Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium (18 page)

TOM HOFFMANN,
BABY GRAND BALER,
2009
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES COLD PRESS PAPER
11 × 15 INCHES (28 × 38 CM)

Here, the baler is clearly the star of the show. The stacked hay bales play a supporting role, and they would compete for center stage if they were more specific. They are made up of many brushstrokes, but because these are mostly soft-edged marks, it is possible to take in the overall shape as one form without being distracted by too much information.

It is often appropriate to
imply
complexity in a subject rather than to
specify
it. Too much specific information leads to a confusing picture, where the viewer’s eye is pulled in several directions at once. If your pictures tend to lack clarity and cohesiveness, consider holding off on the hard edges until you know where you really want them. As a preliminary study, try blocking in the lights and the middle values all wet-on-wet. By the time you’re ready for the darks, you will probably have a good basis for deciding where you want to focus attention. See how the picture “reads” if you only make hard edges in that center of interest.

SUZE WOOLF,
SEKIU 3212,
2010
WATERCOLOR ON GESSO
25 × 19 INCHES (64 × 48 CM)

Knowing what will happen
within an acceptable range
allows the artist to give some of the control back to the paint and paper. In her telephone pole paintings, Suze Woolf juxtaposes carefree and careful brushwork to marvelous advantage. She knew she could let the colors flow together at will on the pole and still achieve an appropriate background.

STERLING EDWARDS
A PIEDMONT SNOW SCENE,
2008
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
22 × 30 INCHES (56 × 76 CM)

In this winter scene, both exciting and serene, Sterling Edwards makes excellent use of the infinite variety of soft edges watercolor can provide. If your subject calls for soft strokes, like these dark, distant conifers, but you don’t want the paint to spread too much, the brush must be drier than the paper.

Dry paper always
results in a hard edge. There is not much variation from one hard edge to the next. You can make a rough stroke on dry paper that reveals the texture of the surface, but it is still a hard edge.

Soft edges, on the other hand, have infinite variety. Once you have chosen to create soft-edged forms, it remains to decide
how
soft. The relative wetness of the paper and the brush determine how a stroke will spread. Don’t forget who’s in charge here. It is a good idea to visualize the result you want and try it out on a piece of practice paper. Always use the same kind of paper that you use for the proper painting, so that the results will be the same. I use the backs of failed paintings, of which I seem to have an endless supply. Ask yourself:
How wet does the paper need to be?
When you think you know the answer, experiment with different degrees of wetness on the paper. Learn to judge the wetness by the look of the paper. Holding the sheet at eye level between you and the source of light reveals the sheen.

Many watercolor painters assume that you must wait for the paper to be wet to
exactly
the right degree before applying secondary strokes that need soft edges. In fact, controlling the edge quality of those strokes has as much to do with the dryness of the brush as with how wet the paper is.

To practice, try this exercise, in which the wash on the paper is constant but the wetness of the brush varies. First, make a large, shiny wash (not dripping wet) of a pale color. Then load a brush with a contrasting color, using lots of paint and very little water, and make a stroke into the initial wash. Next, add a little more water and make another stroke. Keep adding water and making test strokes until you lose control of the edge altogether. Work quickly, so the paper does not dry. When the brush becomes wetter than the paper you will see the second color displacing the first, resulting in a bloom.

A variation on this exercise keeps the wetness of the brush constant and varies the wetness of the paper: Make three washes—one just damp, one quite shiny, and one dripping wet—each about 6 × 6 inches (15 × 15 cm) in size. Then load the brush with plenty of pigment and very little water. Work quickly, so your washes stay wet. Observe how the brushstrokes look on the palette. You should briefly be able to see the tracks of individual bristles before the stroke flows back together. The idea is for the brush to be drier than any of the washes. Make a short stroke in the center of the first wash. Reload the brush with more paint but no more water, and make a similar stroke in the second wash. Do the same for the third. Were the results what you expected?

The antidote for most
wetness control issues is staying aware of how wet your brush is compared to the paper. Most watercolor painters dip their brush into the water bucket far more often than necessary. This is a sure way to lose track of the relative wetness of brush and paper.

When you are putting color into a wet surface, the initial wash can be thought of as your entire water supply. Any strokes added while it’s still wet don’t need more water from the bucket. Instead, just get some more paint on your brush, which is still a little bit wet, and add it to the wash. When you are applying color to a wet surface, the paint can be
much
thicker than what you would use on dry paper.

Sometimes all the care, practice, and conscious thought you can muster is still not enough to dispel uncertainty about whether the brush or the paper is wetter. When painting a large, complicated sky, for example, it is not always easy to be sure how wet every part of your paper is. A hard edge in the wrong place could be fatal. Pay attention to that sense of doubt. Think of it as a red flag, so that you will remember not to make that next uncertain stroke in the most conspicuous spot. Look for a place where you can make a tiny mark that won’t be obvious later, and watch how the paint behaves. If you still can’t be sure what will happen when the brush touches the paper,
pay attention!
Let your eye follow the stroke closely, so that you can stop as soon as you see something wrong. The idea is to catch it before you make a whole bunch of hard-edged strokes. If the conditions are not right, you should be able to notice it a quarter of an inch into the first stroke. Hopefully, this is a small enough sin that you won’t feel the need to correct it. With watercolor, the cure is usually more harmful than the ailment.

TOM HOFFMANN,
HIGH SUMMER,
2008
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES COLD PRESS PAPER
22 × 15 (56 × 38 CM)

As the sky approaches the horizon, the blue changes from ultramarine to cobalt, and from cobalt to cerulean. About halfway down it became clear that the paper was getting too dry. I had to wait for it to dry completely, so I could rewet it and continue. To keep from jumping the gun, I turned around and kept busy painting another view.

FRANK LALUMIA,
WHITE SANDS,
1998
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
21½ × 14½ (55 × 37 CM)

The yucca plant stands out against the sky even though it has no hard edges. The paint stays put, softening just a bit. The artist could have made these strokes by controlling either the wetness of the paper or the dryness of the brush, or both.

LESLIE FRONTZ,
LAND’S END FARM,
2005
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
8½ × 11½ INCHES (22 × 29 CM)

Most of the big shapes in this scene have hard
edges that separate them from each other. The road, for example, is separate from the grass on either side, and the hill beside the house is crisply profiled against the sky. Within the hill shape, however, all the forms are soft. Why did the artist choose to make that subject matter vague? Touching a relatively dry brush to paper made wet by an overall wash, suggests the rocks and bushes without overstating them.