Tossed Salad Won the Prize

This little painting is one that I created for last weekend's Brevard Watercolor Society SPLASH event. This piece was in a challenge - Paint your favorite recipe. Each painting was to be 11 x 14 inches, matted and accompanied by the artist's recipe. I dubbed this one, "Tossed Salad".
Well, not only did I win the voter's choice for this contest, I also sold the painting to a wonderful couple from our area. Lots of fun!

My Silver and Cherries in Watercolor

This is a piece I recently painted with my Level Two watercolor students. It was a challenging and fun piece. I hope to put it on the blog as a lesson very soon!

I have a new six week series of classes beginning tomorrow. Can't wait to see everyone and begin the next adventure in watercolor!!!

This piece is for sale. Feel free to email me if you are interested. There is more work at my etsy shop (left column) and on my website:
http://watercolorworksart.com

Student Still Life

My Tuesday morning class recently painted a still life of a pepper and tomatoes. They first painted it using a mixture of two colors to create a monochromatic scene. Then they painted a second piece using color.

This is Jackie's monochromatic piece. She did a beautiful job!

Here is a closer view of her piece. Great job, Jackie!

You can learn more about my classes by visiting my website:
http://watercolorworksart.com/Classes.htm

Barbara's Painting

My intermediate class just finished a still life painting of a silver tea pot with a glass bowl of cherries. This is Barbara and her finished piece. This is special because Barbara actually polished the silver piece for me that we used as the reference for this painting. Great job on your painting, Barbara! And thanks so much for making the silver look like new!!!

More classes are beginning in February. You can visit my website to see the list, register and view the supplies list.

We have been working hard to get our new teaching studio ready and so I haven't had a lot of time to work on lessons for this blog. I have been taking progress photos of some pieces we've been working on in class, so I hope to have some new lessons up soon. Stay tuned! Thanks for visiting.

You can see pictures of the new studio by visiting our Art and Antiques Studio Facebook page. The teaching studio is called Courtyard Studio, but we are affiliated with the Art and Antiques Studio and Gallery next door. Visit our Facebook Page and become a FAN!

Candy Dish Lesson 13

Ta Da!!! The finished piece. I am craving chocolate... I'm glad it is almost time for those little trick-or-treaters to visit my house. I may munch on some candy, too!


If you would like to order the reference photo and drawing for this lesson, please visit my etsy online store and click on the Online Class icon. Let me know which lesson you would like. Thanks for visiting.



To learn more about my classes and artwork, please visit my website: http://watercolorworksart.com

Candy Dish Lesson 12

The remainder of work on this piece is just to refine the details in the candy dish, continue with various glazes of wet, transparent colors on the candies and to lift and soften areas that need either lighter values or softer edges.



I used a number six round Silver Black Velvet brush (cheapjoes.com) for the detail areas. I used the colors from the candies and shadows to pull this together. I kept a close eye on the reference photo to indicate where the details were necessary - if they aren't necessary don't put them in!!!

Candy Dish Lesson 10

Today I wanted to paint the chocolate-coated candy. In my painting there is only one! I used Burnt Sienna as an underglaze, then I used VanDyke Brown to glaze over that to create more of a chocolate color and some of the deeper shadows. French Ultramarine Blue was used for the deeper shadows in this candy - but each color was applied after the other glazes had dried.

I also used French Ultramarine Blue and some of the other, previously used colors, to develop the shadow areas around the candies that are in the dish. Be sure to check your photo reference to capture the value, shape and color scheme of each of these little shadow areas. This is a good time to correct some of the candy shapes if they are not quite perfect!

Candy Dish Lesson 6

Using the same technique as yesterday, I am painting the shadows for the "Yellow" candies. Because I don't want the candies to turn strange colors, I am glazing the yellow candy shadows with a bit of Burnt Sienna. I am again trying to pay attention to the crisp and soft edges, wetting the edges where I don't want crisp lines. If you would like a more dramatic effect, use a mixture of French Ultramarine Blue and Permanent Alizarin Crimson, very wet, to make a light purple color for the shadows of the yellow candies. Allow these painted shadow areas to dry.

After the shadows are dry, apply a nice, bright, wet glaze of Aureolin Yellow. Cover the shadow areas and the entire yellow candy. If you like, you can drop in a little New Gamboge here and there with a wet-in-wet technique.

Still Life With Cherries Lesson 14

Today I am using a variety of reds from my palette to develop more depth in the cherries.  I used Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Perylene Maroon, and Winsor Red primarily.

I like to use these colors because they are transparent and so when I glaze with them the colors underneath will show through. This makes the colors vibrant and rich.

I added some Permanent Sap Green and Burnt Sienna to the stems on the cherries.

Still Life With Cherries Lesson 13

Today I am using Prussian Blue to develop some of the shapes on the jar lid. Again shape is so important. I am painting the shadows, not the bumps. I am painting around the light areas.

I used Prussian Blue to develop some more shadows in the jar also. I used it around the bottom of the lid, along the left edge, around the darkest shadows in the lettering, and at the bottom of the jar. It is really beginning to take shape!

Still Life With Cherries Lesson 4

Using French Ultramarine Blue I paint in the shadowed areas of my still life. I like to do this for several reasons: this helps to establish the foundation, or bones, of the painting; it helps me to identify which direction the light is coming from; it creates an under-layer of cool color where I want the shadows to appear. You will see why this is so important very soon.

