Desolate Beauty
07/08/06 Update:
When we're at art shows, Rita is frequently asked if she paints plein
air (on-site), or from photo's, or from her imagination. And her answer
is an emphatic 'yes'. She does all three. However, she prefers to paint
in the studio since that gives her the most consistent results i.e. with
water evaporation. But when we're on a trip, she'll paint many many
smaller pieces plein air from the front seat of the car. In the studio,
she frequently uses photo's as her reference material. And then sometimes,
she will get a mental image and paint directly to the paper. Desolate Beauty
is one of those pieces that has no photo reference material! I'm always
amazed to see these when she's finished!! Cool!
And since this piece was only a quarter sheet of watercolor paper, she flew
through the painting! She was so absorbed and excited that she forgot to
take as many pictures. So we will attempt to walk you through this and see
the steps she took. Are you ready? Then let's go!
As you can see, based on this pic, she was well into the piece by the time
she took a break and grabbed the camera. She was having soooo much fun! In
this image, there are the following 5 steps:
1. Dawn light
2. Resist
3. Sky
4. Upper clouds
5. Lower clouds
What makes this piece a little unusual is the fact that you have a reflection
going on in the water. So when we talk about something in the sky, Rita also
had to consider the impact to the water reflection below. For her, that made
it a little more challenging and fun!
For the dawn light, Rita used two colors; Windsor Yellow and Quinacridone Coral.
Since the yellow was a wash, the paper was very wet. She applied the yellow
with a large round brush. The wet paper let the color bleed from the center to
70-80% of the paper. The center color is much more vibrant and with the wash it
faded out evenly to the edge. Rita dried the paper with her trusty hair blower.
And then she was ready to apply some red (QC) to the dawn. The process was very
similar. Except that she didn't want the reds to bleed as far, so she only applied
water to the area that she wanted it to bleed, i.e. a little of the sky and more
to the water reflection.
07/16/06 Update:
Rita then applied the resist to the light clouds in the sky. This would protect
those colors when the sky washes were applied. Once that was dry, she was ready
to apply the sky. The sky was mostly Windsor Blue with a little Payne's Gray
mixed in. With the clouds already painted in the pic, you can't see the sky as
well, but Rita got the paper wet again, on the top half for the sky and the
bottom half for the water. As she applied the pigment to the center sky, she let
it bleed to keep the color softer. And as she worked towards the corners, she
applied more paint to darken it down. The bottom corners of the water illustrate
that look.
For the dark clouds at the top, she used a stronger mix of Payne's Gray with the
Windsor Blue. The gray pigment really helped to darken down the color. Note how
she worked at creating unique and different shapes to the clouds!
For the dark clouds across the middle, it was mostly Payne's Gray, with a small
amount of Windsor Blue and red (QC). Rita worked these clouds just above the
horizon, which we'll begin discussing in our next update! So stay tuned!
8/5/06 Update:
When Rita first visualized this piece in her head, she was planning a focal point
in the lower right side of the piece. But when she saw how pretty the sunset had
turned out, she discarded the original plan and decided to make the sunset the
focal point. As I queried her on this, she shrugged her shoulders and said that
you have to let the watercolors do their thing! So flexibility is important!! And
the ability to revise the vision as you see the watercolors play out, goes a long
way in eliminating frustration with the process.
What was the original vision you ask? Well, that may become the next painting!
Then again, it may not!
Ok, back to Desolate Beauty! Here's the next image:
Rita used the following pigments for the shoreline (yes, there may have been others,
but in much smaller quantities):
- Burnt Umber
- Brown Madder
- Payne's Gray
- Quinacridone Gold
She painted in the furthest shoreline first and then added the second on the left
side. Notice how she subtly made the colors of the foreground shoreline a little
more intense. This helped to create the perception that it is closer to you, the
viewer. Also, note how she created a reflection of the shoreline.
With a dramatic piece like this, I'm drawn to the variety of shapes. Some have been
repeated, such as the left foreground and the clouds just above it. But most are
not. Rita does a nice job of creating interesting shapes in this piece. (And I'm not
biased at all!) :)
8/12/06 Update:
As I mentioned last week, as Rita saw the watercolors play out on the paper she
realized that her original 'vision' of the piece would not work. whether you
like it or not, with watercolors you get one shot to get it right. With other
media's, like oils or acrylics, you can later change your mind and readjust
the piece to fine-tune the image. With one opportunity to get it right, Rita
didn't want to ruin the piece by trying something directly on the watercolor
paper itself. But what could she do? What would you do? We'll get to the answer
in a minute....
For this piece, Rita knew she wanted something in the right middle foreground, but
she didn't want it to overpower the sunset as a focal point. Rather she wanted it
to help lead the viewer's eye into the focal point. And secondly, she wanted some
type of foilage, but she knew that if she added it there, she'd want it repeated
elsewhere in the painting. How do you solve a problem like this?
Tracing paper! That's how Rita solved this problem, with tracing paper! I'm always
amazed at the effort she will put into a piece to get it right. She began drawing
different foilage, e.g. weeds, shrubs, small trees onto the tracing paper and
finally landed on the bonsai tree shape. With the tracing paper, she could easily
move them around and determine the size and final shapes she was after. How cool
is that!
And she also knew that she wanted more rocks, but what size and shapes would work
best? Again, more tracing paper! Her initial attempts were too big and overpowered
the sunset. So she kept reducing the sizes until she got them just right. Once she
had the shapes and sized nailed down, she was ready to put the brush to the paper.
And here's the final image:
Aren't the bonsai tree's cute! And each has a different look!! But given the barren
landscape, they really look natural in this setting!
Please note that the last layers of rock and trees get increasing darker as they are
closer to you the viewer, i.e. the lower left group of three trees is almost black.
While the rocks and tree on the right still have a hint of browns. This helps to
trick the eye into seeing a 3D scene on a 2D surface.
That concludes our discussion on Desolate Beauty. If you have any questions, please
shoot Rita an email. Enjoy!