Advancing with Watercolor: "Night in the City" Using Edges to Create Atmosphere in Watercolor

THE PROJECT

Soft reflections on a textured surface

After the rain falls the city seems to glow with reflected lights. Colors are amplified from the shiny brick and concrete - People walking to and fro...

How would I paint this?

THE DRAWING / DESIGN

Before we move onto the painting of this scene let’s pause and consider the message or emotion we want to elicit in out audience. To simple copy what we see is only part of the process. As artists we often need to refine and edit to reach something of substance. Consider the poet who works and reworks to find the essence of the subject and then reveal that in a profound manner. So we start by thinking of a subject and a focal area. The figures walking towards us hold this value and so parts of the painting are made to suit this.

The myriad of lights and reflections seems to me a setting or a context - also a pitfal - painting each one would be an exercise in futility - and would detract from the main subject - my goal is to support it.

These sorts of thoughts lead to strategies on handling edges, lights and darks - the practical side of the painting.

The watercolorist always benefits from working through a series to arrive at a good painting. The first approaches - especially in a complex piece - are important to “come to know” your subject - inside and out. Through internalizing the subject the watercolorist is free to improvise with brush and color.

Very often one or two labored paintings produce a 25 minute gem

THE TECHNIQUE

In thinking about painting this scene I envision a lot of soft edges - especially around the periphery - and so wet into wet technique wil be the go to method in creating the background and foreground - the color choices seem simple enough some yellows and some reds - followed by a strong darks. The darks will be mixed like last week from colors - alizarin crimson, and Prussian green....I will paint the figures , reflections, and pavers with hard edges and so require the painting to be dry at some point

THE CHALLENGES

There are several

1 - In painting the background I want to keep it loose and more like a pattern of lights and darks to suggest rather than define

2 - Painting figures is always difficult - I will give a few tips in the drill 3 - Controlling the darks is difficult for the watercolorist.

THE SKILL

These challenges build several skill sets
1- the ability to paint figures effectively
2 - the ability to work wet into wet and control the painting to a degree
3 - the ability to paint from an idea - not related to painting. such as the feeling of a walk in the rain, or the city at night.

VISUAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

In this piece we communicate a great deal through the various edges - keeping the eye focused on the figures with hard edges - allowing the eye to drift in and out through the soft and rough edges