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Hello Everyone!

Hello beautiful Doodle Painters!!

How do you know when a painting is done? Is it a feeling, or is there something more concrete that will answer this question?

Truth is, there are many ways to answer this question. One way to evaluate your work is to study the elements and principles of design. This can give you insight on how to dialogue with your visual composition.

The one design component I want you to focus on in this lesson is VALUE—how light or dark a color is. Then assess how colors are placed in relationship to each other, to form a composition.

Viewing your work in black and white will help you see the richness and depth of your surface. This process will help you see the value range to help inform and direct your painting to completion.

Value contrast will create stronger images. A full range of values from darkest dark to lightest lights is a powerful tool that will upgrade your work.

Thank you for signing up for this online class. I celebrate you for taking the steps of exploring your doodles and exploding them into larger pieces of work.

I am delighted to be standing alongside you, in wonder and discovery through the creative process.

Much love to you all,

Stay connected!

Diane

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Hello!

This is our big week of painting!

All the work you have done so far led to this point—making the jump into two large paintings.

I love being here with you, cheering you on. I am so excited about where you are and what is happening in your creative process. Spending time in your studio = the best.

Big love,

Diane

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A Note From Carla

Hello!

This is the only email you will get this week… the idea is that you get all the content at the beginning of the week and then paint, paint, paint! The Lesson 10 videos are in three parts:

Introduction Video

10A – Start to finish of 1st painting with music only.

10B – Start to finish of 2nd painting with commentary.

Videos A & B are in a longer format, in order to see as much of Diane’s actual painting process as possible.

So enjoy the videos, paint all week, and your final lesson will go up next Tuesday!

Carla

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Hello!

This lesson is about working on the second wood panel with another theme/imagery, using primary colors and mixing to create harmony.

I chose a botanical theme (flowers, leaves, etc) for my second wood panel, and slowly added lines, building up lights and darks. This painting began with pencil, adding lines slowly to feel my way into the composition. I used tints to create more light.

After you have this composition laid out, stop and set it aside to rest. Come back later and you will see it with fresh eyes.

Yea! This is it, you are on your way from doodling into painting large!!!

XoXo

Diane

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Hello!

In this lesson, we will layer additional paint/colors to your 30″x30″ painting and choose a theme/imagery that will guide your compositions for both wood panels. This will add intention into the mix as you build the design.

The theme I chose for my first wood panel is patterns. As I began to find my way, the composition began to arise through the making of a variety of line, circles and triangles. The painting continued to grow and develop as I freely went along the path that became clear, one moment at a time.

Joy in the process,

Diane

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Hello Paint-Doodlers,

Love all the work you’ve been sharing online, you inspire me! Buckets of joy, thank you!

This lesson is about preparing your panels with gesso to seal/prime the wood, and then activating the surface with a foundational layer of paint/color.

Hello wonderful Artists,

This lesson is about exploring and mixing color to create harmony with the chosen theme of a landscape.

The purpose of this exercise is to stay in the flow of a doodle… to connect the feeling into a painting on a smaller scale before jumping into a larger surface.

Hello Doodle Artists,

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The flower designs you’ve been creating would make wonderful fabric, and now with spoonflower.com, we can all do it relatively cheaply and easily.

I have had fabric made with Spoonflower many times and have been happy overall with the quality of the fabric and colors. The colors do tend to come back a bit more saturated than the originals — but not much! I’m sure if I spent the time to adjust the colors and test it I could get it super close.

Here is one way to make your fabric repeat seamlessly, which I learned through Julia Rothman’s excellent tutorial. (If the steps I show below are confusing for any reason, I would suggest hopping over to the above link, as hers are really clear! Also, I’m using Photoshop, but you can do it by hand, as Julia shows, or I’m pretty sure you can use whatever photo editing program you have.)

A Note on Sizing: I usually scan my images in at 300 dpi (dots per inch) and then save it as a tiff file. Spoonflower says they get good quality with their minimum of 150 dpi, so it is up to you! Their size limit for uploading is 40mg, so you might need to lower your dpi a bit if your original design is large. Here is the link for spoonflower.com help.

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A Step-by-Step

Step 1. Scan in your design. In this case, I avoided drawing the flowers off the edges of the paper, as Julia recommends. (You can do this techique also with flowers that are off the edge, it might just take a bit more Photoshop time to make your flowers flow seamlessly together.) This was on 8.5 x 11″ paper.

I added the orange background so that you can see more clearly the steps!

———-

Step 2. Select your image, and copy it (so it is in the computer “memory”). Then, drag your selected image down to exactly half the length (in this case, 5.5″). Deselect.

———-

Step 3. Now “Paste” the full design onto a separate layer and then move it up so the bottom half of the design ends at the 5.5″ mark. In this image, I’m about to move the top portion down and to the left a little to obscure the bright orange ground (which is there for demo purposes). Now it will look like this:

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Step 4. “Flatten” your image.

———-

Step 5. Note: You are basically repeating steps 2 and 3 here, but you will be moving the image horizontally instead. Copy your full image so it is in your “memory”, and move it over to the right so the left edge ends at exactly half the size of the paper (in my case, 4.25″).

Then, paste your full image and move it to the left so the right edge of the image lines up in the middle. It will now look like this:

———-

Step 6. Next, copy and paste one of your flowers and add to the middle portion, so that there won’t be as big of an orange gutter down the middle. I pasted two more white flowers in. Save.

———-

Step 7. Go to spoonflower.com and click create/custom fabric (you might need to set up a free account first). It will prompt you to choose and upload your file. Once uploaded, it will automatically place it in a pattern such as the one above (notice, it’s not lined up).

———-

Step 9. Select “half drop” in your layout options and it should line up correctly now!

You can edit the size of how your design prints at the Spoonflower site. And, I would highly recommend buying a fat quarter first to “test” the sizing/colors before spending the money to buy more yardage. (And if a fabric isn’t to your liking, well, you can cut it up for some expensive collage matter!)

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Another option is to purchase fabric sheets that can be run through your ink jet printer at home. Here is a link of some different kinds available. I’ve only tried the Avery brand, and it worked fine (though the fabric is quite thin, and the colors are also a bit brighter and less subtle than the originals).

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Finally, I’ll point you to this excellent post at The Magic Bean, where several other fabric-related tutorials are compiled that might interest you.

Good luck, and please feel free to chime in if you have expertise you’d like to share, or links to tutorials that were helpful to you!
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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 23″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 23 Assignment

You will start a batch of wallflowers that will eventually become a piece in itself.

Here is another project you can work on over time. Bit by bit you will add to your collection of flowers, and eventually end up with a whole wall if you choose!

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— 140# watercolor paper, size of your choice

— scissors

— watercolors, brushes, gesso

— gray Copic marker

— cardboard scraps

— gel medium
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 22″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 22 Assignment

When I added collage to this board book spread, I thought of it as kind of a hybrid between the two different methods we worked with last week (Collage “Last,” and Collage “First”). Of course there’s really no way to give a step-by-step, as the painting process is so intuitive and dependant upon all kinds of things. But I hope seeing how my pages came together might help a bit!

1. “Blank” canvas: the board book page with most of the glossy printed matter peeled off.

2. There were already some vertical shapes there, so my first thought was to add collage pieces that mirrored those shapes. I had in mind three large flowers even at this point. I started with the yellow paper as “stems” and then added the green as loose petals and leaves. (Chaos, this step, for sure!)

3. Here I added orange watercolor to most of the surface. I didn’t coat it completely, as I wanted some of the kraft brown to show through as well. Also, I used a “dry” brush in some areas so that some of the brushstrokes would show.

4. I went in VERY SLOWLY with my first layer of gesso. I would carve out a leaf, for example, then carefully make my next mark based on the first. In addition, I had the pencil going the entire time, scoring the gesso before it dried, and scribbling here and there as well.

5. The background texture seemed too chaotic and busy, especially since I generally liked the look of the flowers (and they are “busy”), so I backed it off a bit with some watered-down gesso. (However, I didn’t do complete coverage with this layer of gesso. I just picked spots here and there to smooth it out, going by my intuition and trying to balance smooth and textured areas around the painting.)

6. I added some bright peach/orange colored pencil to all of the flowers to brighten them and also unify them even more (hard to see, sorry!).

7. Pencil outlining and shading with my finger. This took a lot of time, and I struggled the entire time trying not to let it get too dark (I wasn’t necessarily successful). I used the eraser a lot!

8. I pulled out the gesso again and touched up a few areas to brighten (for example, the round flower, middle bottom). I also added dots, but regretted it as they seemed too “perfect” (I had put them in very straight lines). By the time I realized, though, it was too late to wipe them away. So I let them dry a bit and then partially scraped them off with my fingernail. Then I was much happier. Here’s a detail:

Also, check out this post over at flickr… Joyce had written with some insights that might help with these collage paintings as well. (And please, chime in!)
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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 21″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 21 Assignment

I just love these chunky books! Today you’ll prepare the pages of your kid’s board book so that you can start painting using watercolor, gesso, collage, and anything else you think your pages need.

These books take some time to complete (definitely not an “evening” project). I usually have one or two sitting on my desk and I work on them a bit at a time. With all the layers needing to dry, as well as the number of spreads to complete, a book might take up to a week. (I just work on them around and between other projects.)

And some inside spreads:

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— a kid’s board book

— scissors or scoring tool

— sandpaper

— gesso

— watercolors, etc.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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Remember yesterday’s post about likes and dislikes? Today you will start two pieces, one with collage elements you like, and one with elements you don’t like. 

You’ll start by gluing random bits and pieces of collage onto your canvases with gel medium, aiming for about 95% coverage. Next you will add a watercolor stain, then finish with layers of gesso, watercolor, pencil, charcoal, ink, etc.

