Contented
11/23/06 Update:
It was a cool fall dawn. The air was crisp, but it had areas of low-
lying mist. I noticed this on my drive into the office. And of course I
did not have my camera with me! So I called Rita and encouraged her to
get out and take some pics. Below are some of the pics she took that
morning!
Here's a close-up of the trees in the background:
By the way, this was the same morning that she took the pics for
"Golden Silence". From a photo reference perspective, this was a very
productive morning for Rita!
Listening to Rita discuss it, it was the play of the light against the
mist that really drew her into this scene. Plus the fall colors were
starting to break out, particularly in the grass/weeds. That morning she
made a decision to paint the scene. Six years later, that decision
became a reality.
12/02/06 Update:
Here's a 15 minute sketch of the planned piece. This was done in her
sketch pad which is approximately 5X7 inches. But it helped Rita (and now
you) to see the overall composition. Several things I want you to evaluate:
- How many groups of cows? And how many cows per group?
- Shapes of the general areas of the piece, are they interesting?
- Eye movement. Did she control the movement of your eye? What did she do
to help direct your eye throughout the piece?
These are the types of questions Rita asks herself as she begins the planning
process for a new piece. In the next several weeks, we'll be discussing these
compositional elements in future updates. But we wanted to get your creative
juices flowing! Here's the final sketch on the watercolor paper itself:
12/16/06 Update:
Rita used two colors, Windsor Blue and Cobalt Blue for the sky with a little
Payne's Gray(?) added in. Given that the sky is a basic wash, notice the color
shift from left to right, lighter blue to darker blue. If you go back and look
at the reference photo's you'll see that the sun was coming into the image from
the left side. And Rita is attempting to duplicate this look. Also note that her
sky is darker at the top of the paper and then gets lighter as you move down the
paper. The ability to achieve such smooth transitions is something that water-
colors excels at.
How did Rita apply the wash to achieve this look? By getting the paper very wet
across the top. And then she turned the piece upside down. As she applied the
paint she let gravity pull the pigment down into the corner. Once she got the look
she was after, she let it dry. If you have never done it takes a little practice
to get it right. But once you've mastered this step, it only takes a few minutes
to apply the wash to the sky.
12/30/06 Update:
In today's image, Rita has started to fill in the background tree layer. But first
she applied a yellow wash (Lemon Yellow). This wash will be the sunlight filtering
through the mist. She custom mixed her greens using Lemon Yellow, the sky blues
and Payne's Gray. And then she began to build up the tree line. Unless a tree is in
the shadow of another tree, you can see the lighter colors on the left side of the
trees where the sunlight is hitting them. And of course it's painted much darker on
right side, i.e. where the shade is. The goal at this stage was to paint as much of
the washes as necessary. Therefore, most of this was painted wet.
Compositionally, Rita was attempting to get a variety of shapes and sizes in the
tree line. Some are tall, others short, some round, others triangular. And at the
bottom of the little valley (just left of center) there are three trees standing
by themselves. This little trio of trees helps to break up the overall tree line
and add interest. Also, note how Rita created the perception of a small valley by
layering in the trees in that same area.
And finally, you will note that she has already added shadows for the various trees.
This helps to confirm the lay of the land and will help tie in the pasture area
with the trees.
01/06/07 Update:
In this image, Rita has begun, but not finished, the build-out of the pasture. And
because she took a pic at this point in time, it will make it much much easier for
all of us to see how she did it! She has used several different colors for this:
- Same colors as the background trees
- Brown Madder
- Umber
- Burnt Umber
If you were to stop by a pasture or meadow and just sit there observing the weeds
and grasses, what would you see? In the foreground, you'd see individual stems.
And in the middle ground, you'd see more textures. While in the background it's far
enough away that you can't see much more than colors. Another thing you might notice
is that the colors are darker towards the base of the plants and lighter towards the
top. But how would you paint it so that the scene has some believability? Great
question!
The primary focus for today's image, is what Rita would call the 'middle ground'.
And using a fan brush, she has painted in the texture in clumps. Notice how the
clumps of texture are in curved lines to help develop the lay of the land. The fan
brush gives the appearance of individual plants without painting them individually!
How cool is that! Ok, you might say. But this still is fairly ugly. There's lots of
white paper showing. And to make it even worse, the white is in ugly lines. In our
next update, those will disappear! And you will see how Rita ties it all together!!
01/13/07 Update:
Shape, shape, shape! Splatter, splatter, splatter! (Now hold on just a minute! If
you're going to repeat every word three times, this is going to get old, old, old
very fast!) OK, ok, ok! Enough is enough, yes, enough! Today, we're going to
discuss shape.
But before we do that, what's different in this week's image? Well, there isn't
any white paper left. The foreground has obviously been painted. Given that this is
watercolor, how did Rita do this? She used a splatter technique. Everything you see
in the foreground and pasture was painted with a splatter. Rita will use everything
from an old toothbrush to a No 4 watercolor brush to apply the splatter. It's a very
messy process, because splatters will go everywhere. She'll wet the paper, and cover
the balance of the piece with scrap paper (to protect it from the splatters). And then
she goes after it! I can always tell when she's been splattering by the 'new' motif
in her studio! The walls, desk and even her glasses will reflect these new colors!!
Exactly how does she splatter? Simply by flicking the brush. The dampness of the
paper will determine how much the splattered pigment spreads on the paper. It is
fun to watch her do this (although a little dangerous, if you don't want any on you!)!!
