

direct center or target (predictable, static)

more than one center of interest (yes, an oxymoron: if you have more than one AHA point, the painting composition is pulled apart with elements and shapes attracted to each AHA point, confusing the observer)

There are four preferred locations for a center of interest that can enable a dynamic or energized composition: the center of each quadrant of the painting; and albeit close to the quadrant approach, draw a diagonal from one corner to the opposite corner of  the painting surface and window, and then draw a line from one of the two other corners perpindicular to the diagonal and there is your center, all four of them.

Okay, see the importance of the sketch when strategizing your painting! Where do i focus my attention to? it is deliberate through design.

Value Patterns

On to value patterns using the above sketches. In order to establish mood, atmosphere, and emphasis to your center of interest, play with value patterns that the support the CI.

Skip Lawrence in his book "Painting Light and Shadows" has a key principle that is really helpful in planning value patterns:

Assuming three values: light (1), middle (2) and dark (3), place two out of the three at and around the center of interest and everthing else is the value left out. this hurts the brain a bit because in the supporting background of one value, you can have many colors, and all the same value.

We essentially paint with about five values: light, mid-light, mid, mid-dark and dark but use the three primaries as y0ur planning tool.

Examples: if i want a bright and contrasting mood, i will place the light/dark or 1/3 at the center of interest and everything else will be a 2 or mid value; if i want a more subdued mood, i will place either a 1//2 or 2/3 a the CI for more of a hazy day or darker day. the intent here is that there is less contrast between 1/2 and 2/3 and a softer mood or atmosphere. Got it?

you can essentially create nine different moods from one composition by playing with the value pattern placement. It really works.

"Bruno" not only has the 2/3 at the CI but i used the value pattern to create movement to the left and connect the stature with the entry plaza, with a 1/3 pattern. Connectivity with a primary CI and a supporting movement pattern.

Okay, try these patterns with one composition to see how you fare. You can also start with just painting the Shadow Shapes and nothing more, as this will give you a strong 1/3 patterns.

happy painting, ron

Hi to you loyal few guests who are connected to the blog. There doesnt seem to be a great deal of interest, and i know there are lots of how-to sites out there, so i will wrap up my watercolor blog over the next three blogs: (1) Tips on washes, wash edges, colorgrays and color opposites; (2) Composition and value patterns; (3) Finale

Every 'guide' in water color has his/her own approach as you should develop yourselves. My approach is less detailed and focuses on merging and mingling washes definitely influenced by the work of the late Charles Reid. I find the washes to be complex and less worked than the normal process of mixing paints in the palette. And i appreciate but do not do any serious glazing and encourage y ou to research that approach if you are interested in portraits, floral topics, etc.

In this blog, let me try to touch on some key aspects of washes and color mixing:

Washes

again, washes are related to the medium, water, that carries the pigments. When water/pigment charges are introduced into absorbent paper (rough, cold, hot), the saturation of the wet paper changes immediately (depending on atmospheric conditions (cool, hot, etc.)) and the next water/pigment charges added to the previous wash need to be close in saturation or the dryer will pull the wetter charge into it and cause a blemish. Practice this: going back and forth from the palette to the paper to see how the wash additions are greeted by the previous wash. it will vary according to environmental conditions so do not assume standard approaches.

you can vary from cleaning your brush, discharging excess water, getting pigment and going right to paper or adding extra water before going to paper, experiment and see what happens as the wash will 'talk to you'. and you will discover that in one painting you may use a number of different approaches: wet on wet for skies and large washes; wet on dry for more control; and merging mingling for complex washes. i will leave you with these notes.

Wash Edges

Very important: wash edges are essentially hard or soft, "found or lost"; a hard edge is one that dries with a noticeable boundary or edge; a soft edge is one that dries with a blurry or disappearing edge condition.

Principle: in order to connect and interlock or relate one shape to another, we use hard and soft edges to achieve this affect. all hard edges can create a mosaic affect with weaker relationships between and among the composition's shapes (okay if that is what you want); by having a combination of hard and soft edges it is like interlocking your fingers, two hand shapes coming together with hard and soft boundaries.

Okay, how do i do that? well, the hard edges are simple, apply the wash on paper and let it dry completely; then adding another wash adjacent to it but not pushed into the first wash. For a soft edge, either add water/no pigment to the last applications so that it blurs out, or quickly lift out the hard edge as it is drying with a damp, not wet, brush (and leave it along) as it will soften and spread slightly into the paper. in the examples below take a look at the edge conditions between a lot of shapes and identify the hard and soft conditions.

this technique of softening an edge as you complete a wash is also useful when you want to stop or are not sure of the next step as it is easier to deal with a soft and dried edge than a hard dried edge when you begin again. got it?

