Sertoma Continuing Watercolor October & November 2017

I worked on the cranberries adding brighter red as well as shadows.  I did these in layers and sections allowing things to dry as needed.  I also added some yellow at the end.  I added some darks and color in  the vase area.  I added a little red to the shadow of the vase.   I did what I needed to do before removing the masking. I did not work on the table or the background.

I removed the masking and will do no more before class.  You can see how the white looks pasted on.  The next step is to work the white into the painting - to re-attach it.  I will also add a layer of dark to the background (which helps in fixing the edges).

Sertoma Continuing Watercolor October & November 2017

I shaded a lemon with some purple (very light purple!).  My lemons need work.  I also added some darks to some leaves.  I then started adding the dark patterns to the background.  I used water to map out the shapes and then dropped in a mixed dark (using the 3 primaries, choose your darkest blue to make this), a dark green, and some orange.  I'm going to add some to the middle and start heading down. St some point I might fade it out at the bottom or I might take it all the way down and off the page in some of the areas (not sure yet). 

I worked on shading the cranberries and adding darks in between (need to finish that so I can remove the masking).  I added glazes of orange and a yellow color to the table area.  Added a dark to the background and shaded part of the table as well as the shadow of the vase.  I then added a gold glaze to the background and table again.  Added some color and darks to the vase as well.  Need to add a few more before removing the masking.  After I add some things I will post a photo on the blog. 

NCBG IEW October & November 2017

Wet-in-wet Watercolor.  First I wet everything except the white petals (I made it very wet).  I dropped in warm and cool yellow, some green, some blue, some red, some purple (I don't always do all these colors btw).  Then I let this dry.  Next I showed how to soften edges with water and your watercolor brush and a clean paper towel.  Then I glazed rich green gold on the left side of the flower and showed you how to feather the edge.  To feather an edge clean your brush, dry it off most of the way, and then use the brush to pull the edge out to lighten/soften.  Do not go in with a wet brush or you will make blossoms.  Next, I wet the left side leaf.  It was less wet than the background.  I mixed a green (I used quinacridone gold and pthalo blue which is a warm yellow and a green blue).  I started on the left dark edge, cleaned and dried my brush, and pulled the color in toward the middle.  I repeated this process working dark to light all around the leaf and then from the middle out on the right side of the stem.  The leaf on the right was done wet on dry just for practice.  It needs a few more steps to be complete.  Next I mixed a gray with my primary colors.  I used ultramarine blue, quinacridone rose and quinacridone gold for the gray I used.  I made a light mixture, wet the petal (same wetness as the leaf) and worked from dark to light using the feathering technique.  I will continue demonstrations in class on this piece.

BAL Mixed Media, October 2017

Watercolor pencil under painting with colored pencil just started on top.  This is very much at the beginning (it's a good start and has a long way to go).

The start of a colored pencil woman superimposed over a watercolor painting of a man.  I start with white (a value study) and later will add color.

Sertoma Continuing Watercolor October & November 2017

I have done a second round of masking.

Sertoma Continuing Watercolor October & November 2017

After transferring the drawing I went over some areas with a pencil to make sure the drawing would not disappear.  Then I wet the entire paper. I made it quite wet.  I dropped in 2 mixed greens and a warm and cool yellow.  After that dried I started on the leaves.  I used a few greens and painted the color leaving some white spaces and adding a tiny bit of red here and there.  I painted the yellow on a few lemons making them round by putting in the darkest area, rinsing the brush, drying it off and pulling the paint out and around.  Before the next step I would finish this one, all the leaves and lemons with their first layers.

After masking (which is the gray) I painted a first pass of color into the vase. I added light red, some green (since I planned for my background to be green), some blue, and some yellow.  I painted some green on the background and dropped in water right as the paper was beginning to dry to make blossoms.  I painted yellow on the table and red in the shadow of the vase.  I painted red on the shadow of the table.  I painted some yellow onto some of the cranberries.  My next step is to apply a bit more masking.  I will post again when that gets done.  You can be fairly free with the color, using the colors you prefer, just keep these first passes on the light side.

Sertoma Continuing Watercolor October & November 2017

The drawing is transferred and I used masking (Pebeo Drawing Gum) on the lightest areas.

BAL Mixed Media, October 2017

Colored pencil over watercolor and watercolor pencil.  I glazed some yellow on the background.  Need more glazing and some refining, but am getting close to done.

This is an example of superimposing one image in colored pencil over a watercolor painting.  This is how I start the process.  I transfer the drawing and usually start with a white pencil laying in the light values first.

BAL Mixed Media, October 2017

I did another layer, using watercolor pencils to make the gorilla darker and to add more color and texture.  Since the gorilla is dark I wanted the under painting to have lots of color and to be rather dark so that the colored pencil work would be lessened considerably.  After the watercolor pencil layer dried I started working with prismacolor colored pencil. I started with white on the face and hair/fur and I used black in some areas focusing on the values primarily.  I added color as needed using dark brown, canary yellow, scarlet lake, and true blue.  But most of the color comes from underneath, from the under painting.

I worked on the plate and the brass mostly as well as the wooden handle.  Need to add more color in some areas.

BAL Mixed Media, October 2017

I finished the dark layer of watercolor.

I worked to get this further along for next class.

Sertoma Continuing Watercolor September and October 2017

I glazed the background with a muted purple (I used ultramarine blue, quin rose and quin gold).  I will finish this with more darks and details.  It still needs work, the detail work I showed you on the rooster.

This is how the rooster looked last week after class.

This is how the rooster looks after  some of the finishing detail work I do on paintings towards the end.  I focused on the head area adding lights, darks, and details.  This part is drawing with watercolor.  I will do a bit more before being done.  I also showed you how to use white gouache on this one.  But remember, some of you will not be detail oriented and could stop earlier than I will.  I do the detail because I enjoy it and like how it looks.  But it is not always necessary.

I worked on the beard and hair with a gray watercolor and white gouache.  I worked on the scarf, the shirt, and glasses and the hat.  On the scarf I put in shadows and then later glazed it with purple.  On the hat I put in the shadows and then later started putting in the plaid.  Overall this needs more darks and details.

I started this by wetting everything except the flower.  I mixed several greens and dropped them in.  I kept lifting the light areas on the leaves with a watercolor brush (that was dried on my towel).  I also dropped in some red.  I let this dry.  Then I made the greens darker and mixed a dark background color.  I started putting the dark into the background (for demonstration purposes I did not finish the background).  I then started working on leaves adding darks.  After things dried a bit I worked on the flower.  I wet the big dark petal and used a mix of  my warm and cool reds (quin rose and pyrrole scarlet).  I dropped that in and then added some quin gold. I used the mix of reds at various strengths (changed with water) on the flower petals.  I used a yellow green at the base of the flower.  I will add dakrs and details all over this painting as needed to finish. 

BAL Mixed Media, October 2017

Transferred the gorilla drawing to the watercolor paper ( I used Cotman cold press 140 lb.).  First I wet the gorilla and dropped in color.  I used the primaries.  Use colors you like.  I then splattered the painting on the gorilla and background.  After that dried I mixed 3 darks - a warm, a cool, and a more neutral dark (I used my primaries to make these darks). Then I started painting the darks adding texture.  I am not finished and you can see the colors underneath in areas.  I will finish painting the dark before adding colored pencil.

I am working on arches 140 lb. hot press paper.  This piece was started by wetting the paper (very wet) and dropping in color and moving it around.  Then I used salt for the texture.  After that was dry I glazed a yellow to diminish the brightness of the salt texture.  Then I started with white colored pencil doing a value study.  Normally I would finish with the white before adding color, but for demonstration purposes I started adding the color.  I have used cadmium orange hue, scarlet lake, canary yellow and black so far.

This is from another class.  It is the start of a colored pencil on black paper.  I wanted you to see an example of the white value study before I added color.  You will do something similar on your watercolor background and then use black (or another dark) for the very dark areas (since our backgrounds aren't black like this paper). 

Sertoma Continuing Watercolor September and October 2017

Grid drawing of the flower