START. An introduction to watercolour. Work from a photograph. Inside this supplement... supplement in association with

Transcription

1 START Watercolour A supplement in association with Inside this supplement minute painting Paint flowers using a loose and lively technique An introduction to watercolour Colour-mixing exercises Four vital techniques Work from a photograph How to paint a landscape successfully

2 PAINTING FLOWERS IN WATERCOLOUR NEW FROM FIONA PEART PEGASUS ART WATERCOLOUR SELECTION KIT THE BEST PICK N MIX Fresh & vibrant 30 minute projects - be prepared, find inspiration with Fiona; simple brush strokes and clear technique instructions. A5 size - generous 96 pages. SCHMINCKE HORADAM AQUARELL ARTIST GRADE SET 10 X 5ML TUBES WATERCOLOURS Carefully chosen for you by the artists at Pegasus Art. Everything you need to be prepared, start painting and have fun! Beautifully engineered portable metal tin with your core colours of high pigment paints Cotman Sketchers Pocket Box - 12 Half Pans & Travel Brush Bockingford Spiral Pad from St Cuthbert s Mill 140lbs (300gsm) 10 x 7 12 pages Da Vinci Squirrel Round Brush Size 8 Collins Gem Pocket Book Watercolour Tips Daisy Porcelain palette 6 3 in 1 Water Container Spritzer Water Bottle Natural Sponge Faber Castell 2B pencil Soft Eraser S20 Contents: Lemon Yellow, Cad Yellow Light, Cad Red Light, Perm Carmine, Ultramarine Finest, Prussian Blue, Phthalo Green, Yellow Ochre, Sepia Brown, Ivory Black ORDER LINE OPEN 9AM- 5PM MONDAY TO SATURDAY DERWENT WATER-SOLUBLE SKETCHING PENCILS PLUS PENTEL WATER BRUSH Why not order online? POSTAGE & PACKING Under Over 50 - FREE Drawing in the landscape, making studies in a museum or quick portraits in a café; sketch with water soluble pencils (soft, medium and dark) then apply a wash with your refillable water brush pen. 3 x Derwent Watersoluble Pencils HB, 4B, 8B Plus 1 x Pentel Water Brush (Choose from Broad, Medium or Fine Tip)

3 START Watercolour Publisher Dr Sally Bulgin Editor Ingrid Lyon Advertising Sarah Hubbard Tel: Design Sarah Poole Printed by Headley Brothers Ltd, The Invicta Press, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent All material copyrighted: reproduction forbidden without permission. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher. START Watercolour is published by TAPC (The Artists Publishing Company Ltd), Caxton House, 63/65 High Street, Tenterden, Kent TN30 6BD. Telephone the website for Leisure Painter and The Artist magazines Your tutors... Contents Page 4 An introduction to watercolour Mark and Mary Willenbrink Get started with colourmixing exercises and watercolour techniques to try Page 12 Paint from a photograph Julie Gilbert Pollard Develop your skills by capturing the essence of a landscape using a variety of techniques Page 8 30-minute watercolour: Blue iris vignette Fiona Peart Build your confidence with this wonderfully vibrant watercolour demonstration Mark and Mary Willenbrink have been writing together for over five years. Mark trained as a commercial artist; Mary is a writer. Their book, Watercolor for the Absolute Beginner, is published by North Light Books. Fiona Peart is a professional artist and tutor. She writes regularly for Leisure Painter magazine and has written several practical art books. 30 Minute Artist Painting Flowers in Watercolour has recently been published by Search Press. Julie Gilbert Pollard is a well-known American artist and tutor, who paints with oil and watercolour. Her book, Watercolor Unleashed, is published by North Light Books.

4 First steps Introduction to watercolour Colour and technique Welcome to the wonderful world of watercolour! Mark and Mary Willenbrink offer a wealth of practical advice on colour, colour mixing and the basic techniques. Get yourself a small set of watercolours and after practising these exercises you ll be ready to paint along with the demonstrations that follow Understanding colour Colour, also referred to as hue, is based on the three primary colours. From these all other colours are derived. Orange (red+yellow) Green (yellow+blue) Violet (blue+red) Yellow Red Blue Secondary colours Orange, green and violet result from mixing two of the three primary colours. Primary colours Red, yellow and blue can t be made from other colours. Tertiary colours These colours result from mixing a primary colour with its adjacent secondary colour. Bluegreen Redviolet Redorange Yelloworange Yellowgreen Blueviolet 4 START Watercolour Summer 2013

