Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium (3 page)

Not every subject will invite interpretation. If I think too much about what I see, I start rejecting subjects left and right, for being too traditional, too difficult, too pretty, too ugly. This kind of hyper-selectivity eventually leads to the poisonous notion that I should choose something someone would want to buy. Once that thought enters my head, I might as well go home. It is always better to simply enjoy the walk and trust that something will present itself to me.

For me to be receptive to what wants to be painted it is helpful to let go of old agendas and simply listen with my eyes. If I am looking for a scene that will win a prize, I will most likely project past successes onto the location and end up choosing a subject very similar to one I’ve already painted. This is fine, and certainly not a total waste of time, but I especially enjoy the experience of letting the location determine what gets painted on any given day.

Painting is the most dependable way I’ve found to be solidly connected to my surroundings. By the time I understand a location well enough to gracefully translate it into washes and strokes, I have become fully comfortable there. Since this state of being at home in my surroundings is what is most important to me about painting, I prefer to let it lead the experience and trust that other people will want to look at what results. Painting must be more than just a way to make a living, or I’d probably be doing something else. (The fishermen at the terminal are making a lot more money than I am, for example.)

TOM HOFFMANN,
WET COMMUTE,
2008
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
14 × 20 INCHES (36 × 51 CM)

On this day rain spoiled the painting excursion, but not before I had made the shift from seeing content to seeing form. As a result, this everyday scene presented itself as a worthy painting subject.

Once you find a subject, be sure to ask yourself:
What attracts me to this image?
Motivation is an appropriate place to begin a discussion of the first steps toward translating a subject into paint. Before I start making decisions about how the painting will unfold, I want to make sure I am mindful of what brought me to this subject. This will help me to ensure that those features are present in the finished work.

Often the essential aspects of a given scene are matters of purely visual observation, but they can also be entirely emotional in nature. For instance, when I chose to paint the convent in Oaxaca, shown at right, it was clear that the dark/light contrast and the juxtaposition of a simple building with an elaborate one were essential
visual
elements. But I was also struck by a profound feeling of silence and dignity, and I needed to find a way to make sure these intangibles would be present in the final
painting.

It is surprisingly easy to be distracted from even the most obvious aspects of a scene. Writing down what attracted you to the scene or saying it out loud will help you keep it in mind as the work progresses. As complex and wonderful as the human brain may be, it is no match for the vicissitudes of watercolor. I recommend making notes right on your preliminary studies.

Having identified light as an essential element of the scene, I wanted to see if simply looking at the photograph with the color removed would help reveal the role value plays, so I converted the image to black and white, as shown center. Although color enriches the sense of light in a scene, value does most of the work of creating a convincing illusion.

With so few major shapes in the image, it seemed possible to create convincing light with just a few values. Look at the image far right. Oversimplifying the study by reducing the number of values to three—white, middle gray, and black—made it possible to see if more subtlety was needed, and where.

It was a relief to learn that getting the relative values reasonably accurate took care of one of the features I wanted to include in the painting. As long as I didn’t lose track of this simple value relationship, that important light would be there in the finished picture.

The other contrast—between simple and complex—seemed ensured as long as I didn’t make the dark building too detailed or the light one too basic. Seeing the dark building represented as a single wash in the study below right gave me the idea that I should make it easy for the viewer to take it in all at once,
without having to “assemble” it from several parts. I decided that an overall wash of color (purple!) and soft-edged forms within the big shape should do the trick. The finished painting appears on
this page
.

Observe the formal and emotional aspects of the subject.
The contrasts between light and dark shapes and between a complex structure and a simple one are the most significant formal aspects of this scene. I am also attracted by the weight and dignity of the four-hundred-year-old convent buildings. The feeling of peace and silence is unmistakable. Emotional content such as this is more difficult to understand in terms of form. Is it inherent in the composition? Can it be established deliberately?

Determine how the shapes relate in terms of value.
Converting the color photograph to black and white helps make a value comparison fairly simple. The sky is darker than the sunlit building, but lighter than the shaded one. What about the shadows on the light building? What is lighter than they are? What is darker?

Create a three-
value study of the light.
What do you think? Simple as it is, I can see that the sun is shining. Learning that a feeling of light is this easily achieved, I became confident that I could get it to be present in my painting without having to be too fussy. It was good to know I did not need to put in
all
the details of the more ornate building.

TOM HOFFMANN,
LAVANDERIA,
2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
14 × 10 INCHES (36 × 25 CM)

The contrasts I wanted are created mainly by virtue of the big, dark shadow. Its value and cooler color set it apart from the sunlit arches, and its soft edges keep it simple. Upon reflection, the sense of stillness would be more apparent if the setting were clearer, perhaps showing where the buildings meet the ground. I guess I’ll just have to go back.

What needs to be true in the finished painting?
The answer to this question is really the same as the answer to the previous one. Whatever attracted you to the scene should be present in your interpretation of it. I include it here as a separate question as a reminder to take stock of your finished work.

In terms of form, I wanted to see a strong contrast between the light and dark structures. Nothing in the shaded building is as light as the foreground lights, and nothing in the sunlit building is as dark as the background darks. That pretty much clinched it. However, I also wanted to feel the tension of juxtaposing a simple structure with a complicated one. I could have added more architectural details to the foreground building, but it seemed as if the story had been already told.