3.2.4 Mixing Greens 4

Watercolour Practice

PART 3 Painting Outside

Project 2 Preparation and Practice

Exercise 4 Mixing greens 4

Figure 1 (3.2.4.1) 1884 Still life with five bottles Vincent Van Gogh (source)

When I was researching still life in assignment 2, I came across this painting that Vincent did and now I am required to paint several bottles, this is where I started trying to sort out a composition with my five bottles. I liked the idea of a bottle lying on its side as this would give me a chance to get two or three bottles close to the front of the painting so that I could carry out the secondary part of the exercise and use the paint to depict the green bottles convincingly.

Figure 2 (3.2.4.2) Initial sketch graphite on A3 tracing paper

Starting from here I did some thumbnail nails and sketches while moving the bottles around to find a composition I was happy with. I have been researching the golden section a bit and have been bit surprised to discover that A3 doesn’t conform to the golden ratio, so having set the image size to the golden section I used this to set the position of the window and two of the bottles in the composition. I think this gives the composition a very relaxed and gentle feel, I was fascinated by the light filtering through the bottles and landing on the tabletop like headlights and didn’t want to lose this by placing the table edge on the golden section so I set the table edge slightly off the horizontal and this made it seem somehow menacing and scary in opposition to the gentle and easy golden composition that I was aiming for.

Figure 3 (3.2.4.3) thumbnails and ideas graphite on A3 tracing paper

Figure 4 (3.2.4.4) thumbnails and ideas graphite on A3 tracing paper

Figure 5 (3.2.4.5) Tonal sketch graphite on A3 tracing paper

Figure 6 (3.2.4.6) Cartoon, graphite on A4 tracing paper

I did a reduced copy of the drawing using the squaring down technique that I used for  two A4 colour studies that helped me decide that I didn’t need too much red in the final painting and that the background should be layered to death to set off the jewel like effect of the bottles and the light filtering through them, like a diamond displayed on black velvet. It also helped me decide that the background wall should be dark green to maintain a more monochrome effect to the final piece and that the ochre should not veer to brown again to maintain the monochrome effect of the painting.

Figure 7 (3.2.4.7) Colour study 1, watercolour on A4 140 lb not

Figure 8 (3.2.4.8) Colour study 2, watercolour on A4 140 lb not

Figure 9 (3.2.4.9) Cartoon graphite on A3 tracing paper

When I turned the tracing over to scribble on the back I thought that the composition worked better when reversed so turned it back over and scribbled on the front of the tracing and transferred it to a piece of Waterford 625gsm paper, if I learned nothing else here, I did learn that the best of materials makes it easier to achieve a positive outcome.

While I was doing the painting I wanted to stop when I had completed the background and in a way I am sorry I didn’t, I should have at least taken a progress photograph maybe I will get my friend to photo shop it because it felt complete and reminded me of a flag, but I carried on to answer the problem and painted the bottles from back to front increasing the detail as I came forward to increase the sense of depth in the painting. I painted the shadow reflections last and was afraid to do so least I destroyed the effect I had created thus far.

Figure 10 (3.2.4.10) Colour study 3 reflection, watercolour on 100 x 100 300 lb not

I resisted the temptation to wash in the window to give a glimmer of the outside preferring instead to leave it unpainted to give the eye a place to relax and the other temptation to over detail the labels as I felt I had done in the previous exercise.

Figure 11 (3.2.4.11) Five green bottles, watercolour on 388 x 240 300 lb not

I don’t usually say this much about the whys and wherefores of what I am doing because it feels a bit like a monkey clapping himself for being clever but I am so angry today having read a quote from a Roman philosopher from about 1800 years ago called Philostratus, I think he was Philostratus minors not even Philostratus Maximus (Bryson 1990 p.20) who said:

The admiration that a painting provokes is not related principally or only to the material objects it represents but to the ideas it is able to suggest to the reflective observer.

I do not feel there is any need for the observer of my paintings to be reflective or meditive, I have done all the reflection and meditation necessary while painting and creating it, before he even starts observing it and making up stories about it

Looking at it now it feels a bit like four soldiers standing to attention getting ready to lay to rest a fallen comrade in the dawn’s early light and then on the other hand it’s the squinty eyed morning look at the aftermath of last night’s party.