And here are the two paintings in the video during a mid-step and the finish. The first one:

And the second one:

Also, I wanted to show you this one turned upside-down… suddenly, they are flowers in a vase!

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— collage ephemera

— Two 8″x10″ canvases (or wood and paper will work, too)

— gel medium

— brushes

— watercolor

— gesso

— pencil

— charcoal

— spray fixative

— optional: white ink

[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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“I put in my pictures everything I like.”

— Pablo Picasso

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I didn’t really pick up a pencil until I was 30 and well into “life.” I didn’t go to art school even though I had artistic leanings; the adults and climate of the time just didn’t provide enough encouragement for a person like me to balk convention. 

(Ironically, I ended up with a BA in history, and thereÂ’s nothing very practical you can do with that!)

Anyway, 10 years later I started taking life drawing classes at a community college and also remember taking a watercolor class over a period of five Wednesdays at a local art league. 

We had instructions when we signed up to bring several photo references of things we would like to paint. I brought some magazine images of elephants.

But when the class started, everyone else pulled out photographs of flowers. Flowers were everywhere, and I felt embarrassed and stupid: what was I doing in a watercolor class, anyway? I couldnÂ’t even pick the right subject matter!

While the other students made their first marks, I made plans with the door. But the instructor noticed my hesitation and asked what was wrong. I confessed that I just didn’t want to paint flowers.  

She asked me to show her the images I had brought. When I pulled out my elephants, she laughed and said: “Paint what you want to paint!”  

Phew!

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The above is part of the introduction to my next book, “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals.” (I know — it’s a bit ironic that flowers were the example of something I didn’t want to paint!)

Anyway, I definitely take Picasso’s statement to heart: I really think that we need to follow our interests and passions and create art about things that we genuinely LIKE.

And the same for the media you work with; use paint or drawing tools that are fun for you to work with!

But sometimes we are in a situation where we need to paint things we don’t necessarily like.

About seven years ago when I was painting my Girls series, part of my income was to do larger commissions. One day, I got an email from someone who wanted me to paint a fairy.

A fairy? 

I’m not sure why, but the idea of doing a fairy just didn’t resonate with me.

Really? A fairy?

But it was money (and I needed money), so of course I said I would do it.

I came up with design and put some wings on one of my girls:

Oh my gosh.

I was hooked!

For the next year I painted almost ALL fairies… for some reason I just loved painting those little wings!

(I’m sure you know where this is going.)

Yes, paint the things you like with the materials you like using. Keep it fun for yourself for sure!

But I hope my fairy story will also encourage you to, every once in awhile, try painting something you DON’T like, or working with materials you DON’T like. You might just find a new LOVE!

(Such as, you know, FLOWERS.)

😀

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Add collage elements to one or two of your previous paintings.

Important: Before going in to your paintings, spray them with fixative so that when you add the collage with the gel medium, you don’t re-constitute the watercolor underneath.

When adding collage as a “last” step, I usually take my time and try a lot of different things before something feels “right.”
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— spray fixative

— paintings from previous three weeks that might need a little “more”

— gel medium

— brushes
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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Tomorrow you will revisit some paintings done in weeks 1, 2 or 3 and see if you can enhance or even save them with collage. Here are a few samples where collage was added as a LAST (or near-last) step:

And then on Friday you’ll start two paintings with collage as a FIRST step. Here’s an example of one with that technique, which I did on Sunday as a demo piece for the live flower “work session”:

So if you have time today, go through the pieces you’ve completed so far, and see if there are any that you might like to re-work with collage. See you tomorrow!
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Today you’ll gather and alter different papers for collage fodder (that can be used later in the week).

Sometimes no matter what I do, a painting just needs a little something extra. That’s when collage comes in.

Chances are you already have a pile of collage fodder somewhere in your studio. I usually like light- to medium-weight papers the best. Some of the things I like to use are magazine pages, newspapers, security envelopes, old office papers, tissue paper, failed prints and paintings, etc.

Most of the paper gets used “as is,” but sometimes plainer papers need a little “help” with watercolor and gesso to make them more colorful or interesting.

In addition, today you will add collage and paint to cardboard, and then peel off the top layer once dry to create your own uniquely textured collage paper (the image above features a piece of altered cardboard).

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— 1 piece of watercolor paper cut or torn down to about 7″ x 10″

— a selection of 10 markers and colored pencils (colors of your choice)

— watercolors

— #12 round brush
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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 15″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 15 Assignment

Today’s approach is completely different from the previous painting on wood (videos 3.1 and 3.2). Instead of starting by drawing in your design with marker, you will begin your paintings with abstract starts, with no idea of what you are going to paint or where the painting will take you.

First you will lay down several colors of wet watercolor, and then, while still wet, add a textured layer of gesso. Once this dries, you will look at your piece and see if you “see” any flower shapes you can begin pull out. Once you outline them in pencil, you will add layers of watercolor and/or gesso until you are satisfied, then finishing with charcoal as before. Spray with fixative. If desired, you can add white ink; spray a second time.

