Brushes

Finding comfortable brushes can be frustrating. Student grade brushes do not always equate in size to professional brushes of same number. I use a WN Scepter and Scepter Gold II series professional brushes, usually nos. 16, 14, and 18 if you can find it. I like the no. 16 for big work.

Brush Sizes

Students often ask me about the brush size they need to paint? The basic answer is simple: you need a brush that can carry water or a charge! a small brush cannot carry sufficient water for a larger or even medium size wash.  they are sufficient for detail and small areas toward the end of a painting.  a quality large brush, with a good tip that comes to a point, can cover lots of area and also provide enough detail in the point to do the job. remember that student grade brushes tend to ber smaller than the same number round professional brushes. i most often use a no. 18 round professional brush and then use a no. 12 or no. 10 professional brush for detail and follow-up work.

Color Complements

Color complements are in fact color opposites on the color wheel working together. They complement one another through a principle of contrast. Simply put, a color opposite is the primary or secondary without the remaining colors: red as a primary has blue and yellow remaining, i.e. green; purple, composed of red and blue, has yellow remaining, its opposite; blue to orange (red and yellow), red to green, yellow to purple.

these complements can be successful when used in adjacency near the center of interest; or, as i discuss here, as an overall color palette.  In the first situation, i may have a yellow as a part of my center of interest. as i wash the background from top to the center, i can start with a blue in the upper portion and gradually blend it to a redish purple as it nears the yellow in the center. in the second situation, as in the example attached, i can use a simple palette of two basic colors complimenting one another. I have struggled with too much color interfering with my value patterns and overall painting. As a solution, I limit my colors to a basic few, orange and blue, in a muted fashion.  Even though there are numerous colors in the "blue" and "orange" of "Caw-cous", the overall affect is a simple color complement. If in doubt about color selection, limit your palette and focus on a complementary approach.

More Fresh Colors

Based on added interest in fresh colors, let me add a few more tips:

In addition to keeping the palette clean (remember to tip the palette) and wash water clear, and add bright or high key colors to white paper, not over other colors, let us add "layers of paint".
When i began painting, I normally had well over five or more layers of paint application because i was unsure of my approach and obviously inexperienced. In recent years, I strive to have one to three layers of wash maximum in order to have clean colors. When overpainting, remember that you run the risk of creating 'grays", a combination of all three primaries (red, yellow, and blue) or combinations such as red over green (blue and yellow) etc.  this is fine as long as the gray has good color and is desired. It becomes a problem when the grays become confused or over mixed and the gray starts trending toward "battleship gray"--no color, neutral, washed-out. so be aware of the colors that you are overpainting onto and remember that this act of glazing will produce another version of the color combination. bottom-line, try to limit the layers of color. one way i use to avoid this is to kick up my color value in first washes and not have as many weak early washes. In doing this, I focus on the center of interest and shadow shapes first. if that is working, I then can add lighter backgrounds and other supporting washes that are less critical.

Happy painting.

More color freshness

Maintaining Color Freshness

When I first began painting in the 1980s, I was frequently frustrated by a dullness in my painting. Colors were muted; lacking in brightness and energy.  Over the years, I began to learn tips from experienced painters about color freshness. In one workshop with Eric Weigardt, Ocean Park WA, Eric suggested that I tilt my palette so that the residual wash colors in the mixing areas flowed down to the bottom edge of the palette, keeping them away from the larger mixing area; and, making it easier and faster to pick up with a paper towel. The second tip, gleaned from reading Charles Reid and Skip Lawrence, is to apply the brighter mid values to white paper--make sure you reserve white paper for them as they will be muted when applied over other colors, often creating dull grays.  A third tip is to keep the residual pigment tracking from other pigment wells from accumulating on top of other colors--simply wipe off the top scum layer with a damp paper towel.  Keep painting. RK

seeking freshness

Seeking Freshness

After not painting steadily for some time, working on the new book, I found myself struggling mightily as i returned to my painting about three weeks ago. Talk about frustration: I overworked, overpainted, and ruined all of my efforts.  Why? Too determined and thinking too much.  So what to do?

And happily, I kept painting and made a breakthrough that has helped me return freshness in color and composition to my paintings.  How? I stopped drawing and painted directly onto the paper with no underlying sketch.  Wow!! What a difference as i began focusing on color and value patterns and not on shapes.

I reserved the drawing and sketching for the value and composition studies, doing numerous studies to familiarize myself and my mind with an approach. Then i proceeded to paint without any pencil guides and I in my opinion was able to break out of my mental trap.  Give it a try by just committing to do a number of quick painting sketches without pencil shapes (after a series of composition and value sketches in your sketchbook).

Approaches to painting

Approaches to Painting

Sorry I have been absent. Have been working on a new book with Routledge Press, Oxford UK, entitled "Urban Design: the composition of complexity" being released in July 2011.  If you are interested in design composition, check it out.

Back to painting. There are many approaches to painting. Years ago in a workshop with Eric Weigardt in Ocean Park, Washington, I told Eric that I had a crisis of approach, having taught watercolor for years and found myself confused as to what approach to use.  He laughed and understood and said: "start where you are the most comfortable". and of course it worked.  Some standard ways of approaching watercolor include: top to bottom; light to dark, painting shadow shapes first, starting with the darks, and starting at the center of interest.

They all work and I now find myself begining at the center of interest to see if i can initiate some drama with key contrasts. If i can then the rest of the painting is easier to resolve.  a few tips at the center of interest: the principle of contrast is a good place to start--color opposites such as a purple next to a yellow; value contrast: the more value contrasts at the center; bright and muted colors; hard and soft edge combinations. in most cases leaving strong whites at the center can draw the eye of the observer, strengthened by value contrasts.

i use merging and mixing colors on the paper a lot as i am a fan of Charles Reid in that regard. I paint differently and enjoy the freshness of merging colors on the paper, getting variety in the very first washes.

if you are a beginning painter, i suggest you approach your work by applying the lighter local colors (apple is red, sky is blue) first, dry, then work your mid values and bright mid values into the painting, dry, then key darks. remember that to achieve bright colors i need to put them on white paper, not over another color.

more later and I am back. Enjoy and keep painting.
Ron