"Victorian Lady in Sepia" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9")

 

"Victorian Lady in Sepia"

The following is what we did in the second week of the spring term, 2022 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class (my online Zoom classes with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

First we talked about the important business of the value scales (grayscales). I actually made them for you to see (If you just watched, please try them; it's not as easy as it looks!), using the sepia mixture of cobalt blue and burnt sienna (Daniel Smith). You can also try a black (I like neutral tint by Daniel Smith).

Then we started the main lesson of the day, which was painting a sepia value study of "Victorian Lady", based on a sepia picture taken between 1890 and 1900. We used only burnt sienna (my favorite is Daniel Smith) and cobalt blue. In the value scales, the value 10 is the white of the paper (highlights). The value 2 or 3 is as dark as it gets with the mixture of these two colors. The value 1 is black. The high-key paintings crowd around highlights and mid tones; the low-key paintings (such as tonalist) lack highlights and crowd around mid tones and darks. We won't be using ten values; you can do a convincing portrait with six values. Beginners' paintings often lack highlights and darks and remain in the mid-tone fest!

Sepia Grayscales

I first painted the background with the dark mid-tone variegated wash (slightly bluer and darker along the periphery, giving the subject a brownish halo) on thoroughly wet paper. If your first layer was too light, repeat the process. You have to dry the paper thoroughly before rewetting; otherwise you disturb the first layer. Be as gentle as possible when you are wet-glazing. The variegated background wash is something I do in every single portrait painting; you have to master this technique! 

Then I started painting the subject with the lightest wash on dry paper, covering the entire area of the subject, except the lightest parts (highlights). Don't make this first layer too dark and make it more brown than blue! The value should be the #9 in the grayscale (called tint).

In between layers, dry the paper thoroughly. We are glazing, so paper should be bone dry. At each stage, I mixed a slightly darker batch by adding a little more of each paint; mix more than you think necessary (you don't want to run out of paint in the middle of the wash!). By the fifth layer, I got everything done; for the darkest layer, I used French ultramarine blue rather than cobalt blue as the former is a darker color. The darkest values are found in the hair, dark trim of the brooch, left-side brow and adjoining dark shadow of the nose, pupils, upper lip (left side), canine fossa and a few folds of the blouse.

For the finishing touch, I used the Sakura gelly roll pen 10 to restore the catchlights in the pupils. You can use instead a white gouache. You can also use a white gouache for the white polka dots and highlights in the neck and lace.

The image below is the class demo; the top image is my sample painting, which is warmer than the demo. The color temperature in photography is called white balance. Even the same painting can look different depending on the lighting condition. The day when I took the picture of the sample painting, it may have been an overcast day that caused the general warmness. Today when I took the picture of the demo, it was a bright sunny condition (the blue of the sky causes the cool temperature).

"Victorian Lady in Sepia" Class Demo

""Medici Fountain at Luxembourg Garden" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

 

sold

 

The Medici Fountain (la fontaine Médicis) is a monumental fountain in the Luxembourg Garden in the 6th arrondissement in Paris. It was built in about 1630 by Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV of France and regent of King Louis VIII of France. It was moved to its present location and extensively rebuilt in 1864-66.

I visited the famous fountain in late summer on an overcast day in 2019. In the painting I tried to capture the magical serenity of the place with the pointillist style. Do you think I succeeded?

"Santa Ana Mountains Wildflowers" (watercolor on paper, 9" x 12")

 

"Santa Ana Mountains Wildflowers)

 

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

This week's lesson was about painting by numbers without numbers. This is how the beginners start out; one can do the most amazing things with this approach, so no reason to disdain it.

I discussed the properties of color: hue (yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green, etc), value (light and dark), intensity/chroma (bright and dull), and temperature (warm and cool). I will keep repeating these important concepts, so if you are a little confused, don't worry about it!

To practice the wet-on-dry, paint-by-numbers-without-numbers method, we painted "Santa Ana Mountains Wildflowers". First, we drew the design with a HB pencil with a light touch. The less you use eraser, the better-off you are. If you must, use a kneaded eraser. The watercolor paper must be handled with kid gloves and with tenderness. I emphasize the importance of using an undamaged, good paper (Arches 140lb cold press paper). It comes through layers of watercolor washes and that's why a good watercolor painting glows.

Then we wetted the sky shape only and did a graded wash in cobalt blue. This is the simplest, yet effective way of painting sky and still gives it a sensation of depth. The sky is usually darker at the top and lighter near the horizon. So use more paint at the top and less near the horizon. Making a smooth transition from deeper to lighter tone is much harder than you think. Hence practice the graded wash!

