Advancing with Watercolor: "Trees and Reflections" Edges

“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” Bob Marley

I was walking after a March rain and the earth was dark and soft and spring was just starting to push through I saw a scene of a small river and a few trees that normally I might pass by. But I stood a moment and looked - I saw a painting in the subject and then I asked...

How would I paint this?

THE PROJECT - EDGES

Seeing a painting in your subject is the first step towards painting it - After “seeing it” its only a matter of time and paper before you create it. Often students start painting without this first consideration. This weeks painting comes from an ordinary subject - so ordinary that it would be easy to pass it by - I simply paused and looked at the subject until I saw a painting. And the thoughts of composition and technique followed

THE CHALLENGE

In this project I throughout the week I want you to look at the subject and “see” the painting before you start. Since most of us work from photos part of the process is accomplished through cropping nature. The harder part comes in seeing the finished painting, furthermore, as a watercolor. Here are a few hacks that may help

1- put a frame around your subject

2 - look at the image in a thumbnail view. This is done easily enough on you phone or device and reveals the larger parts of the composition.

3 - Envision the steps in creating the painting. 15 minutes spent in thinking the paining through - trees as washes, stones as brush marks , hard, soft edges etc. gives you a good idea on how the painting can materialize.

One of the challenges we have in our exercises and the painting itself is to control the edges of our shapes - this requires timing and a little bit of preparation. Mixing up the colors ahead of time allows us to move more quickly and calmly through the painting

VISUAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Atmosphere plays a big role in the feel of this painting - to communicate this atmosphere I use soft edges, broken edges, rich muted colors, and graded washes

THE DRAWING / DESIGN

There are some motivating reasons to start a painting the light, the color, in this weeks painting I am particularly inspired by the shapes and the edges of these shapes

1 - I see a variety of edges in todays subject and they help to create the atmosphere and mood of the day

2 - within the sky there is a long break in the clouds - soft velvety edges suggest wet technique

the same in the water surface soft rich darks suggest wet into wet technique
The edges of the tree suggest dry hard edges or even broken edges.
Within the marsh more grass and stuff created by hard edges
3 - the next step is to think of a good sequence that will produce these edges

and make the painting manageable.

THE TECHNIQUE

Creating different edges such as rough edges, smooth edges, soft edges require different techniques for the Watercolorist and our drill showered us how we can use the media of water and paper to create a variety of edges. It is practical before starting on any painting to consider the edges and the sequence you will need to create them in a fluid manner

THE SKILL

The skills that are built in the exercise and the painting are

1 - an awareness of the surface of the paper and its role in successful technique

2 - See the edges in your subject - a camera makes no variant in the edges - the artist selects where to use soft, where to use firm and also where to use rough edges.