Learnings from Edgar Whitney – Part 2

Last week this blog covered the seven elements of design increase the quality and substance of paintings as taught by Edgar Whitney. This week I’ll share his eight principles of design, the bricks of knowledge, that show in every painting. Here we go. 

1. Unity
What you design on paper to make the painting interesting must be a complete unit, rather a collection of several. The treatment of the element that appears in one section of your painting should be echoed in another part so that all sections are related.

2. Conflict
Conflict is the tension between opposing versions of an element, creating interest and e excitement and is an essential part of any design. For example, in colour, conflict is created when you use two colours that are directly opposite from each other in the colour wheel. With regard to value, this is setting the light against the dark. You can also apply this principle to shapes, size and direction.

3. Dominance
Dominance helps resolve the conflict and regains unity. There are different ways to get dominance. It could be making straight lines dominant, large areas of a dominant colour, having a larger shape of a certain value or soft textures.

4. Repetition
Repetition can be used to unify and make the painting hold together. Another way is to create rhythms for the eye can enjoy repeated shapes or colours. We should try to achieve repetition without redundancy to avoid monotony.

5. Alternation
Closely related to repetition, alternation occurs between repetitions. This can be achieved in a number of ways, including alternating warm and cool colours.

6. Balance
Balance can be achieved in two ways: with symmetry and asymmetry. Although two equally-sized spaces can be balance and represent stability to the subject, it is also boring and static. To bring some visual excitement, consider asymmetric shapes, such as trees of different sizes, or smaller shapes farther out closer to the paper’s edge.
 
7. Harmony
Elements with harmony are those that are similar or have an affinity for each other. The degree of harmony or discord in a painting can be used to show either tranquility of dynamic movement.

8. Gradation
This is used to entertain the viewer and is normally used in colour, value and texture. We find gradual transitions in dark to light, warm to cool, smooth to rough, perpendicular to horizontal, and in diminishing size.

With these eight principles and the seven elements identified last week, we can think, plan, build, organize and express ourselves on paper.

Tell us which principles you can spot in this painting by Whitney.

Danielle

Learnings from Edgar Whitney – Part 1

I started my watercolour adventure a few years ago and during that time acquired numerous books and videos.

Most watercolour books and videos are “how to” books that provide exercises for the reader to follow and reproduce a piece of art. It is an excellent way to learn. For the first years, I was very pleased with this approach. However in the past year, this type of approach is losing its appeal.

I find this approach akin to riding a bike with training wheels on a pre-set course. I’ve been wanting to do away with the training wheels and ride my bike wherever I please. To do so, I want to develop slightly different skills that will allow me to ride anywhere. With regard to my watercolours, I want to be able to look at a scene or photo and be able to develop my own creation from what is before me or in my head.

The books recently acquired focus on developing those skills. Recently, I’ve been reading up on Edgar Whitney (1891 - 1987). Although Whitney was a very good watercolorist, his legacy is his teachings. From the mid-1950's until the early 1980's Whitney and his contemporaries laid the groundwork for a new generation of painters that in many ways remains unchallenged.

Although the principles of design which he taught had been established generations before him, he was able to distill these elements and principles in manners that allowed his students to create strong,  emotionally and relevant paintings that were aesthetically pleasing.

This week, I want to share how he communicated the seven elements of designs. Next week, I’ll recap his principles of design. Whitney called the elements the “tools” and the principles the “rules”.

Together, the seven elements of design increase the quality and substance of paintings. Here is a snapshot of the elements as described by Whitney:

1. Line
Any painting can possess lots of line variety but only one type should dominate. This is particularly true when considering if the dominance should be curved or straight or thick or thin.

2. Value
Values alone can be used to express form and are more important than color for readability. Color merely embellishes appearances. The mood of the painting can be set by a dominance of one value throughout and is called the “key”. I learned this from Neal (nmserie) a couple of years ago.

3. Colour
Colour has three properties: hue, intensity and value. When colors are adjacent (see colour wheel), they harmonize, hues diametrically opposite to each other on the wheel are complimentary and tend to enhance one another when set side by side. Intensity is the strength of the colour. Value is the lightness or darkness of any colour

4. Texture
Texture has four qualities – rough, smooth, soft and hard. It enriches and augments and is an antidote for monotony in a too pure area.

5. Shape
Shape is anything that has height and width. Shapes can be curved, angular or rectangular, and all three can be used in one painting, but only one category should dominate. There are also positive and negative shapes. A good shape has two different dimensions – wider than it is tall or taller than it is wide, oblique or slanted with interlocking edges.

6. Size
It is the relationship of sizes in a painting that must be carefully planned. To entertain the eye, use a variety of size in objects as well as positive and negative areas. 

