Step-by-step Watercolor Pencil Painting Part II

Okay, so in my last post I mentioned that I had hit the proverbial wall on part of the painting of Lava Butte. 
I toyed around with trying to turn the highly stylized jaggedy lines I had made to indicate trees into what they should look like.  In #20 here you can see where I practiced on an extra printout I had made for this purpose—it has the identical b/w drawing and is printed on the same paper stock so my results would be the same—but what I had simply didn't look like a sparse ponderosa forest.

After a day of thought on the knotty subject, I realized there was no way to make it work using what was on the paper. It needed to look more like #24, at right.  
I was going to have to turn my illustration into a computer composite of two separate paintings—a background and a foreground—since there was no way to remove the stylized trees from the already painted part.  Fortunately the edge of the lava flow and the forest made an easy transition point.
#20 is a photo of my desk and one of the photo images I was using as a reference on my laptop screen.  (I'd show a better copy of the scene, but it isn't my photo and I don't have permission to use it on the blog.  I don't think anyone would object to this small representation, though).  
This is the size the illustration will appear on the trailhead sign, by the way.  It's printed out on an 8½"x11" sheet of heavy paper.  
To guide me in where to draw the new trees, I held the painting up on my glass door so the light would come through it, placed the fresh sheet in front of it, and very lightly sketched the outline that needed filling in with trees on the new sheet.
#22 shows the original unworkable stylized forest above and my solution to the illustration challenge below.  Every tree has been drawn within the forest outline and given a tiny little trunk. They were drawn very quickly, though, because this isn't a highly detailed picture, and it only took about half an hour to complete the outlines of all those tiny trees.
Before I would go any further, I wanted to practice drawing the  earth between the sparse trees. Using the yellow ochre and cinnamon I had designated in my rough palette originally,  I carelessly stroked the pencil lines vertically, which would not correctly interpret flat earth.  Like flat, calm water, which must always be stroked horizontally, I realized I would have to stroke all that area between the trees horizontally.  I was glad I had not just started out on the actual artwork.
Using #24 (at the beginning of this post) as a guide, I made the trees cadmium yellow lemon on the side catching the light, and cedar green on the shadow side. Each tree would need a shadow on the ground, also, and I experimented with caput mortuum and black in #26, but the caput mortuum made the earth appear too reddish, so I decided to go with black on my final illustration.  

Finally, in #27, you see the trees pretty much as they appear on the final illustration. Now I needed to fill in the earth  and make the shadows.   
On my practice sheet I tried out some black shadows, but they looked way too harsh, so instead, beside each tree I put a little lozenge of warm gray deep. Better! Now the trees looked ready to join via my computer graphics program into one picture.
Scanning the two illustrations into my program, I enlarged the lava butte canvas at the bottom, and pasted the trees from the other file onto a new layer, cutting and erasing away most of the white along the treeline.  Now I could see that the trees were a bit gaudy-looking, being too yellow, so I calmed the tree layer down until it more closely matched the feeling of the lava layer.   The tree layer needed to be smoothly integrated with the lava edge because I could see white outlines where I had roughly removed the white background behind the trees.
The best way to do that was to put a temporary black layer behind the trees to make them stand out, then go in with a small eraser tool and erase out around the trees.  In the image with the black background, I have finished the trees on the left half.  
Once the trees were cleaned up, I got rid of the black layer and smoothed the lava on the lava layer with the clone tool to make sure it flowed nicely behind the trees.  
To give the lava layer some thickness, I darkened the edge where it meets the trees, using the burn tool. 
Look closely at the sky in the image above. As I predicted in the previous post, that color of turquoise blue turned granular during the scan, so I knew I'd have to repaint the sky in the graphics program. 
To do this, I dabbed the color picker in a "good" spot on the sky to select that color, made a very large brush, and painted in the sky a solid turquoise blue.  With a small brush, I went in closer and made sure the sky joined to the horizon smoothly. And finally, with a large eraser tool set very low, I smoothed out the edges of the sky to blend them out to nothing.
Then off it went via email for its debut with the client.
They liked it, with a couple of requests. 
1.  they wanted the sky to be light on the horizon deepening to the deep blue you see in the high desert, making it higher and giving the entire image a more more square ratio.  
2. they wanted the lava butte to be the same color as the lava, and they felt it should be darker.
All of the photos I had referenced showed the butte ALL different colors, depending on how the sun hit it, but I knew it should be roughly the color of the lava.  Still, wanting to get the picture a little more colorful I had put a little caput mortuum into the mix.  My bad.  
The cinder cone first: With the sponge tool set very low so I could work gradually, I desaturated (removed the color) from the black of the cone, being careful not to desaturate the trees, too. Then, with the burn tool set on "highlights" at a very low setting, I gradually darkened the shadow side of the cone, working around the cone carefully to make a smooth transition.  The two fixes only required about half an hour of work, and I was perfectly happy to make them.  Then I sent it off to them (a small JPG through email—the larger TIF file will later be uploaded to the server).
They liked the changes (I did, too, especially the sky), and requested one more: Could the sky be given "corners" to better fit the space on the sign? Sure!  Not problem: working on a copy of the original (just in case I muffed it), and using the clone tool with a very large brush, I cloned the center of the sky, and pulling down a horizontal guideline I simply ran the clone tool to each side along the level line until the entire sky was the height of the center, squaring it off nicely.  I used a large eraser set on very low again to blend off the edges, and sent it back again for approval.

