LESSON XII - And, Finally . . . Buildings, Butterflies, & Aspen Leaves

You probably thought you'd NEVER get to this last lesson!

Lesson 12 consists of more sketchbook exercises, a masking "batik", and another negative painting project.

But, first, I want to share with you a ritual that I suggest you do, at the beginning of a series of paintings, or before starting on a big project . . .

PREPARING TO PAINT

This ritual takes place AFTER you've planned your painting, or series; and usually after you've done the drawing and mounted your paper on a board.

Start with a clean palette, which is not this . . .

Wipe off the inside area of the palette, as well as all around the palette.  I also clean up the yellow wells, which have usually been contaminated with greens, blues, and reds.

After you've cleaned up your palette, it is ready for some fresh paint . . . 

Gather all the tubes of paint that you have on hand, or have recently purchased, and line them up at the corresponding wells.  (You can see that I don't always have every color.)

Then, squeeze each color into the appropriate well -- right on top of what is already there.  No need to discard the existing paint in the well, UNLESS it is so old that it is crumbly.  If that's the case, then scrape that old, crumbly paint out of there.

Use a palette knife to spread and smooth out the paint.  Try not to leave it in a mound or coiled in the middle of the well.

Continue this way, squeezing out and spreading the paint, working your way around the palette -- until you've used every tube that you have.  (You usually won't have to use the whole tube.)

It's kind of a messy process . . . 

To set up your "painting station", choose the brushes that you think you will need, and have them handy.  Prepare a "pad" of paper towels, made up of about 10 pieces of paper towels, folded in half and stacked.  Put this just to the left of your palette and to the right of your paper/board (if you are right-handed).

Fill up a plastic container with water and fill up a mister with clean water . . . 

 . . . and, you are ready to paint!

LESSON XI - Part 3: Color Wheel Mandalas

In this project, you will first find reference material for your Color Wheel (fruits & veggies & flowers).  Then, you'll draw and paint the Mandala.

GATHERING REFERENCE MATERIAL

You will be filling up your Color Wheel with different fruits, veggies, and flowers -- your choice. So you will want to gather references for each color:  Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Green, & Violet.

You can find the reference photos in three different ways:

1) Go to Farmer's Market or Grocery, and take pictures there, or buy the different colored produce and bring it home, to either take pix of, or draw/paint from life.

2)  Tear pix out of magazines, of fruits, veggies, and flowers, for each of the six colors.

3)  Find photos to use, on Pinterest.


Divide up the photos, by color.  Save them in separate manila envelopes, for this and for future projects.



DRAWING & PAINTING THE COLOR WHEEL MANDALA

Start with a piece of watercolor paper, that is at least 8" square.  Draw a 7" (approx) circle in the middle of the square.  Use an old-fashioned compass to draw this circle, so that you have a tiny hole in the middle of the circle.

Then draw a line through the center of the circle, dissecting it in half.  Then divide up each half into 3 pie shape segments, so you will end up with a circle divided into 6 equal parts.

Now, label each segment, in pencil -- on the outside of this circle -- with a color.  It doesn't matter where you start, but label them, according to the color wheel, as follows:  RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, VIOLET.

On your palette, you will prepare three separate washes of the three Primary Colors -- one at a time.  First, mix up a YELLOW (Aureolin Yellow, or similar) wash.  Make sure you have plenty of water, so that your wash is transparent.  You will be applying this wet wash onto DRY paper.

Paint this YELLOW wash on THREE of the segments:  the ORANGE, the YELLOW, and the GREEN.  Let this wash dry completely before proceeding.

When that wash is dry, clear off the yellow wash from your palette, and mix up a ROSE (Quinacridone Rose or Permanent Rose or Rose Madder Genuine) wash.  Since we will be layering this underpainting, keep the Rose wash light. So, be sure to have plenty of water so your wash will be nice and transparent.  Again, you will be applying this wet wash onto DRY paper, so make certain that your Yellow wash is dry.

Paint this ROSE wash on THREE of the segments:  the ORANGE, the RED, and the VIOLET.  (You can see why it was important to label the segments.  Let this wash dry completely before proceeding.

All the photos here are of my workshop students' work.

Now, mix up a BLUE wash, using Cobalt Blue and lots of water.  This should be a Pale Blue wash.  Paint this BLUE wash onto dry paper, on THREE of the segments:  the VIOLET, the BLUE, and the GREEN segments.  

Let this underpainting dry, while you find your photo references for the different color segments of the mandala.

Using your chosen photo references, draw and paint each of the color segments of the Wheel, one at a time . . . 

You can choose to draw and paint flowers, fruit, vegetables, or a combination of all of those.

You'll have to think about your design.  It's challenging, but fun, to design within a pie shaped space.

Obviously, you will be using more than one color in each section, but try to make each segment predominantly that color.  For example, the Yellow segment should be mostly Yellow, even though it might have a purple or green background.

These are all examples of my workshop students' work.  I'm looking forward to seeing your Color Wheel Mandala!

LESSON XI - Part 2: Painting a Checkerboard Abstraction

Using a checkerboard grid as the basic design, you will create an abstract, but organized, field of painted squares . . .

You will use the cracks of a stone wall (either my photograph or your own), as a jumping-off point for this design . . . 

For this project, you will need the following:  your watercolor paper, paint, and brushes; masking fluid; a quill pen or toothpicks or other applicator, and Q-tips (for the masking fluid) . . . 

You will use just four watercolor pigments (Quinacridone Burnt Orange (or Burnt Sienna), French Ultramarine Blue, Quinacridone Gold, and Alizarin Crimson) . . . 

Begin by drawing a grid on your 7" x 10" watercolor paper, with a pencil and a ruler, resulting in 7 - 1" squares across and 10 - 1" squares down.  

