Watercolor Your Way

160 Pages·31.621 MB·English

by  Schmalz, Carl

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How
to Analyze, Identify, and
Develop Your Style
By Carl Schmalz
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Witercolor
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By Carl Schmalz
Disc? ter your own watercolor style, build on
your unique strengths as a painter, and learn to
watercolors inyourown way
i Noted watercolorist Carl Schmalz, author of
Watercolor Your Way, offers a practical self-
eva'uation program for discovering and devel-
opingyourstyleinwatercolor—forbeingoriginal
an^ forb—eingyou! Twentvchapterseachpose a
q .estion which S"- cuz calls a "critical con-
cern"—thatyou should ask yourselfto help you
analyze your paintingsobjectively. The answers
to these questions might dramatically change
your watercolors.
Are you predominantly a stroke or a wash
painter? Is the usual light-to-dark procedure
(normally considered essential to transparent
watercolor) helping or hindering you? Are you
using painttexturesforthegreatestpossiblevis-
ual interest? Are "rules" of good composition
getting inyourway7Areyougettingthemostout
ofyourcolormixtures? Doesyourlighting create
order, emphasize mood, and amplifycolor, tex-
ture, and compositional unity?Are you selecting
subjectsfreelyand deliberately,orareyou trap-
ped by habit. Are you being imaginative in your
choice of the size and shape ofyour paintings?
Areyouvaryingthespatialarrangements in your
paintings. Are you optimizing the use of trans-
parentand opaque pigment?Areyou exploiting
contrastseffectively? Critical questions such as
these guide you through this book.
Ineachchapter, theauthorclearlydefinesthe
"critical concern", analyzes paintings by lead-
ing American watercolorists, which either exem-
plify the problem or solve it; and then proposes
stimulating painting exercises or self-evaluation
projects to help you discover and develop your
style. Here are just a few of these challenging
exercises. Paintthree small paintings:one using
onlywashes, another using only strokes, and fi-
nally a combination ofstrokes and washes. List
all the colors in your palette to see how bal-
anced it is and what it reveals about your per-
sonal preferences. Stand your paintings in front
of you and see how they "read" from three dif-
ferent viewing distances Create unusual tex-
tureswith unusual toolssuch assponges, sand,
cheesecloth, toothbrush, leaves Number the
s on a few of your paintings to see if the
overall pattern is habitually the same or if you
are adapting your valuesto the special require-
mentsofeachsubject. Onanewsheetof paper,
translate a scene you've painted outdoors in di-
rect light into ascene illuminated by moonlight.
Ifyouarereadytoincreaseyourcreativityand
originality as a watercolorist, Watercolor Your
Way is the book that can help you make that
"breakthrough.
152 pages. 8Va" x 11"(21 x 28cm).24 pagesof
color. 120 black-and-white illustrations. Bibli-
ography. Index.
WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS
BOSTON
PUBLIC
LIBRARY