This is my favorite way to paint, and I hope you will enjoy it, too!

And here are the two paintings step-by-step (click to enlarge images)

PAINTING #1

Step 1: Watercolor and first layer of gesso.

Step 2: Outline flowers in pencil, soften background with gesso.

Step 3: Add in leaf and flower.

Step 4. Watercolor layers, rub and buff.

Step 5: Gesso and charcoal.

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PAINTING #2

Step 1: Watercolor and gesso.

Step 2: Second gesso layer.

Step 3. Watercolor.

Step 4: Rub and buff, charcoal.

Step 5: White ink.
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— two pieces of wood

— watercolors

— gesso

— brushes

— pencil

–sandpaper

— soft vine charcoal

— white acrylic ink

— spray fixative
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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I titled this post “Thoughts on Composition and Design” because I wanted to tip you off right from the start that I’m not going to give you guidelines or rules for how to compose your pictures.

I’m just not sure I believe in “rules,” and I’ll try to explain why below.

I am self-taught, by which I mean only that I didn’t go to art school and never really learned in a formal way the rules of design and composition.

There are distinct disadvantages to this, I know, and yet in the end I have found it to be mostly an advantage.

Everything I “know” I’ve learned either by doing the art itself, or by reading art books. But, I chose books about artists that most interested ME, and not ones that necessarily gave me a well-rounded art education. (I tend to gravitate to artists working in the early to mid-20th century: Picasso, Modigliani, Klee, Calder, Matisse, Chagall, and Dubuffet are my favorites. In addition, I love Outsider Art and children’s art.)

So my education is a bit limited, tailored from the beginning by my personal preferences and way of looking at things.

I HAVE looked at lots and lots (and lots) of images from these artists and more over the past twenty years, noting what I liked and didn’t like, etc. Looking at the design and composition of that many paintings teaches you. You begin to instinctively know what a “good” design is to YOU. But this way of doing things does take time.

My husband Steve recently taught an online photography class, and it was my job to edit his posts and format his worksheets. So even though I wasn’t exactly taking the class, I was reading all the material and looking at the class postings at the flickr site and generally learning and being inspired.

At some point Steve made a comment to one of his students about “rules,” and how they don’t always apply. I remember thinking it was the same with drawing and painting….

The next day I had my iphone out and started taking photos of some flower buds on a tree. I wasn’t loving my first few images, so I tried a different angle. In that one, the sun was shining directly into the camera. For a moment I remembered an old rule from my “photography phase” that you should never point the camera at the sun, and I hesitated.

And yet… I LIKED what was going on in that image. I remembered Steve’s encouragement to his student, shrugged my shoulders, and proceeded to happily take more images with the sun shining directly into the camera.

Steve’s comment helped me ignore the rule of “what made a good photo” and to just go with my impulse… which is kind of an important thing when making personal art!!

I talked to Steve about it later, wondering aloud if rules were in fact “dangerous.” (And what I mean by that is that we can get so caught up with the “right” way to do something that we focus too much on that and forget to just DO — to “do” while being true to ourselves and our own way of seeing the world.)

He wisely noted that the rules can help make better images in the beginning, but in the end, we agreed, you still need to do the work of finding your own way. (And often, when you learn the rules early, you pay a high price: it can take a lot of willpower and confidence to break away from what’s considered “right.”)

On the other hand, not knowing the rules means you will spend an enormous amount of time making “bad” art.

Either way, it takes time. There’s really no way around it.

Over the years I have read my share of posts, articles, and books on design and composition. So in the back of my mind are things such as focal points, balance, contrast (lights/darks, big/small), etc. They are good things to know and they do help inform my drawings and paintings; however, I think that most of my design and composition decisions come from many years of trying to ferret out my own unique design and composition “style.”

(I suppose my only problem with the rules is that they are so “general” — they are not specific to me, my tastes, or the specific painting I might be working on at any given moment.)

When it comes right down to it, YOU are the one that determines what good design is to you. And you need to find the way of going about it that is best for you (which may include, of course, learning the “rules”).

I just encourage you to take them with a grain of salt, knowing that in the end, you will need to do the work in the studio and find your own way.

_____________________

For those of you who want a reminder of some traditional design and composition tips, I did a quick google search and have provided some links below. 

Some Compostion and Design Articles on the Web That Looked Pretty Good

http://painting.about.com/od/paintingtipscomposition/a/10TipsCompositn.htm

http://emptyeasel.com/2006/11/24/9-steps-to-creating-better-compositions/

http://www.drewmelton.com/painting-composition.html

http://www.explore-drawing-and-painting.com/painting-tips.html
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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 13″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 13 Assignment

To finish your painting, you will add shading with vine charcoal, either by drawing directly onto your painting and rubbing it into the surface with your finger (a darker effect), or drawing a patch on a piece of scrap paper and dipping your finger in that and rubbing it onto your painted surface (a softer effect).

