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A common approach to depicting pilings and stanchions, as well as trees, is to paint them all the same dark value and color. Look carefully at the actual scene and you will see that there are lighter areas of the logs and darker shadow areas, as well as a variety of colors due to shadows, moss, and bleached surfaces.
In this painting of a dock outside my room here in Eastpoint, Florida, I was drawn to the pelicans roosting on a neighboring dock. The variety of colors and values were especially attractive to me.
Basically it was a three color study: cobalt blue, yellow ochre and burnt sienna with a bit of black thrown in. Staying with three colors has its advantages, the primary one being unity of color.
Gradation of values and changing colors will keep the pilings from being boring. Also, pay attention to the intervals between the verticals in the structure. It looks like a fairly simple study until you take into consideration these factors.
When you want a soft edge, painting wet-into-wet works well. What never occurred to me was that once your first wash is completely dry, you can still achieve a soft edge by glazing wet-into-wet.
In this painting of rocks at Boothbay Shores, I painted the colors of the rocks and the beach first. When completely dry, I lightly re-wet the areas that I wanted to paint in the shadows. Be careful not to brush hard and disturb the paint underneath. Then, while completely saturated with clear water, brush in the glaze. Don't apply paint up to the wetted area or you'll get a hard edge.
This technique would also work well with shadows on trees where you want a soft edge. Paint the local color of the lighted area of the trunk, let it dry completely, re-wet the areas where you want the shadows, then drop in the paint. Be sure to make it dark enough, too.
Many years ago, I hand painted my Christmas cards for friends and family. I used an eighth of a sheet and folded it in half. Then I taped one half of the folded card to a board, making for a crisp white border. Paint was applied quickly with very little mixing on the palette. Here are some results.
Merry Christmas!
In my ongoing series of rocks on the beach, the problem of creating a sense of distance was solved by the use of gradation. On the beach, dark to light values kept the area receding. The rocks on the right were painted lighter and lighter as they overlapped. And within each rock, the values gradated from the top down to where the spray from the breaking waves softened them. In the sky, the values gradated from a light midtone near the breaking surf upward to the distant sky. Not including a horizon line kept the attention on the focal area.
I also used gradation of color. The warm central rock overlapped the next rock which included some blue, the next three rocks got progressively bluer as well as less textured.
Gradation exercises can be found in most instruction books. Just remember to employ the technique where it's needed.
Bay of Fundy Rocks
In this scene of some famous rocks in New Brunswick, Canada, I wanted to portray the solidity of the rocks and the softness of the beach and the water. The hard edges of the rocks are contrasted with the soft edges of their reflections on the wet sand. Painting wet-into-wet requires a certain amount of courage. The tendency of the beginner is to come back tentatively with too much more water and not enough pigment. Load your brush up with lots of moist pigment and make your strokes confidently.
First, I painted the lightest values of the sand. When it was completely dry, I re-wet the area and flooded it with pigment. A quick hit with even darker values created the reflections. And last, I took a dry brush and reclaimed the horizontal plane of the beach by dragging it through the wet reflections.
I liked the different sizes and shapes of these rocks. The stark contrast of the values with the sky and the surf emphasized the solidity of the pillars.
I usually paint half sheets (15" X 22"), but sometimes to force myself to paint simpler shapes, I pair it down to a quarter sheet or even an eighth of a sheet. It compels me to paint faster with purer colors. Here are some results.
I forgot to post this painting of a cliff in New Brunswick, Canada near the village of Alma. It was sunny but cold and windy that day. I had to hold onto my easel with one hand and paint with the other. Unfortunately my third hand wasn't available and the lid to my palette blew off the easel and down the parking lot about fifty feet. Ah, the hazards and challenges of plein air painting!
The juxtaposition of lights and darks creates drama. However, putting down the first dark values on white paper rarely makes for the darkest darks.
