Advancing with Watercolor: "Boats in the Harbor"

Our technique is driven by the desire to create a certain”feel” or mood to the atmosphere …theses intangible elements are like a recipe- we first need to know the ingredients. In such a moment the soft edges and slow transitions are vital to the mood.

Dawn breaks over the water and the air is damp and soft. The tethered boats are barley moving and the reflections dissolve into the placid water such a calmness -

How can I paint this ??

The Drawing / Design

There is very little to be done in the drawing - a few boats on the soft water…Wait - did I say boats - boats can be trick to draw so lets pause the painting button a moment and spend some time with boats in doing our drill we will go over some of the finer points of boats and arrangement.

1 - once we practice some boats without we are ready to place our boats into some calm water

2 - When we start arranging /composing - we should always work towards variety - many of these boats are the same construction but we can vary them through placement. Here is a great lesson on the value of variety.

3 - lets give a few more details to the near boat and make the others “Boats by association “

Watercolor Technique

The watercolor technique used in todays painting centers are Lund wet into wet technique. This means that we add color into a wet surface. This terrifies the novice and experienced hand as well. We will practice of few things in our drill and tonal study before getting to the painting of Boats on calm water.

The second technique is the ability to see and render shadows as the fall from objects onto objects - we apply this trough a technique called negative painting

The challenge

Following the challenge of creating a good design (accomplished by this photographer i should add) is the technical challenge. Our technique is driven by the desire to create a certain”feel” or mood to the atmosphere …theses intangible elements are like a recipe- we first need to know the ingredients. In such a moment the soft edges and slow transitions are vital to the mood. Also important is controlling the tonal contrast. In this scene examine the distance between the lightest and darkest elements - much closer than we might think

Visual Communication Skills

Visual communication is Like any language - with its own idiom and We develop our fluency with the visual language through study and reflection. Looking at the work of those we admire, the classics and decider how they were able to communicate through the visual language.

As part of study we will pause before we begin to paint and consider what we  would like to say - through your painting. Todays piece is built on the idea of calmness and serenity. What are the visual cues that capture this feeling.

soft edges

horizontal lines

A “quiet” tonal range

Slightly muted colors

By taking time to consider these things we have a deeper understanding of our subject and a recipe of sorts for building the painting. This process is also beneficial when the painting is finished and we reflect on our work

The TECHNICAL  Skill

After considering the what it is we want to say and how we will say it we move on to technique. In todays exercise we will focus on

1 - creating soft transparent washes to create the atmosphere

2 - the ability to design and place our boats on the water in an effective manner

3 - arriving at a color scheme that suits the light