Advancing with Watercolor: Brushwork - Clouds

BRUSHWORK

Over the next 6 weeks together we will be looking closer at brushwork in our watercolor painting and asking ourselves with each subject “how can we express this with brush work” It is definitely a technical question but leads to an answer that is more metaphysical - how to capture the essence of the subject!- One of the first questions is then which brush do I use. We all have favorites - but usually the subject will need something specific. The rocks have an angular nature - maybe the flat will work best...

Over time the brush becomes the extension of the your hand, and ultimately of your heart -

most importantly a great place to start is in the sky and to look at the clouds overhead and ask - How can I express these clouds with my brush.

WHAT WILL YOU NEED THIS WEEK

We start with several small cloud studies so a few scraps of paper and a board. Later i will do a painting about 12 x 16 on 140lb rough watercolor paper - you what you have.

I am using yellow ochre, cobalt and ult blue, lavender by Holbein. Paynes gray and burnt sienna, sepia in the final piece - mostly Payne’s gray in the studies. Again - use what you have.

Brushes
A large flat 2” and a 1 inch flat, a couple of sabelette rounds large and small.. Tape, spay bottle, paper towel, hair dryer

WHAT WILL WE DO THIS WEEK

We will start with several small cloud studies, images will be on screen and in the folder week 1 on google docs

THIS WEEKS DRILL

Our drill this week will be several studies looking at various cloud formations and answering the question - how to paint these particular clouds? We will work small and with a single color - I am using Payne’s gray but you can use any dark color. The brushes are mentioned above.

The goal is to start forming a connection between observed shapes and the particular marks our brush leaves behind

After doing a few of these we will be well warmed up and ready to think about a more complex subject

You can see images of the studies below with smaller windows to give you an idea of my working surface and brush “posture”