Tilt the paper pad/board a little to utilize gravity. If you are using a stiff flat brush, your job will be tougher. If the wash turns out too light (watercolor dries a couple of value scales lighter; wet paper requires more paint than dry paper), repeat the process. Dry the paper completely, wet the sky shape (if your flat brush is stiff or your strokes are too vigorous, you will remove a lot of the first layer), then drop the cobalt blue. Theoretically you can repeat the process up to hundred times, but who has the time or patience!

The rest is relatively simple; it's matter of blocking in different color shapes, then glazing (adding layers on dry paper). We started with the orange California poppy shapes (mixture of cadmium yellow pale and a little cadmium red), then painted the purple California bluebell shapes (mixture of cobalt blue and permanent rose), and the green grass shapes (mixture of cadmium yellow and cobalt blue).

I glazed the poppy petals in shadow with the red orange mixture of cadmium red and cadmium yellow.

I glazed the distant hill slopes in shadow with the purple mixture of French ultramarine blue and permanent alizarin crimson. I glazed darker purple flowers and darker grasses with the same purple mixture. Yes, purple is a very useful color as greens and blues turn purple when they become really dark. Even reds become purple when they are dark.

 

In this lesson, you learned to mix paints partially so that two paints can make four colors (for instance, yellow, yellow orange, red orange and red; rose, rose purple, blue purple, blue; yellow, yellow green, blue green, and blue). Never overmix and end up with a homogenized mixture. 

 

 

"Kaena Point Sunset" (watercolor on paper; 9" x 12")

 

"Kaena Point Sunset"

 

 

The following is the wrap-up of the "Painting Sunsets in Watercolor" workshop I taught this weekend at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA.

 

It has been a great pleasure to have you in my sunset workshop. I hope you learned something to help you in your watercolor journey. Some of you were not familiar with the wet-on-wet variegated wash or painting in layers. But it is generally why we take workshops: to broaden the horizon and try something new. You guys were awesome!

Things to take away? Sunsets are all about the yellow and orange glows and we have to preserve that glow to paint a successful sunset.

Blues and purples are present often in sunsets. Since oranges and yellows are complimentary colors of blues and purples, if we paint them at the same time, they will mix on their own on the  wet paper and result in mud. Hence, we must separate them in layers!

Each time when you wet the paper for the wet-on-wet technique, which helps us to apply paint smoothly without leaving hard edges (and sky, water, and many other things are all about softness), you have to wet the paper thoroughly. And you have to use good paper (we used Arches 140 lb cold press paper)!

Each time when we start the next layer, the paper has to be bone dry! Otherwise you risk stirring up the previous layer(s). If you do this right, you can repeat the process until you can't take it anymore. Lol. You can also wet only part of the paper (sky, water, etc.) depending on your purpose.

We don't always repeat the variegated wash in multiple layers. As I have shown some examples, I sometimes get it done in one or two layers.  So don't think what we did is the norm. It depends!

The reason why repeated the yellow, red orange, and blue layers twice is this: it's better to go gentle and layer than go too strong and do oops. In watercolor, removing paints is much much harder than adding more paints in layers. Go easy and go slow! Patience is the most important virtue in watercolor.

So the end result should be vibrant yellow, red orange and blue. Some of you needed to strengthen blues, right?

When you are satisfied, paint the land shape, tree, boats, or whatever. Hard edges are introduced at this stage and we often paint on dry paper. Darks must be dark enough!

Values are the most important thing in a painting in any medium. If you are plagued by the feeling that your project is not going well, take the picture of your work-in-progress and desaturate the picture using your phone picture editor. You will see your problems right away!

"Oregon Coast Sunset" (watercolor on paper; 9" x 12")

 

"Oregon Coast Sunset"

The following is the description of what we did in the nineth 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 spring registration has begun. Please come back in the next term to continue your watercolor journey with me. You guys, so many of whom are beginners, are doing an amazing job! Here is the link for the "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class; here is the link for the "Watercolor Portraits" class, in case you want to move up a notch and challenge yourself even further!

The image you see above is the class demo of "Oregon Coast Sunset" from yesterday. The theme was "Inspired by Tonalism". Tonalism was an American art movement from the late 19th century. Its most prominent practitioners were George Inness and James Whistler (his nocturnes). They used a narrow value range in low chroma colors to create their serene, romantic landscapes.

Admittedly I am not a tonalist; I am more of an impressionist. It doesn't prevent me from exploring this intriguing movement; perhaps there are things for us to glean from their approach to painting landscapes and cityscapes.

We first wetted the paper and brushed in very pale winsor lemon and permanent rose while not touching the blue/white bands along the horiozon. In the next wet-on-wet layer, we did the same thing, this time, with cobalt blue where you see blues. We decided to deepen the colors slightly by doing the third wet-on-wet layer, repeating the same color patterns.

