"Annie" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9")

"Annie" (watercolor, 12" x 9")

 

I decided to blog about my online Zoom classes with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA. This is what we did in the eighth week of the fall term, 2021 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class. 

First, I finished "Siberian Tiger" by glazing using the same colors as the last week to make the painting more vibrant and model the form a little bit.

 

"Siberian Tiger" (pen and watercolor, 9" x 12")

 The main business of the day was painting "Annie" in sepia. To make sepia, we used only burnt sienna (my favorite is Daniel Smith) and cobalt blue. The below is the value scales and color swatches I made to test values. The value 1 is the white of the paper (highlights). The value 7 is as dark as it gets with the mixture of the two colors. The value 9 is black.  

"Values Scales and Color Swatches"

Many beginners have trouble reading values and translating them into colors. By using a sepia (or black and white) reference, we can remove the puzzle; by using only one neutral color (sepia in this case), we can remove the difficulty of reading colors in values. This value exercise is invaluable and used by many instructors. We are trying a portrait, which is a whole new ball game with its snares and pitfalls, but here we go. You can do it!

I first painted the background wet on wet with the value 3 wash (slightly bluer than the subject). When the paper dried, I started with the lightest wash, covering the entire area of the subject, except the lightest parts (highlights, including the catch light of her left eye). Don't make this layer too dark!

In between layers, dry the paper thoroughly. We are glazing, so paper should be bone dry. At each stage, we mixed a slightly darker batch; mix more than you think necessary. By the fourth layer, we got everything done, except the pupils. The darkest bits in the face are usually the upper lash lines, nostrils, and the line between lips. The pupils are black (or near black in this case).

The biggest challenge in a value study is to read values correctly, of course. With a soft and round face of a young girl, it is not easy, but I believe the exercise forces you to be decisive in your value reading. Do your best to preserve the white of the paper for the highlights at the beginning and don't forget to put in some darks at the end. As you can see, the majority of the painting was done in mid-tones. Most paintings require five to six values and you rarely need full nine scales. Without the highlights and darks, however, the painting will lose its impact.

Let's revisit "Holmes Run Rocks" of three weeks ago. I turned my class demo into a black and white and it still reads, doesn't it? From now on, if you are having trouble reading the values of your reference or your work in progress, do the same. Things will be much clearer to you! 

"Holmes Run Rocks in Black and White"

"Homes Run Rocks" (watercolor, 12" x 9")

"Blue and Green Still Life" (watercolor with white gouache; 13" x 11") sold

"Blue and Green Still Life"
sold

Still Life setup with Rick Weaver

Rick starts blocking in

Rick's compact travel watercolor palette

Rick's demo painting--loose and free!

Last weekend I took a fabulous workshop--"Opaque Watercolors"--with Rick Weaver at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA.  I was excited to see him in person, as he had the reputation of being brutally honest to students in what he says about their artwork.  I have heard of students ending up in the bathroom to cry after his critique!  Another reason for the anxiety was that, because of a low enrollment, there was an imminent danger of the workshop getting cancelled.  Dang!  I really wanted to learn how to use watercolors opaquely like oils for painting during vacations.

I am a dedicated plein-air painter and have dragged my painting gear around in my enthusiasm to all sorts of places, including national parks in the Southwest.  But there is the bulk issue of the art gear necessary for outdoor painting in oil.  An even bigger problem is traveling with oil paints and mediums.  One has to take numerous precautions not to get your stuff thrown out of your luggage.  These days, a traveling oil painter is treated worse than a terrorist with a bomb on the airplane!

I was tired of it all.  I needed an intervention.  I had to find out whether Rick's promise would deliver: the promise of maximizing the watercolor paints' potentials with one additional paint--a white gouache--to make them behave opaquely, but retaining transparency when appropriate.  Fortunately, six additional students signed up for the workshop at the last moment.  Thank goodness!  And Rick did more than deliver.  His reputation turned out to be false as well.  He was a fun, gentle, encouraging, and phenomenal teacher!

On Saturday, we tackled still life to get the hang of the new medium.  Even a veteran watercolorist such as myself found that adding a white gouache to watercolor paints transformed them into a totally different animal.  Traditional transparent watercolors dry a little lighter; but opaque watercolor paints dry darker, just like acrylic paints.  Strange.  I also had to figure out the right water/paint ratio to make the paints flow.  Tricky.

My still life value study (watercolor with white gouache; 9" x 9")

In other words, it was hard!  For a particularly struggling student, Rick did another quick demo of a value study with just one color of burnt umber.  As we had only half an hour left by that time, several of us decided to do the same instead of starting a new still life as Rick made us switch to another setup.  A slave driver!  I didn't have the right color, so, instead, used Daniel Smith's "Moonglow".  The above value study is pretty much a trasparent watercolor, with one exception.  I restored lights with a white gouache here and there. 

You see, that is precisely the point.  In traditional watercolors, lights once lost are lost forever, just like Fitzwilliam Darcy's opinion once lost is lost forever in Pride and Prejudice.  In traditional watercolors, a white paint is death, anathema.  One must preserve white and lights with life.  But, honestly, who gives a darn!  With a white added to your watercolor paints, you can go either way--darker or lighter.  There is freedom.  Hallelujah!