5 Using complementary and analogous colours Complementary colours are any two colours that appear opposite each other on the colour wheel. Analogous colours are a range of neighbouring colours that make up a portion of the colour wheel red-orange, orange, yellow-orange and yellow, for example. Complementary colours Colours that are directly opposite each other are considered a pair of complementary colours red and green, for example Analogous colours A group of analogous colours always includes just one primary colour. Mixing complementary colours A pair of complementary colours is made up of one primary and one secondary colour. If you mix a pair of complementary colours together, you have combined all three primary colours, which will result in a neutral grey or brown. If you mix the primary colour red with its complement green (yellow plus blue), you will get a brown mixture. The same result occurs if you mix yellow with its complement, violet (blue plus red), or if you mix blue and the colour orange (yellow plus red). Technique 1 Painting wet on wet To work wet-on-wet, apply a brush loaded with paint to wet paper. This technique offers less control than wet-on-dry or dry-brush techniques, which you will learn about later, but it also offers plenty of unique and unexpected results. Applying paint wet-on-wet allows you to use loose strokes and bold colours. Time is of the essence when you re working wet-onwet because you need to finish painting the area before the paper dries. Choose your colours and mix lots of paint and water on the palette before you wet the paper. Use a big, wide brush to cover the area with water just before you begin to paint so the whole area is covered with a smooth, even sheen. If the paper is too wet or too dry, the colour won t bleed out smoothly. The paint should transfer easily from the brush to the paper and spread to areas where the paper is wet. Apply water Wet the surface of the paper with a wide, flat brush filled with water. Use long, straight, back-and-forth strokes. The entire area you want to paint should have an even sheen just before you start painting. Apply colour Load a brush with paint and gently touch or sweep the brush along the paper surface so the colour transfers from the brush to the damp paper. Remember that these are watercolours trying to brush the paint into submission once it has been applied can cause smearing. After the colour leaves your brush, let the spontaneity of watercolours take over. START Watercolour Summer

6 What paper to use The smooth surface of hot-pressed paper doesn t allow paint to spread out as much as cold-pressed or Rough paper does, though I do like the interesting watermarks and hard edges. If you want to create soft edges with the wet-on-wet technique, use cold-pressed or Rough paper. Wet-on-wet on different papers Examples of this painting technique on different papers appear right: hot-pressed (1), cold-pressed (2) and Rough (3). 1 2 How much water do I use? The trick when painting wet-on-wet is to apply just the right amount of water to the paper before painting. If the surface is too wet (4), it won t want to accept the colour, and you will get pale, uneven results. Before adding colour, gently smooth any puddles of water so you have a thin, even sheen of water over the paper s surface. If the surface is too dry (5), the colour may bleed out in an inconsistent manner. Don t get frustrated. It may take some practise to learn how much water to use Technique 2 Wet-on-dry technique 1 To paint wet-on-dry, apply a wet brush loaded with paint to dry paper. Because there is no water on the paper to help the paint disperse, wet-on-dry produces defined strokes with hard edges. Different papers react similarly to the wet-on-dry technique. However, the smooth surface of hot-pressed paper allows cleaner edges. 2 3 Technique 3 Dry-brush technique Wet-on-dry on different papers Examples of this technique used on different papers appear left: hot-pressed (1), cold-pressed (2) and Rough (3). 4 The dry-brush technique uses dry paper and a dry brush loaded with a mixture that has very little water. Hot-pressed paper lets very little texture show through after you ve painted over it. Rough paper shows plenty of texture. If you want to use wet-on-dry or dry-brush techniques, make sure the area is completely dry before painting. 5 Dry-brush on different papers Examples of this technique used on different papers appear left: hot-pressed (4), cold-pressed (5) and Rough (6). 6 6 START Watercolour Summer 2013

