SUNFLOWER BOUQUET

 GOAL: achieving a light painterly feel with your choice of watercolor paints or watercolor pencils.

KEY TECHNIQUES: *capturing bright color  *rich interesting darks  *painting a see-through glass jar  

MEDIA: I’ll  demonstrate with watercolor paints, watercolor pencils, or a  combination.  You can choose for your painting.  I’ll use a 2H or 4H  graphite pencil in spots, too.

BELOW  ARE THE PAINTS AND PENCILS I WILL USE IN MY DEMONSTRATIONS.  I INCLUDE  THE SWATCHES SO YOU CAN APPROXIMATE THE COLORS.  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE  YOUR OWN COMPARABLE MEDIA.

WATERCOLOR PAINTS: Aureolin,  New Gamboge, Quinacridone Gold and/or Raw Sienna, Quinacridone Red,  Quinacridone Pink, Burnt Sienna, Sepia, Cobalt Blue, French  Ultramarine.  Possible Addition: Winsor&Newton Cobalt Violet 

WATERCOLOR PENCILS: *These are all Albrecht-Durer by Faber Castell unless noted.

Cream,  Light Yellow Glaze, Cadmium Yellow Dark, Cadmium Orange, Permanent  Green Olive, Earth Green Yellow, Inktense (by Derwent) Dark Chocolate  and/or Bark,  Helioblue-Reddish, Light Ultramarine, Burnt Ochre,  Fuchsia, Middle Purple Pink

PAPER: I’ll use hot press watercolor paper so I can use plenty of water in my demonstration.

 Procedure:

--Draw using a hard pencil.

--Begin with a glaze over most of the painting in Aureolin paint OR Watercolor Pencil Light Yellow Glaze.  

--Continue with light layers of color, drying in between.

Background: watercolor  paints Cobalt Blue, Quinacridone Red and/or Quinacridone Pink,  Aureolin, Quinacridone Gold and/or Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna OR  watercolor pencils Light Ultramarine or Helioblue-Reddish, Light Yellow  Glaze and Cream, Burnt Ochre, Fuchsia and/or Middle Purple Pink

Sunflower Petals: 

    watercolor paint: Aureolin, New Gamboge, Quinacridone Gold and/or Raw Sienna, Quinacridone Red and/or Pink, Sap Green

    watercolor pencil: Cream, Light Yellow Glaze, Cadmium Yellow Dark, Earth Green Yellow, Cadmium Orange 

Sunflower Centers: 

watercolor paint: Aureolin, Burnt Sienna, Quinacridone Red and/or Pink, French Ultramarine and/or Cobalt, Sepia

   watercolor pencils: Light Yellow Glaze, Burnt Ochre, Fuchsia and/or Middle Purple Pink, Helioblue-Reddish, 

        Inktense Dark Chocolate or Bark

Leaves: watercolor paint Aureolin or watercolor pencil Light Yellow Glaze followed by 

              watercolor paint Sap Green or watercolor pencil Permanent Green Olive and Earth Green Yellow.

Jar with Water: reflect and refract colors you used in background and sunflowers such as blue, brown, yellow, and green.

               Tips: *Keep some lights (white of paper)  *reflect, refract   

                          *horizontal lines—water line, jar 

                           *vertical lines—stems, background, reflection lights

                           *angles  

                           *value

General Suggestions when painting vases with see-through glass:

PAINTING GLASS VASES  in WATERCOLOR PAINT OR WATERCOLOR PENCIL

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.  Be careful to keep  enough lights.  It’s easy to darken your value later as needed, but  harder to get the light back.  I leave the white of the paper where I  want to suggest a strong reflection on the vase.  I might also draw in  white with a permanent or watercolor pencil, which will give a somewhat  different effect.

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. I like to echo the colors I’m using throughout the painting in the vase. This helps suggest reflection.

5.  “Charge”  paint or watercolor pencil in each shape individually. If using  watercolor pencils I either glaze with a flat brush (put the watercolor  pencil directly on the brush) or draw with dry watercolor pencil in  shapes then pull with a flat brush to wet.

6. 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.

7.  Paint the stems.  Refraction will distort the stem pieces so sections seem to shoot off at odd angles.

8. 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.  This can blend the  sections and colors a bit and reinforce the contour of the vase as a  whole.     Cobalt blue watercolor paint or light ultramarine, light  cobalt turquoise, or sky watercolor pencil are options if you choose to  unify with diluted blue. 

Here’s a quick review of Week 1:

I based the drawing closely on the photo, but simplified things a bit.

We  focused on primary colors in glazes.  If you use watercolor pencils you  can either glaze or color with a dry pencil then add water.  

    *Background and cast shadows-- I used all the primaries in glazes, drying in between each.

    *Flowers--I used only yellow.

    *Sepals, Leaves-- I used a light yellow glaze.  Later I added a bit of green.

    *Vase--I added a touch of yellow but left LOTS of the paper white.  

I  love the brightly colored dragonfly as he alights on a stem in a photo  by Gerald DeBoer.  I had a request for a dragonfly class and thought  this would be a fun photo to use.  My demonstration will focus on  capturing the bright color of his body as well as the intricately veined  wings.  Choose watercolor paints or watercolor pencils for this  demonstration.  I will also show how you might supplement your water  media with an ink pen or pencil.

