Art Every Day Month - Post 10

Brushstrokes

Brushstrokes - Detail of 11" x 15" Watercolor on Paper -
Study in Making Marks with a Brush

This painting is a study in brushstrokes and making marks, and also in complementary colors -  the yellow-greens and red-violets in various intensities give a sense of depth and shallow distance in the image.

I started the drawing by setting the direction I wanted the marks to flow in and then I followed these faint lines, repeating brushstroke gestures as I went.

Color Layers

Color Layers

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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Colors put on separate layers in a digital drawing can be "mixed" differently, depending on the order in which the layers are stacked. When the colors are completely opaque, the one on top masks the one beneath, and so on to the bottom of the stack. When the opacity of the colors is adjusted, an artist can control the blending of the colors.

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Split Complementary Color Scheme - Tertiaries

Split Complementary Color Scheme - Tertiary Colors

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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In nature, colors tend toward less intense and less saturated and away from stark primary and secondary colors. Nevertheless, when you find a natural scene that attracts your eye, you are likely to spot color harmonies within the dull and near-neutral colors.
In this image reddish-brown colors contrast with yellow-greens and dull middle and dark greens, demonstrating a split-complementary relationship.

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Split-Complementary Color Scheme

Split-Complementary Color Scheme

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Complementary colors sit opposite to each other on the color wheel. To reduce visual tension while maintaining a good contrast in the design, artists can use the two colors adjacent to the complement of the base color. This is called the split-complement. In this design, the primary color red is the base color, and the split-complementary colors are yellow-green and blue-green.
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On My Back Door-Step #9

White Berries for the Birds (#9)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in
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It's been chilly for the past few nights. I guess the birds know that it's time to get ready for their winter migration, and they have been descending on the trees and bushes fattening up on berries and bugs.

I have been watching this particular red osier dogwood bush for several days. There have been mixed flocks of adult and juvenile robins, white crowned sparrows, fox sparrows, juncos, chickadees and yellow warblers, and probably more birds that I haven't identified. It's comical to watch the smaller birds zoom in between the branches and the huge robins shake out the entire bush searching for berries and bugs. Those robins can manage to get an entire white berry into their beaks at a time, all the while bouncing around on a bent-over branch.

It's a great comedy to watch!

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On My Back Door-Step #8

Berries and Leaves (#8)
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Watercolor on paper, 11 in x 15 in
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It was a bright sunny afternoon after several days of overcast skies and rain, a bit windy, but there was nothing in the weather to interfere with a great painting session. I was ready for it, and I settled in to enjoy myself.

The sunlight was dappled all through the trees, and throughout the afternoon the masses of leaves I was painting shifted in color from luminescent yellow-green to inky blue-green and back again. The hill in the background did the same in tones of olive-greens and sepias. I was working back and forth to depict what I was seeing at the moment. And I was mixing colors on the fly to match the changes.

Well, now that this painting has dried, I find the colors thin and, well, yes, watered-down. I realize now that I would have had a better results if I had mixed larger quantities of the main colors I was seeing at the beginning, and simply dipped into each batch as the light changed throughout the afternoon.

This is part of preparedness, having enough containers and enough surface area to mix colors comfortably and efficiently. And also having the foresight to bring enough clean water to keep my paint from getting muddy. Oh and paper towels to blot up runny wet splashes that go in the wrong direction.

We learn from our experiences.

On My Back Door-Step #7

Red Osier Dogwood Branch (#7)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in

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It was another rainy day, and in order to do today's painting indoors, I picked a branch of Red Osier Dogwood, a bush with pearly white berries and flashy red stalks, from my back door-step and I put it into a jar as my model.

I was still penciling in my drawing when I realized what was happening. My still life was withering in front of my eyes. Leaves were flipping over and showing different colors, and stems were curving down with gravity. Negative shapes kept changing, and I had to work really fast to fill in color areas and keep my original composition.

I added a flat dark gray layer to isolate the branch from its background, and I realized effective watercolor sketching means that I need to be able to work very very quickly.

And to do that I need be able to do a lot of visual problem-solving on the run!