7 Use very little water for dry-brushing Mix the paint with just enough water to allow the mixture to transfer from the brush to the dry paper. The example near right shows too much water used. Technique 4 Positive and negative painting Negative painting Imply shapes Negative painting implies an image by painting the shapes around it. Positive painting, by contrast, means simply painting the object. To paint a fence using negative painting, for instance, you would leave the white of the paper for the fence and define the fence s shape by painting the colours of the foliage behind it. To paint the fence positively, the brushstrokes themselves should indicate the fence posts and rails. Carefully plan your composition before painting. Draw all of the shapes in lightly, then paint around the object, only implying its shape. Positive painting Negative painting is an easy technique to learn when painting with watercolour. You just need to plan ahead. You might paint the negative space of an object around a white area or over a previous wash of colour. It s easy to plan what areas to leave untouched if indicating a white object, such as white water in rapids. Take the challenge of painting an object that normally is brown, such as a fence, by leaving the fence white and painting the shapes around it. You can make a dull, drab fence into an interesting part of your composition. Use negative painting as a way to present an ordinary image in a unique way. I like to imply the shapes of daisies on a dark background using negative painting. This article was adapted from Watercolor for the Absolute Beginner by Mark and Mary Willenbrink (North Light Books, 14.99, ISBN ). Here is a real confidence builder for beginners and those new to watercolour. Packed full of easyto-follow tuition and practical advice on all aspects of watercolour painting. START Watercolour Summer

8 Flowers 30-minute watercolour Blue iris vignette There are so many different varieties of iris that you can alter your colours to almost anything you fancy and there will probably be a variety that would look like your painting! Make the most of wonderfully vibrant watercolour with Fiona Peart Most of us just want to dive in and start painting, but spending a little time thinking and planning really will result in greater success. This does not mean spending hours in consideration; but using those snippets of time when we cannot paint to store a few ideas, we can just get on with it when we do have that luxury of half-an-hour to paint. If you are lucky enough to have the space to enable you to leave your art materials set up, then all of your preparation can be done beforehand, the drawing can be done and your paints can be all ready to go right down to a clean, inviting water pot just enticing you to dip a paint-coloured brush into it! If it is not possible to leave your art materials out anywhere, you can still prepare everything in advance so that when you get a spare half hour you can quickly put everything on a table, fill your water pot and paint. When you find the time to paint, it can be so exciting not to have to waste time wondering what to do, but to have everything at hand ready to just go for it. The results are always fresh and vibrant, with the added advantage that you do not have time to fiddle the resulting paintings are often better the less time you spend on them. How often I hear people say oh, I often overwork watercolour. Well, giving yourself just half an hour will stop you doing that. Once you put those finishing touches to your painting, walk away from it. When you come back to it, how wonderful it wll look, and all in just half an hour! DEMONSTRATION Blue iris Vingette You will need Surface Bockingford NOT paper 12x8in. (30.5x20.5cm) Brush Pyramid (or short sword) Watercolour French ultramarine Bluebell (or a mix of permanent rose and French ultramarine) Raw sienna Burnt sienna Country olive (or olive green) Shadow (or a mix of French ultramarine, burnt sienna and permanent rose) Derwent Watercolour pencils Crimson lake 20, Spectrum blue 32 Golden brown 59 Miscellaneous Palette knife, Embossing tool Low-tack masking tape Step 1 Use the watercolour pencils to sketch your initial lines on the paper, then border the edges with masking tape. Double load the brush with dilute French ultramarine in the body and bluebell in the tip. Paint the left-hand iris petals, starting from the base of each and lifting the brush as you reach the tips. Step 2 Scrape out light lines to suggest the shape of the petals using the palette knife, then use the embossing tool to create dark lines. 8 START Watercolour Summer 2013

9 Step 3 Rinse the brush then double load it with raw sienna in the body and burnt sienna on the tip. Use this to paint the papery case (spathe). Step 4 Using country olive wet in wet, draw the brush down the stem from the case in one stroke; then use the palette knife and embossing tool to detail the case. Allow the painting to dry before continuing. Step 5 Mix shadow with bluebell and paint the two buds, then paint the cases as before, working wet in wet. Aim to allow a little of the shadow/bluebell mix to bleed into the cases. Step 6 Paint the stems as before, using country olive. Step 7 Detail the cases and buds with the palette knife and embossing tool, then rinse the brush and pick up raw sienna on the tip. Use this to suggest the stamens. Step 8 Using a stronger double load of shadow and bluebell, paint the outside petals (standards) on the foreground iris. START Watercolour Summer