7. Direction
The lines and shapes have a directional thrust which is either horizontal, vertical or oblique. Again, only one direction should dominate to convey the spirit of the painting. Horizontal dominance suggest tranquility and repose while vertical shapes and lines suggest austerity and strength while oblique dominance expresses drama and excitement.

                         "Remember – texture is where the value changes." Edward Whitney

There are many modern day watercolourist who credit their success to the teachings of Whitney. Some of them include: John Salminen, Tony Couch, Judi Wagner, etc.

Here is a painting from Whitney

Notice how the white shape of the lighthouse connects down to the white shape of the wave spray. Midtones and some darks surround and interlock with this well-designed white shape which is of two different dimensions -- oblique with interlocking interest on the edges. The three midtone shapes are all different in sizes and shapes.

You may not have realized that you can sign up (see right side) to this blog to receive it in your emails every week.

Have a great week
Danielle

Taking great photos of your watercolours

Whether you want to share your photos of your paintings online (e.g., FaceBook or Art Tutor gallery) or simply want to keep a record of a painting before you sell it or give it away, it is important to know how to take a decent photograph of your paintings. Any good camera digital point and shoot or SLR will work

 

The main advantage of a digital camera is that you can review the effect of your shot, the focus, the exposure, and any glare issues immediately while you’re shooting, or shortly after, rather than waiting days for pictures to develop only to find out something went wrong. In addition, you have the ability to work on your photos afterwards in software such as Photoshop to make edits.

 

Traits you are looking for in a good photograph include: 

• Proper exposure 
• Colour balance (important when using artificial light) 
• Appropriate cropping 
• Straightened the photo 
• Sharpened of the image 
• Void of any reflections

 Lens

 

If you are using a zoom lens, you should check out the numbers on the lens to make sure you are zoomed to around 50mm or above. If you us as smaller number, say 35mm, then such a wide-angle will distort your painting outward and you’ll see the straight edges of the frame or painting curve and bulge toward the edges, distorting the finished photo of your painting.

 

Linear Polarizers

 

You might want to use a linear polarising filter over the lens. This device selectively allows the passage of only certain orientations of plane polarized light. Why is it useful? Well, most light sources put out randomly polarized light, i.e. an equal mixture of every kind of polarization. Also, polarizers can also increase the saturation of colors by eliminating some of the light reflected.

Do not use a circular polarising filter, even though they are more common these days (because they work better with autofocus). They will leave large portions of your painting full of glare. I find the autofocus usually still works fine with them, but if not, just manually focus.

 

The lighting

 

Most of us do not have 500-watt tungsten (3200K) lights which many professionals use. The basic principle is to have an even light.

 

Natural indirect lighting is the best option, however, do not take photo in full sun.

 

A room with windows can offer indirect sunlight, even on an overcast day. You do, however, want to avoid sunlight striking your object directly, as this will cause glare.

 

In the absence of natural light or inclement weather, we can use two single lamps and use them to light the painting from both sides to avoid any “hot spots”. Not that the polarising filters cut down a significant amount of the light reaching the camera sensor as well, which is another reason to have a good, strong light.

 

Avoid the use of a flash aimed directly at the piece. 99 times out of 100 this is your enemy.

  

Set your camera

 

You might want to select the manual mode for setting your exposure and shoot at about a five-second exposure with a focal length of around f/10, which gives me a little extra focus depth to make up for any error in focusing.

 

Always use the lowest ISO setting on your camera (usually ISO 100), since this will also give you the sharpest picture possible – the ISO setting traditionally refers to the sensitivity of film and in digital cameras it also refers to the sensitivity of your image sensor; the higher the ISO number, the grainier the image will appear.

 

Remember to use the white balance setting on your camera.

 

Take your picture

 

Simply look through your viewfinder and rotate the polarising filter on the front of the camera lens until you see the painting darken slightly and the glare magically vanish!

 

If you are having difficulty seeing exactly when the glare disappears, move the camera closer to the painting to adjust the lens filter. Once the filter is adjusted properly, you won’t have to change this setting when you move back or shoot additional paintings.

 

When taking the picture, I use the camera’s timer set at two seconds so I can press the shutter, remove my hand, and then wait for it to start the exposure. This means I don’t have to worry about my hand jostling the camera and creating a blurry image.

 

Composing the shot (the most important)

 

Make sure your camera is at a right angle to the piece being photographed. It’s probably best that you lay your painting flat on the floor and shoot from above looking down (use a chair or step-ladder to obtain ample distance if it's really large). You do not want to distort the view.

 

You also want to ensure the photo is square and properly cropped.

