Lesson Jan. 30

Element of Design: Value

Principle of Design: Gradation

Color Scheme: Monochromatic

Steps:

1. Wet the paper thoroughly on both sides. After it relaxes and there are no air bubbles under it, staple the paper to your board.
2. Start at the top of your paper with a dark blue. Gradually fade into pure white in the middle of your picture, then gradually add blue back onto the paper so that you have the same dark blue at the bottom that you have at the top. Dark at the top, white in the middle, dark at the bottom. Move gradually from one value to the next.
3. Dry your paper.
4. Paint a horizon line and let your paint gradually fade into the value already on the paper. Lose the edge. Dry your paper.
5. Very lightly paint the background trees on the left side. Make the trees darker at the top and very light at the bottom. This makes the effect of fog. Dry your paper.
6. With a darker value paint the trees on the right. Darker values are used on closer objects. The darker value will make these trees look closer than the ones on the left. Dry your paper.
7. Paint in the small island of land. Dry your paper.
8. Paint the house. Put shadows under the roofline. Doors and windows cannot be solid values. Keep some spots of light and some dark.
9. Paint the bushes on the island. They will be darker than either set of background trees.
10. Paint the boat dock and pilings. The pilings must be very dark on one side and light on the other.
11. Paint the shadows of the background trees. Use a very light paint.
12. Put in the shadow of the pilings.
13. Paint the boat and mast. Be sure the mast goes above the horizon line. Paint the boat in the complementary color.
14. Paint the shadows for the boat. Be sure you use broken light… wavy lines…. Dots.
15. Put in water symbols.
16. Add bunches of grass.
17. Put in a darker line at the base of the island. Break up the line. Don’t keep it solid.
18. Sign your picture.

 

Paint the same picture in purple and blue. Let the colors blend naturally as you add them to the paper. Change colors often. Concentrate on gradation of value.

Element of Design: Value

Principle of Design: Gradation

Color Scheme:  Analogous

1. Wet the paper thoroughly on both sides. After it relaxes and there are no air bubbles under it, staple the paper to your board.
2. Start at the top of your paper with a dark purple and orange. Add streaks of yellow as you alternate with the orange and purple. Gradually fade into light yellow in the last third of your picture. Try to leave a streak of white by wiping out some color in the sky. Your value will move from dark at the top to light at the bottom. Let your colors blend naturally. Change colors often.
3. Dry your paper.
4. Draw in the silhouette of the rock tops.
5. Very lightly paint some background rocks with a watery orange. Use darker values of orange on the rocks to suggest shapes and crevices.
6. With a darker value and maybe some sienna or quanacridone burnt orange, paint a group of closer rocks. Darker values are used on closer objects. Dry your paper.
7. Paint in the closest rocks. Use a darker value for this. You may use a deep brown for the shadows and crevices of the rocks. Dry your paper.
8. Add accent lines in the rocks. They are jagged lines. Some thick lines and some thin lines. Dry your paper.
9. Paint in an odd number of birds. Use a rigger brush for this. If you don’t have one, borrow one from me. Do not try to paint these birds with a regular brush.
10. Sign your picture.

 

Paint the same picture in purples and blues. Let the colors blend naturally as you add them to the paper. Change colors often. Concentrate on gradation of value.

Paint another picture using purple, leaving areas of white paper. Do not paint all the rocks purple. Leave them mostly white. Use the purple only for the shadows and the crevice lines. The sky will begin in dark purple and gradate to white in the middle third. The last row of rocks will be a very light purple against the white sky. The next sets of rocks will be white. The purple shadows on the middle set will be light. The shadows on the closest set will be darker. Remember that darker values are used on closer objects. This exercise will be very difficult. Don’t get discouraged.