And here it is, the finished watercolor pencil painting, ready to go on the trailhead sign..  
I hope you enjoyed this little jaunt through a watercolor pencil step-by-step tutorial.

And yes, that sky IS a realistic color, and in fact I've seen it an even darker blue.  
In the Oregon High Desert country there isn't a lot of pollution to get between you and the sky. 

 

Step-by-step Watercolor Pencil Painting of Lava Butte

Dang!  Sidetracked again. I HAVE been working on the re-edit of Illustrating Nature, and in fact I have worked my way mostly through it (still have to rewrite the computer chapter) but I had to stop and work on illustrations for interpretive trailhead signs I had previously contracted for.  

That's not to say I'm not enjoying working on the trailhead sign art—just that it's not what I said I'd be doing right now.. The reworking of Illustrating Nature is going great, and I'm thinking it might go to press in February or so. At right is one of the many illustrations I've added—this one to show how a bird's bill opens. The hinge is actually behind the eye, not at the edge of the opening as you might think....

 In the meantime, I thought I'd give you a peek at the watercolor pencil painting process I've been working through on the trailhead signs. 

I was keeping track of the steps because I wasn't sure I was on the right track with it, and if I did something good I wanted to be able to repeat it. So every time I added a new color I took a snapshot of it with my little digital camera (I know, I know, everybody else uses their cellphone, but being a troglodyte, I don't have one). 

Anyway, as I was working along it dawned on me that I have been letting y'all down by not posting in so long.

So herewith, I post my work process on Lava Butte, a small volcanic cone just south of Bend, Oregon.  It's quite a fascinating place, with the cone jutting up out of the earth, and its lava flow that covers the ground like cake dough, the rough black cindery edges dropping off suddenly to powdery yellowish soil (originally just ash, if I remember correctly) sparsely covered with pine trees.  

For each step, I wrote down on a little slip of paper the name of the watercolor pencil I was using, and placed it next to the area I just worked on. So in photo #1, the slip of paper reads "caput mortuum," which is the name of that pencil.  
To digress slightly...the "ink drawing" is a highly contrasted pencil drawing I scanned into Photoshop then printed out on heavy paper that would take the pencil well, then let me add water to blend it without buckling or disintegrating. 

So in #2, I have penciled over the caput mortuum with gunmetal gray.  I have used the watercolor pencils fairly lightly because while you can always add more, you can't remove color very well.
Warning ~ if you have ever tried to photograph artwork (except in well-controlled lighting circumstances, you'll know that I had to do quite a bit of work to lighten these and get reasonably faithful colors. I was working under diffuse sunlight coming through the window and fluorescent lights, and while the images looked great on my camera view screen they were a LOT darker when I uploaded them into the computer.  You can see in that dark image after #4, what it looked like before I tweaked it.
In #3, you'll see the little slip of paper that said "painted."  


By that I mean that I blended the colors with my waterbrush to get the color you see there. In case you aren't familiar with the waterbrush, I blogged about it a little here

#4. I've begun to work on the orangey cinders found within the mouth of the cone.  I'm using terra cotta and a bit of caput mortuum in the shadow areas, and in #5 I waterbrushed again.


#6. When working with watercolor pencil paintings, you must wait to let things dry before adding more color to an area, or you will get uneven and blotchy color.  So while the inside of the cinder cone was drying, I added more pencil to the outside of the cone. While THAT was drying, I penciled in some turquoise blue sky.

#7. Turquoise blue can be a real problem.  When you scan that particular color into a graphics program, it often becomes granular or parts of it drop out entirely. This might just be my scanner or graphics program, but it's been a problem I've had  to work around.  
I left out #8, because my tweaking couldn't get it even close to the others.

