Classes

White Bear Center for the Arts
4971 Long Avenue
White Bear Lake, MN (map)

Workshops

Color & Design in Watercolor
September 23-25, 2021
Central Minnesota Watercolorists
St. Cloud, Minnesota

Lisa’s step by step process will put you at ease as you learn how to loosen up and feel confident in approaching a watercolor painting. Learn how to paint a realistic watercolor landscape painting from the planning stages to completion while focusing on the design principles. Lisa will also show you how to fix and finish old paintings that you feel have not been successful. Personal critiques will help guide you through the process with ease.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Joe Pie Weed Watercolor



Start with these reference images:



Starting at the top of the page using blue hues, continue down the page introducing greens in the foliage areas. Watching your value study to see where your lightest lights are, make the horizon line a light yellow. Indicate the pond with a cerulean blue and the foreground area with yellow ochre and burnt sienna. Show your flower shapes with a light pink hue. Add green in the foreground at the bottom of the page. Let dry.


Using mid-tone values, start to show tree shapes using your value study. At the back of the pond indicate a darker color and soften the edge as you come forward. The edge in front of the pond should be rough to indicate the foliage is in front of the pond. Drop in burnt sienna to show a value change in the foreground area. Using these same values negatively paint out the shapes of the flowers. While this pigment is still wet, use a credit card to scrape out some grasses. Paint negatively the grasses on the bottom of the page.


Using dark values - alizarin crimson and thalo green are a nice combination - put in your dark shapes. Change the color by using a little burnt sienna with ultramarine blue. Build up the flowers by showing a value change, from your light side to mid-tone to a shadow side with a darker value. Using a dark green hue show leaves on the stems. Indicate some grasses with a rigger brush.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Down the Road Watercolor



Start with these reference images:



Start at the top of the page and work your way down from one color to another, working background to foreground, light values to dark values. Start to indicate the local hues of the different areas of the painting, watching your value study to keep your light shapes. Let dry.


Our second wash will consist of mid-tone values. Start to paint positively (the tree) and negatively. See our center of interest in the lower right corner, that tree was painted negatively. Show shadows on the road with a light color, keeping your strokes horizontally as to keep the road smooth. Show brush on the sides of the road with some vertical strokes, making sure your shapes are interesting and different. Let dry.


As we work our way down the value scale we are now going in with our darkest darks (look at your value study to see where these shapes are). Make your dark shapes interesting and different from each other. On the evergreen trees, your darks will be placed on the underside of the branches. Indicate some tree trunks also with the darks. Where your lightest light and darkest dark meet, this will be where you are telling the viewer that you want them to focus on that area (center of interest). Go over your shadows once again on the road with a cool color. Using a rigger brush, indicate some dead branches and some grasses along the road.