Watercolor Painting for Dummies (5 page)
Read Watercolor Painting for Dummies Online
Authors: Colette Pitcher
Tags: #Art, #Techniques, #Watercolor Painting, #General
There really aren’t many lines in nature. Look closer at edges in real life. Is there a line? Usually there is some type of difference, but generally not a line — often just a change in color or value.
Artists use an artificial line to define edges and contain a shape, which is very useful. Lines help you define an area and create detail in items like hair, grass, the veins on a leaf, and a ton of other things.
Line and shape can be real, as in an outline to indicate where to paint, or implied, as in items in a line of sight. You can also have viewers connect the dots in an implied line. If you make a line of geese in the sky, it really isn’t a line, but the eye will see it as a line if the geese are in a row. So the geese become an implied line.
Figure 1-5 shows the three different types of lines:
Curved lines:
Arcs, circles, and curvilinear lines form soft edges, round shapes, clouds, figures, and most natural shapes.
Straight lines:
Horizontal lines symbolize calm, while vertical lines create upward movement. It’s nice to counterbalance one with a bit of the other.
Angular lines
: Diagonals and zigzags create a feeling of uneasiness, excitement, and action.
Figure 1-5:
Curvilinear lines are round; straight lines can be vertical and horizontal; angular lines lay diagonally.
In fine art, variety is the rule. Even shapes are not as interesting as uneven shapes. Odd numbers are more interesting than even numbers.
Direction
can refer to a line or the thrust of an entire picture. Direction can be horizontal, diagonal, or vertical, and each type of direction performs a different function.
You arrange the various parts of a painting and the objects in it to create direction within the painting. (Find more on organizational formats in Chapter 7.)
Horizontal:
A horizontal format and thrust implies calm and peacefulness.
Vertical:
A vertical format implies dignity.
Diagonal:
A diagonal thrust creates movement.
The diagonal thrust to the bull gives the cowboy in Figure 1-6 extra movement and excitement.
Figure 1-6:
Ride ’em diagonally!
Texture
is a feeling of tactile sensation. You can add things to your paint or things to your picture to create texture. You may want to add real texture by sewing on beads, gluing on trinkets, or employing some other idea. Paint additives give the paint enough body to be thick enough to have texture.
Implied
or
faux
(French for
fake,
pronounced
f-oh
) texture is the illusion of texture. For example, by painting rough texture and adding little lines of detail, you make tree bark seem real. If you run your finger over the paper, it isn’t rough like tree bark, but simply an illusion. Rough texture is described in Chapter 3.
Traditional watercolor hasn’t made much use of real texture. Today, anything goes. Creativity is the name of the game. You can explore texture and invent looks that work for you. You’re not limited to the way things have always been done. Just don’t overdo it. Like all good things, too much can be chaos (unless you agree with Mae West, who said, “Too much of a good thing is marvelous!”).
You may think you have to wait for inspiration to find you. A true artist can find inspiration in an empty box. It sure doesn’t fall from the sky. By painting every day, whether you feel like it or not, you develop inspiration as well as skill. You may have an aptitude for art, but you need to develop it, practice it, and nurture it. If you want to be an artist, you must work for it. The good news? The work is pleasure. You’ll experience frustration and produce paintings that embarrass instead of impress. Make more until they work for you. Make a hundred paintings before you judge yourself.
A large part of this book is devoted to subjects to paint. Still lifes, landscapes, seascapes, and animals are just a few of the topics I cover (check out Chapters 9, 10, 11, and 12). After you try the subjects I chose, look around you and see if you can find similar topics to paint, or apply the techniques to your own choice of subject matter.
As you start painting, you begin seeing in a new way. You look at light, shadows, lines, and angles with a painter’s eye, and you pick up inspiration for new paintings in the everyday world around you and in the rich arena of your imagination.
Some good advice was given to me years ago: “Paint what you know.” So it’s also good advice to research and explore your areas of interest because they become sources of painting material. My husband and I are fascinated by muscle cars. I paint the ones I can’t afford to own. Figure 1-7 is an unusual view of a Shelby Cobra with reflections of the American flag in the vehicle’s paint.
Figure 1-7:
Painting what I know I want.
