Carrasco Studio

Mysterious and Mutable...Watercolor and Water Lesson 1

Water and watercolor are a true marriage of image and media...the luscious slurp of a big brush loaded with water and pigment on a prime sheet of watercolor paper is a product of fear and delight.  Delight because it is so sensuous and fear because if you screw up you are doomed.

Your renderings of water can be smooth and sinuous as a trout slipping through a dim pool, or as turbulent as a storm on a raging sea.

Your water reflection of a "flowering pot" can glance off a shallow puddle on a concrete deck or show a choppy vision of sky and sun behind a copse of trees on the surface of a mountain stream.

Water can twist and turn a reflection into an exuberant abstract expressionist explosion or expand it into long horizontal blades in the water.

Cand P Watercolor Lesson 1  Water and Water Color

1. Lesson 1, Intro...Mitch’s lecture on May 4th! Bring a friend!

2.  Intro: class registration, badges.

3.  Pictures of  water reflections. Reflections are NOT shadows. ....think of “open mouth” shapes for curved or bent reflections. Inclusion of light and dark in rippled reflection. Slashes of light and dark, lozenges of color or broken wiggles of color...ranging from one transparent color to the next.  Length of reflection is  usually length of object, but painters often exaggerate for effect.

 Demo of laying wash.   Demo with maskoid.....let colors “bleed” into wet shapes and lines....with flat, round and rigger brushes.. See above...

4.  Old hands....  Do two washes, let dry.  Practice different brush “wiggles” on scrap paper..then do one water reflection with brilliant colors reminiscent of Venice.  Divide second paper in half, sketch in Cameron’s trees,  Then paint trees and “match” trees in a lake of reflections.Temper your greens with complements (reds) and purples and neutrals..umbers, etc.
8.  Beginners.... Tear and tape two 1/8 paper....examine different types of paper....and types of brushes.Flats, brights, rounds and riggers.  Do  2 washes ( why let  dry ?) and then do color wheel. Give out pigment listing.  Print out complement combinations under the color wheel.

Practice brush strokes with water on brown paper.  Then try some “psychedelic” reflections...remember to keep the water in your watercolor.  Try all three brushes.  For the second one, go with brightly colored reflected buildings. (Venice)

Assignment: Please read pg. 92 to 93  of Jan Hart’s book very carefully.....think how you would paint a “wild water” waterfall with lots of rocks and white water.  Remember, you get white in watercolor by leaving that part unpainted!  For those of you who missed the class, you can find many of the puzzling terms in Jan Hart's book...i.e....types of paper and brushes....color wheel and complements...washes.  Look 'em up!

And, last and perhaps least, you can easily apply the rules of watercolor to depicting water in other mediums.  For instance, a glaze of transparent green over some rocks and a sheen of sunset in a far horizon over the sheet of calm ocean water will do it for an acrylic mural and a slash or two of white glaze and some darker blue line wiggles over an opaque cobalt blue (with some subtle duck reflections) will work for an acrylic vignette.  (Remember, with transparent watercolor, you would LEAVE the white of paper showing instead of painting white.)  Quack.

©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.

Spring Glitter

Today when we got our day of sun, I went for a walk (Yes!  I can! Now!) down by the HighPoint catchment pond.  Everything was shining....the water, the new grass and the punctuation marks of bright yellow dandelions.  The grass was so sleek and so green I wanted to get down on all fours and munch it like a Holstein.

The wind was sharp and it cut tiny glittering knives in the water as it swept across its surface.  All was bright and tossing and wrinkled with lights.  And miracle of all, there is a wood duck couple who seem to have set up residence in the weeds at the pond's far end.  Of all the male ducks, Mr. Wood Duck is the most natty.  His suit of black and red and white and  his blue beak are immaculate.  His feathers are tailored to perfection and his head looks like it has been plastered down with Brilliantine.  All he needs to complete his outfit is a pair of spats.

Whenever I see such glitter and sparkle, I think of this poem by Robert Herrick.