Then we painted the headland on dry paper with the dark mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, pushing it more brown and slightly lighter along the horizon to suggest sea fog. While the wash was drying, we continued to establish the rugged terrain of the headland with diagonal strokes. Try not to lose the initial mid-dark wash. Remember this is a tonalist painting! Don't turn the whole headland shape into a black mess; think 3 and 4 in the value scale, not 1 (black) or 2 (near black).

When the headland was dry, I decided to experiment by laying down a horizontal stroke of white gouache over the horizon and headland to suggest sea fog shrouding the view. I put down the white and quickly softened the top and bottom edges of the long stroke. Some headland serrated edges got smeared, but I like the result. This is an optional step; don't do it if you are unsure of your ability. You can easily ruin the painting that is going well so far.

Let's finish the painting by adding a series of horizontal strokes to suggest the incoming waves. The colors are the same as the headland mixture, except lighter. Sometimes we used it bluer; sometimes added a little alizarin crimson. Some lines are darker. There are two bands of blues; the second band is where the dark reflection of the headland begins. The bottom third of the painting has the big reflections.

The colors are the same as the headland's, except it's bluer than the headland color. Remember that if you don't overmix two colors, you can push it either way depending on your need. Let it me one of the biggest gains from my class.

Make sure the reflections are not too dark (you destroy the serene mood) or too light (you lose the impact). The edges should be uneven and a not solid, straight vertical line. Make curvy strokes toward the bird.

The bird may be tiny, but it's very important in the design. If it had not been there in the reference, I would have invented it to balance the massive mirror-image shapes of the headland and reflections on the right side. It's a some kind of a coastal bird (sandpiper?). Don't forget to paint the shadow. The color is the same as the reflections and headland.

 

 That's it! Once again, I want to thank you for your awesomeness! Here is the past nine weeks in a nutshell. Most of you have come a long way, blossoming from absolute beginners to intermediate watercolorists. I am proud of all of you for your progress!

 

"Waikiki Sunrise"

"Zippy Zebra"

"Mandarin Oranges in Silver Bowl"

"Red Amaryllis"

Winter Shadows"

"Crocuses in Snow"

"Snowman and Red Barn"

"Starry Sky"

"Self-portrait in Suede Jacket" (watercolor on paper; 10" x 8")

 

"Self-portrait in Suede Jacket"

 

The following is what we did in the ninth week of the winter term, 2022 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class (my online Zoom classes with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA). 

I talked a great deal about various things, including my favorite watercolor portrait painter, Mary Whyte. Her book, "Painting Portraits and Figures in Watercolor", should be on every watercolor portrait artist's bookshelf. Her greatest strengths, I believe, are her ability to control hard/soft edges and her incredible sense of design. Her handling of details is also breath-taking. Don't just say she has talent. No, it's the prodigious amount of work she has put into her art that got her to her level today!

This week we are working on a self-portrait. I have chosen a rather challenging project of painting various different textures (felt, suede and straight hair), a complicated geometric pattern, and a pair of glasses, which I wear all the time. You don't have to naturally and do whatever you can.

Many past masters have painted themselves. Rembrandt and Vincent van Gogh come to mind as they painted themselves repeatedly, for the lack of money to hire models but, of course, for self-observation and contemplation of their lives. If you have never done it before, you may feel awkward. I myself used to dislike the whole self-portrait business, but as part of this class assignments, I have done it a few times and I am finally getting over my reluctance and actually beginning to enjoy it. One tends to have self-delusions and it's good to be honest with oneself once in a while.

The painting process is the same whether you are painting yourself or someone else. I always start with the "background" in wet-on-wet variegated wash. The goal is to create an ambience for the subject to sit comfortably and breathe the air. If your "background" is a dull gray or not in harmony with the rest of the portrait, you kind of lost the game even before you start painting the subject. Let's work on this issue further in the spring.

I painted the felt hat and suede jacket using mainly granulating paints such as Piemontite genuine, Moonglow, and ultrarine violet to emulate the soft texture.

Painting the complicated pattern, such as my rain jacket, takes patience, but if you do it well, you can create lovely folds and gain the viewer's admiration. Remember that white in shadow is not white!

My hair is, of course, very different from any of yours. I have straight hair and it's probably easier than painting, let's say, curly hair? Either way, the goal is softness and preserving highlights and going dark enough in the dark shapes. I showed you how using the right (warm) temperature in the mid-tones made the hair look real. Again, I like to use granulating paints for hair. You can use whatever colors.

The skin tones are always the hardest thing in a portrait. You ruin the skin tones, you ruin the portrait, no matter how well you have painted the rest. There is no secret. The goal is likeness and even if you have traced the image, you may have traced inaccurately or lost the drawing of features in the process of painting. Then redraw. There are no excuses for the misplaced mouth or missing nostril.