Many hard edges occur where the light contrast is the stronger, and softer edges are more frequent as the light is less intense. Experiment.

Color Grays

Color grays are a mixture of all three primaries with a color dominance. reflect on that for a moment. and WHAT YOU DO NOT WANT IS BATTLESHIP GRAY, a neutral gray with no color dominance (harder to see the battleships against the sea and sky when they are neutral!).

so, if i mix red, yellow and blue and kick up the red, i get a red gray, muted because of the presence of the other two primaries. For a purple gray, i kick up the red and blue with less yellow; green gray is yellow and blue with less red; orange gray is red and yellow with less blue (also known as "brown").

Many artists will have as much as 85% of their paintings in color grays with the remaining 15%, for example, in the higher key primary and secondary colors, to achieve an emphatic center of interest; the color grays acting as supporting actors on the stage.

I strongly suggest getting a copy of Jean Dobie's "Making Colors Sing", an  excellent teaching book on color grays.

in the examples above, on the left green grays predominate, in the middle blue grays, and on the right, yellow and purple grays. if your grays go neutral, keep adding new color to the same wash and observe how you can bounce the color grays around with color additives.

Color Opposites

Lastly, let us play with color opposites. Color opposites are colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel: essentially whatever is left from a mixture of the three primaries: red, yellow and blue. the opposite of yellow is (blue/red) or purple; the opposite of red is (blue/yellow) or green; the opposite of blue is (red/yellow) or orange; the opposite of orange (red/yellow) is blue, etc. simple and works for the grays as well.

In each of the examples above, i am using color opposites to try to limit my palette and bring attention to the compliments of the color opposites: to the left it is greens with red gray shadows; in the middle it is blue grays with orange reflections; and to the right it is yellow with purple complements in the middle and foreground shapes. And in my favorite Blue Boy it is blue and a touch of orange. Got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????? Go forth and paint. Ron

Okay, let's focus on the merging and mingling washes, i.e., mixing mostly on the paper not in the palette. a great way to get complexity in your washes so that you dont overwork and get dirty or drab washes from painting over too much.

I am presently working on a series of mountain meadows, inspired by our recent trip to the Flathead Lake area of Montana, Bigfork and Whitefish including Kalispell. in the example below, i am doing something i normally try not too and that is paint each of the tree shapes separately. Why? because i wanted to focus on the merging techniques to gain that fall transition of color in the Larch conifers.

Below i have two variations: in the left example, i found myself cleaning the brush, discharging excess water, grabbing pigment gel from the palette and then GOING BACK IN AND GETTING MORE WATER, resulting in a washed out affect in my opinion. in the example to the right, i cleaned, discharged, added pigment to the brush and went right to the paper, an improvement in my opinion. this helped give me cleaner and brighter colors, not watered down or pastelly.

notice that in the washes i have no hard edges or blossom/blemishes due to the quick application of one wash into the edge of the previous, changing colors as i paint. i will update this example as i make additional progress today and tomorrow.

the next blog will deal with composition and value: the principle being that the composition is the overall relationship, bringing together the smaller relationships between and among the shapes within the composition. it will make more sense as we get into the process of composing and designing the placement of values for mood.

A couple other points before I leave these images: 1) i am using the color opposite, green red, complimentary principle with a red gray in the shadow shapes and a touch in the background trees next to the green shapes; and 2) i am trying to spatially connect all the major shapes so that nothing floats on the paper. i will further connect major shapes with a ground pattern. aha. keep painting and keep practicing your washes.

After this segment where i discuss Merging/Mingling and Glazing, i will step back and introduce exercises related to color mixing: darks, colored grays, green grays that are all essential to successful painting efforts.

Merging and Mingling Pigments Directly on the Paper

I am an admirer of the late Charles Reid and Mel Stabin for their merging approach to painting for this reason: the initial washes are full of life, complexity, variation, and color variety. Example: when i mix a red and yellow and get an orange variation, uniform, in the palette similar to your color wheel exercise, i wind up with a uniform, monochromatic wash and that is not the way light treats objects it falls on!

EXERCISE 5, i think: Merging and Mingling on the Paper

So, taking off from the above comments, if i apply a red charged pigment to the paper, then quickly add (at and along into the edge, not up into the previous red app) a yellow charge, pushing it into but NOT OVER the previous red, the two washes merge along their edges and create what i refer to as "the parents, red and yellow, and variations of orange, the overall intent), providing an "orange" that is varied in color characteristics (red, yellow, orange variations) on my first wash, alive and complex rather than uniform and flat.