Upon Julia's Clothes

Whenas in silks my Julia goes,

Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows

That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see

That brave vibration each way free,

O how that glittering taketh me!

           

The Light of the Moon

This lesson is actually  about sunrise or sunset, and all the wonderful cloud effects of those times of day.  I don't happen to have any sunset paintings for examples, so this nighttime view of trees against the Sound, the far Olympic Penninsula and a night sky will have to do. 

The basic techniques...top to bottom, light to dark and back to front puts the painting together.  Instead of vivid background sky, I just used a "manganese? blue, went around some star spaces which I softened later with a scrubber brush and dropped water into the moon shape so it would bleed out.  When all was dry, I started laying in the foreground...working with a light lunar black and lunar blue combination and waiting until all was dry to do the darker forground...note, that I put a little sap green in with the lunar black in the closest tree.

Lesson 3, CandP watercolor lessons 11/10/09

1. Review and look at work.   Discuss complementary colors.....Demo how they work. Review graded washes.
...re-read 86-89

3.  New students....do graded washes on 1/8 paper.  Cool color on top, warm color  on bottom, 2nd paper, vice versa .
#1. Cobalt blue or pale pthalo  on top, raw sienna on bottom. Leave some unpainted areas for clouds. and let the color blend imperceptibly toward the middle (barely any color in the middle) show examples.
#2 a pthalo blue or cobalt on bottom and a pale auroelin yellow on top. Blend imperceptibly toward the middle. 

Pick out three gourds  and  sketch them, overlapping, on a piece of bond paper which is the same FORMAT as your watercolor paper.  Think of the negative space. Show Garret’s example   Do your designing on tissue paper (quickly!) and draw hard on the back to trace VERY LIGHTlY onto your cobalt blue and raw sienna paper.  Paint the entire gourds with a medium wash of Auroelin or raw sienna yellow.  Develop the gourds step by step, always thinking of where the light hits and the shadows appear. (In this case I used a little cobalt violet (transparent) and lunar black (granulated for the shadows...)

On the #2 paper,  create some “sunset” or sunrise clouds in the yellow sky with some soft alizarin crimson and purple ( mix alizarin crimson and pthalo blue or cobalt blue  to make purple). work wet with this part, then let dry while you work on your gourds  and put in a bluish mountain range toward the bottom  (read page 88 and 89)  Work back and forth between #1 and #2

3.  Old hands.. Sunrise or sunset? You choose.   Again, demonstrate how you can match value “tabs”
 
Read all through before you start.
 Wash one entire 1/4 sheet in pale auroelin yellow

  On  a smaller piece of WC paper, do some cloud studies while you wait for the bigger sheet to dry. Do #1with an orange and greenish  sky and the setting sun behind the clouds. (see page 86 and my example ....You can substitute a light value of alizarin crimson for rose madder)

 Do #2 with daylight clouds  with the sun behind the clouds.  Pay special attention to the shapes of the clouds as they recede in space, and the color of their “ragged” edges....look at values...use your tabs. Squint damnit! 

Think about the negative space (sky) and where the light is coming from (in this case behind the clouds), and how the sky seems to lighten as it goes down to the horizon. Soften some of the edges of the clouds while the paint is wet, and be sure to keep in mind that clouds seem to "flatten" on the bottom and become more narrow as they move away from you.

For the bigger sheet covered in auroelin yellow wash.  Pg. 88-89

Think of gazing either east (sunrise) or west (sunset) through a landscape of trees and far away hills or mountains.  In both, the color would be warmer and more intense at the edge of land.  What steps would you take ( write them down if it helps) to evoke the fierce exultation of the sun rising on a cold winter morning through the bare trees?  Or, the bittersweet end of a winter day as the sun disappears behind the mountains and casts the tree skeletons into sharp relief?  Think how the long shadows cast by early or late sun can “marry” the trees and their bases to the land ( and show the curves of the land as they are cast in long bars across the ground)  Remember, shadows are TRANSPARENT and usually COOL.

