Thursday Jan 4th 2024 – 1pm-3pm EST
We’ll be starting off with this Maine coastal scene. Lovely clear shapes and values but with some nice textural areas. To start we’ll be treating this as a color and value exercise (although we’ll probably end up with a nice painting too). We’ll be focusing on really nailing the values and the colors as well as simplifying the detail where needed.
I will record the drawing ahead of time and send out a link to it (it will also be on the youtube playlist too). If you want to do the drawing ahead of time please go ahead. I know that often people want to take time over this.
(All session materials are linked off the main page)
Materials:
- Student paper for mixing color swatches
- 100% cotton paper for the full painting (I’ll be using 10″x14″ but 9″x12″ is a good size too)
- Value scale (See the Useful Tools page)
- Pencil/Paint/Palette/Water/Paper towels/masking tape
- Brushes: A larger brush for the sky and foreground washes. A slightly smaller (10 or 12) for the trees and more detailed areas.
- Colors: Cobalt blue, Ultramarine, Burnt sienna, Vermillion/napthol/cad red (orangey red), Cad lemon/hansa yellow (greenish yellow), yellow ochre, black.
Reference Photo (click to enlarge and right click to download)
Reference Photo with grid
My Color Exercise Version
The values are good and I think the simplification in the rocks works well.
Drawing Video:
The Drawing:
Class Video:
From Liz : Enjoyed this class despite complicated technical difficulties! Your process really helps me organize my thoughts. Looking forward to the boat …
IMG_0339-scaled
After glaze
Yeah! Better I think. The darks of the rocks transition much better into the grasses.
Tried to load my picture but said the file was too big. Any suggestion on how to make it smaller to load?
Thank you!
There’s currently a limit of 5Mb per file for uploads. We’ve upped the limit to 12Mb – try again and see if it gets through.
Suggestions, Especially with respect to lights, darks and middle colors?
Thank you!
Can I make a request Debbie? It’s looking really nice as is but I’d like to take this onto the ipad and make some tweaks changes there. It would be easier I think than trying to say things in words. Would you mind?
Tried pic again.
Yes please. Do whatever you think. I appreciate any assistance to learn!
Oh boy — so much room for improvement. Things really fell apart with the foreground. Nonetheless, I learned a lot. Would be interested in tips/techniques for making corrections in paintings. Thanks for a great first class.
I think it’s looking great already. If there’s one thing I would say it’s that you have great light values and great dark values but the darks are just a little too stark against the lights. Bringing them up slightly in value (tricky now obviously) and making the transitions a little smoother would help stop them jumping out so much. As I mentioned to Debbie – can I try some noodling on the ipad to make some tweaks?
Please “noodle away”. One thing I am discovering is the challenge of paying attention to value while simultaneously paying attention to the behavior of the watercolor medium (ratio of pigment/water, brush storkes, drying time, etc.). Challenging but exciting…most of the time!
Not sure if you’re going to get this twice? Apologies if you do
Finished, I think, at last. Not entirely happy with the rocks but I worry keeping at them will make them worse.
Great scene and lesson. I may try again, smaller; this one is 16×20
I worked on the first painting this weekend. Had a bit of trouble with my colors running in the water. And my rocks look a lot alike. I think I need to vary them more.