10 Step 9 Paint the central standard with a slightly lighter mix, touching it to the outside standard to allow the colour to bleed at the edges, then paint the lower petals (falls). Step 10 Scrape and bruise all of the petals using the embossing tool and palette knife. Step 11 Paint the spathe and stem using the colours and techniques in steps 3 and 4. The finished painting Blue Iris, watercolour, 12x8in. (30.5x20.5cm). Allow the painting to dry to finish then remove the masking tape Step 12 Rinse the brush and touch in the stamens with raw sienna, then paint both foreground buds using the colours and techniques in steps 5 and 6. This tutorial was adapted from Fiona Peart s recent book: 30 Minute Artist Painting Flowers in Watercolour (Search Press; 6.99; ISBN ). This practical and beautifully illustrated book is aimed at beginners and busy artists, who want to complete loose and lively flower paintings in just half an hour. Fiona covers everything from materials and techniques to ten step-by-step demonstrations for you to follow. An inspiring read for everyone who loves the vibrancy of watercolour. 10 START Watercolour Summer 2013

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12 Paint from a photograph landscape Capturing the landscape s essence Julie Gilbert Pollard takes you through the painting of rocks and how to place them in a landscape. You ll learn here how to work on a multi-media canvas surface and use a variety of techniques and media to produce a vibrant painting We need to find a balance between drawing realistically enough so that we can capture the character and personality of our subjects (even rocks), and putting in every little detail. Too stylised and non-individualised and the rocks begin to look like potatoes and popcorn. Rocks that are too realistic lack the painterly quality so many of us desire. While doing studies of rocks, don t DEMONSTRATION Rocky Hollow worry about trying to paint them beautifully focus on capturing the shapes, angles, planes, textures, colours and even the cracks. Learn all you can about your subject. When putting them into your paintings later, you can decide which details to leave out in order to paint them in your individual style and capture the essence of rock. You will need Surface Watercolour canvas, coated with Daniel Smith Watercolour Ground* 12x12in. (30x30cm) Watercolour Cerulean blue, Indian yellow, Manganese blue, New gamboge, Permanent alizarin crimson, Scarlet lake, Transparent turquoise, Winsor yellow Fluid acrylics Dioxazine purple, Nickel azo yellow, Pyrrole orange, Turquoise (phthalo) Brushes 3 4in. (19mm) aquarelle, No. 8 Round Small sumi bamboo brush Miscellaneous 2B pencil, charcoal pencil, masking fluid, palette knife, salt, watercolour ground, * available from Pegasus Art; telephone Reference photo I ve photographed this same little rocky ravine the same time of year for several years now. As you draw the subject, you will still need to make a good bit of freehand adjustments to move the tree trunk and fallen branch away from centre. Tonal value study Start with a fairly detailed value sketch. The composition is a little tricky and the value pattern is critical to pull it off, so it makes perfect sense to begin with a preliminary study like this. After scribbling over all the areas not blasted by the sun, rub your finger over the pencil to further pull the darks and medium-darks together to push areas into shadow. Tip Drawing over watercolour ground When necessary to erase, pencil rubs off cleanly from watercolour ground. Just make sure you have the canvas supported by a solid surface behind it or you could stretch a depression into it or even poke a hole in it. 12 START Watercolour Summer 2013

13 Step 1 Prepare the canvas and sketch the subject Onto a canvas, brush two coats of watercolour ground, letting the first layer dry before applying the second. Once dry, draw the composition onto the canvas using a 2B pencil. Step 2 Add the basecoat Wet the canvas with clean water, then brush in a light application of fluid acrylics: nickel azo yellow over the leaves in sunlight and a mixture of dioxazine purple and transparent turquoise (phthalo) to create a pale blue and a lavender. Apply this over the twig areas. This should soften the harshness of the liquid mask and the watercolour ground a bit. If not sufficient, you can always glaze over the marks later with very diluted acrylic. Step 3 Apply masking fluid Apply masking fluid with a palette knife. Masking can be a tedious job, making it easy to get careless. Remember that you are basically painting with very hard-edged white. Take care with its application or you ll find it causes more problems than it solves. Let the masking fluid dry completely. Step 4 Add darks with acrylics Using a fluid acrylic mixture of pyrrole orange and dioxazine purple, paint the holes between the rocks using a small sumi brush. Draw a few twigs, drawing and applying the dark acrylic mixture with a charcoal pencil. As the paint is unloaded from the pencil, the line transitions from paint to a charcoal pencil line. Before moving on to the next step, squint at your painting to confirm you have a nice balance of dark marks. Step 5 Glaze most of the surface Using transparent turquoise with just a touch of permanent alizarin crimson, run a light wash over all parts of the painting that are not in direct sunlight with a 3 4in. (19mm) aquarelle. Do not run the wash through all the masked areas of twigs and leaves. Leave space between the blue wash and the mask. The masking fluid is serving as a fallback measure to preserve the most important light areas in case negatively painting around them fails. Step 6 Paint the rocks and leaves Begin painting the rock by painting around parts of the masked twigs and leaves. Suggest the moss by painting those areas with green and yellowgreen, creating shaggy edges here and there. Paint the rocks around the fallen leaves at their bases. Sprinkle a little salt and spatter a little darker colour into the damp rocks to give them texture. START Watercolour Summer