Now, either sit in front of a stone wall, or refer to the photograph above, and draw the cracks in the wall, with your pencil.  No shading -- just draw the contour of the cracks that you see.  Ignore the grid -- just draw the cracks until you have covered your paper.

Prepare your masking fluid, now.  In a small (tiny) plastic container, pour in a little of the masking fluid.  Add a little water to the masking fluid, and mix it up with a toothpick.  By watering it down, it makes the masking go on easier with a quill pen.  It will still resist the paint.  I like to use a quill pen, because you can peel off the masking from the metal nib, after it dries.  

Draw the masking fluid on the cracks -- But only in EVERY OTHER SQUARE.

Allow the masking fluid to totally dry before proceeding.

Now, prep your paints on your palette -- the French Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Orange, and Quin Gold.

Wet the entire painting with clear water, and drop in these four colors, in a random way -- letting them mingle on their own. . . 

While this is still just damp, spatter these same colors onto your painting.  (Just dip your brush in the pigment and then tap your brush over the wet paint -- your brush should not touch the painting) . . . 

Let your painting dry -- on a flat surface. . . 

You will be doing some more masking, so be sure that your painting is completely dry.  Mix up some more masking fluid and water, if necessary, in your small plastic container.

This time, apply the masking fluid to those squares that you skipped last time.  But, in those squares, instead of masking the cracks, you will MASK THE AREAS AROUND THE CRACKS . . . in EVERY OTHER SQUARE.  So, you will be doing the opposite of what you did the first time around.

When you have larger areas to cover with the masking, outline the shape with the quill pen, dipped in the masking, to get a nice edge to the shape -- and then, fill it in with a cotton swab dipped in the masking.

When you're finished, each square will be the opposite of the square next to it . . . 

Let this dry completely.  Meanwhile, mix up a few puddles of dark combinations:  French Ultramarine + Burnt Orange; Burnt Orange + Alizarin Crimson; and Alizarin Crimson + French Ultramarine . . . 

Now, WITHOUT wetting your paper first, start painting these darks on a diagonal, starting in one corner -- one at a time -- working your way down the paper.  Paint right over the masking -- that's why it is there.  When you switch colors, rinse out your brush quickly, pick up the next color, and start painting where you left off . . . 

While this is still wet, lay it flat and spatter some individual colors onto it -- like the Ultramarine, Aliz. Crimson, and the Burnt Orange.  Then, let it dry completely.

Now, it's time to remove all the masking from your painting.  To do this, you can use a rubber cement pick-up eraser -- just rub it off gently.  If you don't have one of these erasers, you can use your thumb or a kneaded eraser.  (The painting should be absolutely dry, before doing this.)

When you have picked up/ rubbed off all of the masking, rub your hand over the surface of the painting, to make sure that you've gotten it all off.

You are almost, but not quite, finished.

Mix up a pale wash of Quinacridone Gold -- lots of water with a little pigment.  Now, paint this wash over the outer square only -- all the way around.  This is called "glazing" -- where you paint a pale wash of color over layers of dry paint.

OK, NOW you're done!  Just sign, mat, and frame it.  This little abstract painting would look awesome with a big, wide white mat around it, in a simple black frame.

                                                

LESSON XI - Part 1: Sketchbook & Color Exercises for Fruit & Veggies

After a trip to the grocery or farmer's market, try these exercises . . .



1)  Imagination/ Observation/ Memory -- Use three separate pages for this exercise.


On the first page, IMAGINATION, draw a few pieces of fruit, and a few other random objects, just from your imagination, without looking at anything.  Use pencil . . .

On the 2nd page, OBSERVATION, look at the fruit and other objects, and draw them in pencil, adding shading . . . 

Now, put away the fruit and other objects, and on the next page, MEMORY, draw them from memory . . . 

2)  Still Life Drawing, Two Ways  -- Set up a simple still life with a few pieces of fruit in a bowl, on a dishcloth or tablecloth.

On the first page, draw a contour drawing of the set-up in ink . . . 

On the 2nd page, draw the same set-up -- this time, with pencil and shading . . . 

3)  Blind Contour -- Do contour drawings of fruit, in pencil -- but WITHOUT LOOKING AT YOUR PAPER.  Only look at the fruit you are drawing . . . (don't expect this to be pretty.)

4)  Quick Color Study, Two Ways -- Set up a simple still life in front of a window -- an orange, two apples, and a little vase, for example.  Paint this set-up in two ways:

"Draw" the still life with a brush and orange paint.  Then, paint it . . . 

On a separate scrap of watercolor paper, paint it a 2nd time.  This time, draw it first in pencil, quickly.  Then paint it quickly and directly, using very bright colors.  If you want, set a timer for 15 minutes and try to finish the study within that time. . . 

5)  Pencil Value Studies -- Draw some fruit, in pencil or charcoal.  Add shading to build up the values and add form . . . 

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The secret to happiness (according to something I read on the Internet) -- is VEGETABLES!  I guess you have to actually eat them in order to truly be happy, but we're going to draw and paint them -- and we'll see if that works, too.

6)  A Bunch of Celery -- In your sketchbook, draw a bunch of celery, in pencil.  Add shading.  Draw two different views of the celery, on the same page . . . 

7)  Peppers on a Plate -- Put several different kinds of peppers on a plate.  Draw a bird's-eye-view of the peppers -- a contour drawing in ink.  Do a wet-in-wet painting for the color.  (You can either do the painting first, and then add the ink contour drawing; or draw it in ink first, and then add the color.)

8)  An Ear of Corn  -- Do a contour drawing in pencil, of an ear of corn -- either fresh or use Indian corn . . .