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On My Back Door-Step #6

Bunch of Fireweek (#6)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in
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It's a rainy day and not good for watercolor painting outdoors. So I set up my painting gear in the light coming through the back door, put a handful of fireweed flowers into a Mason jar, and settled in. Indoors or out, I still have to record the image before the light moves, so once the pencil sketch was established, I applied paint just as loosely as I would do out of doors.
This painting is a great example of wet-into-wet washes, without doubt the loosest of watercolor painting techniques.
Wet daubs of pink blurring into pale green stripes give the gentlest of neutral shadow tones. A fat painty brushstroke touching into a clear water shape defines a flower form. Then there's the background, all water and paint with a characteristic back-flow effect revealing the blue and brown pigments that this gray was mixed with. Back-flows can be disastrous or very effective, and this painting has examples of both.
So be it.

On My Back Door-Step #5

Fireweed in Dappled Light (#5)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in
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Sunlight which is filtered through a canopy of trees reaches the ground in patches of various colors, depending on what happens with reflections and highlights and shadows.
Objects which are struck by this dappled light appear to lose their solid form due to these mottled highlights and shadows. The whole scene becomes a floating mass of light and color.
I tried to anchor this painting with the color of the fireweed blossoms, but I believe it is the mobile textures of branches and stems, leaves and foliage that have won out.
Makes for a lively painting, though!
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On My Back Door-Step #4

Fireweed and Branches (#4)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in
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Contrast. It's out there all around.
I didn't realize how much contrast I was dealing with until I started to get into it. As I set out my paints, I thought "Today I'm working with the contrast of complementary colors - the pink of the fireweed flowers against the green of the foliage."
Well, fine, but then there's the contrast of the small size of the pink area and all those masses of greens, and the contrast of the highlights in yellow-greens against the dark-olive shadows. And the contrast of the horizontal curves of the branches against the vertical curves of the stems and leaves. And the thickness of the tree trunk against those same slender stems.
Contrast? I got a lot more of it than I had bargained for... and you know the best part? The next time I go looking for contrast in a scene to paint, I will probably find even more to play with.
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On My Back Door-Step #3

Fence Rails and Bushes (#3)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in

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Creating a composition is a vital part of making an image. Composing a scene for a landscape photograph seems absurdly simple, you point the camera at what you want to capture, frame the scenery so it looks good, and - snap - press the button.

Well, it's another matter creating a composition for a landscape painting, plein air. First, there's so darn much scenery all around, it's easy to get distracted. And then, as you are glancing up and down from the vista to the painting, it's hard to keep your eye on the thing or things that attracted your attention in the beginning.

My problem-solving solution... ta-dah! the old trick of creating a composition using a viewfinder. From of a plain piece of paper, I cut out a rectangle with the same proportions as the paper I'm painting on. I peer through the cutout, and I can sketch my scene onto my paper with some accuracy. Once the main elements of the composition are in place, things are going to run a whole lot more smoothly.

Of course, there are many things about painting outdoors that a viewfinder won't help with, but it makes a good start!

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On My Back Door-Step #2

Fence Rails (#2)
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Watercolor on paper, 11in x 15in
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When I am making a painting outdoors under direct sunlight I see an incredible variety of colors.
Since I am using no intervening technology in the process of translating the scenery in front of my eyes into the paint I put onto the paper, I have no easy filtering or simplification of information, compared to painting indoors from a photograph.
Painting outdoors, I also see a massive variety of textures in the foliage, the grasses, bark, flowers and wood, which I depict in shapes and masses of lighter and darker tones of colors.
My first job is to make sense of what I am looking at, and my second job is to make my record of the scene comprehensible to someone else.
Practice, practice, practice.
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On My Back Door-Step #1

Birches in Sunshine #1

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Watercolor on paper, 11in x 15in

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I am such a sucker for a challenge.

So when that Ol' Pointy-Toe Boot of Patricia's nudged me into starting some new daily landscapes, I took the good advice (thank you!) and I got started.

This is a challenge to do 30 paintings on my back door-step, and by co-incidence the number matches with "30 Days Hath September," and so this is my September project.

For now, I am exploring with watercolor paints, on quarter-sheets of paper. The media may change during the month, but I have accepted the challenge, and I can't wait to see the results. What fun!

So, check back during the month of September and see the things I can see from my back door-step. I'll be out there with my paints every day, and if you're here, you can see the results!

Thanks!

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An Apple A Day 07 ... Watercolor - Complementary Mixes - Yellow-Green and Purple

Apple on a paper towel, study in complementary color mixes, yellow-green and purple.


Watercolor on paper, 7 in x 10 in.