14 Step 7 Keep refining the rocks Continue modelling the rocks with variegated colour, salt, spatter and cast shadows until all rocks have received the same treatment, but are not necessarily complete. Add a few more spindly saplings growing up out of the fallen leaves on the right for balance. Step 8 Refine the foliage Add some warmth to the upper right background and slightly to the left of the tree trunk. Paint the leaves at the base of the tree from the point at which the bank angles downward and away from the light, leaving the top very light. Paint a loose wash of gold and green over the leafy ground at the bottom. Step 9 Refine the background Paint the background in a mediumdark value. Paint around the twigs and leaves where possible. Sprinkle in a little salt. Let dry. Step 10 Remove the masking fluid Remove the masking fluid. If you leave it on too long, the contrast can be shocking when it finally comes off to reveal such stark, hard-edged white shapes next to the more refined, and much darker painted areas. Step 11 Glaze the branches In a hit-or-miss fashion, glaze bluegreys over the pale branches to create a dappled light effect. In the same manner, add warmer colour to parts of the leaves. Darken and add some texture to the lower shaded area. Step 13 Add the finishing touches Add a stronger shadow over the light bluish rock at the bottom, just left of centre, plus a branch shadow to break up the remaining light that s falling on it. The rock directly to its left has become too dark on its left side. Lift out some of the dark to let the light reddish-purple and blues that have stained the canvas shine through. When both rocks are dry, spatter some dark over both. 14 START Watercolour Summer 2013

15 The finished painting Rocky Hollow, watercolour on multi-media canvas, 12x12in. (30x30cm) This demonstration was taken from Julie Gilbert Pollard s new book, Watercolor Unleashed (North Light Books, 16.99, ISBN ). Learn how to make the most of watercolour s unpredictability and paint pictures full of life and interest. This is a wonderful book for those new to watercolour who want to learn to let the medium flow. Available from for START Watercolour Summer

16 GOLDEN FLUID ACRYLICS 10 X 30ML SET DA VINCI WATERCOLOUR BRUSH SET & BOCKINGFORD PAPER PAD + FREE NATURAL SPONGE Golden Fluid Acrylics are ideal for pouring, puddling, dripping, staining and spray application. Use as an alternative to or with watercolours for wide variety of effects DANIEL SMITH WATERCOLOUR GROUND 473ML Beautifully soft squirrel brushes, round (Size 8) & flat (Size 16) for maximum paint load, blocking in colour, shapes and detail. Firmer Sable Round Brush (Size 6) for good paint control & fine point for detail. Bockingford Panoramic Pad 140lbs (300gsm) 14 x 5 12 Sheets Natural Sponge ST CUTHBERT S BOCKINGFORD PAPER SPIRAL PADS 140LBS (300GSM) 12 SHEETS Exciting new ground, anything you ve dreamed of painting with watercolour can become a reality. Use for other mixed media techniques and with Golden Fluid acrylic paints. Thick, brushable white ground for absorbent or non-absorbent surfaces. ORDER LINE OPEN 9AM- 5PM MONDAY TO SATURDAY 10 x x x Beautiful English watercolour paper, traditionally made on a cylinder mould machine at St Cuthberts Mill, is a high quality paper made using pure materials to archival standards. PRO ARTE WATERCOLOUR 3 BRUSH SET + KHADI HANDMADE PAPER SKETCHBOOK Why not order online? POSTAGE & PACKING Under Over 50 - FREE PEGASUS ART SHOP, GRIFFIN MILL LONDON ROAD, THRUPP, STROUD GLOS GL5 2AZ Beautiful section-stitched khadi hardback. White rough rag paper, 100% cotton, 210gsm, 21 x 25cm 2 x Pro Arte 101 Round brushes Sizes 12 & 8 - good reservoir power, excellent tips 1 x Pro Arte 106 Flat ½ - Versatile and hardwearing brushes

