More Free Style

Okay, this week i will again go back to a free style approach with no underlying pencil lines as guides. the idea is to study in small sketches the composition and value, imprint that in my mind and then go to the painting excercise and paint. this requires a different approach mentally as i have no guides and hopefully will produce a series of more expressive paintings. ron k

Hi gang, it has been awhile and have been very busy with projects. Back to painting. Did finish as series on bald eagles that i found challenging. I did five in series and the last one was the most successful in my mind due to the composition, gradation of value, and stronger value pattern. kept the colors a bit subdued. will start another series this weekend and will have on line next week. will try to upload the last one that i liked. strong elements include the movement of the various eagles down to the lower center of interest as well as the build up of value from light to mid to dark at the center. more later ron k

A Gathering of Eagles--focus

Focusing on a Topic

Hi Folks, sorry for the delay been busy with lots of tsunami related work up and down Washington coast and working with great tribes of northwest: Quinault, Makah, Quileute, great people.

This blog is about the advantages of pursuing a topic for sometime and doing study and paintings in clusters. I found that as i did painting after painting about a certain topic, i began learning how to address the composition and techniques and also gained insight on how to approach the subject and add drama. years ago i took lessons from James Godwin Scott of St. Louis and James emphasized the value in staying with a topic such as waterfralls or farm settings for an extended period of time to learn their nature and improve your painting approaches.

i have recently been painting a series on bald eagles (image attached) and am learning more and more as i do each one. i am now working on two more that seek to increase the drama in the composition as well as the intensity of colors as i think the early ones are fine and a bit less intensive. more later. ron

A Review

A Review
If you have not been able to go back to the beginning of the blog for instructional guidance, here is an overall review to help you get some perspective on watercolor painting. Remember, there are many ways to approach painting so the following represents my approach, generally based on a direct method of painting (wet on dry) or wet charged brush onto dry paper. I also paint on hot press paper.

 

1. selection of image (field sketches, photographs, still life, etc.)
2. design of composition (small 2x4 or 3x5 sketches to examine and explore composition, keeping in mind value patterns; remember in every photo there are many compositions so just dont rely on photo
3. center of interest and value patterns: with one or more compositions, begin exploring where to put the center of interest and how to dramatize that center with combinations of light and dark--we tend to use five values from light to dark--1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0; as a guide, the most value differences or contrasts occur in and around the center of interest with the background and supporting areas having less value contrast (they still have color variation)
4. sketch out work on watercolor paper: this varies from small gestural or movement sketches by some artists, including no pencil sketch to detailed pencil drawings. I favor less than more as the more sketched shapes there are the more likely I am to get too detailed and fussy; on the other hand, many artists who use detailed pencil sketches may leave many pencil lines in the final to assist in shape definition.
5. selecting color: i like to limit my palette and select a family of primaries according to the mood I am after: muted and subdued for opaque palette (cad red, yellow ochre, cerulean blue); and brighter more intense families for brighter moods (delicate and intense palettes: azo, cobalt, rose madder and pthalos, respectively); too many colors can ruin the painting and be confusing when applying. I like to work toward an overall temperature dominance and a color compliment or opposite relationship.
6. remember to tilt the paper at least 30 degress to enable water to be affected by gravity
7. tilt your palette to help keep muddiness away from mixing areas

 

Beginning the painting

1. there is no one place to begin a painting: begin where you are most comfortable and likely places include the conventional top to bottom in light washes; at the center of interest (my preference); shape cluster by shape cluster (background, midground, foreground)--not my recommendation; at the edge and working in toward the center of interest, making immediate connections to edge of frame and center of interest.
2. if i begin at the top and begin working down, i work in lighter values with lots of color change (local color) and do not worry about edges--as a matter of fact, i make most edges in this approach soft or blurred; then after drying, i begin to work at the center of interest, increasing value and brightness and hard and defined edges; finishing with key darks
3. if i am beginning at the center of interest, i often begin with my brighter more intense mid values and darks, leaving the lighter values for background and support
4. remember: most watercolors go through an "ugly" phase until the darks are put in to help define the center of interest and structure of painting.
5. make sure you vary the edge conditions: lost and found or soft and hard where the hard is often backlit or high light contrast.

more later ron

More Strategy

More Strategies.
I enjoy evaluating an image or possible scene to paint, whether sitting outside with sketchbook (preferred) or in the studio with sketches and photographs (often necessary). I begin by asking myself how can i increase or create a sense of drama? I do not simply want to render or represent the image or scene for a couple of reasons: I want to engage painting a composition that has life and vitality; and, i want the viewer to experience a sense of drama and stimulation from the painting--all enhanced by the way the composition, value and color go together.

I have been told by local gallery owners that I "should" paint images that are local as they sell better to visitors. Nope. I need to be engrossed in what I am painting and select images that have a sensual orgaic nature to them: old trucks, motorcycle riders (real characters, many), decrepit buildings, etc. so the first characteristic that i look for is sensuality from my perspective. this can mean very different things to different people.

Sensuality. For me, the objects I am looking at or researching have a story to be told, whether it be a personality to be emphasized and dramatized or a mood. there is some nature of the emerging composition that wants to say something.

The next step for me is the exploration of composition in conjunction with a center of interest or focal area.

Composition and Center of Interest. These go hand in hand. A composition without a center of interest is a mono-view where everything is equal in the eyes of the viewer and can be confusing and vague. Adding a center of interest sharpens, highlights and focuses the emphasis in a composition. this establishes an "aha" emphasis supported by the rest of the composition. I do many small sketches in my sketchbook to explore composition. for me this is a process of discovery through exploration not a predetermined outcome that i then polish or finalize. Big difference. At times, I will change the composition because the center or focal area is not working or not strong enough as a strategy for painting.  and these are all critical for the value exploration that we have discussed in the past blogs. VALUE structures the composition, eliminating the mono-view and increasing drama through light to dark hierarchial shapes.

More later. ron k

I just read an article in American Artist, May 2011 by John A. Parks on "The Teachings of Charles Webster Hawthorne" (1872-1930), renowned teacher and founder of the Cape Cod School of Art. Parks quotes Charles Hawthorne, "Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision--it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so."  Wow. This is more than painting the flower the way it looks, painting the barn just as it is...the task is to seek ways to bring the objects to life, to make those objects a part of their surronding, to bring out the drama in their composition.  this is why I emphasize the act of play-work in developing a strategy for your vision. this is not a formula, nor a hard-in-concrete paint by numbers exercise. the strategy for a vision provides the painter with a direction, as aspiration not a goal. Once you begin painting, the water--the medium carrying the pigment--will come into play: being pulled by gravity, soaking into the paper fiber, evaporating quickly or slowly depending upon the temperature, and moving! and as the painter engages this fascinating physics, the strategy becomes a dance with the medium, changing and challenging and the strategy assists in maintaining the overall principles of the vision. Challenging stuff!

I have watched master painters like Eric Weigardt, in an hour demonstration, get to a point where the painting changes direction from where Eric may have aspired..and he danced with that change, resulting in a dramaatic outcome that still held aspects of the original vision and now contained new and creative adjustments.

keep painting. ron k

painting strategies

Hi folks: has been a very busy month and trying to get into my painting again. This post discusses how I approach a painting; how I develop a strategy to use as a guide to work with composition, values and color.

I will do this in parts as I have limited time today. I have been going through lots of photographs collected over the years looking for a direction and category for a set of new paintings. This is the first hurdle for me as I need to be stimulated by the topic as well as the painting challenge. I have settled on three areas of interest: rural northwest towns (with old trucks); old railroad cars; and, maritime scenes of working ships.

As I begin, I look for strong compositional views from a set of photographs, seeking the most drama with the basic shapes (triangulated gables, etc.). I follow this with a study on the shadow shapes either existing or imagined that can further dramatize the strong shapes in the composition. once that is accomplished through a series of 2 x 3 or 3 x 5 inch pentel sign pen sketches, I begin to look at simple colors and color complements. I have mentioned before that i certainly get myself in trouble when i use too many colors in a painting so i try to limit.

Okay that is a start and i will come back to this today or tomorrow. ron k