When sprayed with the fixative, charcoal tends to darken a bit. I usually compensate by erasing, lifting, or blowing the charcoal to remove just a bit before spraying.

If desired, you can add more line work and detailing with your white acrylic ink and eyedropper. Once that dries completely, spray with fixative a second time.

Here is the painting before and after adding the white acrylic ink:

If you look closely, you’ll see some of the original pink marker lines showing through in areas, which I think it adds interest to the final piece!
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— wood painting from Monday

— soft vine charcoal

— white acrylic ink

— spray fixative
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 12″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 12 Assignment

Remember that difficult stages are pretty much going to happen during every creative endeavor. Like anything, it’s best if you don’t give up too soon! Use everything at your disposal to try salvage the situation.

On the other hand, try not to beat yourself up over a failed painting… I think it’s okay to give up on things that aren’t working every once in awhile, especially if you have given it your best shot.

I’ve found that every gesso/watercolor combination works a little differently, and so you basically need to learn the language of your own materials. Add to that the weather, the kind of paper or wood you are using, and human touch, and you end up with quite a range of effects, not all of them pretty!

You will of course find your own way to move through these difficult stages, but here are some things I do when facing “problem paintings” :

Rub and Buff

Some of you have found that when you put your damp rag to the watercolor, the pigment just comes right off. I suspect the main issue is that your rag is too wet. Dip your rag in the water and then squeeze out just about every bit of the moisture. Try erring on the side of “dryness” and see what happens.

On the other hand, some of you have found that the opposite is true: when you lay down the watercolor on gesso, it sinks right in and doesn’t rub out at all. In these cases it’s possible that your gesso is just a bit chalkier than the kind I use, and it doesn’t work exactly the same way.

There are a few things you can try. First, if you are satisfied with the colors but want to bring out white highlights, you can use some fine sandpaper and lightly pull them out that way, and skip the rub and buff step altogether.

If you have white acrylics around, try the technique with those; acrylics tend to be a little more plastic-y than the Golden gesso, but I think it might work better than highly chalky gessoes.

Another thing you can try is to VERY LIGHTLY spray your painting with fixative at the white-out stage (before adding your watercolors and rubbing and buffing). If you spray a heavy coat, the watercolors will bead up, resisting the surface. In those cases sometimes you can let it dry and then see if you can rub and buff it, but it might just float off the ultra-smooth surface.

Ugly Colors

Ha! This happens so often! But truly, I think part of the fun of this technique is that you never really know what you’re going to get: It’s either going to be way better than you expected, or way worse. (To me, it keeps things from getting stale, and when I get an icky color, it’s a challenging problem to solve to try to pull it together — it’s half the fun!)

There are a few things I might do if I’m unhappy with a color.

The first thing I try is to add a third layer of watercolor, and rub and buff again. (Tip: Yellow is a wonder worker!)

If that doesn’t work, I might wet my rag generously and wipe out all the pigment so that it is very pale so that I can basically start over with new watercolor layers, etc.

Or, I might go over the entire portion with gesso and start over with white.

And sometimes I will thin the gesso with water, so that it just softens a color; “ugly” colors often become beautiful when softened with white. Or, I’ll soften an ugly color (“ugly” to me, it’s all relative, of course!) and it will still suck, but if I add another layer of watercolor, it’s often magically resolved.

Design Issues

In some ways your first marks are the most important… you can keep re-working colors and textures, whitening them out and adding back pigment, but it’s harder to change a design element once you’ve started a painting in this technique.

But try!

The goal (I think) is to try to get each painting to be the very best it can be given the skills and impulses you have at that moment. If something about your design or composition is bothering you, adjust it!

If you just want to fix a small area, you can sand back your textured gesso with your sandpaper and then rework that area, tweaking your design (you don’t need to sand it all the way back to the wood, but just enough to neutralize the area a bit).

Paintings on paper can’t really be sanded down the same way, though you can try to make adjustments with additions of textured gesso, etc.

Still, you may decide that trying to tweak your original composition isn’t worth your time, and that’s okay, too!

The “Pile”

You know what I’m talking about, right? The “I-just-don’t-know” pile, or the “future-collage-fodder” pile. My pile is really pretty high.

But it doesn’t have to stay there forever. Some time down the road you will have the energy and fresh eyes to pick up a piece and know exactly what it needs.

Or not!

In any case, don’t worry about how high your pile gets. You will always have that wonderful miraculous piece that makes all the problem paintings worthwhile!
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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 10″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 10 Assignment

You’ll start by adding a layer of watercolor on top of your gessoed piece. Once the first layer is dry, you will add a second layer of watercolor and let that dry completely as well. Then, you will “rub and buff” with a very slightly damp rag— see video for demonstration.

If you finish your rubbing step and are not satisfied, you can try adding a third layer of watercolor, let it dry, then polish again.