To create the soft edges of color on the towel and in some of the other shadow areas, I use what I call my Softened Edge Stroke. I apply a nice, rich, wet stroke of color in a small area, then clean the brush and tamp it on the paper toweling. I use the clean damp brush to pull a tiny bit of moisture INTO the stroke of color. The moistened edge creates a soft edge. It is very important to pull the liquid INTO the pigment and not to pull the pigment out into the clean, wet area. Pushing the water INTO the colored stroke will help to create a soft edge that does not have a funky line of dried pigment, because the water softens the edge to the white of the paper. I hope this makes sense.

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Lemons Lesson Number 13

Again I add another wash to the background to deepen the value. This time I used very wet puddle of Indigo. This cooled the background color, darkened the value and really made the fruit pop. I used variations of Indigo (very wet!!!), VanDyke Brown, French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna to further develop small areas of detail around the bowl, fruit and plate.

Remember to spend more time looking at the reference than you do painting. Look for value, shape, color, and edge quality - crisp edges require an application of wet paint on dry paper, soft edges require clear water on the softened edge of the pigment either before or after the stroke is made.
After tweaking a few small areas, I think it is done!

If you would like to paint along with my blog lessons, you can get the photo references and drawings sent to you by visiting my etsy shop, clicking on the Online Lesson icon, and pay a small fee of $5.00. I will then email all the references to you.

If you are local to Melbourne, Florida, I also teach classes and workshops locally. Check out my Classes page on my website for more information.

Lemons Lesson Number 12

I want to heighten the white of the plate, so I added a pale, very wet wash of cool French Ultramarine Blue to the table and the shadow under the plate. This wash will also slightly soften the edges of the plate shadow and bring the focus back up to the fruit, which is the focal point.

Lemons Lesson Number 11

The relative value of the background was looking a little too light for my taste, so I used the background mixture from before, but I added some VanDyke Brown and Permanent Alizarin Crimson to it to darken the value of the mixture.

Then I applied another flat wash to the background. It might be too light in value, even after this wash. But allow this to dry before the next step. Then re-evaluate.

Lemons Lesson Number 9

Now I am going back to my French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna pigments. As a general rule, I either paint the shadows of an object first, or I work from large shapes, to smaller shapes with lighter values to darker values in the process. Here I am working to slowly develop the darker values, paying attention to color, value, shape, edges, all in relation to one another.

Sometimes it is helpful to use small scraps of white paper and cover over the areas of the reference photo that you are not looking at. Expose only the small areas you want to see. Isolating the area often makes it easier to distinguish the shapes, values and edges, and helps increase the accuracy of your brushwork.

You can see the blues and browns in the shadows of the plate and bowl. These objects are reflecting what is around them, so the colors used in the table, background and lemons, will all show up in some form in the shadows and reflections.

Lemons Lesson Number 8

Continuing on with our lesson...

Using the Aureolin Yellow mixture, I painted some reflections into the plate and bowl. I cannot emphasize enough to use a light touch. Look at the reference before you add color.

Only put the color where you really see it. Keep the value of the tones in mind as well as the shape of the areas to be painted. Also pay attention to the edges. If your edges need to be soft, apply the pigment, then use a clean, damp brush and soften the edge very gently with moisture. Don't over brush or your subsequent layers of color will be applied to a fuzzy surface and you will lose the crispness of the reflections in the glass. The idea is to study your photo reference and understand it, look more than you paint. If you aren't sure, don’t paint it.

Lemons Lesson Number 6

I want to begin to develop some of the shadow values in the lemons.

Using French Ultramarine Blue with a lot of water, I lay in some of the shadow shapes in the lemons. As this is drying I use a touch of Burnt Sienna here and there to warm up the shadows and deepen the values.

Blue and red-brown (Burnt Sienna) are relative opposites on the color wheel. Using them mixed together or glazed wet-on-dry, will create warm, dark values of neutral color.

Mixing French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna in a stronger mixture is one of my favorite blacks or dark browns. If you keep it transparent, the color just glows!

Lemons Lesson Number 4

Today you will use the colors that you used in the previous application, but wet them so they are not quite so strong. We will paint these colors directly into the glass bowl where they are reflected.

Be sparing; use a light touch. It is better to start out too light, especially when you are doing this for the first time.

As you get more comfortable with glazing colors and where to put the colors in reflected objects, you can be more direct with color. For now, put in delicate color in just a few areas. Remember, the glass is reflecting what is around it, and it is sitting on a white plate, so there will be a lot of light in the glass bowl.

Lemons Lesson Number 3

I used clear water to wet the lemons with a nice, juicy puddle. As the water soaks in it will have a sheen, but it won't run over the edges if you tip your paper. This is the stage when you can begin to drop in strong pigments - strong because the water will dilute them. Be sure the pigment is not so thick that it doesn't blend and spread.

With practice you will get a feel for how much pigment and water to use. The pigments should be strong, but wet. I used Aureolin Yellow and Sap Green for the first application here. Let the water do the work for you.

Don't over-brush. Just drip the pigments into the areas where you see those colors and let the edges blend as they will. If you want to move it around at all, tip your paper to direct the flow of the pigment. You can add just a small touch of Burnt Sienna into the darkest shadow areas - just don't over do it. Allow this to dry thoroughly before the next step.

Lemons Lesson Number 2

Today is section two of this lesson. I mixed a puddle of paint in the large mixing area of my palette. Here you want to be sure that the puddle will be large enough to cover the entire area. If you have to stop and mix more paint, your wash will dry and be ruined before it is completed. Always mix more than you think you will need. You will see that many times you can use up the remainder of the puddle later, sometimes in another painting.

For the background I used lots of water, Burnt Sienna, Quin Gold, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and a touch of VanDyke Brown. I used a one-inch flat to quickly lay in the wash. Don’t stroke more than once in an area as this will stir up the paper and effect how the paint lays. I wanted a nice, smooth wash for the background. Allow this to dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step.