It feels I have made a big leap here going from painting from pure observation to making a painting but there is one thing for sure, no philosopher is ever going to say anything about this painting closer to the truth, than what I have already said here.

Reference

Bryson n.(1990) Looking at the overlooked: four essays on still life painting. London: Reaktion Books Ltd.

 

3.2.3 Mixing greens 3

Watercolour Practice

PART 3 Painting Outside

Project 2 Preparation and Practice

Exercise 3 Mixing greens 3

It seemed a bit of a shame to go back to the technique of layering one wash over and over to get tone in the bottle especially after mixing two colours together on varying strengths so I used a kind of combination technique of starting with washes with the most yellow in them and ending with washes with the most blue in them.

 

Figure 1 (3.2.3.1) Cartoon graphite on A3 tracing paper

In the darker bottle on the left there are more hard edges and less softening of the washes against each other. Whilst I think the bottle on the right is more realistic, I think the bottle on the left is more painterly and then when I think of it again maybe the reverse is true.

By using the tonal range of the mixture of the blue and the yellow, sometimes layering and sometimes not it is possible to achieve a wider range of colours and tones than layering the sane tone over and over again and it’s less of a struggle to achieve the darkest darks without the going all dull on you. It also has the added advantage that it doesn’t take nearly so long and you don’t have to be nearly so patient.

 

Figure 2 (3.2.3.2) two green bottles watercolour on A3 300 lb not

I’ve come to the conclusion that the less layers you have the better the watercolour appears, the lighter bottle on the right has, I would say, maximum three layers whilst the bottle on the left in places has up to five.

I was a little bit daring with the cap on the lighter bottle in that I used a wash of gray over a dry wash of ochre to get the effect it seems to have settled in quite nicely giving a three tone effect with the reserved highlight.

3.2.2 Mixing greens 2

Watercolour Practice

PART 3 Painting Outside

Project 2 Preparation and Practice

Exercise 2 Mixing greens 2 

I mixed the four blues and four yellows as described in the instructions using the blue as the anchor colour on each of the four sheets.

I started off with Cerulean blue

Figure 1 (3.2.2.1) Cerulean blue colour exercise watercolour on A3 Not

I am getting quite used to making these colour charts and am finding it strangely relaxing, there is no pressure to pull a rabbit out of a hat and it works every single time. Maybe this is the first time I have been anything like relaxed while I have been trying to paint watercolours. Maybe this exercise is supposed to relax the tension I feel when I have a watercolour brush in my hand. I particularly like the optical mixes of the layered blues over the yellows and vice versa it’s something I can’t wait to try out in a real painting but like everything in this game I bet it takes a whole load of planning to pull it off. With this and exercise 3.2.1 my touch is getting lighter and there are less layers of paint on the paper than I have been using up to now and there is a lot more transparency appearing in my washes.

Figure 2 (3.2.2.2) Cobalt blue colour exercise watercolour on A3 Not

As well as that the names of the colours are becoming familiar with the colours on the paper and their position in the water colour box so that they are no longer called things like the not so dark blue or the blue third from the end of the row.

Figure 3 (3.2.2.3) Phalo blue colour exercise watercolour on A3 Not

I think also I am getting more used to how much water I should be using to dilute the paint to achieve the desired effect

Figure 4 (3.2.2.4) Ultramarine blue colour exercise watercolour on A3 Not

I went for a visit to the Bankside Gallery last weekend and while I was there I bought a copy of Michael Wilcox’s book Mixing Greens and while it looks very handy I don’t think you can beat carrying out these colour charts for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

3.2.1 Mixing Greens 1

Watercolour Practice

PART 3 Painting Outside

Project 2 Preparation and Practice

Exercise 1 Mixing greens 1

Greens are supposedly difficult colours to work with so to try to tame them a little the task is to take each readymade green on a tour of the paint box to see the colours that result and how these colours can be incorporated into a landscape painting. It might be me but I think the colour illustration for this exercise is numbered in the exact opposite way to the text, but I think I got the right end of the stick because the charts I did look like the illustration.

Surprised, you bet I was, I was using W&N artists pans and was amazed how far away from the pre-mixed green was from the box next to it on almost every row, its like the minute you mix a dab of other colour with the pre-mixed green it throws the towel in and goes instantly dull.