17 PAINTING FLOWERS IN WATERCOLOUR NEW FROM FIONA PEART PEGASUS ART WATERCOLOUR SELECTION KIT THE BEST PICK N MIX Fresh & vibrant 30 minute projects - be prepared, find inspiration with Fiona; simple brush strokes and clear technique instructions. A5 size - generous 96 pages. SCHMINCKE HORADAM AQUARELL ARTIST GRADE SET 10 X 5ML TUBES WATERCOLOURS Carefully chosen for you by the artists at Pegasus Art. Everything you need to be prepared, start painting and have fun! Beautifully engineered portable metal tin with your core colours of high pigment paints Cotman Sketchers Pocket Box - 12 Half Pans & Travel Brush Bockingford Spiral Pad from St Cuthbert s Mill 140lbs (300gsm) 10 x 7 12 pages Da Vinci Squirrel Round Brush Size 8 Collins Gem Pocket Book Watercolour Tips D a i s y P o rc e l a i n p a l e t t e 6 3 i n 1 Wa t e r C o n t a i n e r S p r i t z e r Wa t e r B o t t l e Natural Sponge F a b e r C a s t e l l 2 B p e n c i l Soft Eraser S20 Contents: Lemon Yellow, Cad Yellow Light, Cad Red Light, Perm Carmine, Ultramarine Finest, Prussian Blue, Phthalo Green, Yellow Ochre, Sepia Brown, Ivory Black ORDER LINE OPEN 9AM-5PM MONDAY TO SATURDAY DERWENT WATER-SOLUBLE SKETCHING PENCILS PLUS PENTEL WATER BRUSH Why not order online? POSTAGE & PACKING Under Over 50 - FREE Drawing in the landscape, making studies in a museum or quick portraits in a café; sketch with water soluble pencils (soft, medium and dark) then apply a wash with your refillable water brush pen. 3 x Derwent Watersoluble Pencils HB, 4B, 8B Plus 1 x Pentel Water Brush (Choose from Broad, Medium or Fine Tip)

18 START Publisher Dr Sally Bulgin Editor Ingrid Lyon Advertising Sarah Hubbard Tel: Design Sarah Poole Printed by Headley Brothers Ltd, The Invicta Press, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent All material copyrighted: reproduction forbidden without permission. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher. START is published by TAPC (The Artists Publishing Company Ltd), Caxton House, 63/65 High Street, Tenterden, Kent TN30 6BD. Telephone the website for Leisure Painter and The Artist magazines An introduction to watercolour Mark and Mary Willenbrink Get started with colourmixing exercises and watercolour techniques to try Paint from a photograph Julie Gilbert Pollard Develop your skills by capturing the essence of a landscape using a variety of techniques 30-minute watercolour: Blue iris vignette Fiona Peart Build your confidence with this wonderfully vibrant watercolour demonstration Mark and Mary Willenbrink have been writing together for over five years. Mark trained as a commercial artist; Mary is a writer. Their book, Watercolor for the Absolute Beginner, is published by North Light Books. Fiona Peart is a professional artist and tutor. She writes regularly for Leisure Painter magazine and has written several practical art books. 30 Minute Artist Painting Flowers in Watercolour has recently been published by Search Press. Julie Gilbert Pollard is a well-known American artist and tutor, who paints with oil and watercolour. Her book, Watercolor Unleashed, is published by North Light Books.

19 Colour and technique Welcome to the wonderful world of watercolour! Mark and Mary Willenbrink offer a wealth of practical advice on colour, colour mixing and the basic techniques. Get yourself a small set of watercolours and after practising these exercises you ll be ready to paint along with the demonstrations that follow Understanding colour Colour, also referred to as hue, is based on the three primary colours. From these all other colours are derived. Orange (red+yellow) Green (yellow+blue) Violet (blue+red) Yellow Red Blue Orange, green and violet result from mixing two of the three primary colours. Red, yellow and blue can t be made from other colours. Bluegreen Redviolet These colours result from mixing a primary colour with its adjacent secondary colour. Redorange Yelloworange Yellowgreen Blueviolet 4 START Summer 2013

