Palm Tree Wet In Wet Technique Final Steps

I have studied this painting and decided to add some glazes of color to certain areas. I used New Gamboge, very wet, to glaze some of the palm fronds that needed to be warmed up. I used Pthalo Blue and Winsor Blue to glaze some areas that needed to be cooled and/or darkened in value.

I have to step back often so that I don't overwork the piece. Sometimes I turn it upside down and step back to look at it. This gives me a fresh perspective and I can judge color, value and shapes much more objectively.

Once these final touch-ups are complete I can remove the painting from the board, sign it, and get it matted and framed!

Slowly But Surely...watercolor...

Slowly but surely I will get this posted.

Because I am using a very wet technique for this painting, and I will be using many layers of wet, blended colors, I don't have to worry about the graphite on my paper. Here I have penciled in lightly, with a number two drawing pencil, the darkest values of my painting. As I add the wet colors the pencil lines will lift and lighten. I don't want to lose my value pattern, so I add the darkest as they will be the last to be added in. If I were using a direct painting method I would be much more careful about the pencil marks. Even with this method, though, I don't want to press hard with the pencil. That would leave impressions on the paper that would cause the pigment to sink in, leaving unsightly marks.
More to come...

Cactus Flower Lesson 14

Ta-da! The final piece. I used another glaze of Prussian on the shadow at lower left just to help make the warm flower pop.

You can paint along with this lesson! Many of my students like to print the daily lessons, then go to my etsy shop and click on the Online Lesson icon to order the photo references and drawing ($5), which come in an email and can be printed from your computer.

If you enjoyed this lesson, please let me know. I will try to post another lesson soon.

If you are interested in purchasing this piece, please email me at: debbie@watercolorworksart.com

Still Life With Cherries Lesson 16

When I stepped back and looked at my progress yesterday, I noticed that the shadows in the towel were pretty cool. I want to warm them up a little!

I used a VERY wet wash of Burnt Sienna and glazed it over some (not all) of the shadow areas in the towel. This very light wash, like a tea stain, helps to warm up the shadows and make them look more natural.

I added a touch of this color to the left side of the glass dish also, to help define the shape and shadows, and to add a tiny bit of reflection where the cherry on the table is shining into the side of the dish.

Still Life With Cherries Lesson 11

Back to painting the cherries! I want the cherries to look round, so I need to focus on the values, shadows, and the direction the light is coming from. I also need to be sure that I am painting the shadow SHAPES correctly. Since we are creating the illusion of a three-dimensional subject on a two dimensional surface, the sure fire way to accomplish this is by correctly using color, value and SHAPE.

Again, look at the reds on your palette. You may want to add some darker browns to your choices here. I started to use Permanent Alizarin Crimson to work in some of the shadow shapes around the cherries. Be consistent with your light source. If the light is coming from the upper right, be sure the darkest shadows appear on the lower left. Some of the cherries will cast shadows here and there on the other objects.

Still Life With Cherries Lesson 10

Using a wet mixture of Quinicridone Gold and Burnt Sienna, I have touched in some of the gold edges on the dish. Use varying mixtures of these colors. Where you see a lighter value in your photo reference, paint it lighter. Where you see a darker value in the reference, paint it darker. To make it darker in value use a slightly stronger pigment and perhaps use more Burnt Sienna than gold. It is amazing to me how different the piece begins to look with this addition of warm colors!

Still Life With Cherries Lesson 9

Today I am continuing to use French Ultramarine Blue to develop the subtle light effects in the glass. I have added some very wet pigments to the jar, and to the white bowl. Notice how the towel reflects into the shiny glass. Keep the applications light and wet. Use both crisp and soft edges, letting your reference be your guide.

In the canning jar, I painted the shadows on some of the letters. It is very crucial to not allow yourself to get too literal here. Pick out one value, the darkest value, and don't allow yourself to work in any lighter values yet. You also don't have to paint everything you see. This is where the artist in you will learn to filter out what is necessary to the painting and what can be left out!

Still Life With Cherries Lesson 5

Today I have used Sap Green to add a wet wash of color to several areas on the jar. I have again used the softened edge stroke (see previous post) to create soft glazes. I have used different strengths of color (by using different mixtures of pigment and water) to develop some darker values and some lighter values. It's important to use your photo reference as a key. It will guide you as to where you need color, what shapes those colors should be applied, and how dark or light the color should appear.

Because the previous glazes of color were bone dry, the soft application of another color on top of the previous layers creates a depth of color that cannot be achieved otherwise. When glazing several layers of color, be sure to use a very light touch and do not brush too much! Extensive brushing will simply lift and mix the colors and create mud.

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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Boat On River Lesson 14

After adding another very faint wash to the background water (it seemed too disjointed before), and a few little touches here and there, like the very tiny line of shadow under the right edge of the boat where it meets the water, well,...I am happy. I think this little piece is complete.

If you enjoyed this lesson, please let me know by posting a comment. f you would like to paint along with this lesson, go to my etsy online shop and click on the Online Class icon. For $5.00 I will send you the reference photos and the prepared drawing in a pdf file format via email. Then, you can paint along each day as I describe with photos and journaling, how to paint this little picture.You can go the older posts, print them off and use them as a workbook.

A new lesson will be posted soon. Become a Follower and you won’t miss the new things coming up!
Thanks so much for visiting.

