Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium (8 page)

Add the dark grays.
When the second layer is dry, apply the dark gray over everything except the middle gray, light, and white shapes. Now that the background figure has a dark gray layer, and the section of wall behind him does not, notice how effectively the two separate, compared to the previous stage.

Paint in the darkest darks.
The role of the darkest darks in creating an illusion of light, space, and substance is clear, even in a radically oversimplified image.

When the value study is finished, it can be compared to the source image or the scene to see where adjustments need to be made. Having come way over into the realm of too little information, we now have a basis for judging how much more needs to be included. Ask yourself:
Where do I need more subtlety or specificity?
Don’t skip this step. A study, as the name implies, is a learning tool. Your
painting process will be more efficient and your paintings more cohesive if you extract all the lessons you can from your preliminary work.

In the photo on
this page
, the two mounds of dirt are so similar in color and value it seemed sensible to treat them as a single shape. But the study reveals that it would be better to separate them, making it clearer that the one on the right is in front. The study also reveals that the mound on the left does not separate sufficiently from the wall in the background. It looks okay where there is a shadow behind it, but where the wall is sunlit only the pencil line separates the two shapes. Perhaps lightening the left mound a little could solve both of these problems. Five values, in this case, are not quite enough. There should be a step between light and middle. This is an example of the need for more subtlety.

The little raised frame beside the doorway that catches the sun is a fine feature of the photo that I miss. It does an important job, describing the light. It is a bit of specific information that will add significantly to the picture without becoming a distraction.

It is surprisingly easy to see what is missing and what needs to be changed when the image has been oversimplified. If I had made a complex first attempt it would be difficult to know which of the (too) many elements were not necessary.

This is a good exercise to try after you become confident of your ability to read values well. As in the five-value monochrome study, this approach is designed to reveal how much of the information in the scene needs to be included in the actual painting that will follow. It adds color to the equation, but in a deliberately oversimplified form. It helps you answer the question:
How does color work with value?

Each of the major shapes in your composition is simplified almost to the level of basic geometric forms. A fir tree is, roughly, a green triangle. Clouds may be elongated ovals. A hill can be a half circle. It’s fine for the shapes to be approximate. They don’t need to be pure geometric forms. Just don’t let them become too specific. Focus instead on getting the values right.

Assign a color and value to each shape. Try to summarize the information you can see within a given shape, so that it can be expressed in its simplest form. Let go of texture and detail. A tree is a single shape, rather than a collection of leaves. The finished sketch will look like a collage made of cut pieces of colored paper.

Since this exercise involves two variables (color and value), keep it simple by limiting your palette to three colors: one red, one yellow, and one blue. Mixing these is fine, but if you want a green, make it by combining the blue and yellow, rather than by introducing a fourth color. You are making a learning tool, not a painting, so if your colors don’t make a good purple, or the green is not intense enough, let it be. You will still be well informed about what the final painting needs.

Evaluate the subject.
The doors in this picture are small shapes contained within a bigger shape (the yellow wall). They do not need to be there to create a feeling of space, so I want to include them only if they feel essential to the painting. I know I want the door on the right, but I’m not sure the scene needs the other door.

Block in the major shapes.
Give each shape a first layer wash representing its lightest shade. The overlapping shapes begin to suggest a feeling of space. If you’re uncertain about a shape, leave it out. The finished study will reveal whether the picture could do without it.

Apply a second layer where needed.
Since this study aims to ignore texture and detail, little more than the shadows needed to be added. Even simplified to this degree, shadows go a long way toward establishing a convincing sense of light.

Stopping after two layers provides a means of assessing where and how much further information needs to be added. Any remaining questions can be directed to the finished sketch, and, hopefully, the answers will be apparent. For example: What do you think about the second door? How much more (or less) of the complexity of the upper story would you include? If you chose to represent the cobblestones in the street, how many would you need to show? What about the cast shadow of the roof? Is it important to show that it is made of tiles? What if the sky were blue? Would you put the lamppost back in?

You can see how the fact that the information is
not
here makes it easy to decide whether you want to put it in your painting. Where the long diagonal shadow crosses the doorway, I forgot to darken the red frame. I would definitely want that in the proper painting. And (
ahem
), the shadow of the awning has slid way off to the right. But, basically, the shapes work, and the sun is shining.

Both of the previous exercises encourage intentionally leaving out all but the most basic information. Most of the time, you will want to include more. It is unusual to be content with just one color, or with shapes that have no texture. But the benefit of seeing the image in its minimal form is that you can move back toward your comfort zone by increments, stopping as soon as the
essential
information is present. This greatly increases the odds that you won’t overpaint the picture.

When I am convinced that part of the picture needs more information, I practice a minimalist approach, asking:
What is the smallest change I can make that will move the picture in the right direction?
In the early stages of getting to know a new subject I want to err on the side of too little information, since I am better at adding than taking away. From this point of view, it bears repeating that there is a hierarchy of the marks I might make, based on the impact they can have. A pale stroke, for example, is less insistent than a dark one, and a soft edge is gentler than a hard one. Using colors that are similar in hue and intensity to what is already there is less obtrusive than introducing new ones. The idea is to leave the door open for adding more only if necessary.

Once you understand your subject well in terms of the language of watercolor, it is not necessary to be so cautious. A thoughtful approach to painting may seem very cerebral at first, but over time it becomes instinctive.

I sometimes wish that a detached observer could come along and present me with this sign at just the right moment. It frequently takes just such an intrusion to get us to detach from our agenda. I have often regretted not stopping sooner in a painting, but I’ve never looked at a finished painting with regrets that I stopped too soon.

ALVARO CASTAGNET,
BOULEVARD SAINT MICHEL,
2008
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
22 × 30 INCHES (56 × 76 CM)

This scene of intense light and shadow is so thoroughly convincing that the simplicity of execution is not immediately apparent. In any given shape, how many layers do you see? Even in the most complex areas, I count no more than three.