DRAGONFLY PROCEDURE and MEDIA

I painted this dragonfly in 3 distinctive steps.  

PROCEDURE:  *Draw the dragonfly and the branch       *paint the background, avoiding the dragonfly    *paint the dragonfly

You  can paint the background using your choice of media.  I will discuss  and demo a background using watercolor paint, watercolor pencil, and  I’ll introduce another option—

Neocolor II Water-soluble wax pastels by Caran d’Ache.  

Media  option suggestions for the background.  Pick one of the following or  choose your own idea, such as liquid inks, working on tinted paper,  whatever creative thought you have!

NEOCOLOR II Water-soluble wax pastels by Caran d’Ache Ochre, Golden Cadmium Yellow, Russet 

WATERCOLOR PAINTS  Raw Sienna or Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Red, Aureolin, New Gamboge, and Burnt Sienna

WATERCOLOR PENCILS Cream, Cadmium Orange, Burnt Ochre

Dragonfly media

Dry  media for wing veins: micron pen with a thin point (such as 005 to 05)  or verithin permanent colored pencil dark umber with touches of  watercolor pencil Inktense Bark 

Watercolor Paint: Winsor Blue Green Shade, Aureolin, Phthalo Green

Watercolor Pencil: Light Cobalt Turquoise, Light Green,  helioblue reddish and/or light ultramarine and/or Inktense Iris 

Other Optional Accent Colors

Watercolor Paint: Quinacridone Pink, Cobalt Violet

Watercolor Pencil: Fuchsia, Middle Purple Pink

 This is a photo I  took of a Western Pondhawk dragonfly, which had died.  I include it so  you can more easily see the veins than you can on our photo reference,  which is a photo taken midflight at an angle.  Remember, you needn’t  copy the veins exactly, or to draw every vein.  I just thought it might  help to show you the veins more clearly as you attempt to suggest the  way they go in your painting. 

A  photo by M. Schaefer is the basis for my Grebe demonstration.  The idea  for this class is based on a few requests I’ve had for painting birds  in water.  

This  photo includes several elements, so I will take 3 weeks with my  demonstrations to cover multiple topics.  These include how we might  capture the color and texture of the grebes, reflections in water,  depicting the nest, and background of the grasses.  

If  this looks intimidating to you please know I will try to walk us  through each element with lots of time for questions and for you to  practice.  

I  will demonstrate using watercolor paint with supplemental watercolor  pencils in a larger painting of the full photo.  I will also demonstrate  using one of the ducks on Stonehenge tinted paper for a very different  look.  

PAPERS   Watercolor Hot Press paper or Stonehenge tinted paper.  The color I used is Fawn.

Full Painting on Hot Press Watercolor Paper

MEDIA  choice of watercolor paint, watercolor pencil, with the addition of 2H pencil.

                Watercolor paint: Aureolin, Raw Sienna or substitute Quinacridone Gold,  Burnt Sienna, Light Red, Scarlet Lake, Sap Green, Sepia possibly touches of Cobalt Blue 

 And/or Watercolor pencil:Cream, Light Yellow Glaze, Light Green and/or Earth Green Yellow, Scarlet, Venetian Red and/or  Derwent Watercolor Pencil in Chocolate, Inktense Dark Chocolate and Bark

               I added a few permanent colored pencils: Permanent Colored Pencil White and Verithin Dark Brown or 2H Graphite pencil as an accent.  

Drawing/Painting of Grebe on Stonehenge tinted paper.  I used fawn but you can choose any color you want. 

MEDIA  Watercolor Pencils: Cream, Light Yellow Glaze, Burnt Ochre, Derwent  Watercolor Pencil Chocolate, Permanent Green Olive, Venetian Red,  Inktense Baked Earth, Scarlet Red, Inkense Dark Chocolate and Bark

Permanent Colored Pencil White and possibly 2H Graphite Pencil

PAPERS   Watercolor Hot Press paper or Stonehenge tinted paper.  The color I used is Fawn.

Full Painting on Hot Press Watercolor Paper

MEDIA  choice of watercolor paint, watercolor pencil, with the addition of 2H pencil.

                Watercolor paint: Aureolin, Raw Sienna or substitute Quinacridone Gold,  Burnt Sienna, Light Red, Scarlet Lake, Sap Green, Sepia possibly touches of Cobalt Blue 

 And/or Watercolor pencil:Cream, Light Yellow Glaze, Light Green and/or Earth Green Yellow, Scarlet, Venetian Red and/or  Derwent Watercolor Pencil in Chocolate, Inktense Dark Chocolate and Bark

               I added a few permanent colored pencils: Permanent Colored Pencil White and Verithin Dark Brown or 2H Graphite pencil as an accent.  

Drawing/Painting of Grebe on Stonehenge tinted paper.  I used fawn but you can choose any color you want. 

MEDIA  Watercolor Pencils: Cream, Light Yellow Glaze, Burnt Ochre, Derwent  Watercolor Pencil Chocolate, Permanent Green Olive, Venetian Red,  Inktense Baked Earth, Scarlet Red, Inkense Dark Chocolate and Bark

Permanent Colored Pencil White and possibly 2H Graphite Pencil