by Diane: Watercolors, brushes and rags workshop

At the November 2nd  ODFW and Oregon State Fish Hatchery and Research Center Fall Creek Arts and Crafts Festival there were no students who used my demonstrated idea in the morning.

Waly ( the surviving partner of high school class mate, Mike Mayer) myself
and co-teacher Cheryl French gather for a photo shoot by Ann Holyfield.
Waly is a successful designer of commercial needlepoint designs.
Recently he started doing custom work
 painting in acrylic on the backing.
This was his first experience with watercolors.
Unfortunately Crayola brand food coloring in glue
is different from artist quality paints. If he was really
serious about taking up watercolors, this workshop was not a good sample
of what the medium could offer him. 

I demonstrated how to fully saturate a brush by first spraying water on Crayola pan colors, then  making a puddle of water and paint on the palette.  The brush is rolled on its side to make it hold as much as it can possibly hold. And then the brush was ready to easily slide across the paper making shapes that look like watercolor paint.

 The number of brush fulls of paint to make the right concentration on the palette is guesswork.  After painting it on your paper and the estimate is incorrect, make the paint lighter by picking up excessive wet areas with a dry brush or rag. 

Also demonstrated how a dry corner of the rag dipped into the paint sucks up paint. Drying up excessive puddles on the paper prevents an irregular blooms as the paint dries. If desired the wet paint can be darkened by dropping more color into the paint before the paint is completely dry. 

I always learn more from these workshops than I think my students do.  For one, I learned that most students who come to these fairs just enjoy the labor of brushing back and forth gradually building their shapes. Every touch of their brush showed the scrubbing force behind the paint. Most of the students in the morning had no interest in trying a new way from how they painted maybe years before. Some were more joyfully engaged in care taking. Their clients' faces sometimes brightened with joy. They were loud and happy in no way wanting to concentrate on the painting process. Painting should also be a relaxed way to enjoy an activity with others as these care givers were doing.

The families with young children were engaged in introducing painting to their children as they had obviously painted with them before. This year's instruction on the use of brush and rag was less useful for both these families and care givers.


 I also learned from a seriously involved painter. Above is a painting done in about 15 minutes during lunch break by a watercolorist who did not take the morning watercolor class nor was she signed up to take my afternoon class. Because she was interested in looking at my stack of demo paintings, I invited her to see my demo and paint. She definitely knew how to incorporate my demo ideas. She had a considerable amount of painting experience. She dropped color into the background to make the impression of water.  She dropped purple spots on the body She motified the value with the rag, and in addition she knew she needed pencils and something to scratch into the paint.

The best part of the workshop experience was what I learned in doing the demonstration. I am excited to do more watercolors.

Diane Widler Wenzel's Negative Space Demo

Last Wednesday's blog was my lesson plan for a November 4 class at ODFW Fish Hatchery and Research Center.  I explained one approach selected from many ways to watercolor paint.
 In Summary:  Consider beginning by choosing what object or living thing is most important.  Decide what size it will be in relation to the entire surface area. Decide where it will be on the paper.  Be mindful that the surrounding shape helps to make the painting expressive.

 Lesson on technique of putting down watercolor paint on paper: Once you have a rough idea of size and placement of the most important thing,  make an outline of the subject with wet watercolors. While the puddle in the line is wet, load the brush with a little more paint. Touching the wet line with the loaded brush pull the paint outward to the edges of the picture filling the space around your subject.
Or use a masking technique like brushing outward from the center of a leaf.

 

 

Absolute control is not necessarily desirable. Watercolor painting has a way of doing what it likes and it's rewards are happy, accidental effects that can suggest a fun carefree ride to new imaginings. Watercolors have character in uneven coverage that often surprises the painter. Some surprises are happy accidents while others are not acceptable even after considering changing some of your goals for the painting.
Tip: In case of a loss of white paper blot with damp towel and paint over with Golden absorbent ground. It is an opaque acrylic primer for water media that looks like and accepts paint like paper when it dries.  In the illustration the head of the girl was too small until several layers of opaque, absorbent ground formed a hard edge. The profile of her face was further developed by carving into the white with more background color making a smaller more delicate cameo profile.
The leg was enlarged by just blotting the paint to make a larger light area. Then I added a very wet paint in the newly formed negative area.  The extra wet area will form a line on the edge as it dries.