20 Using complementary and analogous colours Complementary colours are any two colours that appear opposite each other on the colour wheel. Analogous colours are a range of neighbouring colours that make up a portion of the colour wheel red-orange, orange, yellow-orange and yellow, for example. Colours that are directly opposite each other are considered a pair of complementary colours red and green, for example A group of analogous colours always includes just one primary colour. A pair of complementary colours is made up of one primary and one secondary colour. If you mix a pair of complementary colours together, you have combined all three primary colours, which will result in a neutral grey or brown. If you mix the primary colour red with its complement green (yellow plus blue), you will get a brown mixture. The same result occurs if you mix yellow with its complement, violet (blue plus red), or if you mix blue and the colour orange (yellow plus red). Painting wet on wet To work wet-on-wet, apply a brush loaded with paint to wet paper. This technique offers less control than wet-on-dry or dry-brush techniques, which you will learn about later, but it also offers plenty of unique and unexpected results. Applying paint wet-on-wet allows you to use loose strokes and bold colours. Time is of the essence when you re working wet-onwet because you need to finish painting the area before the paper dries. Choose your colours and mix lots of paint and water on the palette before you wet the paper. Use a big, wide brush to cover the area with water just before you begin to paint so the whole area is covered with a smooth, even sheen. If the paper is too wet or too dry, the colour won t bleed out smoothly. The paint should transfer easily from the brush to the paper and spread to areas where the paper is wet. Wet the surface of the paper with a wide, flat brush filled with water. Use long, straight, back-and-forth strokes. The entire area you want to paint should have an even sheen just before you start painting. Load a brush with paint and gently touch or sweep the brush along the paper surface so the colour transfers from the brush to the damp paper. Remember that these are watercolours trying to brush the paint into submission once it has been applied can cause smearing. After the colour leaves your brush, let the spontaneity of watercolours take over. START Summer

21 What paper to use The smooth surface of hot-pressed paper doesn t allow paint to spread out as much as cold-pressed or Rough paper does, though I do like the interesting watermarks and hard edges. If you want to create soft edges with the wet-on-wet technique, use cold-pressed or Rough paper. Examples of this painting technique on different papers appear right: hot-pressed (1), cold-pressed (2) and Rough (3). 1 2 The trick when painting wet-on-wet is to apply just the right amount of water to the paper before painting. If the surface is too wet (4), it won t want to accept the colour, and you will get pale, uneven results. Before adding colour, gently smooth any puddles of water so you have a thin, even sheen of water over the paper s surface. If the surface is too dry (5), the colour may bleed out in an inconsistent manner. Don t get frustrated. It may take some practise to learn how much water to use Wet-on-dry technique 1 To paint wet-on-dry, apply a wet brush loaded with paint to dry paper. Because there is no water on the paper to help the paint disperse, wet-on-dry produces defined strokes with hard edges. Different papers react similarly to the wet-on-dry technique. However, the smooth surface of hot-pressed paper allows cleaner edges. 2 3 Dry-brush technique Examples of this technique used on different papers appear left: hot-pressed (1), cold-pressed (2) and Rough (3). 4 The dry-brush technique uses dry paper and a dry brush loaded with a mixture that has very little water. Hot-pressed paper lets very little texture show through after you ve painted over it. Rough paper shows plenty of texture. If you want to use wet-on-dry or dry-brush techniques, make sure the area is completely dry before painting. 5 Examples of this technique used on different papers appear left: hot-pressed (4), cold-pressed (5) and Rough (6). 6 6 START Summer 2013

22 Mix the paint with just enough water to allow the mixture to transfer from the brush to the dry paper. The example near right shows too much water used. Positive and negative painting Negative painting Negative painting implies an image by painting the shapes around it. Positive painting, by contrast, means simply painting the object. To paint a fence using negative painting, for instance, you would leave the white of the paper for the fence and define the fence s shape by painting the colours of the foliage behind it. To paint the fence positively, the brushstrokes themselves should indicate the fence posts and rails. Carefully plan your composition before painting. Draw all of the shapes in lightly, then paint around the object, only implying its shape. Positive painting Negative painting is an easy technique to learn when painting with watercolour. You just need to plan ahead. You might paint the negative space of an object around a white area or over a previous wash of colour. It s easy to plan what areas to leave untouched if indicating a white object, such as white water in rapids. Take the challenge of painting an object that normally is brown, such as a fence, by leaving the fence white and painting the shapes around it. You can make a dull, drab fence into an interesting part of your composition. Use negative painting as a way to present an ordinary image in a unique way. I like to imply the shapes of daisies on a dark background using negative painting. This article was adapted from Watercolor for the Absolute Beginner by Mark and Mary Willenbrink (North Light Books, 14.99, ISBN ). Here is a real confidence builder for beginners and those new to watercolour. Packed full of easyto-follow tuition and practical advice on all aspects of watercolour painting. START Summer

