TUESDAY MORNING ZOOM ART

1.  WATERCOLOR PENCILS USED:  Earth Green Yellow, Inktense Field Green, Dark Phthalo Green, Chrome  Oxide, Fuchsia, Middle Purple Pink, Light Cobalt Turquoise, Inktense Sea  Blue, Helioblue Reddish, Burnt Ochre, Inktense Dark Chocolate

Graphite Pencils: a hard pencil (2H-4H), a middle (H, or HB), and 2B.  A kneaded eraser is important here. You may also choose to use a blender such as a stomp if you want a smoother look.  

GENERAL TECHNIQUE:

1. SKETCH FORM OF TREE OR BRANCH IF CLOSE-UP
2. SKETCH EDGES OF BRANCHES, EDGES OF SNOW
3. I SUGGEST: DO A VALUE SKETCH ON SCRATCH AS A GUIDE
4. BEGIN WITH DARK VALUES, MOVING LIGHTER

        --Interior areas where no light hits are very dark 

       (NEGATIVE DRAWING under, between branches)

       --as you move into more sunlit areas both branches and 

       snow get lighter

      5. POSITIVE DRAWING

      --Contour snow

         NOTE: this is most important on close-ups

         You can’t see as much on far-off trees

        --Draw branches

      6. STEP BACK

      7. REPEAT STEPS 4-6  UNTIL HAPPY WITH IT. 

(No Class MARCH 30th) 9:30-noon 

On-Line Class Registration through DPAL

https://www.dupageartleague.org 

Ask me if you have any questions

While all flower  bouquets are beautiful, there’s something especially lovely about a  small, delicate bouquet with a single stem in a tiny vase. 

Using  a stem of alstroemeria in a little blue vase and a single branch of  flowering quince in a bud vase, I’m hoping to capture some of that  light, lovely feeling in a few small paintings.

I will demonstrate using a variety of media—watercolor paints, watercolor pencil, and ink pens.

Watercolor Paints I used (substitute with your own  as desired): Aureolin, New Gamboge, Azo Orange (or substitute New  Gamboge+Quinacridone Red), Quinacridone Red, Sap Green, Winsor Blue  Green Shade and Winsor Blue Red Shade (or substitute Phthalo Blue),  Quinacridone Pink, and Phthalo Green.

Watercolor  Pencils: Dark Chocolate, Inktense Sea Blue, Red-violet, Middle Purple  Pink, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Dark Orange, Light Green, Helioblue Red  Shade, Cadmium Yellow

I  additionally used masking fluid (but you don’t need to) in the  alstroemeria and a Micron Pen in the Quince.  I used a 005 width, but  you could easily substitute with a fatter one such as 01 or 05.  These  would just give you a more pronounced line.

Paper: I used hot pressed watercolor paper, but you could use cold press instead.

I think the most  difficult part of this painting is understanding the flowers.  They are  tightly clumped together in this little vase and it could be confusing.   In my painting I didn’t consider it all that important to portray every  petal of every flower accurately.   
To me the important thing is to  give the general sense of the flowers-- to get their overall shape and  to contour with the paint and brush (or colored pencils) so that the  flowers look three-dimensional and make sense to the viewer.  DON’T  worry if your drawing isn’t perfectly “right”.  Just give the general  idea.  

The  reason I chose this photo to paint is the lovely color contrast--the  beautiful warm yellow, orange, and red against the little blue vase.  I  also loved the cast shadow, which I thought was fun.  That’s what I  wanted to convey in the painting.  

If  that’s your goal, too, then don’t drive yourself crazy drawing the  flowers.  You can absolutely simplify the drawing and still convey that  color contrast.  You can just choose one flower, or a few.  It’s your  choice.  In case you are having problems identifying the different  flowers, since they are so close together on the stem, I marked up my  photo below.  I outlined each flower in a different color so you can see  each one—red, violet, pale blue, blue-purple, and mint green.

THIS PAINTING JUST INVOLVES A SERIES OF STEPS:

--do the drawing.  Either mask vase & flowers or avoid.

--do backgrnd washes using glazes of Aureolin, Quinacridone Red, Sap Green

--paint the blue vase&cast shadow 

 In Winsor Blue Red & Green shades, and a touch of Quinacridone Pink

--Alstroemeria and leaves

        --understand the flowers

         Paint in contour with Aureolin glaze, 

         Azo Orange, New Gamboge, and Sap Green

         --leaves with Aureolin glaze, Sap Green, 

          and possibly touch of Winsor Blue

My procedure:

After  my sketch I masked the pitcher and flowers.  I used watercolor paint in  thin washes to paint the background.  After the background dried I  painted the pitcher, cast shadow, and flowers in watercolor paint.  I  added some watercolor pencil for some details and for sparkle.  This  project could easily be done in either media alone or a combination of  the two.

PAINTING GLASS VASES

1. Paint  what you observe, not what you expect.  The shapes won’t necessarily  “make sense” because of the distortion from the reflective glass and  water.

2. Observe the shapes and the contrast of light vs. dark.

3. Observe  actual color, not what you assume.  There could be a mixture of  vegetation color, color from the surface it sits on, surrounding  objects, a pale blue from cool light, etc.

4.  “Charge” paint in each shape individually.

5. The  glass vase, which is clear, is only visible in that it reflects some of  the light that shines on it in some areas and refract some of the light  that shines through it, distorting the shapes of objects within and  outside the glass object.

6.  Paint the stems.

7. Once  shapes and stems are dry, you may want to wet the entire interior of  the vase with clear water or a very pale wash of color such as blue (or  something else depending on the interior color of the vase).  If using a  color, make the color stronger on the shadow side.

8. Diluted  cobalt blue tends to be very transparent and dilutes really well.  It’s  a choice I like.  Cerulean blue is a beautiful shade some people like,  but can be a bit opaque, which is a problem when depicting water.   Daniel Smith Cerulean Blue is more transparent and would be a good water  glaze if you prefer cerulean.

9. Once dry you can lift some highlights with a stiff brush, making sure to follow the contour shape.

10. If  you are a watercolor pencil artist you can use most of these tips.  In  terms of application techniques, I tend to “glaze” on the watercolor  pencil by wetting a brush and painting the color on the paper.