In #9, I started on the far-away mountain and the trees.  When green trees, such as the ones in the forest and flanking the mountain, are this far away, the atmosphere comes between the viewer and the green of the trees, getting bluer the farther away they are.  By the time the trees get to the mountain here, I can duplicate the color with the cobalt blue-greenish watercolor pencil. 

#11 (there isn't a #10) I added juniper green to the nearer trees, with a bit of the cobalt blue-greenish in diminishing amounts the closer it gets.  I then painted the further-off trees, and when they were dry I went back over the blue with the juniper green and a little turquoise blue just to get the colors nicely blended and matched a little better with the sky.   The juniper green in #12 has just been penciled in here, and it's ready to be painted.
Up to this point, the picture has not been very encouraging to look at. I keep wondering if this is going to work.  But now, with the forest coming along, it's starting to appear the way it should.


You'd think by now I'd have a little more confidence, but I'm afraid it never seems to get any better.  Sheesh!
If you click on the close-up here you can really get into the details of the pencil and brushwork.

With #13, I have waterbrushed the far forest and the closer parts, adding deeper color when it dried, then wetting it again.  

Painting with watercolor pencils is an additive sort of thing, and while one part is drying another part can be added to and darkened.  The paper I use dries quickly, so if I work on a different area for a just a few minutes, when I come back the original area is dry.

In #13, I've penciled on some color, but now I have to start using a different technique since there are some tiny trees on the flanks of the cinder slope that I want to make green.  With the brush tip I pull color off the end of the juniper green pencil and apply it to the little green trees.  This gives me much more precise aim than trying to get into the spot once with the pencil point to lay down color then again with the brush to wet it in. Additionally, I can get a nice intense color on the brush by dabbing repeatedly at the pencil, so it only takes one application of color.
In #14, the last one I've got ready for today (the painting is finished now and sent off to the client, but I only had time to tweak the first half of the photos), I've painted in the juniper green trees on the sides of Lava Butte, and deepened the cinder color within the cone.  

My next step will be to tackle the lava flow that comes up to the foot of the cone, and the foreground of trees and ashy soil they're growing in.  


The last image here is the rough I sent to the client along with the color palette I expected to use on various parts of the picture.  I have worked with this client before and she trusts me to do things right, so this minimalist rough worked for us.  Usually, at least part of the work would need to be colored in for the client.  

Although the client had approved the rough, I was very aware that the forest in the foreground was NOT well represented—I couldn't see how I could make it translate to how this area actually looks, and I had already put the painting off longer than I should because I was trying to work out the solution in my mind.  
The dead black of the lava troubled me, as well, because it's not considered the sign of a good artist to use a lot of black in a painting, but, well, lava is dead black....

So I took a day off to ponder further at this point, then got back to work.  More in the next post.
I hope you'll come back to see the rest of the story! 

Watercolor Pencil Workbook is ready!

I've been trying to decide if working on these workbooks is just another form of procrastination...because I DO need to do my 2009 taxes, and I DON'T want to. I do not have a mathematical mind, and even with a tax preparer (one of my few ~ but probably smarter ~ splurges) I can find a million other things to do to put off getting it all the little receipts and numbers together. Bet I have a lot of (gloomy) company, though....

Anyway, to avoid the inevitable taxes, I've been working day and night on the next Workshop Workbook, Nature Sketching with Watercolor Pencils, and IT IS DONE!

I kid you not that I have been working long hours. Even when I finish the final edit and print one out for my reference shelf, the job isn't done. Because at that point, it takes a whole day to write its webpage with descriptions and information, upload the book to PayPal, jump through all the hoops required to make it active on PayLoadz (which downloads it to you), rewrite and link all the webpages (7) on my website that have any mention of it, insert the new Buy Now buttons into my order form, and finally, upload the new graphics (4) and new and revised pages to my server. Oh, my, there's a lot involved!

But it's done, now, and hey, you can go look at it now if you want! And even download one, if it strikes your fancy! Here's the new webpage for Nature Sketching with Watercolor Pencils.

I need to tell you, though, that the $9.95 is an introductory price good only through April 15. After that, the prices on all the workbooks go up to $15.95 (which is actually what they're worth, compared with other similar art tutorials offered on the web). I still have a few workbooks to go after this (after taxes, actually), but they'll each start out at $15.95.

There's a lot of cool stuff in Nature Sketching with Watercolor Pencils, drawing (pun intended) on my last few year's adventures in using watercolor pencils. It covers, among other things, the color wheel (in a fun way, nothing boring there I promise!), lots of colorful examples from my sketchbooks, directions on how to fill a waterbrush, eight different ways to use watercolor pencils on your artwork, and applying and working over/around masks/resists.

