Watercolor Unleashed: New Directions for Traditional Painting Techniques

355 Pages·2013·24.66 MB·English

by  Julie Gilbert Pollard

Watercolor Unleashed
New directions for traditional
painting techniques
JULIE GILBERT POLLARD
Contents
Introduction
Basic Watercolor Materials
Additional Watercolor Materials
Acrylic Materials
Plein Air Materials
Watercolor Essentials
Drawing and Composition Basics
Value
Basic Color Theory
Design
Negative and Positive Shapes
Paint Consistency
Paint Using a Manageable Process
Drawing and Composing Your Painting
Blind Contour Sketch
Executing a Blind Contour Sketch
Gesture Sketches
Thumbnail Studies
Value Sketches
Avoiding Tangents
Asymmetry
Asymmetrical Composition
Assessing the Final Painting
Abstract to Realism
Improved Design With Abstract Studies
Abstract Study to Finished Painting
Brilliant Color, Simplified
The Triadic Color Wheel
Color Temperature
Understanding Neutral Colors
Mixing Neutrals
Use Color as Value
Painting With Primary Colors
Nine Lessons for Negative Painting
Why Negative Painting?
Three Concepts for Creating Shapes
Modeling Negative Shapes
Painting From Light to Dark
Continuous Variegated Wash
Wet-Into-Wet and Wet-On-Dry
Overlapping Washes
Intuitive Negative Painting
Spattering
Using Layers to Create Depth
Spice Up Watercolors With Acrylics
Enjoy the Process
Underpaint in Acrylic
Locking in Darks With Acrylics
Delight in the Landscape
Painting En Plein Air
Painting Vegetation
Simplifying Complex Shapes
Rocks
Capturing the Landscape’s Essence
Anatomy of a Creek
Painting a Creek
Cascading Water
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Introduction
ITTLIE BITTIE FISHIES
Watercolor on board
19” × 19” (48cm × 48cm)
EARLY FALL, TRINITY RIVER
Watercolor on canvas
12” × 12” (30cm × 30cm)
Watercolor—especially an expanded watermedia version of watercolor—is an
exciting and expressive medium. You can do almost anything with it,
particularly when using the many water-based products, papers and canvases that
are available to us.
Watercolor has been maligned as an extremely unforgiving medium. While
this is true to some extent, even purely transparent watercolor is more easily
manipulated than you might imagine. As you go through the step-by-step demos,
you will see where paint has been gently lifted or not so gently scrubbed, then
repainted in such a way as to revive freshness. Then, in a worst case scenario,
painted over with gouache, casein or acrylic.
Regarding opaque media, lest you think the addition of an opaque medium
such as gouache is merely a last resort fix, it must be said that opaque mediums
can add beautiful qualities and dimensions to a painting that you might not be
able to achieve otherwise. It must also be acknowledged that opaque media are
highly respected in their own right, so why not incorporate any and all media to
improve and complete a painting?
Still, watercolor can be a mysterious and challenging medium—and even with
experience, truth be told, the challenge remains. As artists, we simply keep
raising the bar and expecting more of ourselves—as happens with every
worthwhile endeavor. And if we weren’t the kind of folk who need to be
challenged, we wouldn’t be painting!
Most of my work in watercolor is “transparent.” But I am not a purist—my
philosophy is of the “whatever works” school. Not bound by tradition but truly
watercolor unleashed!
So, come with me and let’s see if we can demystify the process—and delight
in the practice of this beautiful and versatile medium.
Basic Watercolor Materials
Whatever you do, do not buy all the colors or other supplies you see here just
because they’re on my list. I often use no more than six colors in any given
painting and can get by with three. I have labeled the colors as warm, warmer,
cool, cooler and very cool. I use no earth tones and few secondary colors.
YELLOW PIGMENTS
• Winsor Yellow (Winsor & Newton)
• Nickel Azo Yellow (Winsor & Newton)
• New Gamboge (Winsor & Newton)—warm
• Indian Yellow (M. Graham or Winsor & Newton)—warmer
RED PIGMENTS
• Scarlet Lake (Holbein) or Quinacridone Red (M. Graham)—warm •
Permanent Alizarin Crimson (Winsor & Newton)—cool • Permanent Rose
(Winsor & Newton) or Quinacridone Rose (M. Graham)—cool •
Quinacridone Magenta (Winsor & Newton)—cooler
BLUE PIGMENTS
• Ultramarine Deep (Holbein)—warmer
• Cobalt Blue (Winsor & Newton or M. Graham [for plein air palette])—warm
• Indanthrene Blue (Winsor & Newton) or Anthraquinone Blue (M.
Graham)—warm • Antwerp Blue (Winsor & Newton)—cool
• Cerulean Blue (Winsor & Newton)—cool • Manganese Blue Nova (Holbein
or M. Graham Manganese Blue Hue [for plein air palette])—cooler •
Transparent Turquoise (Daler-Rowney)—cooler • Turquoise Blue (Holbein)
—cooler
• Ultramarine Turquoise (Daniel Smith)—very cool
OPAQUE COLORS
• Titanium White Casein (Shiva) or Titanium White Gouache (no particular
brand) • Jaune Brillant # 1 (Holbein)
• Jaune Brillant # 2 (Holbein)
• Primary Yellow (Winsor & Newton Designers Gouache)
BRUSHES
• Nos. 8 and 14 nylon, synthetic or natural blend rounds (Connoisseur
Kolinsky sable or Winsor & Newton Sceptre Gold 101) • 1⁄2-inch (12mm),
3⁄4-inch (19mm) and 1-inch (25mm) nylon or synthetic blend Aquarelle (no
particular brand) • 2-inch (5mm) hake (no particular brand) or wash brush •
No. 4 scrubber (Creative Mark)
SUPPORT
• 100% rag, 140-lb. (300gsm) or 300-lb. (640gsm) cold-pressed watercolor
paper (Lanaquarelle, Winsor & Newton, Canson Montval or Arches) •
Multimedia canvas (Yes!) or watercolor canvas (Fredrix). Use sheets
stapled to Gatorboard. Canvas prestretched onto stretcher bars or
premounted onto boards are also available.
A Word About Watercolor on Canvas