"Winter Shadows" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9")

 

"Winter Shadows"

 

The following is the description of what we did in the fourth week of the winter term, 2022 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class (my online Zoom class with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

The main business of the day was painting "Winter Shadows" to explore the color blue and the complimentary harmony of blues and oranges. By the way, why the next two pictures not so great? My DSLR camera lens causes this distortion whenever I take a picture with images on white paper. I tried with my phone; the distortion was less but the colors were not as good as those taken with the "real" camera. I take a lot of time to get the images to look like the originals (the purpose is not to make the image better than the artwork!)

"Blues and Mixing Dark Browns"

"Mixing Oranges"

As for the painting itself, we wetted the sky shape only and dropped a pale yellow (Winsor lemon) on the sky to mimic the warm late winter afternoon light. Don't make the sky shape too big by placing the horizon too low. Design is the most important stage of the painting process.

We painted the three trees to the left of the center of the sky in yellow orange (cadmium yellow pale and a little cadmium red) to suggest the setting sun right behind them, warming them up. Then I painted the rest of the trees (big and small) in various browns (some warmer and lighter, others cooler and darker) with the brown mixtures made with cadmium red or burnt sienna and cobalt blue. Sometimes a tree may start cool and darker at the base and end warmer and lighter at the top.

Next, we painted the dark fallen trees with the mixtures of burnt sienna, French ultramarine blue, and occasionally permanent alizarin crimson. Don't mix them thoroughly! Take time with your drawing/painting these dark shapes (or any shapes) to make them look organic and interesting. Remember we are shape makers!

Finally, we painted the mid-tone cobalt blue shadows (not too dark or not too light), occasionally dropping very pale lemon or crimson to suggest reflected light. Use lots of water in all your washes. If you are dragging a barely damp brush around, you will not be able to paint the big cobalt blue shadows, with accent colors charged in, without making a mess!

Look at my demo painting and observe how the blue shadows spoke out from the top off-center of the three yellow orange trees where the light source (the sun) is located. This is a one-vanishing-point painting. Keep the blue shadow consistent and don't get too dark or too light. The shapes must maintain its mid-tone value! Don't forget to paint small animal footprints!