I even wrote a tutorial on how to use a brush for different effects, simulating fur and duck down, how to draw your base drawings with media the watercolor pencils won't fuzz and blur, sunlight and shadow effects on foliage.....many tutorials, how-tos, step-by-steps...whatever is needed to show you how to get the watercolor pencils to do what you want them to do. And even then, there's probably enough more I know that didn't get in this workbook to write another workbook about .....Watercolor pencils are SO C.O.O.L!

I'd like to mention here that there is also a page from Susie Short's tutorials, How to Paint Rain Drops or Dew Drops (with her generous permission, of course!).

The workshop this workbook was originally designed for was aimed at people who already know how to draw (or could catch up to the intermediate artists in an hour or so), so there's almost nothing about drawing techniques in this workbook. You can find those in previous books if you need to brush up.

In fact, I took the drawing element almost entirely out by providing sketches for you to color. That way I could concentrate on what you want this workbook for ~ to learn how to color drawings with watercolor pencils. I even put extra drawings for you to paint in the back of the workbook to give you a second chance if you muff the first one. The Quintessential Coloring Book!

Here's a big thank you to the many of you who have downloaded workbooks so far. I hope they are what you were hoping for, and I'd really enjoy getting feedback if you have any, especially if it's about something I can improve.

So, there it is! And dang it, now I have to start wading through receipts and parking stubs and 1099s and mileage records and other grubby things that no artist should ever be expected to do. Fie! If you've any mercy atall atall, wish me patience and accuracy and oh, please, tiny glimmers of pleasurable memories about such unknown things as whatever it was I appear to have spent $14.99 for on May 13, 2009.

aieeee........

Nature Journaling & Sketching ~ 5-24&25&31-08

This was a VERY small class.
I usually require a minimum of five students, but only four signed up for this one, and since sometimes a hopeful participant will drop by at the last minute and ask if there's still room (that's chancey ~ sometimes there isn't), I decided to go ahead and set up for the class at The Grove, a nice classroom with great north light and pretty good ambience for a public meeting place. (There's also a microwave and sink, perfect for hot lunch-making.)

Maybe my low attendance was a result of the fact that this was the first workshop of the season and the catalog had just been out for a bit over a week ~ and then it required the students to come on two weekends, one of which was Memorial Day (duh!). I think I still have some things to learn about scheduling. . . .

In the end, though, I wasn't sorry I went ahead with it. The three women, Esther, Eileen and Darrelle, who came for the class were a pure delight. My fourth student never appeared ~ imagine that!

DAY ONE ~ Sketch in Your Journal
As usual, we started out with an examination of various types of sketchbook/journals. My Hawaii journal from Christmas 2007 and my Costa Rica journal from last February got us all in the mood, and I jumped right into teaching them how to make their own journals lively with both sketches and creative writing.

After some basic right-brain exercises I had them do contour drawings of one hand. This is done without looking at the paper, so sometimes the results are a little goofy. I was intrigued with the one Eileen did ~ she was having such fun she drew around the outline of her hand twice without looking!

Then they each tried a contour drawing of a shell, drawn right in the workbook ( I always provide the workbooks to keep things on track and give my students something to take home to consult later), first without looking at their drawings, then another drawing, glancing at both the shells AND their drawings as they drew.

By then they had acquired enough confidence to try drawing a leaf, and the results were quite fine, don't you think? Eileen and Esther claim to be beginning artists, and Darrelle is, in her estimation, between beginner and intermediate. Check these drawings out ~ they were done in about fifteen minutes.

After lunch we studied journal page design for awhile, looking at good and poor design, some interesting ways to design journal pages, and all manner of things to attach or include in a journal. Then I got out my box of seashells so that each could select one to draw. I also handed out free-form shapes to trace around onto their journal page, into which they could write a journal entry. This is a good way to start thinking "out of the box " of boring square paragraphs with nicely justified edges, etc. I was pleased to see that these students scarcely needed the push.

We did quite a few other things, as well, learning how to draw pinecones, shading techniques, and other interesting things. All too soon, the day was done and we folded up for the afternoon.

DAY TWO ~ Journal in Your Sketchbook
I started out Day 2 with an example of how creative writing can turn a boring journal entry into a sensual delight: My boring entry read: "5/28, planted 2 ponypacks of snap peas"

The improved creative entry started out: "It's sunny today with a slight breeze, and the blossoms on the madrone trees fill the air with a sweet honey scent..." etc., continuing for a couple more paragraphs.

The creative entry has a quick contour drawing of the baby pea plants, then a more detailed one colored with watercolor pencils. There's even a haiku under one drawing:

I had them close their eyes as I read it to them, so they could more easily imagine the honey-sweet scent of the madrone flowers, a visit from the cat ("The chickenwire keeps Jesse-cat out of the pot ~ he thinks those pots are there for his own personal use."), and the taste of a crisp pea leaf.

Then we did an exercise of drawing-then-journaling about a subject, later creating a haiku, then a poem. The students showed some extraordinary talent here. I was impressed with their efforts.

Later in the day they did some more sketching, then tried their hand at some basic calligraphy, and the "fun font" I have designed. This font makes it easy to add a light-hearted, splash-dash title or caption to a page. We also did some fancy initial caps, which can really add interest to an entry. I was working along with them, demonstrating ways to decorate, design, and add interest to a journal page with fonts, initial caps, sketches and borders.

We also studied journaling in blog form, how to turn blog entries into journal pages, and using ephemera to add interest to a journal page. Our next class would be the following Saturday, and I meant to assign some homework, but I forgot. Phoo.

Eileen has created some gorgeous journal books, but has been too intimidated by her lack of drawing skills to use them. She brought some for us to look at ~ stunning works of art! I hoped she was gaining some confidence in her drawing skills. They ALL were far more skilled artists by the end of this second day than they were that first morning, and, I think, a bit surprised by their improvement. I'm pleased with their progress.

DAY THREE ~ Color Your Sketches
The final day was Color Day. We started out with a step-by-step examination of how to use watercolor pencils. I broke out the watercolor pencils (I must have 150 pencils, all colors) with which they created a rainbow of colors and mixtures on the color wheel printed in their workbooks. Then they experimented with the waterbrushes (these are paintbrushes with water in the barrell ~ perfect for travel sketching. Darrelle sketched one on her leaf page above.), blending and creating new colors by mixing.

To keep it from getting too intense, we then sketched for a few minutes, repeating the contour drawing of the shell done the previous week. The repeat exercise is very revealing ~ this time their confidence in their capability is marked, and the results are faster and better.

Then it was Orchid Coloring-book Time. I've printed an outline of an orchid in the workbook, with the photo from which I drew it. The assignment is to add color as it appears in the photo. This is a really easy way to get comfortable with the watercolor pencil, choosing and applying color with the pencils, and the various ways of using a paintbrush to get desired results.

I did an extensive demo of things they needed to know how to do, then worked at coloring an orchid drawing along with them, demo-ing as I worked. It's good to have a demo first, but some of the information doesn't soak in until they try to do it themselves. Their results were quite good, and they learned enough to get enough self-assurance to tackle the afternoon's project: to draw a pepper then watercolor pencil/paint it.

Eileen had brought a number of fascinating art pieces she had acquired as part of an art-creating/sharing group. She gave us a mini-talk as we ate our lunch and admired the pieces. She also brought a microwave plant press to show us, with which she has pressed flowers in just minutes. I want one, and googling it online I discovered that our local Northwest Nature Shop carries them! Yes!

During the afternoon, for a break, I had the ladies draw some foliage shapes, then add light and shadow colors to them. That was a really popular exercise, because they learned some ways to make foliage look real without having to draw or color every leaf

Then they each chose a pepper and we started The Pepper Project (sometimes I use apples or gourds, whatever colorful things I find at the grocery store). As before, I worked alongside them, lightly, so that I could experience what they were were going through, and so that they could glance over to see how I was handling the different steps. This works really well if the instructor doesn't get too involved in his/her own art.

I had to make sure I stayed involved with all the students' drawings/paintings so that I could advise and help them resolve problem areas. When I have a lot of students I don't work along with them, but hold up an occasional student's work as a good example of what the others should be working for ~ or if no one has quite the right approach, I can do a quick example as a demo. With this small a group, though, it was good to not be hanging over their shoulders all the time, so drawing and painting my own pepper worked out well.

Here are the results, Esther, Eileen, and Darrelle, in that order ~ three very different styles, all of them extremely nice. I was sorry the day had to end, and I think the ladies were, too. We had shared many stories, jokes and hearty laughs throughout the day, and it was a wrench to see it finish.

So that's the workshop. Lots of things happened during the three days that didn't make it into this blog, but you can get the feel of it, I hope. I'm doing my Nature Sketching and Landscape Drawing Workshop in a couple of weeks, June 21-22 and 28. Come join us if you can. I have four people signed up so far.

And if you still haven't planned your summer workshop vacation, there is still room in my Costa Rica Journaling Workshop for more students! This is the workshop of a lifetime, and I feel so fortunate to be able to share it. Come join us July 7-10!