In "crab louie", the same approach was used with wet on dry approach and dropping in one color then another just into its edge (not adjacent, but into about a quarter inch or so and not overpainted). as you can see the complexity in the washes are full of energy in my opinion. in "Prague National Theater", i used the merging technique in the sky shape, upper, and in the stature shape, lower; one ligher, one darker.

Okay, PRACTICE. if you do not go far enough into the first pigment charge, you will get a border like appearance, as the two washes are not touching; if you go too far into the first charge, you will overpaint and get blossoms and less energized outcomes. and remember, water without a pigment is WHITE as it lets the white paper come through as in the shellfish stew on the shells and on the bike riders clothes and on teh ravens head and beak! We will visit that more in later blogs.

LASTLY A WORD ON GLAZING

I will come back to glazing but it is a technique used in portrait painting, floral painting etc. and essentially is layering or glazing one light application over another DRY application to build up delicate layers of pigment. you can use any of the strategies and approaches we have discussed including merging to accomplish this. take a close look at watercolor portraits and you will see  the layering. in many instances, glazers will actually add a permanent green very lightly where shadow shapes are, and then glaze over with other reds, yellows, ochres etc. again more later.

have fun painting, ron

Ron Kasprisin is a Professor Emeritus

College of Built Environments, UW, and

a Signature Member of the Northwest Watercolor Society

He lives on Whidbey Island in the Salish Sea

Okay I think I need to give more start up suggestions for the real beginners to ease your anxiety.
EQUIPMENT SET UP

place your paper in front of you, elevated brushes selected wash water container between paper and palette; this is for washing brushes during the painting process and needs to be refreshed often to avoid dirty gray water contaminating your painting; about the size of margarine container or soup bowl your palette, slightly tilted water regulator near paper (damp sponge, TP, towels, floor)

BASIC WATER/PIGMENT/PAPER PROCESS

this will vary with experience: wet brush, regulate water in brush so damp not soaking; dip in pigment gel and take gel to mixing area of palette, deposit, add water to damp brush and mix with gel in mixing area but avoid a 'swimming pool' as too diluted, try for a clinging wash mixture; go to paper and begin wash; return to wash water, cleanse brush, discharge excess water by touching to sponge or slatting (I slat: shake brush on floor or dogs if under me; or wipe on my pants (sorry mom))go to gel, then water, mix and go to paper
this is a basic way to start; after practice you may go to gel with a damp not soaked brush and go right to paper, there are many variations. start with basic. avoid filling your pigment wells with excess water as it will dilute the gel, sop up any extra water with paper towel

WASH TECHNIQUE

the idea of the wash is to work the wet, hopefully beaded, edge of the wash downward while not going up too far into the previous wash-working the edge; this takes practice, practice and practice so make a fun project out of it, be playful. you want to work fast leaving the wash to replenish your brush so the saturation levels of the previous wash and your new charge are pretty close together: thus the bead created by gravity (elevated paper)

I am providing some example exercises for your consideration. again, they will help you become familiar with the brush, learn more about the pigments and get into some basic wash techniques. Let us see if my old brain can get this app working correctly.

EXERCISE 3: COLOR WHEELS

Intent: learn about each of the color wheel families; play with making medium to dark color washes; understand how you can make numerous variations of secondary colors (green, orange, purple) and colored grays by how you mix the quantities of pigments; FOR EXAMPLE, i can mix red and yellow, two primaries, and get a red-orange, an orange, a yellow-orange, etc., try it so you can experience.

for the color wheels, i mixed three secondary versions in between each two primaries and i tried to get darker values in the pigments, the smaller inset shows a lighter version of the same colors. all examples are from my previous books on painting, out of print but maybe in used bookstores: Watercolor in Architectural Design (Reinhold NY) and Design Media (Wiley NY). i suggest circles or splotches about at least two inches in diameter. have fun.

EXERCISE 4: LAYERED OR OVERLAPPING WASHES

In example one, i did four washes overlain one another: BUT, not until each layer was completely dry. WHY? if there is dampness in the previous wash, the drier damp area of paper will grab and pull the wetter new wash application into it and create a blossom or blemish. HAH, we all do our share so dont worry it is part of the learning process and is SPEAKING TO YOU.

Okay the second example is essentially the same approach with a first graded blue wash; and at the end of the wash i simply grabbed some yellow instead of blue and charged the wash edge with it for some yellow and green ground affects. After this wash dried i then added additional layers for some detail into the tower. try this with simple shapes, on 8 x 10 or 9 x 12 paper. again, have fun with it. always keep your practices because you will look back on them and after more experience, learn more from them.

