Painting 101:

Capturing the lighter shade of warm

by Tissa Hewawitharane

The range of colours do not necessary have to confirm to those of the subject. When painters choose certain colour range, they use it to interpret the subject in the chosen colour. As you gain more experience in water colours, you will notice how important the preliminary drawing and how without it, the water colour paints would lack any support and guide. In this exercise you are going to paint a simple village scene, from a temple back yard. The drawing must be precise enough while not including unnecessary details.

As you have learned, nature is always changing and we as painters, must observe and paint each colour and value carefully and accordingly.

The earth depends on the value and colours of the sky. A successful painting of nature's vista depends on our knowledge of the role the sky plays in this spectacular drama.

Landscape light

We must always be aware of the effect light has on our painting. An oil painter places his warm light colour on canvas and then mixes very carefully the cool light of the atmosphere.

The colour must match the value of the light colour and should be painted in such away as not to mix these two colours, laying one over the other. For the water colour paint it is different because we must keep the light colour a lighter value so as not to make the second value look muddy. We are working with a transparent medium.

When we see the light through the atmosphere, we see the light or warms and cools working together on local colour. This is called vibration.

We may break up the colour never the value. Not doing this we would not be able to try paint the landscape. All things, all forms are touched with days' lights and the cools of the atmosphere.

The importance of paper and water

The paper is highly important when working in watercolour, where the painting on a wet or on a dry background. Water colour paint is transparent and so insubstantial that the paper's texture remains visible.

To paint on a wet background, a paper is needed that will not buckle or wrinkle easily. The basis of water colour painting is water.

Water allows the paint to flow easily over the paper. When painting in water colour, we have to strenuously maintain that a brush stroke must be allowed to dry before applying another colour or tone.

Emphasis on water washes

Washes should be prepared in containers that can hold plenty of water, not only thimbles full. Painted washes are continuous areas of water colour that take more than a single of either colour a water should be made at the wet edges to spread the colour.

All must be done rapidly to keep the tones of the wash even. Some drawing paper will help this process, while others hinder it. Colour and value changes can be made while applying washes. Applying a loaded brush to paper is a delightful experience.

The paper is highly important when working in watercolour blend together and extend with practice. The colours required by the artist depend on what they want to paint. Observe the picture shown here.

I have done a simple village scene of a temple backyard. You can see the result of application of warm on another.

A very transparent wash of burnt sienna is applied on the wall of the palm thatched house at a distance. The trees on the right are painted with Hooker's green and mixed with a slight dark tone on the leaves.

Note the white front wall of the palm thatched house and it is easy to see that the colour white does not exist in water colour but it represented by the colour of the paper shown on the wall of the house.

To give more life to the picture, I have introduced a figure of a Bhikkhu seated reading. Often figures are used in watercolours to show a scale or a relative size. But, whether, used alone or in combination with other media, figure painting offer an exciting challenge.

Painting on dry paper using washes

Pure wash painting on dry paper are seldom done anymore. Although British Artists in the past, used the technique washes are large areas of colour applied evenly to the paper, producing flat colours applied evenly to the paper, producing flat colours, shapes.

Easiest to apply are washes that can be laid on from top to bottom. Use the largest brush possible and load it with the mixture applying it quickly in long even, strokes. Coloured washes can be applied over dry washes to attain luminously, contrasting shapes or to darken the previous wash.

Be careful not to scrub or even to go back over a wash to touch it up while it is drying, because the smoothness will be irreparably damaged.

As we see nature's colour is full of variety, how can we get the feeling into our painting? Anything to vary the wash and give it the look, I believe suggests colours, atmosphere, and light. Better the expressive wash, than a mechanically perfect one. Light is the life of a painting. And to guarantee bright, luminous lights, the washes describing them should be lively, bright, spontaneous and unworked. Working in a series of washes also gives better control of colour.

In a painting the main focus is on light and how it affects the painting in colour, its effects on the atmosphere and the pictorial space.

One who expresses himself in the medium of water colour must know the object he needs to express, before the brush stroke touches the paper.

www.tissahewavitarane.com