Watercolor on Location: The Arboretum Sketching!!week 2

ARNOLD ARBORETUMWATERCOLOR ON LOCATION:

Sketch!!

!I have observed in student work and my own a clear advantage to beginning the watercolor

process with a small sketch.There are some obvious advantages and some not so obvious and I will take this time to offer my own experience. Typically we arrive on a scene after a drive and carrying our gear to a location and realize well we don’t have as much time for painting as we thought so the first thing we by pass is the small sketch. In my experience the small sketch saves me time and some guess work in the painting process. The reasons are that while I am sketching I am making that mental transition into a watercolor frame of mind. We arrive at a scene with a hundred and one things in our mind. What we need to do after class, why was the traffic so bad this morning, did I call my mother? the list is deep and that is not the right mindset to begin a watercolor. !

Doing the sketch gives me time to make that transition. While I am sketching all those annoying thoughts fade away until I am alone in front of my subject, drawing - in heaven, in a watercolor state of mind.!

ARNOLD ARBORETUMWATERCOLOR ON LOCATION:

In the sketch I work out important matters so that I can address them without second guessing myself when I paint them. What are those importunity matters? They can be many things but my checklist is relatively small. I want to understand the major shapes of my subject, I want to record the major value pattern, and I want to make some notes as to the mood inspired by the location. !

The major shapes.!When looking for subject matter I look for interesting shape and shape patterns. I try to show

these first in my sketch. I also make an effort to join shapes and simplify adjacent shapes to the point where I have three or four positive shapes in my composition. In the case of todays work I consider Trees to be one shape = the mid ground or bushes to be the second shape and the foreground with shadow and road to the third shape. there are of course many interesting shapes that occur within these shapes but I do not give them the same attention.!

The Value pattern!The value pattern is the pattern of lights and darks within my subject. We know that the range

is infinite and how can we account for each value present - we cannot. I again simplify into three or four value ranges - note a value range is different than a single value. with in a value range we can have a few changes where as a value is only one. Look at my sketch, look at my painting can you see that I have made the mid ground the lightest value the sky the second lightest the trees the third lights and the foreground is the darkest value. Naturally it pitches my darkest dark against the lightest light in the figures against the mid ground. This is where i want you to look first.!

The mood!Todays mood is one of bright sunshine at our backs - a dry sharp day with a snap in the air. we

are on the cusp of a changing season and so the sky is warmer and the grasses have yellowed. Coats on our figures convey a chill. In terms of the painting I understand that my range in values will be a broad range with an abundance of sharp edges - bright staccato colors against strong melting shadows convey the mood I feel. !

Well I feel as if I have already painted the painting in my head. Now I am ready to paint.!I can usually record these things in a 15 minute sketch and by the time I am finished I have in

part internalized my subject and feel more confident in painting it.!

!!

Demo!

ARNOLD ARBORETUMWATERCOLOR ON LOCATION:

The First step was to LOOSLEY place the major divisions of heaven and earth, then the oblique

shape of the road. I spent more time on getting the figures where I want them. I leave the pines and bushes and big foreground shadow to be described with brushwork!

!I lay in the sky with cobalt blue and a bit of cad orange mixed in at the bottom to give a bit of change in an otherwise boring sky. I paint the grasses and bushes in the mid ground with bright yellows and

ARNOLD ARBORETUMWATERCOLOR ON LOCATION:

reds - wet on wet to keep softness. I carry this section to a higher degree of finish. Then I give a darker warm wash below for the underpainting of the road.!Let all of this dry!!

!I return once the page has dried and start to work left to right on the pine trees - my working

thought is to create a strong gesture to the trees with a green mixed from cobalt turquoise, cad yellow, burnt sienna. While the tree is still wet i paint small firm stroke of a dark violet dry into wet to get the shadowed side of a few pine boughs. The trees on the far right are spruce, have a different structure and color with less details. I etch in a few trucks with a knife blade while the paint is still moist.!

I also make an effort to soften the edges where pines meet with the grasses. so that we feel the grasses are growing up and in front of the pines. here and there I leave a hard edge so that we may see the slope!!In the final stage I paint a deep cool wash over the road and while it is moist I add the figures

with really rich paint. As it dries the warm colors become more visible under the shadow.!

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ARNOLD ARBORETUMWATERCOLOR ON LOCATION:

Summary!Upon reflection I feel I captured the strong light of the day and also the gestures of those tall

pines. I was successful in showing the soft nature and bright dry color of the grasses on the slope. Also I remained true to my sketch and first impression.!

The shy is a little week and plain, I feel I came into the shadow with too strong of a gray and did not break op the shadows as much as I could have. The figures are understandable but a little clumsy. !!!

!Ahhh well there is always tomorrow!

ARNOLD ARBORETUMWATERCOLOR ON LOCATION: