Paint step by step with the Fearless artist and learn how you can paint, fearlessly, from a photo.
I teach " Fearless" painting and in my classes, my goal is for my students to enjoy their creativity, while being inspired from photos. In each class, I pick one of my photos and lead my students with a step by step process for creating a watercolor painting.
In my recent online class for Mt. Hood community college, I inspired my students by teaching them how to paint a "still life" of flowers in a concrete urn that I found,during one of my walks in Duncan Gardens a part of Manito Park in Spokane, WA.
I thought this photo would be inspiring & interesting subject matter, for my students, because it would allow all of us to create a painting using a variety of water color painting techniques.
Painting on location is delightful when weather allows, but on many fall days in the northwest,painting from the comfort of one's studio,is much more enjoyable!
1) To begin with, I teach,my students to begin with a plan. This plan is my "roadmap". It is a simple pencil drawing drafted on my wc paper. I study both a color and black/white photo to familiarize myself with the colors and values that I see.
2) Time to make choices. For this work, I am choosing to use a combination of warm and cool colors starting with: New gamboge and hansa yellow, pthalo blue(green), Scarlet lake( also known as organic vermillion)
3) I have begun this painting by using a 1" flat brush filled with clean water
and brush the water over my 140lb cold pressed wc paper. I then dropped diluted washes of very transparent watercolor paint,dragging pigment from my palette to my painting.
4)My entire paper now has color all over its surface. My subsequent steps will allow me to "build" an array of increasingly darker paint strokes as I paint layer by layer .
Each layer of paint becomes increasingly more intense or slightly darker, as I add more pigment to each puddle of water mixture ,on my palette.
5) At this time, I begin to think about where I want to create calligraphic brush strokes with a size 14 or 16 round brush. I use my brush to create patterns and texture. In this close-up photo ,you can see where I have been working on painting an abstracted version of the wood chips at the base of the park urn. I create shapes by alternating and painting light vs darks shapes.
I frequently compare my painting to my photos,so that I can make painterly choices about where I want specific colors and a range of light to darks throughout. My goal is to make sure that my painting has depth, by creating colors, strokes and values of interest in the foreground, midground and background.
6) In some regions of my painting, I used a dry brush technique to create the rough surface of the concrete flower container. A dry brush method of painting is one where a minimal amount of paint is put onto a brush , which is then dragged across the dry paper. To make sure that I do not have to much wet paint on my brush, I first, tap my round brush onto a paper towel- allowing the paper towel to absorb the excess paint. Then, I use my dry brush on my painting.
7) Another method,that I use is to "glaze" washes of diluted paint over a previously painted passage. Glazing is one of my favorite techniques to "soften" strokes that are too bold for an area.
8) Taking a "value" photo of my painting, at this time, allows me an opportunity to study my range of light to dark values. I can see patterns created and think about whether my painting needs more work. In this case, I decided that I want to intensify some of the passages throughout my creation. My ultimate goal is to make the flowers and urn stand out. The urn & flowers are the most important aspect of this painting....
My final painting choice steps were:
a) I decided to "glaze" over the background bushes to make them appear to recede into the background space.
b) I chose to paint a few,small vibrant strokes to make my red & yellow flowers stand out.
c)Finally, I glazed over the wood chips to neutralize their color, make their values slightly darker and have the area recede underneath the urn.
Here is my finished watercolor painting inspired by taking photos while taking a walk through the beautiful Duncan Gardens at Manito Park.
Thank you for visiting my blog site and reading about how you can paint from photos, simply by having a plan of action.
For more information about how you can learn how to paint, fearlessly, I invite you to visit my website to find out about my online and in person art classes.
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