Watercolor is a challenging and very beautiful medium.
This painting of abandoned wagon wheels was painted during several quiet evenings in my studio. I generally work from photos.
Take photos everywhere you go. As we take an outing or trips as a family, I snap shots that would be beautiful paintings and then store these on my computer. In working this way I do loose a lot of the natural beauty and depth of color that working plein-air would give to me. But life is busy and we’re always on the go, so working from photo in my studio, in the evenings after the kids are tucked in bed, is a small sacrifice to work and focus on my art.
Play with the photo before you print it out. Photoshop and other photo programs allow for you to enhance your colors. Recreate a little of that vitality you felt when your took the photograph. Turn up the saturation and don’t be afraid to let those colors be a little crazy.
Turning your photo into a painting: How to begin
#1 Find a simply photo. Choose one that has good coloring and a simple scene that you can work with. To much detail to soon, if your new to painting or don’t have a lot of free time, can leave you frustrated. To simple isn’t bad, whether your new to painting or trying to fit it into your busy life. It allows you to use your limited time to best advantage, practice your sketching and painting skills and move on fairly quickly. But over all, pick a scene that fits your tastes. You’re the one that will be sitting there working. Make it a scene you want to spend your time on.
#2 Sketch away! Watercolor allows for no mistakes. Sketching your image is a must, either all or only the parts you want to show in full detain. One Artist I admire is Mary Whyte. She creates images using both detail and blurred impressions.
If you’re using a porous paper, the paint will soak in like a sponge and every stroke is permanent. I like to use standard cold press paper. I do not stretch or soak the paper to remove the sizing. This allows for fairly easy lifting off of color. Remember some colors are more staining than others so get to know your colors and what each is capable of. You can never fully recover white if you’ve accidentally painted that space so sketching allows for you to do a bit of planning ahead.
#3 Underlays. I like to underlay my shadows and warm sun patches with color. The transparent nature of watercolor means that by adding an underlay it gives depth to your painting. An underwash of warm cadmium yellow on the key warm elements of the painting, a sun warmed cliff or path, adds a translucent warmth and depth to that area that draws the viewer eye into the scene.
Here I used a warm cerulean blue on the wheel closest to the viewer to bring the shadows closer and a cool ultramarine on the wheel behind to push it visually to the back. I washed the near wheel, wood work and rim with a very, very light underlay of warm cadmium yellow and then added a warm cadmium red to the wheel rim giving it a warmth that was a pleasure to work with and jump started the mood and feeling of the entire piece.
#4 Continue painting. Use light washes to build up color and depth. I work with a tissue in my left hand to occasionally blot the paint as I lay it down to give it a mottled or lighter tone as needed. Here I started with the bright yellow flowers and then worked around them. I wanted them to stand out in the piece. Their color in the wheels was a key element. They also decided for me how much grass and leaves I should use to fill in around them without crowding the space.
There is no right or wrong area to begin painting. As you work, you might think about what details are important, which ones add to the painting and which to leave out. If I did this painting again how would I change it? One of the greatest helps you can do for yourself is to paint the same scene again and again. You will gain a familiarity of you subject and a depth in your painting that you can achieve in no other way. It’s like honing in on a skill. Yes, it may feel like homework to do it again but maybe next time I wouldn’t let the wagon take up so much time or space or I’d focus the scene a little differently. Painting it again gives me that freedom. My sketching becomes faster. My hand is looser. All in all, it is a very freeing practice.
#5 Keep working & finish strong. At this stage I loved it and was tempted to stop. I loved the clean simplicity of the color and lines. But, I wanted the wheels in a scene so I compromised and kept the foreground clean and simple.
If you feel like your close and don’t want to mess up the image, go ahead and tape or tack it to a wall close to where you work. Sometimes that little something that the painting needs doesn’t come to you right away but when you pause, and maybe even start sketching out a new painting, it will just come to you — maybe a little more shading here or a over balance in one area. One other trick is to look through a camera at the image or even turn it upside down to give your eyes a new way to look at it.
Once you’ve put in those final strokes sign your name. It’s beautiful!
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