23 Blue iris vignette There are so many different varieties of iris that you can alter your colours to almost anything you fancy and there will probably be a variety that would look like your painting! Make the most of wonderfully vibrant watercolour with Fiona Peart Most of us just want to dive in and start painting, but spending a little time thinking and planning really will result in greater success. This does not mean spending hours in consideration; but using those snippets of time when we cannot paint to store a few ideas, we can just get on with it when we do have that luxury of half-an-hour to paint. If you are lucky enough to have the space to enable you to leave your art materials set up, then all of your preparation can be done beforehand, the drawing can be done and your paints can be all ready to go right down to a clean, inviting water pot just enticing you to dip a paint-coloured brush into it! If it is not possible to leave your art materials out anywhere, you can still prepare everything in advance so that when you get a spare half hour you can quickly put everything on a table, fill your water pot and paint. When you find the time to paint, it can be so exciting not to have to waste time wondering what to do, but to have everything at hand ready to just go for it. The results are always fresh and vibrant, with the added advantage that you do not have time to fiddle the resulting paintings are often better the less time you spend on them. How often I hear people say oh, I often overwork watercolour. Well, giving yourself just half an hour will stop you doing that. Once you put those finishing touches to your painting, walk away from it. When you come back to it, how wonderful it wll look, and all in just half an hour! DEMONSTRATION Use the watercolour pencils to sketch your initial lines on the paper, then border the edges with masking tape. Double load the brush with dilute French ultramarine in the body and bluebell in the tip. Paint the left-hand iris petals, starting from the base of each and lifting the brush as you reach the tips. Surface Bockingford NOT paper 12x8in. (30.5x20.5cm) Brush Pyramid (or short sword) Watercolour French ultramarine Bluebell (or a mix of permanent rose and French ultramarine) Raw sienna Burnt sienna Country olive (or olive green) Shadow (or a mix of French ultramarine, burnt sienna and permanent rose) Derwent Watercolour pencils Crimson lake 20, Spectrum blue 32 Golden brown 59 Miscellaneous Palette knife, Embossing tool Low-tack masking tape Scrape out light lines to suggest the shape of the petals using the palette knife, then use the embossing tool to create dark lines. 8 START Summer 2013

24 Rinse the brush then double load it with raw sienna in the body and burnt sienna on the tip. Use this to paint the papery case (spathe). Using country olive wet in wet, draw the brush down the stem from the case in one stroke; then use the palette knife and embossing tool to detail the case. Allow the painting to dry before continuing. Mix shadow with bluebell and paint the two buds, then paint the cases as before, working wet in wet. Aim to allow a little of the shadow/bluebell mix to bleed into the cases. Paint the stems as before, using country olive. Detail the cases and buds with the palette knife and embossing tool, then rinse the brush and pick up raw sienna on the tip. Use this to suggest the stamens. Using a stronger double load of shadow and bluebell, paint the outside petals (standards) on the foreground iris. START Summer

25 Paint the central standard with a slightly lighter mix, touching it to the outside standard to allow the colour to bleed at the edges, then paint the lower petals (falls). Scrape and bruise all of the petals using the embossing tool and palette knife. Paint the spathe and stem using the colours and techniques in steps 3 and 4. The finished painting Blue Iris, watercolour, 12x8in. (30.5x20.5cm). Allow the painting to dry to finish then remove the masking tape Rinse the brush and touch in the stamens with raw sienna, then paint both foreground buds using the colours and techniques in steps 5 and 6. This tutorial was adapted from Fiona Peart s recent book: 30 Minute Artist Painting Flowers in Watercolour (Search Press; 6.99; ISBN ). This practical and beautifully illustrated book is aimed at beginners and busy artists, who want to complete loose and lively flower paintings in just half an hour. Fiona covers everything from materials and techniques to ten step-by-step demonstrations for you to follow. An inspiring read for everyone who loves the vibrancy of watercolour. 10 START Summer 2013