Map out your highlights/mid-tones/darks accurately. I almost always start out with the highlights, giving them a very pale wash of cobalt turquoise light (Winsor Newton). Human skin tones, except the dead, are warm. This initial, barely visible cobalt turquoise layer and blues and violets you will introduce later will counterbalance the relentless ruddiness of the skin tones.

Yes, I use blue (cobalt blue) and violet (ultramarine violet) in the face. The reds vary depending on the subject. For the self-portrait, I used cadmium red and Sennelier helios purple (there is no substitute for this color; I really don't know why you are so reluctant to include this lovely, indispensable color on your palette). For the dark reds, I used madder brown, perylene maroon, perylene violet, and Piemontite genuine (in shadows).

The glasses went in last. One has to be utterly careful in handling the glasses. The portrait is about many things, but never about the glasses. It's there, but it's mostly suggested.

By the way, I don't necessarily tell you what colors to use in your independent projects as we have to learn to see the colors and come up with the right paints to render them through trial and error.

"Waikiki Sunrise" (watercolor on paper; 9" x 12")

 

"Waikiki Beach"

 

The following is the description of what we did in the eighth 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).

So what is this project about? It's about a controlled variegated wash, with which some of you are having trouble. It's also about the value control, by which many of you are haunted (this is the most important and hardest thing to master in any painting medium, so take heart). It is also about preserving lights while adding tones and texture (in the water).

It's dawn on Waikiki Beach. The sun is rising just behind Diamond Head in Oahu. There is a hint of a blue sky. Overall, the entire scene is permeated with glorious light. You destroy light in the water, you lose the painting. We masked the half sun disk and some horizontal strokes in the water to preserve the pure light, which is the white of the paper.

We wetted the entire upper half of the painting and stroked around the sun disk with winsor lemon, pale cadmium red and spread the lemon and cad red along the horizon and up. We dried the paper, wetted it again and this time brushed in cobalt blue from the top and pulled it down.

We dried the paper, wetted it again and strengthened the blue wash (the sky has to be blue enough), stroked in very pale permanent rose above cad red arch (which created a slight purple "color bridge" to connect red to blue). I also went over the yellow sky above the horizon in the distance with the blue (which created a slightly turquoise tone). Everything is done subtly. You go overboard any of the strokes/tones/hues, you ruin the sky.

The sky is almost half of the painting; so, when the sky is ruined, it's game over. It's the same with the water, which is the hardest thing to paint in this project. In a painting, everything has to work; every square inch of the painting has to contribute to the end game, which is beauty (not perfection). An imperfect painting can be beautiful.

We need the pale golden glow in the highlights of the water, so we wetted the bottom half of the paper and brushed in pale winsor lemon. We dried the paper. Now it's time to paint the blues of the water (reflection of the blue sky; some are quite dark, such as the reflections of the tall building on the left and some wavelets).

We wetted the paper again and started dropping all three blues: ultramarine blue along the distant horizon and along the left edge with the dark reflections and bottom right; winsor blue for much of the water; and some cobalt blue here and there. Winsor blue may be the "typical" ocean water color, but if you overdo it, it becomes acidic, unbearably cold blue, and that why I infused warmer ultramarine blue and cobalt blue to tone it down. Shadows are the mixture of ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson or the darker mixture of winsor blue and crimson.

Make sure you don't lose the pale lemon highlights. Your strokes are not random; They should have a distinct shape of a flat triangular peaks. Don't make them round. Study the reference carefully. In every project, study your still life, reference photo, or your view (if painting in plein air). All the answers are there. If you screw up, it's either your observation was not careful enough or your painting handling needs practice.

I kept making these strokes until I ran out of time. You will finish them on your own. I removed the masking fluid and made some horizontal orange strokes on the vertical "column" of brilliant highlight in the water. I also added some dots of white gouache to suggest the sparkles in the water. Use it thickly (but not straight out of the tube). Then I glazed over them with very pale lemon. This is the technique the great masters like Vermeer used extensively to make things glow in their oil paintings.

 

Finally, we painted the sliver of the land shape at one go, starting right below the sun disk with cad red and a little cad yellow pale. White the glowing red wash was still wet, I dropped the dark mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna to paint Diamond Head and tiny buildings on the far horizon. To the left of the sun disk, the tops of the buildings have more burnt sienna (this "redness" is all caused by the burning glow of the rising sun); on the other hand, along the horizon (remember the horizon curves slightly toward the left edge because of trees and such), I dropped more ultramarine blue to make it darker.

 

"Waikiki Beach Reference"