Witercolor
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Witercolor
Y)urWw
By Carl Schmalz
WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS/NEW YORK
PITMAN PUBLISHING/LONDON
—
To my mother andfather
OCT 1378
W
9420
m
Edited by Connie Buckley
Designed by Bob Fillie
©
Copyright 1978 byWatson-Guptill Publications
First published 1978 in the United Statesand Canada byWatson-Guptill Publications,
adivision ot Billboard Publications, Inc.,
1515 Broadway, NewYork, NY 10036
Published in Great Britain by Pitman Publishing Ltd.,
39ParkerStreet, London WC2B 5PB
ISBN 0-273-01207
LibraryofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data
Schmalz, Carl.
Watercoloryourway.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
—
1. Water-colorpainting Technique. I. Title.
ND2420.S361978 751.422 78-644
ISBN 0-8230-5686-6
All rights reserved. Nopartofthis publication maybe
reproduced orused in anyformorbyanymeans—graphic,
electronic, ormechanical, including photocopying, recording,
taping, or information storageand retrieval systems
withoutwritten permissionofthe publishers.
Manufactured in U.S.A.
First Printing, 1978
1
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
6
INTRODUCTION
7
CHAPTER THE "EASY" PICTURE
1. 1
CHAPTER STROKE AND WASH
2. 17
CHAPTER 3. EDGES AND RESERVED LIGHTS 25
CHAPTER 4. PAINT TEXTURE 33
CHAPTER 5. DESIGNING FROM THE CENTER 41
CHAPTER 6. USING SIMILARITY 47
CHAPTER 7. EXPLOITING CONTRAST 53
CHAPTER 8. THREE VIEWING DISTANCES 59
CHAPTER 9. KNOWING YOUR PALETTE 63
CHAPTER TRANSPARENT AND OPAQUE
10. 71
CHAPTER 11. COLOR MIXING 79
CHAPTER 12. COLOR DESIGX 89
CHAPTER 13. LIGHTING 95
CHAPTER 14. COLORED LIGHT 103
CHAPTER 15. DRAWIXG, PATTERX, AND DARKS 109
CHAPTER 16. COHERENCE WITHOUT LIGHT 117
CHAPTER 17. SUBJECT SELECTION 123
CHAPTER 18. FOCAL DISTANCE AND SPACE 129
CHAPTER 19. PAPER SIZE AND SHAPE 139
CHAPTER 20. PAINTING YOUR WAY 145
BIBLIOGRAPHY 150
INDEX 151
CONTEXTS
5
.
Acknowledgments
No book is written, perhaps no gether with a few fine examples decade and a half. Equally, I sa-
human achievement is accom- from the past. I have also tried to lute Susan E. Mever, Editor of
plished, except by building on include as manv paintings as pos- American Artist magazine. She per-
the works of others. This book sible by people from all parts of mitted me to use the collected
owes, hrst, a great debt to the this country, paintings bv both photographs in her files, manv of
late Professor Arthur Pope of women and men, and bv people which appear in this book. I am
Harvard University and his pre- of different races, backgrounds, especially indebted to Robert E.
decessor Professor Denman Ross. and different degrees of fame. I Kingman, Amherst College pho-
It also is based on the special feel only partially successful in tographer, who is responsible for
knowledge and pedagogical gifts this, although I believe that the all black-and-white photographs
of ProfessorJames M. Carpenter variety of illustrations achieved is not otherwise credited, and to
of Colby College as well as many still unusual. David Stansburv, whose skill and
others of my teachers and col- I am deeply obliged to manv care produced the color photo-
leagues. people for the illustrations that graphs that are not individually
I have tried, in an abbreviated appear here. Owners, artists, acknowledged.
and sometimes awkward way, to dealers, and museum staffs were Finally, I owe an obligation to
adapt what I learned from Pro- particularly helpful. Among ProfessorJoel M. Upton of
fessors Pope and Carpenter them, I single out the staffs of Amherst College, whose critical
about the great art of the world the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, reading of my text aided and sus-
to the special nature of trans- the Fogg Museum, the Bowdoin tained me; to his wife, Sara \\
parent watercolor in America. I College Museum, and Colbv Col- Upton, who tvped it; to my wife,
trust that what 1 have said will be lege Museum. I am particularly who not only made the initial
useful. It is not, however, all that grateful to Dr. William C. Land- typescript but protected me from
either of those distinguished wehr, Director of the Springfield unnecessary intrusion and bore
mentors could have said. Art Museum in Springfield. Mis- with me through the long days of
A book of this sort requires il- souri, who lent me a wealth of labor; and to all of my students
lustrations. I have tried to photographs of works awarded from whom I learned something
present a good cross-section of purchase prizes in the splendid of how to talk about these matters.
contemporary watercolors, to- Watercolor U.S.A. Exhibitions
run bv that institution for the last
WATERCOLOR YOUR WAV
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