Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium (7 page)

Whether we set up before a plein air subject or a still life, or work from photos, we are faced with a nearly infinite amount of visual information. This is why is it so important, at the beginning of the painting process, to ask yourself:
How can I simplify the source material?

The human eye can register wonderfully subtle variations in color and value, and it is a real pleasure to indulge this ability, but remember, it can be a
separate
activity from painting. We are not obliged to put all that information into the picture. Ironically, our job as realist painters most often is to edit out the majority of what we can perceive.

Some information is essential, but most of it is optional. Discovering which is which is largely a matter of getting out of your own way. For example, my first impulse as a painter is to record
everything.
It feels like it’s my job to do justice to each separate bit of the scene by including as much information as I can observe. I am
supposed
to do it. I would need a note from the authorities
not
to. And yet, the paintings that result from that kind of attention do not appeal to me.

How can we get “permission” to paint the pictures we really intend to paint? Since so many of us spend more time on the way-too-much side of the information scale, it makes sense to explore the rest of the territory, but this can be intimidating. If we believe we’re not supposed to go there, it feels like trespassing.

I find it effective to set up an exercise that is clearly not a painting. When there is no expectation that this piece of paper might become a “keeper,” the usual self-imposed restrictions do not apply. It is liberating to make an
intentionally oversimplified
version of the scene, as a temporary license to enter forbidden territory. In the process, you will also discover a great deal about which features of the subject are the essential ones.

How much of what you can see in this photo of the Juarez Market in Oaxaca would you need to include in a painting? The information that registers at first glance is usually enough to tell you what ought to be communicated about a scene. If you find yourself leaning closer to see exactly what all that stuff is, you probably don’t really need to know.

BILL TEITSWORTH, STUDY FOR
FROM THE BRIDGE,
2010
PERMANENT MARKER ON SKETCH PAPER
5 × 8 INCHES (13 × 20 CM)

This preliminary sketch, which has no more than five values, reveals how little specific information will be needed to tell the story.

You’ve no doubt heard that it is wise to begin a new subject with a quick sketch or a small study, to help distill the scene down to a manageable number of strokes and washes. Every good teacher I’ve come across recommends some form or other of finding the “bones” of the image first.

Many different kinds of preliminary studies can help reduce the image to a very simple form. In this chapter we will look at three examples: a five-value monochrome study, a two-layer geometric sketch, and a three-layer thumbnail sketch. The first step in all three exercises is to identify the
major shapes.

I define the major shapes as those that need to be separated from each other for the illusion of space to be effective. To decide whether a particular shape plays an important role in describing the space in a scene, try asking yourself if it would matter if it were merged with the adjacent shapes. Would you still be able to tell where everything is in the pictorial space?

In the photograph at right, for instance, it would be fine, perhaps even best, to think of the stones as a single shape. As a whole, the pile needs to be separated from the workers and the wall, but the individual blocks can be subjugated to the overall shape of the pile.

Do the preliminary studies discussed in this chapter on small paper, no bigger than 8 × 10 inches (20 × 25 cm), so you won’t become attached to them as paintings. Their purpose is to help you see what you can leave out of the proper painting. If you discover that something is missing, or you believe something should have been done differently, leave the study as it is. Rather than add to it or correct it, write your ideas directly on the study. Articulating your thoughts will make them easier to remember. In each case, you can use the finished study to decide where you need more specificity or subtlety. You may also discover places where what seemed like too little information turns out to be enough.

The jumble of stone blocks in this picture looks like a complicated painting subject at first, but remembering to ask if the individual stones
need
to be separated from each other greatly simplifies the job.

As a first treatment of a new subject, it would be hard to find a better exercise than a value study. Understanding the dark/light relationships between the big shapes in your composition is an essential first step to making a painting that is cohesive. A five-value version (white, light gray, middle gray, dark gray, black) can be done quite quickly over a simple drawing of the big shapes. It also provides good practice for seeing in layers.

This exercise will answer the question:
What role does value play in the relationships between the big shapes?
To start, choose a color (just one) straight from the tube that can get dark enough to represent black. It’s better not to make a color by mixing, since that introduces another variable. This exercise is designed to focus on value only. Similarly, all paint should be applied to dry paper, to keep wetness from distracting your attention away from value.

Evaluate the subject.
Light is an important component of this image. Isolating the variable of
value
should reveal the role it plays in creating the illusion of sun and shadow.

If you are tempted to get fussy about edge quality, or texture, or any kind of detail, remember, this is
not a painting,
and it is supposed to be too simple. A door may be important, but the doorknob probably isn’t. I have seen some so-called
value studies that are, in fact, very carefully observed monochrome paintings. They are quite beautiful, but as tools designed to reveal the essential elements of the scene, they are not very useful. The best way to find out if something needs to be in the picture is to leave it out.

After each step of your study, while you’re waiting for the paper to dry, assess how complete the illusion of light and space and substance feels.

Locate the
major shapes in the image.
Draw the big shapes, keeping the number down to ten or fewer. The profile of each shape is all you need to draw. The idea is to
locate
the shapes, not to describe them.

Reserve the white areas while applying the lightest lights.
Starting with the lightest gray, paint the entire page, except for any shapes that need to stay white. Is there a feeling of light in the study? What about space? Substance?

Add the middle grays.
If you can’t decide whether a shape should be light or middle, round it off one way or the other. The finished study will reveal whether you made the right choice. If you give in to the temptation to embellish a bit (as I did with the spots of shadow in the dirt piles), keep it very simple. Again, assess the state of the illusion: Light? Space? Substance?