That is it for today: next newsletter i am going to introduce you to merging and mingling of pigments both on the palette and right on the paper,  technique i use for the most part. adds complexity to all washes.

have fun, ron

Okay, let us have some fun. These exercises have a number of benefits (I won't call them objectives because it is not a contest or "must-do".

Benefit 1: getting familiar with the tools (brush, water, pigment, palette, paper, etc.); YOU ARE USING YOUR SENSES TO MAKE SOMETHING, not a disconnected keyboard or program

Benefit 2: understanding how much or how little water to mix with the pigments and in what sequence (more later)

Benefit 3: learning about the pigments in each family of colors and how to make lights, medium and dark washes

that is a good starting point, AND:

I will add in two different painting approaches to the exercise.

SAFETY: do not put brushes in your mouth; even though many of the toxins have been removed from the pigments they are still chemical combinations, synthetics, and not good for your organs!

EXERCISE ONE: ARRANGING YOUR PALETTE, BRUSH CARE, PAPER ANGLE. PAPER

on your palette, hopefully with at least 12 pigment wells, arrange your colors from warmest to coolest, from yellow to dark blues (I like to separate my staining colors from the rest of the palette, either on a separate palette or in a different part of the same palette.

DO NOT stand your brushes up on their brush ends as it can bend the brush heads, place them handle down or flat on your work surface, do not leave sitting in your water brush tip down. They are not cheap.

Always paint on a surface (paper) that is elevated at least 30 degrees. WHY? to take advantage of gravity, as the gravity will pull the water in the wash downward through the paper (the steeper the angle the more the wash charge moves down the paper, wet or dry. I often paint on an easel with the paper at a steep angle and surprisingly you still have a lot of control over the wash. I suggest you begin at the 30 degree angle, by placing a large book or something at the top end of your watercolor pad or block.

EXERCISE TWO: EXPLORING YOUR COLOR FAMILIES WITH WET ON WET AND WET ON DRY APPROACHES

For each primary color (ex. aurolean yellow, cobalt blue, red madder), draw three shapes (circle, blob, tree mass, whatever) about two inches in diameter in a horizontal row twice for each color.

In the first row, paint wet on wet in each shape with the first shape a light value (more water than pigment), the second shape a medium value and the third shape a dark value. NOW HEAR ME, it is better to overdue the values then be cautious and be safe. WHY? because you wont learn how to push the pigment/water mixture enough to get real values. For example, when mixing a dark with rose madder, it is better to have almost all pigment and a little water so that you can see what too much is, rather than being save and winding up with in reality is a medium wash that you think is a dark wash.

each color in each family will behave differently, so try to do them all

REPEAT that same exercise with wet on dry, taking a charged brush (water and pigment) to dry paper and bringing your wash down inside the shape.

do this for all three families of colors over time. Be aware of how you are using the tools. some helpful guides close this exercise session out as follows:

BASIC WASH TECHNIQUE: you can smoosh your brush around anyway you want. I suggest that for these exercises you try to have only the tip plus one quarter of the brush part on the paper, dont push down hard as you can get a double wash stroke (tip and mid section touching paper)

start at the top  of shape and work back and forth or slightly at an angle and keep moving the wash down the paper until it almost dries out, then go to palette, recharge your brush and pigment and keep moving down. DO NOT GO BACK INTO A WET WASH! tWHY? the previous wash area is already drier than the new charge you are bringing back to the paper, thus charging quickly is advised, and the drier area will soak up and pull the new charged wash into it and you may get a blemish called a blossom. trust me, you will get some blemishes, ha aha ha aha. try to minimize the time between brush charges so that the previous wash and the new addition are as close as possible in water content. this take practice do dont panic.

the ending of the wash should have a bead, or water/pigment small puddle at the end so that it gives you time to recharge. if you get to the end of the wash shape, and do not absorb the remaining bead (with a drier brush or paper towel), the wash area above it, now drying, will pull the bead back up into the previous wash and you will get a blossom. good to let happen as an example.

PALETTE WORK: the mixing wells in the palette are your bank, $$$$$$$, do not let them get swamped with a lot of water as it will dilute the pigment. with your damp wet brush (experiment with how much wetness), go to the pigment well and pig up gel and take it to the mixing area and add water as needed (lots of practice here as you can have 'swimming pool' of too much water or a dry lake bed with too little, experiment and there is no failure.

i like to tilt my palette with the warmer colors up on top in order to have the mixing areas drain to the lower portion of the mixing area. also, sop up or absorb the excess mixing washes as needed in order to avoid dirty colors.

THAT IS ENOUGH, HAVE FUN. RON

I suggest you begin painting on an inexpensive watercolor pad or block (140lb.); and a block is simply glued on all edges except for one inch inorder to have the paper kept stretched tightly as water is absorved)