Maybe, I was supposed to learn the transparency opacity thing earlier in the course but I became acutely aware of it while completing this exercise. Who could’ve imagined that Viridian was more transparent than cadmium or lemon yellow. I’ve led a sheltered course life and the pre-mixed greens in my paint box were almost untouched before I started this exercise.

Apart from the transparency of the viridian, the hardest of all was green gold. It didn’t take too kindly to the mixing process and it seemed to have a lot of red in it too which equally disrupted the mixing process. Any here goes in alphabetical order.

Green Gold

Figure 1 (3.2.1.1) Green gold mixing chart watercolour on A3 140 lb not

Green gold mixed well with the yellows and earth colours to give some good colours for straw and wheat fields when mixed with the blues it gave a range of warm greens I wasn’t particularly keen on.

Hookers Green

 

Figure 2 (3.2.2.2) Hookers green mixing chart watercolour on A3 140 lb not

This was a green that behaved more or less how I thought it should to produce a wide range of warm greens when mixed with any of my other chosen colours. I think it will be useful to remember the position of this in the paint box come summertime.

Olive green

 

Figure 3 (3.2.1.3) Olive green mixing chart watercolour on A3 140 lb not

 

This produced a lot of drab greens that I would associate with a shady or evening time scene

Perylene Green

Figure 4 (3.2.1.4) Perylene green mixing chart watercolour on A3 140 lb not

This is not my kind of green at all but when mixed with the blues It gave some distinctly nautical colours.

Sap green

Figure 5 (3.2.1.5) Sap green mixing chart watercolour on A3 140 lb not

Not quite as warm as the Hookers green mixes but still some lovely summery greens that would work well outdoors

Viridian

Figure 6 (3.2.1.6) Viridian mixing chart watercolour on A3 140 lb not

If you need a cold green here they are, frosty misty mornings and again some very nautical results with the blues.

What bit of outdoors painting I did on project 1 I don’t think the charts will be much use out of doors, I had far too much to carry round anyway but I can see them being useful when you are back in the studio converting a sketch into a proper painting, the charts will be very helpful in considered picture making. I’ve pinned them to the wall for now, maybe I’ll get used to them and make more considered decisions when I am out side sketching.

3.1.2 Sketches from different viewpoints

Watercolour Practice

PART 3 Painting Outside

Project 1 Where to look and how to select

Exercise 2 Sketches from different viewpoints

I felt drawn to painting Whitewebb’s woods I haven’t been there for years since the dog died but I knew there were some good views with half dead trees in the meadow at the bottom of the woods and the view from the meadow looking back into the woods was good also.

I wanted to explore the woods because I live in the city and I get tired of buildings and the most dangerous thing about the woods is people walking their dog so I should be safe, it is about a fifteen minute drive from my house and it always gave me a sense of peace and freedom when I used to take the dog there.

I bought a camping chair on the way and arrived at my chosen spot around nine thirty in the morning. I didn’t bring the A3 pad mainly because of its disastrous performance in my back yard, in previous exercise, instead I brought a dinky little sketchbook I bought at the Royal watercolour society with pages that were 10 x 15cm and were made of 300 gsm Hot pressed. Somebody wasn’t paying fill attention when he bought that because he mostly paints on Not Still now you’re here you will just have to manage with what you have, because the pad was so small I was using a number 7 brush.

It wasn’t the pad or the brush it was me, none of the sketches looked good until I had added a bit of 2b pencil. I should be able to do this, I can do it in the house, but I can’t do it sitting in a field. I think the problem might be that in a field I have no distractions and it’s all a bit of a rush. I can draw in a field then take the drawing home and make a reasonable watercolour out of the drawing but watercolours of the hip out of doors do not seem to belong in my bag of tricks.

Maybe I need to take a different approach and do a drawing before I start painting, like I do when I am at home, this would solve the problems of tone and composition before I started painting rather than trying to solve everything at the same time with a brush.

Figure 1 (3.1.2.1) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

Figure 2 (3.1.2.2) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

Figure 3 (3.1.2.3) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

Figure 4 (3.1.2.4) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

Figure 5 (3.1.2.5) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

Figure 6 (3.1.2.6) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

Figure 7 (3.1.2.7) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

Figure 8 (3.1.2.8) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

Figure 9 (3.1.2.9) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

The changing light was easy to deal with because I put the shadows in at the end with a 2b pencil I don’t really think any of them worked the best, but I think the two below (figs 10 and 11) gave the best illusion of recession and depth.

