Blog

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.