You can do this also, but it requires some practice, practice, practice (oops) to
learn how to control the general direction of the splatters!
In the foreground, it's fairly easy to see the same repetition of colors. But in the
pasture behind the fence, the green splatters look like a different color to me. When
I questioned Rita on this, she quipped something about it being the same green as the
trees. I said, 'No way!!'. 'Yes', she patiently explained. She went on to explain
that she added a little yellow (the same yellow as the mist) to the green and then
applied it as a soft splatter. 'Ok', I said, still not quite sure that I really
believed her answer, because my eyes were looking right at it. And it was a very
different green. She then pointed out that it was splattered over the Umber colors
(reds and browns) and that the greens were transparent allowing the umber colors
to shine through (and essentially create a color shift)! 'Ahhh' I said, indicating
that now I had figured it out (but it still looks like a different green to me!
Please don't tell Rita that I'm still clueless on this one!). To summarize then,
the colors are the same pigments applied in creative(?) ways to fool unsuspecting
eyes (like mine)! Seriously, when you see the real piece, it's not that hard to
see the same greens and how this helps to tie the whole composition together!
Compositionally, I wanted to discuss the general shape of the foreground, middle
ground and background. The reason I was repeating every word three times is to
emphasize the traingular shapes Rita used in this composition. So, the foreground
has a trangle shape, the middleground (pasture) has a triangle shape, and (at least
she's consistent) the background trees has a triangle shape! In fact, if you
compare the background trees to last week's image, you'll notice a slight change.
More trees, right! (Fortunately, these were painted with the correct green!) Rita
did this to creat a more pleasing overall shape with the background trees. Each
triangle shape is unique which helps add interest to the overall composition.
01/27/07 Update:
In this image, Rita has applied a yellow and green wash to the foreground to help
blend the foreground into the overall piece. And once she was done with that, she
was able to remove the mask, which again reveals the white paper.
In this (final?) image, you see that Rita has completed the piece. No new pigments
were introduced. But she has completed the cows themselves as well as the fence post
and the foilage around them. She also painted the shadows of the fence post. And
finally, she also inserted a large bush(?) on the far left side of the image. At
the time, she thought she was done, so she signed the piece in the lower right hand
corner. Woohoo, we're done!! Well, not really!
Compositionally, we want to discuss the cows. Yes, there are three groupings for a
total of five cows (odd numbers to be sure)! Even the placement of the three groups
reinforces the triangular shape of the foreground, middleground and background. Cool!
However, today, I want you to observe the size of the groupings. We have a Papa bear,
a mama bear and a baby bear size to each grouping (using Goldilock's vernacular)! The
point is this, the papa bear sized grouping is the focal point. That is typically
where the viewer's eye will enter into the image and generally leave when done viewing
the image. The eye then follows the fence line to the mama bear sized cow (grouping).
In continues to follow the fence and then move into the background trees. Note how the
large bush on the left side keeps the viewer's eye from leaving the image and helps
control the movement from the fenceline into the background trees. The viewer's eye
continues through the background trees and sees the baby bear cow (grouping) and moves
back down to the papa bear focal point grouping of three cows. What I'm describing is
Rita's deliberate attempt to move the viewer's eye in a circular motion throughout the
image. This eye movement can occur extremely quickly. And during the next viewing, their
eye may spend more time in different areas of the image, like the foreground where there
is lots of insteresting objects and shapes. Really cool!!
A good exercise when you go to a museum, gallery or art show is to mentally note where
your eye goes as you view different pieces of art. Did the artist do a good job of
controlling where your eye goes? Then go home and practice with your own pieces. It's
harder to do since you're more emotionally attached to your own work. How did you do?
This is a learned skill, so practice, practice, practice!
02/17/07 Update:
When Rita was painting this piece, she was attempting to complete it with the deadline
of an art show just a few days later. So this piece was matted and framed and exhibited
just as you saw it in the previous update. However, the more she looked at it, the more
she became convinced that it needed some more work. So, you guessed it! She removed it
from the frame and the mats and went after it. Here's the revised image:
If you scroll back to last week's image, you should see a dramatic change! It all started
with the yellow bush in the fence line. Her overall conclusion was that she needed more
contrast with the image and the bush just wasn't cutting it. Out came the Cadmium Yellow!
And I think you'll agree that the revised bush has more contrast (or punch)! Next she
applied a stronger yellow wash to the sky on the left side. And then she added more yellow
to the foreground to help tie the colors in. Adding the yellows, really helped to warm
up the whole composiiton.
Next she focused on the fence. She darkened the shadows side of each post and added more
grass/weeds/scrub to the base of each post. And then she darkened down the black spots of
cattle themselves. And the overall effect was more contrast to the overall composition!
One of the many challenges with watercolors is the simple fact that they dry lighter in
color than when they're wet. So the ability to go back and repair the image after it has
dried is a skill in and of itself. You have to be careful to not overwork the paper and
turn the watercolors into a muddy mess! All that to say, don't be afraid to go back and
adjust what you've done previously. The worst that can happen is you lose the piece! And
is it that much of an issue if you didn't like what it looked like before you attempted
the adjustments? After all, it's all just practice!
This concludes our how'to discussion on 'Contented'! Hope you enjoyed it! And if nothing
else stays with you, please remember to practice, practice, practice!!!