Continuing Watercolor - Sertoma

Watercolor Notes:

When whites are lost from a painting you can lift (see below), use gouache (especially for highlights and small areas), or completely cover an area and restart it by using Watercolor Ground (Daniel Smith), Absorbent Ground (Golden Acrylics) or one of the Liquid Paper products.  Some use white acrylic ink (I have not) and others scrape whites out with a sharp instrument.

To lift paint from a watercolor painting first try a damp brush and a paper towel, then try a 'soft' scrubbie brush and a paper towel, then a harder scrubbie brush and a paper towel, or for large areas use the magic sponge (Mr. Clean or any off brand).  I try to lift more towards the end of the painting process if possible.  It does change the texture of the paper.

A great dark/black mixture - Pthao Blue and Permanent Alizarin Crimson.

A good grey mixture - Burnt Sienna and Cobalt.  Try mixing complimentary colors to see what other greys you can get.  There are many more beauties to be mixed.

An interesting green - Viridian

To glaze - Mix a very wet pigment and apply it to either the entire painting or sections.  I most often do this to change the temperature (warm or cool) of an area or because it looks really nice.

Gouache is opaque watercolor and can be used similar to watercolor (if a lot of water is used), but it is quite a different medium than watercolor in many ways.  Lights can be added at the end and the paint lifts very easily.   There is more of course, but this covers some main points.

To save your whites or certain areas of the painting you can use masking fluid (friskit) or rubber cement.  This is applied when the paper is dry, before paint for saving whites or after some paint is applied and the paper is dry to save certain areas.  You lift the masking or rubber cement with a rubber cement remover (made of crepe rubber) when you are done with all washes.  Then, you often must do a little work to 're-attach' the white areas to the painting and/or soften the edges.

There are several ways to stretch 140 lb. paper.  I often use a Zip Clamp, but they need to be ordered and are expensive and not always available.  So, I also stretch by using either thick foam core or gator board.  I wet both sides of the paper, place it on the board, and staple all the way around.  When it dries I cover the stapled areas with tape (masking or painters tape).

Think - values, values, values!

PCRD

Watercolor frog on Watercolor Ground (Daniel Smith).  I remixed the greens (cobalt, indigo, aureolin) and added a few new mixtures (pthalo blue plus aureolin and indigo plus new gamboge) and added more darks.  I also added more yellow and some red (permanent alizarin).

PCRD

Colored pencil frog on tinted acrylic ground for pastel.  I used canary yellow, lemon yellow, true blue, indigo, crimson red,  and white.  I put the yellow  on first as I find it works best when mixing greens.  Layer the colors and pay attention the the values as usual.

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Acrylic frog.  I added two more layers to the original background colors.  The first was a green glaze and the second was a red/magenta glaze and then I did a paper towel texture on the red layer.  I transferred the drawing after it was dry and started painting a very loose painting with a large-ish brush.  Remember, no green - use blues and yellows to make the green and red to tone it down if needed.

Continuing Watercolor - Sertoma

Value study painting (one dark color).  This is a great way to  get good control of watercolor.  Practice value studies as much as you can to learn to guide the water and paint.

This is a value and color study painting (use two colors - complimentary colors).  This is a great way to learn about values and a bit about color mixing.

This is the rubber cement painting.  This is for fun as well as for learning how to mix colors, do some washes, discover  how to make textures, glazing, using resists, etc.  This is for experimenting and learning.  The process we used is to apply the rubber cement to the dry, plain paper first (we dripped, splattered, and brushed the cement).  Then we painted some light washes trying various techniques..  After this is dry you can apply more rubber cement, allow it to dry, and then glaze and paint more color, textures, etc.  This process can repeat for many layers.  Then we will remove the rubber cement and study the piece working with shapes, values, and color to create an interesting composition.

Lessons with Nicki

The demo

Nicki's start to the painting

Continuing Watercolor - Sertoma

Photos for class

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Colored pencil value under drawing (with true blue, this is only partially complete). Next I started adding color over the true blue.  I added magenta, blue violet, dark green spring green, aqua, canary yellow, henna and a few other colors... 

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Green without green frog.  Watercolor on masonite prepped withWatercolor Ground (Daniel Smith product).  I added a few washed with mixes made from aureolin, new gamboge, cobalt, indigo, Perm. rose, perm. alizarin 

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This is acrylic on masonite primed with Kilz2.  I then applied acrylic paint keeping the brush strokes (I applied a yellow, bluw, red, and black).  I may glaze some more color on top to add depth.  This is the background for the frog.

CP Open Studio

The next step in the process of colored pencil on paper prepped with acrylic paint and Acrylic Ground for Pastel .

CP Open Studio

The next few steps in the  process of colored pencil on masonite prepped with tinted Acrylic Ground for Pastel.   This was the frog I brought in as an example, worked on at home.

CP Open Studio

The next step in the process of colored pencil on masonite prepped with tinted Acrylic Ground for Pastel.  This was the frog that was demonstrated in class.

CP Open Studio

Example, the beginning process of colored pencil on masonite prepped with tinted Acrylic Ground for Pastel.   The ground was applied with a brush and dots of acrylic color were mixed in during the application (blue and black).

CP Open Studio

Colored pencil on masonite prepped with Acrylic Ground for Pastel.  This is the piece I demonstrated  at the Open Studio.

CP Open Studio

Example of an acrylic painting on canvas panel.  Acrylic Ground for Pastel was applied on top of the painting.  After drying, colored pencil was drawn on the right half of the piece (the left half has no colored pencil so far). 

CP Open Studio

Examples, the beginning process of colored pencil on masonite prepped with tinted Acrylic Ground for Pastel.

CP Open Studio

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Examples, the beginning process of colored pencil on paper prepped with acrylic paint and Acrylic Ground for Pastel

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Watercolor - I worked more on the flower details.  This needs more detail and value work.

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Colored pencil value under drawing (with true blue, this is only partially complete).  Get this well detailed for when we put color over the top.

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Acrylic - I worked on one flower adding details and painted black over the background (using a paper towel or a spray bottle to add texture).  Sorry for the sheen, I will try to get a better photo later.  The flowers will need to be adjusted with the drastic change to the background.

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watercolor - I worked on this a little - straightened up the edges and added a few details on the  lily pads.  Still a bit more to do.

CP Open Studio

One of the photo choices for the second project using Acrylic Grounds.

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Watercolor, I painted the lily pads with green (mixture of cobalt and sap).  I then dropped in  aureolin on the front and cobalt on the back of each lily pad.  I also darkened and added green the water behind the lily (again -  sap and cobalt).  While the pads were wet I dotted in a dark red color

CP Open Studio

Photo for Acrylic Ground for Pastel