Figure 10 (3.1.2.10) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

Figure 11 (3.1.2.11) Sketch watercolour on 150 x 100 not 140 lb

3.1.1 Inside and out

Watercolour Practice

PART 3 Painting Outside

Project 1 Where to look and how to select

Exercise 1 Inside and outside

I have arrived at a place where a watercolour can take anything up to a day to get one hours painting done what with drying times, distractions and getting hungry in between. So if the instructions say take an hour I count that as brush in hand time and exclude all preparatory thinking and sketching time and the rest.

Figure 1 (3.1.1.1) Initial sketch graphite on A3 cartridge

As the exercise states I have drawn and painted the view of my back yard several times over the years and for whatever reason I have never been quite happy with the results I wondered quite a bit about this and I decided that rather than painting exactly what I see I would make my yard conform to the golden section. This involved shortening the yard by about 50% so that I could still get the foreground in while making the shed fit the golden section of the page it also involved reducing the A3 paper a bit to make the picture size conform to the golden scale.

Figure 2 (3.1.1.2) Compositional sketch graphite on A3 tracing paper

Figure 3 (3.1.1.3) Compositional sketch graphite on A3 tracing paper

Figure 4 (3.1.1.4) Compositional sketch graphite on A3 tracing paper

Figure 5 (3.1.1.5) Cartoon graphite on A3 tracing paper

I constructed the view on A3 tracing paper, then used three or 4 sheets of tracing paper to correct the perspective then transferred the final cartoon to the watercolour paper.

Figure 6 (3.1.1.6) Colour study watercolour on 388 x 240 not 160 lb

I then set up in front of the back door so I could see the view and painted the colour study from observation onto my imposed construct I put the shadows in quickly at the end which is probably the reason for the back runs but I think as well the paper behaves a little differently once it already has an initial wash on it I shall have to pay more attention to what is going on in this situation next time so I can preempt this. I managed to end up with only 1 back run in the final piece.

Figure 7 (3.1.1.7) Back yard Edmonton watercolour on 388 x 240 not 300 lb

The yard is flagged to save gardening time but I didn’t put the flags in because I thought it would look too much like a Vermeer and I don’t want David Hockney round looking for my camera obscura.

The composition of the piece comes from the shadow shapes and is known technically as the reverse letter F inverted imposed on the golden section.

Figure 8 (3.1.1.8) Yard Photograph Pixels on computer

I took a picture of the scene with the phone primarily so that I could show the shortening of the back yard that I had carried out to make the picture work and I was amazed at the difference between the photograph and the painting. I don’t know much about focal lengths and lenses or the art of photography but I think what I painted is closer to reality than the photograph is. Friends who have been to visit have said “that is a good painting of the back garden”, I have not yet tried to explain as I don’t understand it myself yet.

Right, now I’m down the bottom of the yard complete with watercolour painting kit and I’m going to paint for an hour out here. Somebody is having a laugh, the cat thinks it’s too cold so she isn’t trying to drink the paints and be a general nuisance, there’s no music, too much wind, the sunlight is a bit big in the eyes and nothing much to do while the paint dries though thankfully in this wind, that is not very long.

It would have probably produced a better result if I had sketched it in pencil, retired to the studio and imposed a bit of order on the thing and then painted looking out the back door to get the feel of the blustery April weather while the central heating was on. Who needs central heating while we have jackets and finger less mits?

As a piece of observation it’s not too bad but the background has more detail than the foreground probably due to the drying times, and the perspective and the tones are all over the place, the composition is truly awful but what you see is what you get I can’t do watercolours and chew gum at the same time, at least not if I am not in my own house.

Figure 9 (3.1.1.9) Outdoor sketch watercolour on A3 140 lb Not

I am not happy with this and I think the only thing to do with it is treat it as a starting point and try to make a painting out of it. I spent a couple of sheets of tracing paper to arrive at a more considered composition, correcting the perspective and lowering the horizon line as if I was sitting on the ground.

Figure 10 (3.1.1.10) Compositional sketch graphite on A3 tracing paper

Figure 11 (3.1.1.11) Compositional sketch graphite on A3 tracing paper

Figure 12 (3.1.1.12) Cartoon graphite and ink on A3 tracing paper

This gave a more claustrophobic feel like this was a place in the city where there was not enough space to live properly and hardly room for the small solitary small tree. It now feels like there is a mountain to climb to get out of my own back yard. I think that is a line from the Wizard of Oz and maybe that is the real lesson here; there is no need to go to Venice when you can make 2 respectable paintings in your own back yard unless you like better weather, better pizza and better wine.