In this painting of a small lighthouse in New Brunswick, Canada, I put down the sky first. I thought it was really dark. But then I put down the background trees, and that glaze was even darker. Finally, the dark shadows on the lighthouse itself were even darker next to the white of the paper.
Dark values are very useful in projecting the lightest values. Glazing helps.
I've been re-adjusting to life in St. Louis, and have barely had time to think about painting. But here's one I did based on a photo taken in New Brunswick, Canada of a lighthouse at Cape Enrage.
For a subject like this one, strong color would not be appropriate for the mood I wanted to convey. I had to depend upon values to project the moonlit Bay of Fundy.
Mixing darks takes LOTS of pigment. Do NOT skimp on paint when portraying dark values. I mixed the darks on the paper to avoid a flat black. I glazed over an underpainting of green because moonlight has a green essence. Violet is a warm counterpoint to the green, so I also applied that pigment to the dark area of the cliffside. I also softened the circle depicting the moon to imply a misty feel to the scene.
Inventive color is fun to play with, but it must be used to transmit a mood. Neutrals are best to convey a more somber mood.
You would think that after driving for hours that the last thing I would want to do is paint. But after a summer of painting, I've always got my eye out for a new scene, a new vista, new subject matter. This is a scene in Lenox, Massachusetts. I liked the dome on the town hall and the ever present civil war monument.
My car is packed to the gunnels, but I placed my easel, board and paper on top of suitcases and other stuff for easy access just in case. I also carry my sketchbook with me everywhere.
If the purpose of travel is to experience new sights and sounds, painting is a perfect way to express the feelings about the things that appeal to you. Keep those brushes handy!
The dominant blues in this painting are contrasted by the smaller areas of orange. Dominant cools next to warmer colors. Small lights encircled by larger darks surrounded by midtones. Large wet-into-wet soft areas versus harder edges and lacy textures. These are not accidental. Consider the elements and principles before and while you paint.
The previous post featured a sketch of the cove in front of my cottage. Translating that into a painting can be daunting.
I decided to limit the palette to dulled reds and greens surrounded by neutrals. Too many colors can destroy unity, so I restricted the color choices and concentrated on values.
Also I used a lot of wet-into-wet for the background foliage so your eyes focus on the large tree and the rocks in the foreground. Wetting the whole area makes dropping in the colors easier.
When I return home, I can try this again with more vibrant, purer colors.
Verticals are stately, horizontals are restful, and obliques create tension and energy.
When verticals or horizontals are dominant, I always look for ways to incorporate the relief of some obliques.
Obliques can also act as pointers.
Here is a sketch of the cove out my front door. Look for the obliques which provide relief, creating interest around the focal point.
Here's the painting I did from one of the sketches. I had thought it was going to be a sunny scene, but the past two days have been foggy, and I just couldn't force a sunny day in the painting.
I'll wait for a brighter day to paint the second scene.
A couple more sketches/value studies. These were both created from my dock. In the next few days I'll turn these into paintings.
Drawing, sketching, thumbnails, value studies. There is some confusion among aspiring artists about these terms.
Drawing concerns itself with outlines, contours.
Sketching is a looser, rough, unfinished drawing.
Sketch
Thumbnails are always small and mostly focused on placement of shapes and values.
Value Studies can contain several of these elements.
Value Study
All these preparations work well in the planning of your painting.
I painted yesterday with the plein air painters of Maine at Cozy Harbor. I haven't done a full sheet all summer, but thought I'd try it. The problem is not the painting any more; the problem is the framing afterwards.
Framing a full sheet is expensive, making the shipping also expensive. The advantage is that most of the national shows respect the ability of painters to paint large. It's a gamble.
Still, I want to challenge myself, so I went for it. The whole concept of painting in bright colors is my focus this summer. I wanted to apply it to a larger painting just to see if I could.
Pushing the limits is the challenge, and I have not shied away from it this year. Push yourself, and enjoy the results!