Element of Design: Value

Principle of Design: Gradation

Color Scheme: Complementary 

Steps:

1. Wet the paper thoroughly on both sides. After it relaxes and there are no air bubbles under it, staple the paper to your board.
2. Start at the top of your paper with a dark blue. Gradually change into red orange in the middle of your picture, then gradually add blue back onto the paper so that you have the same dark blue at the bottom that you have at the top. Dark at the top, red orange in the middle, dark at the bottom. Move gradually from one value to the next. Make the proportions of color like this: blue 2/3, red orange 1/3.
3. While your paper is still wet, take your brush and make a circular motion to wipe out the paint for the sun. If enough paint does not come off, blot the color off with a Kleenex. Do not paint this area yet.
4. Lift off some color for the reflections. Use your brush first. If enough color does not come off, use a Kleenex.
5. Dry your paper.
6. Decide on a horizon line and paint in the background mountains. Dry your paper.
7. Paint the sun area yellow. Use a darker area at the edges and a lighter yellow in the center. If you have white watercolor, you can try a little white in the center of the sun.
8. Paint in the reflections of the sun on the water.
9. Paint in the trunks of the trees. Vary the width of the trunks. No absolute straight lines. Use a rigger brush to add the branches.
10. Add the black reflections of the trees.
11. Add the grass clumps.
12. If your black is not deep enough, you will have to go over it again with black gouche.
13. Sign your picture.

 

Focus

Element of Design: Shape

Principle of Design: Repetition

Color Scheme: Triadic

Technique: Underpainting

Steps:

1. Wet the paper thoroughly on both sides. After it relaxes and there are no air bubbles under it, staple the paper to your board.
2. Paint arbitrary, haphazard lines of alternating color on your wet paper. Start with yellow. Then add red, then blue. Leave large areas of white. Lines cannot be thin. They may be straight or curved. They may go in any direction. The important thing is to be sure you leave plenty of white. Do not use heavy paint. This underpainting must be light in value. Colors may bleed into each other. The important thing, again, is to have areas of white left on your paper.
3. Dry your paper.
4. Find each shape by painting behind it. Use the same colors as the underpainting, which means you will have to change colors often. Lose all edges. Make no hard lines when painting behind objects. Find the closest shape first. You will have to paint over adjacent objects. Do no use heavy paint for this glazing technique. You must use very thin paint. Dry your paper after you find each object.
5. After you have found all the shapes, you will see that you have created the illusion of distance. Add cast shadows on the sides of the buildings and mountains (if you have them).
6. Paint the insides of the windows and doors, Remember that you may not use a solid color. All windows and doors must have at least two colors in them. Leave some light area in each one.
7. Paint the cast shadows of the wooden piers coming out from the adobes. Paint the bottom of the pier dark.
8. Paint the ladder. Concentrate on painting light against dark … regardless of whether it makes sense or not. The rungs can be both dark and light, depending on where it sits on your paper and what value is next to i. Always paint dark against light.
9. Put shadows on the curved sides of the kiln. These shadows help to create the illusion of roundness.
10. Paint cast shadows on the ground.
11. Add symbols of ground. Pain on one side of the line you create. Lose the edge.
12. Add bushes, cactus, and grass as desired.
13. Sign your picture.

 

Element of Design: Shape

Principle of Design: Alternation

Color Scheme: Triadic

Technique: Underpainting

1. On index paper draw your picture.
2. On a separate piece of paper, draw arbitrary, haphazard lines coming from the edges of your paper. These lines should create shapes, odd shapes, organic shapes. You may use both straight and curved lines to create these shapes. You may create additional shapes by connecting these shapes with lines.
3. On a lightbox, put one drawing over the other so that one drawing is superimposed on the other. Move the drawings around until you are pleased with the composition. Trace the combined drawing onto your watercolor paper.
4. Staple the watercolor paper to your board. Do not wet it. This painting will start on dry paper.
5. Find the focal point of your picture and begin to paint there. Paint the focal point of your picture naturally. Paint until you come to a line. Each time you come to a line, you must change value….radically. This painting is based on the concept light against dark.
6. Move from your focal point in all directions, changing value each time you come to a line. A tree, for instance may have a drak section, then a light section, then another dark section. Each time a line crossing your drawing, you must change value. Use the same colors you would normally use on your painting. Just change the value.
7. Have fun. This will be an abstraction of a real scene. Expect it to look weird.
8. Fill in detail as necessary.
9. Sign your picture

 

Practice: Paint another scene in which you begin with an underpainting. Be sure to leave plenty of white in various areas. Each time the underpainting shows through on your drawing, you change value.

