Materials used:
Brushes
1 1/2" (381mm) Flat Winsor & Newton Series 965
1" Flat Grumbacher Red Sable w/beveled handle
#6 Grumbacher Watercolor Classic Red Sable
#5 Marx Scripto Red Sable Rigger
#6 Liquitex Synthetic Basic Round 690 (For Frisket use)
Grafix Incredible Nib
Frisket
Grafix Incredible White Mask Liquid Frisket
Paints
Sap Green, Hooker's Green Dark, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Rose, Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, Lamp Black, Pthalocyanine Green
|
Paper
Watercolor Block (14" x 20") Arches #140 Rough
Miscellaneous
Natural Rubber Pickup Square (for frisket removal)
#2 Pencil
Kneaded Eraser
Palette - Your choice. Mine is an old Robert E. Wood model.
Water container (2) and water
Hair dryer (optional)
Reference
Photo or Sketch big enough for you to see reasonably well.
|
|
Step One: Drawing and Masking
For this lesson I will paint a portrait of a singular, rather ugly, tree. I had an old digital image from a group of thumbnail printouts of various shots I take in the woods that are so abundant around here. A literal "Green Necklace" surrounds the Greater Cleveland area.
I roughly blocked everything in, having to extend the top height by about a fifth to compensate for different aspect ratios between the reference photo and the working surface. Or, it didn't quite fit so I fudged it.
Once the drawing showed some possibilities. I took my #6 Synthetic, sloshed it in the water and shook it out. I opened an older bottle of Incredible White Mask frisket I had, removed the "clot" that had skinned over inside, stirred it and proceeded to pick out background trees that I would leave white with the frisket. I applied mask to the outlines of the foreground tree, and used a Grafix Incredible Nib with the frisket to add some texture to either side of the tree base.
|
|
| |
|
Step Two: First washes, decisions and commitment
OK, so the reference thumbnail I had was shot in the winter. It was all grays and browns. And there was no light source to speak of. It was one of those bright gray days. I decided to push the season back a bit so there was a bit of green and the autumnal colors were still in evidence. And then I asked the light to come in from stage right at a low angle, which it quite appropriately proved to do.
Using my 1 1/2" flat wash brush I mixed up several different puddles of pure color: Cerulean Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, and Sap Green. I then prepared smaller puddles of Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Orange, and Permanent Rose.
Rinsing my 1 1/2" flat wash brush clean, I then used clean water and wet the paper everywhere except on portions of the large tree. When it looked fairly uniform I picked up the Cerulean blue and laid a bit of sky tone on top through the trees. I then mixed purple with burnt sienna and laid in the background clutter and ground debris.
Using the wide flat brush again I picked up some sap green and laid it across the middle ground through the foreground.
Using my #6 round sable I added purple and cobalt accents to the raking shadows in the middleground. Burnt sienna, Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue, and Sap Green were all used in the mid to foreground textures. A smattering of cadmium orange accents were distributed for local color.
Using the beveled handle of my 1" wash brush, I scratched some saplings in the background, brush into the middle ground, and leaf shapes in the foreground. I also blotted a few foreground areas to keep some highlights.
|
| |
Step Three: Trees of Doom
After blow drying the painting dry (I only recommend this if you are using a quality frisket and a quality paper, on some softer-finished watercolor papers the frisket bonds with the fibers instead of the finish...especially under heat.) I mixed up some dioxazine purple, cobalt blue, and burnt sienna and laid in some darker trees in the background.
Using a #5 Rigger sable, I made a dark mixture of hooker's green deep and alizarin crimson with a touch of burnt sienna to soften it a bit and added more brush and weed detail to the edge of the background woods. I followed to the mid foreground and flicked in a few more random weed stems. These additions I allowed to air dry.
|
|
| |
|
Step Four: In deeper and deeper
Trying to get some drama going in this painting, I turned to the middle ground. I reinforced the scratchy tree shadows using my #6 round sable with some cobalt blue and a touch of lamp black, hoping I had enough of a symbolic "idea" of shadows to pull it off.
The old joke of an artist staring at a tree: as time passes, people begin to gather around him in hushed whispers to see if this man is all right, he appears to be in a trance or pre-epileptic seisure. When a knowing person in the back says in an excited voice, "oh, He's an artist!" they simultaneously lift their hands to their chins, give an knowing nod and say "Ahhhh" and quietly walk away as if in deep thought. Zen of one, half dozen of the other. But I digress.
I added more cobalt blue to the mix and continued on down the foreground "scribbling" the ground textures and shadows to life. All through this process I haven't referenced the original photo, all I needed from the photo were the natural forms with which to play with.
|
| |
Step Five: Rethinking matters... or does it?
After all that thoughtful work was accomplished, I dried the piece again. And realized I should have left it damp.
Looking at the background woods, I decided it was coming on too strong. I flipped the painting upside down and moistened both sides and flushed the surface with clean water and a loaded wide brush. Have a towel under your board when you tilt and rinse this way. After a bit of scrubbing (the purple stains a bit) I finally had it lightened back to where I thought it should be. Had I left it damp and not gone ahead and dried it first, this step whould have been quicker and the paper would have had less heat stress.
Once more I fired up my trust Conair 1600 and dried everything before proceeding.
|
| | |
|
Step Six: Is it warm in here?
I didn't like the chill I was getting from the overall coloring so I attacked the whole piece with mixtures of cadmium orange, raw umber, and permanent rose.
I needed a warmer background to play off the coolness of the large foreground tree in shadow.
I spent a few more leisurely minutes heating a sheet of paper made in France until dry.
|
|
Painting Trees with Liquid Frisket - Part 1
Step-by-Step Watercolor Paintings