Making literal and accurate statements are less and less important to me. Design is more important to me than reporting a scene the way it is. Color is a dominant concern more so than details that are objects.
Today I went painting with two friends at one of my favorite spots in Boothbay Harbor. I was more interested in creating shapes with interesting colors.
I began with a wet-into-wet underpainting. Then I chose the elements of the scene that most represented my response to the scene. A vignette came to mind after that. I like to keep the values in the midtone range and feather them out at the edges.
One thing that became evident to me when looking at the efforts of my painting companions was the hesitancy to go really dark with the values around the middle of the focal points. Using lots of pigment in the central part of the painting is crucial to forcing the viewer's attention to the area of interest. Refrain from placing darks and lights near the outside edges of the paper. Putting down darks near the focal point and gradating outward will keep the eye focused around the center of interest.
Yesterday the surf was up, and I was determined to paint it. I went to Boothbay Shores where I knew the surf would be good.
The problem is always not to have a preconceived idea about what your subject will look like. I had thought that I would depict the waves crashing against the rocks. But when I arrived on location, the rocks didn't really appeal to me. I also thought there wouldn't be enough interest.
While I was thinking about the possibilities, a lobster boat with its stabilizer sail set came by to haul traps. Forget the rocks! I just needed the conflict of the boat and the rough sea.
One year at the same spot, I was pondering what to paint when a woman came by walking her dog. As we were talking, a flock of geese flew by overhead. Then I had my scene! Lady, dog, path, and geese.
So my suggestion is when you're not sure what to paint while on location, wait for something to happen, and let that inspire you.
I went painting down in the Harbor today. I've always loved painting boats, but I try to be selective and resist including every boat in the Harbor. And this summer, I also try using color in an inventive way rather than an "accurate" colorful portrayal of the scene. I had so much fun mixing colors on the paper with new colors. And that is the new goal of my approach to painting!
This past weekend, my friend Jan Kilburn held an event called Artists on the Lawn. First, working from a sketch, I did a painting of a couple of boats in the moonlight. Then I painted some flowers in Jan's garden. But finally, I decided to improvise one of my dock scenes. I painted the underpainting first, and then proceeded to invent elements of a typical working dock. The only object that wasn't a normal part of the waterfront was a bell that accidentally developed during the underpainting. I attributed that to whimsy.
This painting became a statement about color more than subject matter. Mingling colors on a saturated sheet of paper is a fun, inventive way to paint and is the equivalent of musical improvisation, a jazzy, playful event.
Poppies in June, Day Lilies in July, Queen Anne's Lace in August, and now Shasta Daisies.
While composing this painting, I was aware of grouping and odd numbers as well as placing the daisies on the thirds. Three daisies against one. Also three muted Queen Anne's Lace to break up the background.
The darkest values were placed around the daisies and gradated as they recede to the edges of the page.
Also, study the colors. The painting is dominated by cool colors with touches of reds and violets. Again I mixed the greens on the paper.
And last: The title. "Hey, boys. Look at Her!"
Hendrick's Head Lighthouse has been a favorite subject for me over the years. After a while, though, any subject can become an exercise in repetitive and trite expression. But in this, my summer of color, I am expanding my choices of colors to include hues that are more inventive and less literal.
I used masking tape to protect the white areas of the lighthouse and the structures on the bell tower.
I chose to make the sky and the water areas warm in color, while contrasting them with the more neutral colors on the rocks.
Once again the wet-into-wet blending of colors was the fun part of the first wash, both in the sky, the water and then the rocks. In the past, I would have been timid about the values and the colors, but this summer, everything goes!
The background color of the actual scene was green. Instead I decided to enliven the background with other colors. First, I chose a turquoise green for the sky so that the blue of the trees wouldn't repeat the same color. Once I decided on the blue, I went to the orange as its complement. Then I transitioned to warm reds and then violets. It was all about gradation of colors while moving around the background. I stayed with the same four colors for most of the painting.