Focus

Element of Design:   Shape

Principle of Design:  Alternation

Technique: Grids & Glazing

Steps:

1. Draw your picture on your paper.
2. Draw a structured grid pattern on a sheet of index paper. Copy that grid onto your watercolor paper using a light box.
3. Your first layer of paint will be a light wash to establish color and relative value of your painting. Do not paint details in these washes. Do not paint the lighthouse in these first washes.
4. With a very light wash, paint the sky and the sea. Gradate the value so that your paper is almost white at the horizon level. The value at the top of the sky should be the same value as the bottom of the sea. This wash must be very light. You may put in some clouds very lightly.
5. With a very light wash, paint the rocks. The farthest group should be the lightest. The nearest group should be the darkest. Again, this wash must be very light. Do not paint details.
6. Paint the trees with a light grey wash. Do not paint details. Just put in the first layer of light paint.
7. The next wash will be on the grid. Paint the grid the same color as already on the paper. Use alternating value. One section will be dark; the next section will be light. Do not paint over the lighthouse on this step. Leave it white.
8. Increase the value on this grid until you are satisfied with the contrast.
9. Decide upon an area of the lighthouse to keep white. In this painting, every time a line crosses, you must change value or color. Paint the lighthouse, leaving some portion white.
10. Add details (crevices and shadows) to the rocks.
11. Add waves to the water.
12. Add birds to the sky.
13. Put in details on the trees.
14. Fine-tune your painting. Remember that every thing has to be dark against light. The contrast must be easily visible.
15. Sign your picture.

Practice:

Paint another scene using a different grid. Try circles, diamonds, squares, rectangles, and organic shapes. For the courageous, try overlapping the grid items. That will make your picture seem like it is vibrating.

Lesson March 13

Focus

Element of Design:  Color

Principle of Design:  Harmony

Technique: Broken Light / Broken Color

Color Scheme: Double Complement

Steps:

1. Draw your picture on your paper.  Attach the paper to your board.
2. Find windows and doors. Paint behind the frames. Lose the edge.
3. Find each building by painting behind the building, losing the edge.
4. Paint the buildings. Each time you take a stroke with the brush it should connect with a previous stroke and move in such a fashion that a small piece of white paper is left showing.
5. Change colors each time you take a new stroke. Allow the colors to bleed into each other. Keep the small white pieces white.
6. After your picture is painted, go back and fill in some of the pieces of white with pure color. The color should be a stark contrast to adjacent colors. Leave some of the white pieces unpainted.
7. Paint windows and doors in the same fashion. Each door and window should have several colors in it.
8. This painting will have a lot of bleeding colors, but it will also have a lot of hard lines as you go back and fill in color in the white patches that were left.

Lesson March 20

              Focus

Element of Design:  Color

Principle of Design:  Gradation

Technique: Blending Colors

Color Scheme: Analogous

Steps:

1. You may use any floral drawing for this assignment. I do not expect you to copy my style.
2. Draw your picture on your paper. Your subject matter should be obliquely placed on the paper.
3. Wet the paper thoroughly on both sides. After it relaxes and there are no air bubbles under it, staple the paper to your board.
4. Start at the top of your picture. Put in a very light wash gradating from blue to purple to red to orange to yellow.
5. Dry your paper.
6. Begin the painting process. Remember that in almost all cases, you must paint dark against light.
7. When you are in the blue section, use a variety of colors of blue. When you are in the purple section, use a variety of purples (and greys). When you are in the red section, use a variety of reds, oranges and yellows.
8. You must move gradually from one color section to another. Let your background gradation help you determine the time to move.
9. When I paint this way, I leave a small line of white between the shapes. That is optional. I like the white line, so I keep it in. you do not have to do that. You may paint one shape adjacent to the next one with no line between. Just be sure you dry your paper after painting each shape. Otherwise, your paint will bleed in a fashion you can’t control.

Practice: