Babbles and Torrents. Watercolor Lesson 3

Thanks again to Mitch Albala and his wonderful presentation.  His book is a jewel, and he is one of the best teachers I have ever had.  For the next 4 classes, we'll do a water reflection/landscape with exercises based on some of Mitch's exercises in his book, Landscape Painting. This book is one of Watson Guptil's top sellers, and is available from that company or through Amazon.com.  I can recommend it highly, no matter what media you are using.

In case you are wondering about the "old hands" and "dudes" business,  I am just substituting the terms for beginners and experienced painters.  It gives sort of a down home bunk house flavor to my discourse.  You know....southeastern Washington wheat farmer.

Lesson 3....Waterfall

Old hands Work fast and loose this time.   Don’t be afraid of being crude and direct. ! Use only your large brush!

Mix several dark value neutrals in your wells.  No paint straight from the tube!
Alizarin and viridian or blue green.  Pthalo or manganese blue and burnt umber, auroelin yellow and purple. Manganese blue and burnt sienna.

Plan the directions of your waterfall and apply a light value of one of your neutral mixes for each side of the waterfall with only your large brush. (1)

DON’T PAINT THE WATER ITSELF....the rush of white water is your paper left untouched. (1)

Add darker values of neutrals to your rocks with only your large brush while the lighter washes are still wet. Let them float and disperse out. (2 and 3)

 

 

With PALE cobalt blue washes, use the sides of your flats to mark out the lines in the water and go behind some of the waves and foam. (4)  Slip some  of that blue glaze over the farthest area of land and rocks as well....the glaze will unify the shapes and push it back.

(4) (continued)

Go back and forth, making your rocks darker where the light doesn’t hit and where it shows  the geologic directions.  Vary your rock sizes! When your cobalt marks on the water are dry enough, go over the farthest  part of the water fall with your big brush with another Pale glaze of cobalt or a mix of cobalt and a little violet to “push” it back in space. Big brush only.


Dudes......Show how to get secondary colors from primary, then tertiary.  1+1=2   2+1=3  (breakdown)  All three make a neutral.   Complements...opposite on the color wheel

Mix colors and  finish the “daisy”  Then, out of your primaries, mix a green fish, a purple fish and an orange fish.  (Don’t get opaque...paint with water, then drop in your secondary.  Now, mix a very dark color by mixing all the primaries together.  Paint lines on your fish...give it gills and eyes and fins.  What happens if the paint is still wet?

 

Assignment:  Old hands go online and find some photos and paintings of  water and reflections....it could be with boats, land, docks, etc.  Bring one you like to class.  I will have you design a water/ marine painting for a 1/4 sheet from this
 using some of the principles from Mitch’s book.  This will be a 4 class project.

Both Dudes and Old Hands read 18-37 of Jan Hart’s book.

Still waters run deep. Taking time to calm down...reflect.

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/17/09  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission.