Watercolor Painting for Dummies (55 page)
Read Watercolor Painting for Dummies Online
Authors: Colette Pitcher
Tags: #Art, #Techniques, #Watercolor Painting, #General
A wave is a complete circle of water. Only half of it appears above the horizon; the other half is underwater. The top or
crest
is what you see as the highest point. The center is the
eye
and appears as the lightest area where the sun shines through. The white stuff you see when the wave crashes on the shore is
foam.
Foam can be a line or a pattern of white that allows the water’s darker color to show through in a calm wave. A wave and its parts are shown in Figure 11-3.
Figure 11-3:
Parts of a wave.
Waves are generally horizontal and parallel to the horizon. Of course when the waves crash and splash against the rocks, they splatter everywhere, as they do in Figure 11-4. This painting has horizontal waves, diagonal waves toward the shore, and vertical crashing waves on the rocks. But even if the waves take on one of these diagonal or vertical movements, they have a horizontal base. Waves are fairly parallel to each other too. Don’t stress about being exact. Nature is pretty organic. Sure, you can measure with a ruler, but just trust your eye for the most part.
Figure 11-4:
Rocks and crashing waves.
To capture the ocean waves in Figure 11-4, I painted around the whites of the splashing water using a variety of blues. I added a
glaze
(lots of water with a little paint) of a mixture of ultramarine blue and a bit of burnt sienna after the first blues were dry.
Keep in mind that waves have perspective. The closer the waves are to the foreground, the larger, more colorful, and more detailed they are. The farther away they get, the closer together they appear, the grayer they look, and the less detailed and distinct they become.
As with every other watercolor subject, the best way to figure out how to portray ocean waves is to sit in front of the real thing and observe. Look for pattern, shape, values, contrasts, direction, and colors, and don’t forget to breathe.
Waves erupt in violent, spectacular splashes. Water flowing down a waterfall or river has an irresistible energy. This stage of high excitement is one of my favorite things to paint.
The key here is
white
water. In Chapter 5 I explain that white is the reflection of all color, so that’s how I paint it. I like to add a little of the entire rainbow but keep the colors very pale.
Figure 11-5 shows a vertical waterfall full of rocks and splashing water.
Figure 11-5:
Tumbling, splashing water.
In this painting, I first saved the whites using masking fluid (Chapter 4 talks more about saving white and masking). Then I added pale washes in a range of colors to define the water. I glazed very pale yellow, pink, and purple into the water shadows. I painted in the color and quickly softened some of the hard edges with clear water. The rocks were added using dark paint. (I show you how to paint rocks in Chapter 10.)
Splashes are fun and lend a lot of energy to the waves. This riverscape has many little dots of sparkling white water exuberance. Some dots were saved using masking fluids, and some were picked out with a razor blade when the paint was dry and the painting nearly finished.
To cut in exciting little dots, take a single-edge razor blade and use the sharp corner to gently but firmly flick a small dot within some dry color. Be careful not to cut through the paper. This shows up best when the white is picked out of a dark area. Contrast!
The good news is you have choices on white dots: If you’re a planner, use masking fluid; if you forgot to plan, use a razor blade.
It doesn’t matter whether you paint the rocks first or the water first. In Figure 11-4, I painted the rocks first and used them to outline the water. In Figure 11-5, I painted the water first and kept the masking fluid on until the rocks were painted. After I finished the rocks, I removed the fluid to reveal the white splashes.
As with everything, the important rule is variety. Make the rocks different sizes and create different shapes in the water between the rocks. Make the waves different widths and the splashes different heights. Nothing should line up.
Shorelines can be as varied as the water they outline. Sandy beaches come in every color from black volcanic sands in Hawaii to pure white sand in the Caribbean, to pink sand from ground seashells, to earthy brown sand from the sandman. Some beaches lack sand and are rocky instead. Some shorelines are marshy and have grasses and reeds so close together that they don’t offer many places to stand. The shoreline you choose flavors the location of your seascape.
White sand can be like painting snow. The white of the paper is the white sand. The shadows describe the mounds of sand. Details are painted last, if at all. To make a shadow, paint the mound edge with a hard edge brush stroke and soften the other side (away from the mound) with water so it fades into the distance. The way you manipulate the shadow’s shape outlines hills and valleys in the sand. Depending on the time of day and the influence of the sun, ultramarine blue or purple is a good shadow color for white sand. Another land formation that lends itself to this technique is sand dunes.
Many beaches have more earth-colored sand. Burnt sienna, burnt umber, and yellow ochre are good choices for an earthy beach. Add plenty of water for a light transparent sand color. A little diluted cadmium red makes the pink beaches. Make a black-sand beach with ultramarine blue and burnt sienna mixed to a dark black.
Observe the edges of the sand as the water covers it. Is it lighter or darker than the dry sand? Is it lighter or darker than the water? Measure these values with your value chart on the Cheat Sheet. Then mix paint that is as dark in value as the measurement value.
The colors and shadows depend on the angle of the sun, the reflections of the sky, the type of sand, and the time of day. Observe and re-create what you see.
Have some fun in the sand. You can make sand as realistic as you want or as impressionistic as the sand in the upcoming activity.
A simple beach with a single seashell can model for a very special postcard from the beach.
1.
Get a 5-x-7-inch piece of watercolor paper, turn it horizontally, and activate your paints.
For the shell colors, I used a pink, orange, burnt sienna, a yellow, and a blue-gray mixed from ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. Choose colors you have available that are similar. When it’s time to paint the sand, you can use your own color combination or the pigments I used, listed in Step 8.
2.
Transfer the seashell in Figure 11-6 onto your paper.
You can place the shell wherever you want. I put mine in the upper right third of the paper. (Chapter 8 has tips on transferring.)
Figure 11-6:
The seashell outline.
3.
Paint the seashell using a round brush with a pointed tip.
A. Paint the seashell area with a transparent pink as shown in Figure 11-7a. By adding water to the paint, you make it more transparent or see-through.
B. While the color is wet, drop in some other colors like yellow and orange wherever you see the need. In Figure 11-7a, I kept the darker colors on the bottom and the yellow on the top to make it look like light is hitting the shell.
C. Allow the paint to dry or use a hair dryer.
Figure 11-7:
Adding color details to the seashell.
D. Paint bands of seashell detail and the holes with diluted burnt sienna and blue-gray, using Figure 11-7b as your guide. Let one layer of color dry and add another on top for a darker area like in the holes. Under the shell, I painted a shadow of blue-gray mixed from ultramarine blue and burnt sienna with a lot of water to make it transparent, as shown in Figure 11-7c.
4.
Paint the first layer of sand.
Dampen the area around the seashell with clear water. Paint in diluted burnt sienna and a little yellow. Keep the darker area toward the edges of the paper. My first sand layer is shown in Figure 11-8.
5.
Let the sand dry completely.
Figure 11-8:
Laying down a layer of sand.
6.
Paint masking fluid over the seashell when the paint is completely dry.
I used a mask that looks gray when applied. Dip your brush in liquid soap before dipping it into the masking fluid and cover the entire area of the seashell and its shadow.
7.
Let the masking fluid dry naturally without the help of a blow-dryer, which will cook the fluid into the paper.
8.
Tilt the painting up (using an easel is a good idea) and spatter paint using a toothbrush to simulate the sand.
Dip a toothbrush into wet paint and draw your thumbnail over the bristles to let the paint fly randomly onto the paper (see Figure 11-9a). (Tilting the paper makes the drips of the spatter painting land on the table and not on your painting.) Rinse the toothbrush and try different colors until you’re satisfied.
For the sand shown in Figure 11-9b, I used ultramarine blue, purple, burnt sienna, cadmium orange, cerulean blue, cadmium red, and yellow ochre. You really can’t go wrong with the colors you choose. Experiment and have fun. Enjoy the reactions and the random mixes that happen on the paper. (Chapter 4 has more on spattering.)
9.
Let all the paint dry.
Figure 11-9:
Spattered sand creates a natural look.
10.
Peel off the masking fluid.
11.
Touch up anywhere that needs reinforcement.
My mask lifted a bit of the color of the seashell, so I glazed over the shell with the same colors and added some details again.
Postcard complete! You should have something resembling Figure 11-10.
Figure 11-10:
A seashell on the seashore.