Once the blue was there, I put the complement of orange on the mailboxes and changed over to blue again.
I was then left with the white of the paper. I decided to put down some neutral grays in those areas.
My point is, have a rational idea about color choices.
Employ a lot of wet-in-wet soft backgrounds. It's rather like throwing your photo into depth of field and soft focus to keep your eye in the foreground. It also keeps your eye coming back to the areas of harder edges.
Driving to town today, I passed this little scene with a couple of mailboxes. I have been looking for a
way to incorporate some Queen Anne's Lace into a painting, and so I was focused on finding a setting for them.
Two subjects: Mailboxes and Queen Anne's lace. The supports and the background became a way to highlight the focal point and the subjects. I needed to use values to make the subjects to stand out.
Finally, I did the value/composition sketch. I can't say it often enough; do a preliminary sketch so that the hard work is done ahead of the painting process. You'll have enough to do while painting without having to decide on placement of shapes and values.
Once in a while I like to create my own scenes. This one consists of elements of a typical lobster shack: lobster trap, barrels, picnic area, sign, boat, and buoys.
To lead the eye around the painting, I concentrated on interesting shapes, light values, and broken lines.
Follow the light shape on the beach to the boat which points to the couple under the umbrella. It also connects to the light on the building.
Straight, unbroken lines become monotonous. Study the dark line along the bottom of the building, and you'll see that it is broken by the legs of the couple, the protrusion of the bow of the boat, the lobster trap, the barrel, and the crates. The umbrella breaks the line of the roof.
Most of the colors are neutrals, making the warm, pure red umbrella an immediate focal point, highlighting the figures as well. The red is repeated in more neutral hues on the sign and the high-flying lobster.
Consciously design the elements of your painting to circulate the eye. Keep most of the textures around the focal point, and relegate the softer textures to the edges and corners of the paper.
Yesterday, the Plein Air Painters of Maine (PAPME) painted at Shipbuilders Park in East Boothbay. Not wanting to miss the comraderie of painting with my friends, I decided to go despite not wanting to paint at that location. Instead, I brought the drawing of the birch tree and the day lily. My friends were intrigued, because they said I was basically painting from memory.
But the memory wasn't just of the actual tree and day lily. The memory I was working from was the sketch I did of the scene. A preliminary look at the object you want to paint involves doing a study that requires a detailed observation. It also makes the painting procedure easier because you have already studied the shapes and made the compositional decisions ahead of time.
Study, compose, remember.
It's mandatory that an artist pay attention to what attracts his or her attention. I've passed by this old birch tree on the edge of our cove for years, but the other day the sun was doing its magic, and I really saw it for the first time. Maybe it was the appearance of a single day lily next to it, but the textures of the peeling birch bark and the contrast of the colorful, soft flower were so mesmerizing that I had to attempt it. Luck and concentration to all of us painters!
This is the Fisherman's Memorial in front of the Catholic Church on the eastside of Boothbay Harbor. To keep your eye on the subject matter, I decided to make the church a silhouette without much attention to the architectural details. The darker silhouette of the old dory stands out against that lighter shape of the church.
I would encourage you to think about simplifying shapes and reducing textures in background shapes.
And interesting shape doesn't require much texture or detail if the shape is well defined. Keep your eye on the focal point by eliminating texture and details in areas that are secondary to the primary shape.
The summer of color continues. I'm really enjoying the process of painting, especially the first washes where the colors mingle on the page instead of being mixed on the palette.
Compositional notes: Take care when composing roads or paths. Try to avoid having leading lines go exactly to the corner of the page. Use gradation of values to keep eye away from corners. Use objects that protrude (like the sailboat) to break up lines.
It was a foggy morning at Hendrick's Head Beach today. It was so foggy that you couldn't even see the lighthouse. Realism would demand a gray and white color scheme, but I hadn't painted in a week and was feeling quite happy to be painting with my friends, so I chose a wild and vibrant palette. Again, my motto for the summer is, Life's too short for boring colors.
My approach was to wet the whole sky area with two applications of clear water. Then I quickly went into the shape with a turquoise, wild fuschia, orange, and yellow ochre. While it was still saturated and the colors were running, I turned the board sideways to let the colors mingle in another direction. I used the same approach on the beach and the water. When developing the rocks and trees, I re-wet the area to be painted so the paint would again mingle on the page.
The purpose of the sun-like orb was to break up the sky shape. I chose the brightest turquoise green to depict the shirt on the figure to contrast the reddish color on the beach and the rock behind him to gain maximum impact in that secondary subject.
Try wetting the big shapes and then flooding them with colors. Don't brush them back and forth. One stroke in an area will allow the paint to run together and avoid creating 'mud'.
A common mistake I see in students' work is trying to depict every leaf and every blade of grass. By doing that, textures start to take over and the focal point can be lost. Rather I try to find the big planes and shapes in foliage. I also find that in the front of the tree shapes warmer colors prevail, and as the clumps of leaves recede, I make them paler and cooler. In the foreground grass area, I suggest the textures at the edges rather than making stripes of each blade. This way, the eye has a place to rest. Whisper the grassy areas; don't shout them to the detriment of the more important shapes in the painting.
I painted the sky shape wet-into-wet with a couple of color changes. The tree trunks were my focal point and rather than painting them a uniform gray or brown, I painted them wet-into-wet as well, making lots of color changes
along the way. The two sailboats are there to break the horizontal line of the horizon and stop the eye from wandering off the page.
Big flat washes, painted wet-into-wet, textures around the focal point, and clumps of foliage rather than a lot of unconnected dots to represent the leaves. Non textured sky, sea and foreground grass in sunlight keeps the color and values around the trunks interesting.
Please like if you find these tips helpful!
This summer my motto is going to be: "Life's too short for boring colors."
I've painted this scene fifty times, mostly in traditional landscape colors. But after this winter I decided to get bolder in my use of colors. I've sent away for some new paints, all colors that I've never used before. I'm going to try to experiment with big, bold colors. Paint Happy!
I spent my 4th of July morning painting at Boothbay Shores. This is the causeway out to Ocean Island. The stone gate is iconic and makes the scene instantly recognizable.
I positioned my easel so that the rocky beach was prominent. The driveway leads the viewer's eye out to the woody island. The dark values and the dark midtones take your gaze from the foreground up to the island, and then off to the left where the dark rocks are silhouetted against the sea. This forms a classic "Z" technique. Coincidentally, the gate breaks the more or less straight lines along the driveway and then interrupts the line of rocks. Once you follow the line of darks, the bushes on the left stop your eye and lead you back to the gate.
This "Z" technique can also be used with light shapes as well.
A final note: The pink tone on the roadway is echoed in the light rocks in the distance. So the pink tone also forms a secondary "Z". The pinks in the tree shape on the island break up the greens which could become unrelenting without the complementary color.
I did this painting from my dock here in Maine last summer. This was the image that I called up all winter when things got rough. It is now on display at the Boothbay Region Art Foundation.
Local color is always a problem for me, especially isolated greens. I often solve the obstacle by limiting my palette, in this case yellow ochre, burnt sienna and black, often referred to as the Velasquez palette. Choose a few related colors from either the warm or cool side of your palette, and then concentrate on the values.
(There are a few more weeks left for you to sign up for my annual Boothbay Harbor Workshop, September 4th - 8th. Email me at caroljessen@yahoo.com )
One of the hardest things to encourage my students to do is to go dark enough in the shadows. Using the same paints as in the midtones of the painting, just eliminate most of the water so that the paint is not watered down which lightens the values.
Dark values create the feeling of sunlight. Practice on the back of some old failed paintings to see how dark you can go with two colors combined. Be brave!
I must admit, many flower paintings leave me impressed by their technical accuracy and technique, but as portraits they don't reach me. I rarely paint them myself. But today when I was down at Ocean Point, I rounded a sharp curve and looked at the house I had just painted. The poppies were close to the road and were set off by the dark silhouette of the house. It nearly brought tears it was so lovely. I snapped a quick photo and after lunch, set up the easel in my back yard.
Color choices: Since the poppies were light pink, the foliage was the complementary color of green. I loved the shape of the house in the background, but I didn't want details of the house to distract from the flowers. So I used the shape of the house without all of its architectural details. I also kept it to a neutral gray to highlight the colorful poppies.
I often remind students that you can create a "trail" of values once you have the color and paint on the brush. I like to make a broken trail of darks near the focal point, leaving the outer edges a neutral midtone.
Happy summer solstice!
There are many ways to create contrast: through color, through values, through sizes of shapes and through edges. I tried to keep those contrasts in mind while painting this depiction of a tugboat.
Color contrast: Basically this is a dominantly cool painting with hints of warm colors. Also grays
and neutrals vs. spots of pure color.
Value contrast: The biggest value contrast happens around the tug.
Size contrast: The white shapes are small while the largest shapes are in the sky.
Edge contrast: The sky and most of the water was painted wet-into-wet, while the tug and background trees are smaller, hard edges.
Try not to just sail into a painting without thinking about these elements. Once you have made the decisions about how to create contrasts, painting will become much easier.
After a long, scary winter, it's good to be back in my safe harbor. I'm still having a bit of trouble setting up my easel, but was glad to have painted my first painting in eight months.
This is a sandwich shop called Capers in Boothbay Harbor. I had to remember that putting down the first wash on white paper, your eyes will be fooled into thinking you've made it dark enough. So I try to think of putting down a midtone which will dry lighter and form a light value when dry.
When glazing the secondary washes, make the shapes simple and interesting. Finally, the darkest shapes with authority so that you won't have to go back into it. Use lots of paint and very little water.
Good to be back to my blog and to be painting again!
I am pleased and proud to announce that two of my paintings have been selected to be exhibited in the St. Louis Watercolor Society's annual exhibit. The juror and judge was well known artist Alvaro Castegnet. Last night was the opening reception, and it was fun to see so many artists in attendance.
Here is one of the two paintings that made the cut!
The advantage of painting a watercolor in black, shades of gray, and white is that you concentrate your focus on values. Sometimes, too, black and white is just the best choice to convey a mood or subject.
I wrote about this in an earlier blog when I painted a cemetery monument. Garish bright colors do not convey mourning and grief.
In this painting of a pianist, his formal attire suggested a serious mood. Painting a background which contained color may have destroyed the unity of the piece, so I elected to keep the background quiet and in the same black and white mode.
I also used a spray bottle liberally to keep the lower portion of the painting fluid and undefined. I hope your eye can fill in the blanks of bench, piano and piano legs. Your gaze remains on the face, shirt, handkerchief and cuff, not only because they are the lightest shapes, but because they are the sharp edged areas while everything else is soft edged.
Color choices that match the mood, and shapes that play up the focal point are necessary components of a good painting. Be deliberate in your choices.
Obliques (which some people refer to as diagonals) create energy, movement and tension. My old instructor used to ask, Which would you rather watch? -- A soldier at Buckingham Palace standing statue still, or a drunk wobbling down the street? You may not approve of his drinking, but certainly there is more action and tension in a drunk teetering on the edge of falling down as he weaves from side to side and forward at an angle that makes you gasp!
In the painting of two canoeists navigating some rapids, study the lines to identify where the obliques occur. The feeling of movement and even possible danger comes from the slanted lines that create a feeling of movement.
Decide what you want to say about the mood of the subject, and if it is one of tension, consider the use of obliques.
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