Another option is to soften a color with a watered down layer of gesso.

I find it helps to work on one area until I am satisfied (such as the background), and then move on to other areas, “bouncing off” the first area to make my decisions.

So, for example, in the peach flower sample below, I worked the background first until I liked it. It ended up being a very bold color, so I decided to balance that with a softer look on the flower.

And here are the two paintings finished.

Have fun with the technique, and let me know if I can help in any way!
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— 2 white-out paintings from Wednesday

— watercolors

— gesso

— round and flat paintbrushes

— rag

— pencil

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Tomorrow you will be adding color to your all-white paintings by adding layers of watercolor. The concept is similar to the layering we did on paper last week, but because you are laying down the color on textured gesso, the effect will be completely different.

I started working this way about seven years ago when I was painting my series of Girls for galleries and outdoor art shows. At the time I wasn’t working with acrylic paints, but wanted to explore more robust textures for my backgrounds. I had some gesso in the studio, and after playing around with a textured base, I rubbed some watercolor pigment on like a stain. Then eventually I figured out the layering/rub and buff technique I’ll show you tomorrow (at least I THINK I made it up!).

Here are some of the kinds of colors/surfaces you can achieve with the layering and “rub and buff” steps:

And I’ve stepped out several samples below.

For example, in the first image I applied a layer of blue watercolor and let it dry completely before adding the yellow layer. Once the two layers were completely dry, I “polished” it (or “rubbed and buffed” it) with my rag. (I’ll demonstrate the process in tomorrow’s video.) The top strip shows the green portion before buffing, the bottom strip shows the green after it is buffed.

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Note: Sometimes the watercolors dry in a way that I like, and I might skip the rubbing and buffing step. But most of the time the watercolors dry in kind of a splotchy way on the gesso, and the rub and buff step helps to unify the colors and also brings out white highlights due to the raised gesso areas, adding more depth and interest.

Here’s another Girl painting to go!

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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 8″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 8 Assignment

Start by drawing some simple flower shapes on your two pieces of paper with your water soluble markers; most of these lines will be obsured by the layers of gesso, so there is no need draw details; just the basic shape(s).

(The marker trick is something I learned when my son Wes was two years old; he drew on a wall with a water soluble marker, and when I tried to cover it with white paint, it just kept showing back up, no matter how many layers I painted! Though frustrating at the time, I remembered it later and decided to use it to my advantage: the marker lines act as a “map” while painting, whereas a pencil line, for example, would be quickly obscured by the gesso layers.The other benefit to using markers is that they do show up a little in the final painting, which adds just that little bit of extra interest and color.)

Once your composition is blocked in, you will add a flat layer of gesso to each piece, and then several more textured layers. When making your decisions, aim to balance some smoother areas with more textured ones. Try to “finish” your painting texturally.

At the end of today’s assignment you will have an “all-white” or “mostly white” piece.

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— 2 pieces of watercolor paper, about 5″x7″ (a bit smaller than previously)

— white gesso

— pink water soluable marker

— black Tombow marker

— round and flat paintbrushes
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 7″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 7 Assignment

Textures created (L-R) with the flat end of a plastic knife, a marker cap, and a #12 brush.

Texturing with Gesso

For tomorrow’s assignment you will be starting two paintings with white gesso only, and then on Friday we will add color with watercolors.

But since watercolors won’t really “sink in” to gesso the same way it does to paper, we need to build up texture so that the watercolors have a place to “pool.” (This might not make much sense right now, but it will be clearer as the week goes on, promise!)

The thicker your gesso is to start with, the easier it is to build your textures.

Each of you will have different brands of gesso to work with, and some are thinner than others. That’s okay! One way to work with thinner gessos is to pour some on a  paper plate and let it sit for about 20 minutes before you begin.

Here’s that same pool 20 minutes later… a bit gloppier and thicker:

There is no “right” consistency, but the thicker it is, the easier it will be for you to build up texture.

Different Effects

For our purposes the only texturing tool you really need is your #12 brush, and I’ll be demonstrating that on tomorrow’s video. But you can also use the end of a marker cap or a plastic knife to achieve interesting effects. Here are samples of the textures you can achieve with these items (click to enlarge):

Tip: Sometimes I lay down the gesso and do my texturing, then wait a few minutes for it to dry even more, and then hit in again with my brush or marker cap before it’s completely dry.

Please feel free to experiment with other things you have lying around your studio!

And this image shows how much texture you will want to aim for tomorrow:

A lot!
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You’ll start today’s painting by randomly applying three colors of wet watercolor onto your paper. It’s okay to add each color while the previous colors are still wet; allow them to touch and bleed together a bit.

Once your first layer dries, you can optionally add another transparent layer of watercolor. Let dry.

Next, go in with thick gesso and start isolating areas that you like and painting oval/circular shapes around those small areas. Use the back of your paintbrush to add petals and other marks, drawing right into the gesso to expose the watercolor underneath.

