Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium (17 page)
Read Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium Online
Authors: Tom Hoffmann
Photos rarely depict the true experience of being at the scene, especially in a high-contrast image. If the emphasis is on the subtlety of the lights, like the photo of Mercado Benito Juarez, Oaxaca, shown on
this page
, the darks often come out as a solid black shape. While we may accept that in a photo, in a painting it simply would not work. If you were actually present at the scene, there would be plenty of subtle information visible within that big dark shape. In the painting, it will often be necessary to at least suggest the complexity, rather than painting half the picture dead black.
The three major shapes in the background—sky, headland, and water—are nicely varied in value, but they are nearly all the same size. Considering who is in charge, would you change their proportions? More sky or less? What about the distribution of dark verticals in the foreground?
TOM HOFFMANN,
PERCH,
2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES COLD PRESS PAPER
15 × 15 INCHES (38 × 38 CM)
I have painted this scene more times than any other spot on the planet (there it is, again, on
this page
), so I know I want to separate the foreground landmass from the background. On this day, the darks in the distance looked just as dark as those in the foreground, and the driftwood logs on the beach appeared lighter than anything up close. To make the space believable, I lied.
Taking its exposure reading from the light opening in the center, the camera does not show much detail in the foreground darks. As a photo, the image of Mercado Benito Jaurez, Oaxaca, is moody and intriguing, but as a painting those big, empty darks would be too large a percentage of the picture to devote to a lot of nothing.
In this version of
Mercado Benito Juarez, Oaxaca,
the empty darks are isolated from the rest of the scene, having nothing in common with the lights and middle values.
TOM HOFFMANN,
MERCADO BENITO JUAREZ, OAXACA,
2011
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES COLD PRESS PAPER
11 × 15 INCHES (28 × 38 CM)
A suggestion of information, even if you can’t tell what it is, makes the darks feel like an integral part of the scene.
PIET LAP,
SOUND OF SLEAT, SCOTLAND,
2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES PAPER
22½ × 30 INCHES (57 × 76 CM)
In the sky area of this painting, the artist was able to let the wetness of the paper and gravity do what they would with the paint. He knew that whatever happened would be “perfect enough.” When he needed to maintain tighter control of the flow, such as where the most distant hill changes from a hard to a soft edge, he made thoughtful choices about where to wet the paper and where to leave it dry.
control of wetness. In many cases the former comes about as a result of the latter. The role of the water in watercolor is a slippery subject. Keeping track requires a degree of mindfulness that may at first seem alien to the looseness many painters anticipate from the medium. Ultimately, though, you will discover that a thoughtful approach is what sets you free.
responsibility for it. I often hear students explain mistakes by saying, “the brush got too wet” or “the paper got too dry,” as if that happened by itself. As long as you continue to blame the paper or the brush, the same mistakes will keep happening. Fate plays no part in the painting process. It is all up to you.
When wet paint meets wet paper it is impossible to tell
exactly
what will happen. The good news is that we don’t need precise information. It is enough—in fact, it is best—just to know
approximately
how the paint will behave. Leaving some room for the fluidity of the paint to assert itself is how the characteristic look of spontaneity enters a watercolor. Too much control is just as likely to ruin a painting as too little. Finding a graceful balance requires staying aware of the factors that affect the movement of the paint.
ORKING WITH
H
ARD AND
S
OFT
E
DGES
Sometimes the subject matter of what you are about to paint will tell you whether the
edges of the form should be hard or soft, but there are no rules about this. Clouds often appear to have soft edges, for example, but you can paint perfectly acceptable clouds with only hard edges. You can search long and hard in most of Edward Hopper’s watercolors and never see a soft-edged cloud.
As you paint, ask yourself:
What kind of edge does this form need?
Most often, the focal point of the picture determines how wet the paper and the brush need to be in any given area. Hard edges are assertive and tend to describe distinct forms, while soft edges merge with the field on which they have been applied. For instance, in
Familiar Rock,
opposite, we are encouraged to see the trees on the foreground headland as individual forms, while on the hillside in the background we are meant to see the forest as a whole.
Soft edges tend to describe a subject in
general
terms, while hard edges are usually more
specific.
Consider the role that the particular area you are about to paint is meant to play in the big picture before deciding whether your paper should be wet or dry. Ask yourself:
How much attention do I want the viewer to pay here?
TOM HOFFMANN,
FAMILIAR ROCK,
2009
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES COLD PRESS PAPER
12 × 14 (30 × 36 CM)
The hard edges of the nearer trees are necessary to keep them separate from the more distant hillside. If the painting were made with only hard-edged shapes or all soft edges, the pictorial space would be ambiguous. Choices have been made that deliberately focus the viewer’s attention, much as you would focus the lens of a camera.
MARY WHYTE,
RED,
2011
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
18½ × 18½ INCHES (47 × 47 CM)
Limiting the hard edges to the face and the hat keeps the viewer’s eye from being distracted elsewhere. The job of the background, for example, is simply to set off the figure. Once that is accomplished, nothing more needs to be added.
