Painting Dark to Light

Begin this lesson at Step One Below



STEP FIVE
Here it is, just that easy. Looking for darkest values first than mid tones, than your lightest values. This poppy took me about an hour to paint. Using a 1/2 inch & 3/4 inch one stroke brush. Results you still keep the translucent, luminous effect and the glazing at the end results in a great combination of values and depth. Controlling your values through glazing is a traditional way to paint in watercolor, but if you want quick results and deep intense contrast, try this method, you may enjoy it. More to come...

STEP FOUR
Now I have painted in my darkest and middle values. The poppy is now ready to have the lightest values ready to be painted in. 1,2,3 just that easy.

STEP THREE
Look closely, here I am glazing a middle value over my darker value, previously painted, and allowed to dry throughly. When glazing over my darkest values I use a one stroke brush which releases the paint evenly without much pressure. This brush is great for this technique because it won't disturb or move the pigment.

STEP TWO
Next step for your dark to light method is to find the mid to dark values, mixing permanent rose with quinacridone gold and adding a bit more water, results my mid to dark values for this poppy.


STEP ONE
This poppy was painted in a little over an hour, using the dark to light method. No more glazing and waiting for your darks to pop, painting your darkest values first is time saving and instant gratification for watercolorists. Tired of glazing and glazing to get your darkest values? Than this is the method for you. For my darkest values I mixed permanent rose, and quinacridone gold, with a hint of thalo blue, for a rich dark pink.

Iceland Poppy 3-day watercolor workshop at Gallery 2611

The results of our hard work, we left tired but happy and armed with many new and great techniques. The class will have the opportunity to complete this piece on their own, with new found confidence. As well as myself, I will complete and keep posting!
The stamens, what a fun area to paint, somewhat loose, using the wet into wet technique dropping in the golden yellow along with the transparent yellow. No matter which approach loose or detailed, it is going to look terrific. The secret to this is not to over work this area. "Put the brush down and step away from the painting"
Once we completed the red poppy we moved to the white poppy in shadow, this was another fun learning curve for those students that have never attempted to paint, this subject. To master painting the poppies, it is useful for any level student, it is believing in the process, applying it.
This is the beginning of our Iceland Poppy lesson with the green leaves and stems. The focus on this portion of our lesson is how to paint the cluster of leaves, stems and pods and get the depth of the "jungle" portion of this beautiful flower. Many techniques were taught to achieve this wonderful pattern. The students all agreed that this alone was the "icing on the cake, it is a huge learning curve that can be repeated in so many ways and on so many different subjects".

On the morning of day two we began painting the red poppy, this poppy was painted with three colors, and most of the brush work was with 1 - 1 1/2" brushes. Learning how to apply large and deliberate brush strokes was the focus on this portion of the lesson. Building confidence to load up your brush and paint the darkest largest shape of the pedals wrinkle. My students were tired but happy by the end of day two, a lot of new and interesting techniques as well as building their confidence to trust the process.
Here is Evelyn deep in concentration, if you look closely you can see her beautiful green pattern of stems and leaves just popping of the paper, good job Evelyn!!
Jackeye, Barbara, Monica, and Evelyn
May 2-4 I taught my yearly workshop at Gallery 2611, which is my home town. I decided this year to forego a still life and to go back to teaching a floral painting for this workshop. The above three photos are the students hard at work, and deep in concentration. Learning bit of confidence goes a long way.

Adding the Morning Sky

For the sky I had decided that I wanted it to be dark blue at the bottom to a gradated light thalo blue at the top.  How can I get an even flat wash, painting around the stems, and background poppies.  I thought masking?  No way, today Guy Magallanes showed me the coolest technique, you can teach old dogs new tricks!   Using this is the result of the darkest value of my sky, tomorrow I plan on finishing the sky with a thalo blue wash.

FINDING THE DEPTH OF A BACKGROUND

Here I am painting negative shapes to create the illusion of  depth behind the leaves and stems. This is a wet into wet process, with the thought of negative shapes around the leaves and stems in the furthest background,  paint in the transparent yellow and then I drop in the mixture of burnt sienna, winsor green (bs) and winsor blue.  Yum! it is the best combination.   The background is fun to paint and I know it will be a great lesson, so in May I will be teaching this in a 3 day workshop.

The Stems of the Iceland Poppy

Now I am moving into the background to paint the stems; 

I glazed the stem with a transparent yellow while the pigment is wet, I then add in pure burnt sienna, to enhance some of the reds in the stem. For the shadow side of the stem a mixture of winsor green (blue shade) and burnt sienna. The light side and dark side will help create the roundness of each stem.

Iceland Poppies

The third iceland poppy I painted in the gray shadows and now I am gently painting in the pistils with transparent yellow and a hint of quinacridone gold. And the center is a mixture of Winsor Green (blue shade) and Permanent Alizarin Crimson.

The iceland poppy is taking form, added the yellow using transparent yellow over the grays all ready painted in.  Also painted the dew drops.  For the poppy in shadow I glazed the petals with a mixture of permanent alizarin crimson and thalo blue

More folds for the poppy

Painting in the grays and getting ready to lay in transparent yellow next, also you can see I did draw in the dew drops.