Once you are happy, you can add your pencil work, including shading.

Optional: In video you’ll see I added a very light layer of yellow watercolor over my piece.

Here is the piece “before” and “after” I laid down that last layer of yellow watercolor.

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— 1 piece of watercolor paper, about 7″x10″ (or a size you are comfortable working with)

— watercolors

— 1/2″ flat brush (or similar)

— white gesso

— pencil, eraser
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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 5″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 5 Assignment

Today you will revisit the flower blast exercise from Monday and the two abstract starts from Wednesday.

First, look at each of your pieces with fresh eyes and see if you are still satiisfied with the colors. If not, you can add more watercolors, colored pencils, or markers before moving on to the white ink and shading. If you like your piece as it is now, consider calling it finished. But if not,

Finish your paintings!

Note: Sometimes it’s hard to know when things are finished. I usually decide they are finished when I get to a point where I’m happy, or a place where I’m satisfied and don’t know what to do next. Then, I stop so I won’t overwork it. (I can always revisit it later if I decide it needs a little more.)

If I am having a hard time getting to a place where I like a piece, sometimes I’ll put it aside for another day. Or sometimes I’ll take a deep breath and make a bold move, knowing I might ruin it, but thinking to myself, “Well, it’s only paper, I don’t love this, so I will try to take it to a place that I love.”

In any case, have fun and remember that not all paintings are successful. I think I have about a 30-40% rate (of good ones). The rest are “eh” and sit in a pile in my studio, waiting to either be worked on again, cut up, or even tossed.

And here are the pieces taken to finished states:

And here is the drawing blast piece, with the background mostly obscured by the white ink:

And here’s that flower isolated further in Photoshop:

Note: I went a drastic direction with this last one because mine just felt too busy and chaotic for me… please don’t feel you need to do the same!
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— 3 paintings from previous two lessons

— watercolors, brushes, markers, colored pencils

— white acrylic ink

— pencil
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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 3″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 3 Assignment

Today you are going to start two small paintings by making almost random watercolor marks on your paper. In addition to your brushes, I hope you can play with some unusual mark-making tools such as Q-tips, twigs, and bar-b-que skewers.

Once your first layer of watercolors are dry, you will add more layers of color and texture using watercolors and water soluable markers. You will keep working the two paintings back and forth until you get to a place where you are happy with the overall feel of your piece. On Friday you will add shading and highlights, so for now just think about trying to achieve color combinations that are pleasing to you. I try to make sure there is a range of hues — light shades and darker shades — as well as a balance of warm and cool colors. (warm = red, orange, yellow; cool = blue, purple, green)

Tip: I try not to have any idea or expectation of what my finished piece is going to look like. Instead, I focus on making my mark, and then making my next mark in reaction to the first mark; etc.

I never plan ahead more than this, as it keeps me interested and engaged moment to moment. It’s more fun that way!

And here is the first painting shown at three different stages:

And the second:

Have fun!
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— 3 sheets of watercolor paper cut or torn down to about 7″ x 10″

— watercolors

— #12 round brush, larger and smaller flat brushes

— some water soluable markers

— 5-10 things around the house you can use to make marks with (see video for explanation)
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When I first started using watercolors I was so nervous! They had a reputation for being difficult and unforgiving, and I was sure that I would never be able to learn the secret of watercolors.

And I was right!

Even though watercolors are now my primary paint medium, I don’t know the “right” way to use them. But through some trial and error I figured out that watercolors can actually be very forgiving!

I paint with multiple, very light, transparent washes. Each layer is painted evenly, and allowed to dry completely between layers. (Laying down washes of paint is fairly straightforward, and doesn’t require that I learn the “mood” of watercolors.)

As a bonus, I really love the colors achieved when painting this way.

Here’s an example (click to enlarge):

Here’s another example:

Again, the color on the right has more depth and variation of color, even though at first glance they are similar.

By layering color in this way you achieve a result that is subtly “richer” than if you just mix the colors on your palette and paint one layer.

So this is why I layer watercolors:

1. It’s easy — all I need to do is mix up a light color of paint and apply it as evenly as possible. Then I repeat.

2. The colors I achieve are prettier to me!

Drying Time

When working this way you need to wait before applying second and third layers. (If you try to layer before the first layer is dry, it will get “muddy.”)

I am naturally kind of impatient, so I have found a solution by working on 3-5 pieces simulataneously. By the time I am finished with the third or fifth painting, the first is usually dry.

Plus, this gives the added bonus of returning to the first painting with fresh eyes, which often makes my next decisions easier.

Copic Markers

I lot of people wonder why I recommend Copic markers. They truth is they are just one kind of marker that would work for my purposes; I think any VERY LIGHT colored marker would work. Light markers are another layering tool in my mixed-media bag of tricks, and I can use in combination with watercolors.

Here’s an example of what adding a light blue and a light gray markers can do to the above colors:

Even MORE depth! And also, look at the images to the right. Even though I only added four colors total (two watercolor colors, and two Copic colors), by layering I was able to get 11 different colors!

