Advancing with Watercolor: "Sanctuary" Mixing transparent darks with Watercolor

THE PROJECT

In thinking about the interiors and what sort of interiors have a sort of magic I quickly remembered a recent trip to Italy, and the mountain town of Orvieto . The basilica at Orvieto is considered one of the most spectacular pieces of architecture - famous for the main facade which shines brilliantly in the afternoon sun. I found the interior just as compelling... It is vast and very high - natural light is practically the only light source which pours in through stained glass windows thoughtfully placed. The experience is sublime - but how to paint this?

THE DRILL

The drill is focused of creating transparent washes of complimentary color that show us a way to build the dark shadows while taking advantage of watercolors transparent nature. We strived for darks and use the darker reds and greens to acheive this. The warm - up gives me confidence in applying darker colors as I can see they remain transparent

The photo has has some pluses and minuses. The over-all quality is interesting as it relegates the many colors and tones into a simple statement of light and dark. This makes it a good photograph to work from. Also the image has been cropped to give us a better design. The columns are not overly centered and the spacing more interesting. On the minus side the main stature is washed out and so we will need to re-create it.

THE DRAWING / DESIGN

Not many changes in the design - I like the placement of the main shapes and the simplicity of the photo - so I pretty much follow this as I build my design, I perhaps place the floor a little higher to make the reflections of light more interesting. The compositional stem used in this image is the steelyard ...

THE TECHNIQUE

In todays exercise we work in laters. Creating a warm underpainting is important to final “glow” of the watercolor. And so we use several colors to get that foundation. Yellow Ochre, Quin Gold, and B sienna.

ADVANCING WITH WATERCOLOR - COPYRIGHT © GARY TUCKER 2023 2

These are placed wet into wet while trying to preserve the light area of the focal point - generally - not precisely.

Then we follow on top of these warm hues with rich darks of Green, Blue and Nuetral tint, again focused on preserving the brightness of our focal area. This time more precisely than with the first wash.

Final stages include adding the figures and decorative elements with dry technique.

THE CHALLENGE

I found the challenges to be

1 - controlling the light area of the focal area in the layers of warm colors and then cool colors

2 - controlling the richness of color while working wet into wet is also a challenge - its very easy to use too much water.

3 - compartmentalizing the washes is also difficult to plan. Where to breach the washes and still keep fluidity

THE SKILL

Important skills are built in these studies..
1 - the ability to simplify a complex scene
2 - the ability to layer color effectively so that the intial layer and s=uccessive

layers work together.
3 - the ability to design your work to produce and desired effect - ie calmness,

tranquility, etc