Figure 13 (3.1.1.13) Colour study watercolour on A3 140 lb Not

Figure 14 (3.1.1.14) Back yard mountain watercolour on 388 x 240 300 lb Not

Oh I almost forgot I sorted the slightly stripy problem by having the courage to go back up to a size 12 when painting washes on bigger areas rather than sticking to the size 7 once you have stepped down, it’s only a matter of courage.

Is the whole of the Wizard of Oz an allegory about watercolour painting? I’ll have a degree in painting please Mr Wizard then I will have the brain, the courage and the heart to paint watercolours in my own back yard.

1.1.2

Painting 1 The Practice of painting

PART 1 What paint can do

Project 1 Basic paint application

Exercise 2 Applying paint without brushes

Figure 1 (1.1.2.1) Non brush exercise Acrylic on acrylic paper 350 x 250mm

I did all the normal stuff as suggested in the workbook using knives, credit cards, plastering tools toothbrushes, rags and fingers and added a few bits extra such as a skewer and a cotton bud, I still get carried away with becoming figurative when doing this, but the one I like best is the stain on the sink where I was washing out the brush.

Figure 2 (1.1.2.2) Stain on sink Acrylic on porcelain

 

1.1.1

Painting 1 The Practice of painting

PART 1 What paint can do

Project 1 Basic paint application

Exercise 1 Getting to know your brushes

I decided to use acrylic paint for this exercise because I was visiting Mum and Dad for the weekend, even water mixable oils were out of the question. I used a selection of brushes on Mum’s kitchen table with a tube of ultramarine. I was a bit surprised how slowly the acrylics dried, particularly when they are laid on thick straight from the tube I had a range of rounds flats and filberts and tried them all. I have a slight problem with this type of exercise in that the marks start reminding me of things and I go with the flow because I am painting and it all starts getting a bit too representational too fast.

Figure 1 (1.1.1.1) Brushstroke exercise Acrylic on 14 x 10 acrylic paper

Then it was supposed to get representational and I had to paint an imaginary landscape. Since starting to study with OCA my visual memory is getting better and although my imaginary landscape was once half real it was still something concocted from my imagination. The ploughed field and the sky didn’t even have a sketch or a photograph, the field was something I glimpsed out of the car window while I was driving and the sky was a bit of a composite from watching the sky whilst watching the sky whilst stuck on the North Circular Road in traffic jams. The buildings were invented, I think, but I might have seen them somewhere at some stage.

Figure 2 (1.1.1.2) Imaginary Landscape Acrylic on 14 x 10 acrylic paper

Anyway, however it came about, I was quite pleased with the end result because it looks like a real place, but more importantly it looks like a painting, this is something I have been struggling with a bit and I think this might just set me free. I have done drawing 1 which is mega about observation and I am about halfway through Watercolour 1 which so far has been all about observation and now someone asks me to use my imagination in week 1. I am a bit over whelmed and not really trusting my imagination, I did a preliminary sketch to see if it all made sense and to get my head round the composition and then I painted away. Drawing 1 and Watercolour 1 seemed a bit like hard work but this seems more like fun.

I’m back from Mum and Dad’s now and I have bought a couple of lemons from the local shop to do the next bit. One lemon on its own looks ever so lonely and I have kept on going with the acrylic paints. The words, I think, want an A4 but the pad was 14 x 10 so I painted on that and cropped it after. I did a sketch of the lemons before I started the painting to get the shapes and the form shadows in my head then I just painted away referring to my sketch and the lemons in situ. The painting looks like a couple of lemons and it looks a bit modern. I think it would have looked more like lemons if I had used oils but that would have taken ages. I’m very pleased with the table top, it only looks like that because I got bored with waiting for the ochre ground to dry and dried it with a rag, but it looks immediate and somehow urgent. The two tone background is another happy accident because I ran out of paint and couldn’t mix exactly the same colour before the acrylics dried. Both accidents have stopped the big areas of the painting being boring, I think I will have to do this on purpose next time.

Figure 3 (1.1.1.3) Lemons Acrylic on 14 x 10 acrylic paper