You can see my work at the Art & Antique Studio Gallery in the Eau Gallie Arts District (EGAD) in Melbourne, Florida.

Boat On River Lesson 13

Today I am working primarily with the water.

Using the mixtures that I used before (Sap Green, French Ultramarine Blue and Antwerp Blue - variations of these, and by themselves) I use my pull-push stroke to develop some more ripples and details in the water. The more distant brushwork needs to be wetter, lighter in value, and thinner in width of application. The closer strokes are more defined, wider, and darker. It is really crucial at this stage to not over-work a painting.

I used a little bit of French Ultramarine Blue to add a tiny shadow under the crisp whites that were saved before with my masking fluid. This makes these particular water ripples very distinct.

Boat On River Lesson 11

Today I am using a small bit of Permanent Sap Green and Burnt Sienna mixed to create an olive green. You can add some New Gamboge if you want it to be a little more golden. I use a wet, but strong mixture to paint the stripes on the right side of the boat. Then, I added some water and painted a wetter version of the same mixture on the left side. It needs to be wetter and lighter because it is not in shadow.

A bit of French Ultramarine Blue was used in the little bumper at the corner of the dock to create a soft shadow. I also used a touch of Burnt Sienna with a number six round brush that has a nice point, and run a very light, very thin stroke of pigment here and there on the right sides of the mast and ropes that go up through the tree line.

Sunlit Coconuts Lesson 13

Today I am just tweaking the piece. Using many of the colors used previously in this painting, I work around the image touching up areas. I use light washes to push areas to the background, and I used warm washes of yellows or Burnt Sienna to pull things to the foreground.

I again used Prussian Blue to work in some of the finer details, especially around the end of the top coconut. I used a number six round brush with a nice point, pulling and pushing the brush to create varied strokes.

Visit back tomorrow to view the completed painting!

Scooter and Riley Lesson 22

Now it is time to add some texture to the pillows. I sketched in a simple vine and leaf pattern onto the pillow, making sure the pattern followed the contour of the rounded pillows. If you are painting along with this lesson, you will see that you have a guide to use for this pattern. You may choose to use a different pattern if you like.

I used my number six round brush and my number 6 Fritch Scrubber to gently lift out a subtle pattern in the pillow. I like this technique for this type of application because it lifts only some of the color and the edges of the lifted areas are soft. If they were very crisp they may take away from the focal point of the dog's faces.

To lift, I simply dipped my brush in water, and, using a very light touch, rubbed tiny areas with the damp brush and then quickly dabbed the area with a paper towel. Be gentle and don't overdo this step. Too much lifting will make your watercolor look more like a pastel.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 8

Using Prussian Blue, and a number 10 round brush with a good point, I painted in the darkest values of Scooter and Riley's faces.

Be careful to only apply this pigment to areas that you want to appear very black. Either paint around the white sparkles or first use masking to save those areas.

If you use masking, be sure to allow it to thoroughly air dry before applying any paint. These little white areas are very important to make the dark eyes sparkle and look as though they are moist and life-like.

I also used some VanDyke Brown and Burnt Sienna to begin to develop a few more areas of shadow shapes around the dogs faces and bodies.

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 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 7

Here I have used the French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna in a very thin, watered down consistency to develop some of the reflections in the glass and added more color to the shadows in the lemons. I used the colors separately and mixed together in various mixtures to add depth to the shadows.

I also used a very thinned out mixture of Aureolin Yellow with a drop of Burnt Sienna to paint the table area. I painted this mixture over the white of the table and over the previously painted shadow area under the plate.

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.

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!

Arches Study Workshop 1

This painting was a demonstration piece for a recent workshop I did for the Brevard Watercolor Society. I called it: Painting The Shadows First.



First I want to talk briefly about layering colors. If I want an area of my painting to be dark brown, and I just paint browns in that area, the pigment will not get darker, it will simply get thick. In order to make a color darker in value, I need to layer that color against it's relative opposite.

This is a sample of my value chart. I used a mixture of Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine Blue (relative opposites on my color wheel) to create the dark, neutral color. I then painted the darkest mixture I could make, and still keep the color transparent, onto the number six square. I continued to paint the squares, progressively adding more water to the pigment/water mixture. I left the number one square white. This is a tool that I use often to judge values, the darkness or lightness of a color.


This is a sample of a color wheel. You can learn more about the color wheel from lots of books, and I talk briefly about it on my Beginner's Workshop DVD. You can make a simple color wheel, and paint some of the colors from your palette onto the color wheel. Or print a color wheel from many of the online art resources and use a marker to list which colors on your palette correspond to the areas of the color wheel.
From there you can then see how to mix dark, neutral colors from the relative opposites on the color wheel. These mixtures can be physically mixed on your palette or glazed, layered wet onto very dry, to create rich, dark value contrasts in your paintings.

I use this theory to build the dark values in my paintings. For instance, I use a lot of French Ultramarine Blue because it is a relatively pure, true blue in relation to my color wheel. If I look at my color wheel I can see that it is opposite many of my warm orange-brown colors, like Burnt Sienna and VanDyke Brown. I like to paint with glazes, and often I paint with only one color at a time. I allow it to dry, then glaze on another color to create the rich values, while maintaining the transparency of my pigments. Come back tomorrow to see the beginning of how this painting was built.