Below is a sample of my landscape painting: Landscapes tend to be more complex with a dominate subject and one or more supportive subjects. In very strong landscapes a group of subjects can be the focal point that draws the eye first. Secondary objects group together and will group with the space surrounding the dominate group or object.

This is cropped from a much larger painting. It was the part of the painting most expressive of springtime.

 

 

A student's landscape with a dominate tree is a focal point because of the great dark light contrast. The road is a secondary focal point grouping with the dark grasses, trees and sky.

 

 

 

During these two classes I was reminded that my students have some different needs and desires when they start to paint. Some come with an idea in their head but they don't have the skill set to paint. Some want to be entertained and expect to find painting relaxing. Some want their children to have the experience. The youngest child just is excited about the experience without any interest in the end product. Snatching their fun away before they are done is like taking away a toy.

 The class reminds me of a painter who loved an evening ritual of turning on her favorite music, lighting candles then making a puddle of water on her paper in which she drops several different colors and watches as it dries. Very relaxing!

 

There are two different directions for watercolor painting. The best book for the traditional path  is The Complete Watercolorist's Essential Notebook, by Gordon MacKenzie, North Light Books, ISBN-13: 978-1-4403-0905  The other direction is like the one in  my exercise. For this  more fluid approach using the character of paint an excellent guide is A Passion for Water Color, Painting the Inner Experience, by Stefan Draughon. Watson Guptilll publisher, ISBN 0-8230-0102-4
 

My next blog post will have links to artists who have used the principles in my painting exercise to advantage. They include Edward Hooper and Gustav Klimt.

 

 

 

 

Watercolor Class at Oregon State University with Oregon Fish and Wildlife Hatchery and Research Center Fall Creek Arts Festival

Saturday, November 4, at the OSFW Fish Hatchery and Research Center Arts Festival I enjoyed a morning and an aftenoon class of enthusiastic painters. Adult sisters assisted me and painted too. There were children accompanied by parents and one family included a grandparent, also some individuals with their caregivers. Everyone became engaged. 

Only have pictures of  a few of the paintings from the class.

  Attempting to be inclusive of painters in every stage of development including children and adults who knew what they wanted to paint. They were encouraged to go for their vision. For those who wanted a challenge or idea to start, I had an assignment for them.

My teaching exercise was on the techniques of  laying down a general compositional plan while being open to allowing the character of the paint to suggest new directions. Of course the creative process includes being free during the course of painting to reject somethings that are not desired. My goal was to disprove the widely held belief that watercolor is difficult because once a mistake is made the painting is ruined.  One reason watercolor is a workable medium is that the white of the paper can be restored by applying opaque, acrylic absorbent ground.

  

Lesson plan: With just two hours to paint, the assignment must be quickly explained leaving most of the time for the hands on exploring of watercolors. My challenge is great because students are four years old to ninty. Some had limited English language skills.  The basic need is to be simple and clear but still have enough meat to hook the most experienced painters.

Lesson: Very important! The placement of your subject within the picture is very, very important!   Deciding how much space surrounds the subject is your first step in making your painting expressive.   Whether tiny or popping out, whether placed to right or left top, middle or bottom determines the shape of the surrounding areas.  Whether the subject is small or large, the main subject and surrounding space project feelings and stories.

The size of the bird is significant as well as the central location. Top bird shows dominance, to be feared. the middle bird smallest with wings up in surrender. The bottom bird relatively big but is perceived as small because it is intimately close.

Student example of work using the technique of first painting negative area around subject while being mindful of allowing enough surrounding space to contribute to telling a story with emotion;

 

Whether the subject is recognizable or more abstract, the placement in the picture space is important to expressiveness.  My sample I cropped to make it more expressive:

 

A student's watercolor painting is  a  good example of the paint doing what it likes. Allowing paint to move and dry as it likes leads to happy accidental effects that if not fought can suggest a fun carefree ride to new imaginings. Watercolors have character in uneven coverage that painters can come to happily accept it's surprises.

 

In the next blog Wednesday, November 15, a demo will be illustrated and explained.