So that might be the third reason I like to layer:

3. I’m lazy! Why pull out 11 colors when you can do the same job with four?

😀
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Today’s exercise might end up in the recycle pile, but that’s okay! We are just trying to ferret out your unique flower vocabulary, and this exercise can help.

Quickly, you will draw 10 different types of flowers, in 10 different colors, all over your paper. You will work fast and loose, and not think too much.

Then you will add two or three layers of transparent watercolors to some of the larger flowers, letting each layer dry before applying the next color. (For those of you who haven’t worked with working wet on dry watercolors, this is a good place as any to get started!)

In the end you will either have something you like— or not! In either case, stop working on this after two or three watercolor layers.

And here are a few other samples of some other flower blasts:

(Of course yours will look different — they will be YOURS!)
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”orange”][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Supplies” tab_id=”1441660413213-4a3f2b31-abbf”][vc_text_separator title=”” align=”align_right” color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Supplies Needed for Lesson 1

— 1 piece of watercolor paper cut or torn down to about 7″ x 10″

— a selection of 10 markers and colored pencils (colors of your choice)

— watercolors

— #12 round brush
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 5″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 5 Assignment

Hello!

I loved seeing your paintings of the exotic fruit and veggies, as well as your Birch Tree studies! Thank you for all of your hard work.

Are you ready for your next assignment? Pour a cup of hot tea and let’s get started.

Fred

Today we will paint a still life indoors!

[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Supplies” tab_id=”1441660413213-4a3f2b31-abbf”][vc_text_separator title=”” align=”align_right” color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Supplies Needed for Lesson 5

– one piece of watercolor paper (Fred uses Arches 140# cold press)
– several brushes (#4, #6, #8 rounds)
– watercolor paints (Fred demonstrates with Davie’s Grey, Payne’s Grey, Hansa Yellow, Pyrol Red, Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Alizarin Crimson)
– palette
– water container
– paper towel
– tea cup, tea bag, plate, piece of fruit
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 4″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 4 Assignment

Hello!

Great job on the fruit paintings. They brought so much warmth into this winter season.

Now we are heading back outdoors (through photos) to capture more of the beauty of winter!

Fred

Today we will celebrate the soft grays of winter by painting winter birch trees.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Supplies” tab_id=”1441660413213-4a3f2b31-abbf”][vc_text_separator title=”” align=”align_right” color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Supplies Needed for Lesson 4

– one piece of watercolor paper (Fred uses Arches 140# cold press)
– several brushes (#4, #6, #8 rounds)
– watercolor paints (Fred demonstrates with Payne’s Grey, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Violet, Hansa Yellow, Cerulean Blue)
– palette
– water container
– paper towel
– photo reference of birch trees
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 3″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 3 Assignment

Hello!

Great job on the deer paintings! Thank you for all of the hard work and for sharing your efforts on Facebook. This time we are bringing the subject of our artworks indoors. A fruity assignment awaits you!

Fred

Today we will paint a winter fruit from life.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Supplies” tab_id=”1441660413213-4a3f2b31-abbf”][vc_text_separator title=”” align=”align_right” color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Supplies Needed for Lesson 3

– one piece of watercolor paper (Fred uses Arches 140# cold press)
– several brushes (#4, #6, #8 rounds)
– watercolor paints (Fred demonstrates with Pyrrole Red, Alizarin Crimson, Hansa Yellow, Ultramarine Violet, Payne’s Grey)
– palette
– water container
– paper towel
– soft pencil (2B or 3B)
– kneaded rubber eraser
– a piece of “warm” fruit
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”round” color=”chino” spacing=”” gap=”3″ active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section title=”Lesson 1″ tab_id=”1441660413062-908f862d-abc7″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Lesson 1 Assignment

Hello!

Welcome to Winter Watercolors! I look forward to painting with you and I hope you will post your assignments online. I love to see what you have been working on and I’m sure your fellow painters would too. Let’s do some painting!

Fred

Today we will review some techniques, including glazing, wet into wet washes, and salt technique.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Supplies” tab_id=”1441660413213-4a3f2b31-abbf”][vc_text_separator title=”” align=”align_right” color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Supplies Needed for Lesson 1

– one piece of watercolor paper (Fred uses Arches 140# cold press)
– several brushes (#4, #6, #8 rounds)
– watercolor paints and palette (Fred demonstrates with Alizaron Crimson, Hansa Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Sap Green, Pyrrole Red, Ultramarine Violet, Cerulean Blue, Raw Umber, Payne’s Grey)
– water container
– roll of paper towels
– salt
– soft pencil (2B or 3B)
– kneaded rubber eraser
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Download Video” tab_id=”1441663179639-47ffdcc3-0ed8″][vc_separator color=”orange”][vc_column_text]Click the links below to download video to your computer; this may take a few minutes. Downloading is for your personal use only.

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