Work as quickly and as emotionally as you can, using large brushes until the end.  You have the information and techniques to do this now.  Be Brave.  Be Bold.  Go to the edge of your comfort level and if the work  doesn’t turn out, you can always do something else on the back.  Try to finish in this class session.  If it ends up somewhat abstract, that’s cool.  Like the poem below, "Make big shadows"
If you have to wait for an area to dry, work on your night landscape or try some more clouds or tree shapes on your scrap paper.

And here is one of my favorite poems .......

You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Flare up like flame and make big shadows.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going.  No feeling is final.

  Marie Ranier Rilke

Assignment:  Both old and new students read pages 24 to 31

New students..........try placing some trees in front of your sunset.  And, try  finishing your gourds.  If you like, get wild and crazy with the remaining colors.  Experiment.

Old students........do another sunset or sunrise if you like....place a grove of trees in the foreground, or a reflecting lake.  How about some fiery clouds?

Homesick for summer

Sigh.  The fog and rain and brilliant leaves.   I yearn for the meadows of summer today.

Summer's Last Sigh...Watercolor class #5

There's a grove in Lincoln Park that opens up like a cathedral...the branches are gothic supports for the sky ceiling, the floor is laid with laths of green and gold,  and in the afternoon, the sun is a giant golden monstrance on an altar of leaves.

Water Color Class # 5.....

Not a lot of instruction for this class...just reminders of working from light to dark, large to small shapes, top to bottom, background to forground.  Remember, this is just a set of guidelines for traditional transparent watercolor.  With any medium, there are many different approaches. 

No pronouncements from on high from this woman.

Lesson 5.......Review and Landscape.

Look at finished assignments.....Show types of paper. Different weights and the challenges of working with each...and the hot press, cold press and rough with the different qualities...

Review....hand out “Maxims.... Value, relative size, grouping, negative space, etc.

Choose a Landscape from the photographs I brought.  Interpret it with your watercolor.  Remember, where the water ends is your horizon line.
Do a thumbnail first (show sample) of three values in pencil...light, medium and dark on the same format. (show sample)
Don’t use any color straight from the tube!

Show mine...start light...light to dark., top to bottom, small to large, etc.  Match the VALUE with whatever color you are using.

For the next class, please bring one 1/4 section of GOOD PAPER and two 1/8 sections of GOOD PAPER already taped.

Next class will be the last of this series.  Will start the next six units on October 27th....let me know if you are planning to join us.  I need ten people to make a class.

....and my Boston ivy is burning out of control on my concrete garden wall....

Light in the trees

I tried again with my sun through the late summer trees, and I'm happier with this.  I think I'll do a series of these pieces.  This is probably closer to my true self as an artist.  Not the subject, but the approach....a little messy, more emotional, more abstract. I can do the exquisite,  controlled pieces  for clients, but for this personal work  I want the feeling, not every leaf.  Transcendant yearning, awe.

"Oh how that glittering taketh me!"....Robert Herrick

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/25/09  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.

Perils of Pauline, or the challenges of painting in the woods

A lovely late summer afternoon in Lincoln Park...listening to birds singing, the high wind in the trees and the lulling wash of the waves in the beach below.  I painted for three hours and loved it....hidden in the weeds, off the beaten track.

BUT DON'T GET ME STARTED WHEN IT COMES TO THE SHEER ICKINESS AND SOMETIMES DANGER OF THE WEIRDO GUYS THAT HANG OUT AND RUIN THE OTHERWISE SERENITY AND CALM OF THESE EXPERIENCES!!!!!

Today I talked to another woman who was painting in the same area at the same time, and she had to call the cops because some creep in the bushes near her was getting off on the Highly Sexual Context of  seeing her paint images of trees on canvas. 

And some years ago, my friend Gina actually had a naked guy jump out of the bushes at her!  Fortunately, Gina is a fast runner.

OK.  I am reminded to paint with friends, carry mace and a cell and watch my back at all times.  It is a fact of this modern world.  It still makes my feminist gorge rise.

A malediction on these creeps. May their fundaments shrivel and fall off in the filth  of their own making.