 

Have a great week and look forward to seeing great photos in the gallery

Danielle

 

 

Overwhelmed by watercolour vocabulary?

If you are new to watercolour, you may be overwhelmed by the different terms you see or hear. If you’ve been painting for a while, you probably didn’t realize that you’ve acquired a large vocabulary.

See how many of these are unfamiliar to you. 

 

Terms related to paint

• colour: the perceived wavelength of light reflected from the surface of the subject
• paint: a mixture composed of pigment, vehicle, and binder
• pigment: the colour substance (clays, stones, animal and vegetable matter, synthetic dyes, etc.) found in paint
• vehicle: the element fund both in paint and added to paint which allows the pigment and binder to spread
• binder: the substance in paint which holds the pigment together; in watercolour the binder is soluble gum/gum Arabic
• gouache: the term used to describe opaque watercolour

Terms related to paper:

• hot pressed: paper which is passed through a hot press during the drying process. Smooth surface.
• cold pressed: paper which is passed through a cold press during the drying process. A medium surface, slight tooth.
• rough or not pressed: paper which is skimmed from vats with a screen and left to dry. Very coarse. Deep tooth.
• watermark (papermark): created by laid and chain wires laced and stitched into the mold. 13th century. papermaker's symbol/location of mill or labeling molds in sets of two.
• ream: standard amount of paper. 20 quires (20-25 sheets). 480-500 sheets. occasionally 472 or 516 sheets.
• paper weight: actual measured weight of a ream of one kind of paper
• watercolour block: a tablet of watercolour paper which is glued on all four sides. a painting is executed on the top sheet and when completed is cut from the block. a clean piece of watercolour paper is revealed when the painting is cut away. Using a watercolour block eliminates the need to stretch paper.
• sizing: Gelatin sizing is a surface sizing of animal glue or gelatin it helps to keep the paint from sinking into the fibers and becoming “muddy” and lets the artist make the necessary changes and corrections when painting, such as having the ability to lift and remove colour.

Terms related to colours

• primary colours: colours which cannot be mixed (red, yellow, blue)
• secondary colours: a colour created by combining two primary colours (green, orange, violet)
• triad: three colours equally spaced on the colour wheel.
• intermediate colours: colours found btwn primary and secondary colours.
• complementary colours: colours which are directly opposite one another on the colour wheel
• analogous colours: colours which have a common hue
• polychromatic colours: a random selection of colours
• neutral colours: colours which have their intensity/saturation reduced. The most effective manner to reduce intensity is to add the complement. Adding black or white also reduces intensity
• intensity/saturation: the brightness or pureness of a colour
• value: the lightness or darkness of a colour
• tint: the addition of white 
• shade: the addition of black
• achromatic colour: refers to the absence of colour (blacks, whites, greys)
• warm colour: the visual temperature of colour. yellow, red, orange, etc.
• cool colour: the visual temperature of a colour. green, blue, violet, etc.
• subjective colour: colour chosen at random by the artist and not commonly associated with a particular subject

Terms related to watercolour techniques

• wash: thin transparent layers of colour which allow the white of the paper to show through. Washes can be flat, graded, variegated or random
• graded /graduated wash: Paint an area that goes from light to dark using a wash technique so that no brush marks are showing.
• variegated wash: a wash of two colours that bleed into each other. You achieve this by doing a graded wash first, and then introduce the second colour slightly overlapping the first colour.
• spattering: spots, dots, of colour created by flicking a brush or toothbrush loaded with paint
• stippling: using the tip of the brush to paint small dots of varying tone and density
• masking/ resist: using a rubberized liquid to preserve the white of the paper or lightly tinted areas which protects the paper from further development during the painting process, applies to the surface and allowed to dry before the first wash is laid. 
• tachisme: the application of paint by throwing, dribbling, or blowing paint across the paper
• dry brush: created by painting with a brush with is damp with colour. hard/fuzzy edges & lines created by brush hairs.
• wet on wet: the application of wet paint to a wet surface. The result is soft fuzzy edges and bleeding colour
• wet on dry: a wet paint loaded brush applied to a dry surface. the end result is hard crisp controlled edges and forms clearly defined.
• scumbling : holding the brush on the side and making loose, circular movements
• charging: act of loading another colour into a wet or moist field. It is very much like wet into wet painting
• backruns/dropping in/blooms: often occur by mistake or you can create them deliberately. If you apply more of a wet colour to a wash before it is completely dry, the new paint will bleed into the old, creating a blotch with a hard jagged edge.
• engraving: marking the paper with a sharp instrument to allow pigment to flow along the lines, or marking a semi dried wash to create white lines.
• sgraffito: scraping out using a sharp point or knife to scratch into dry paint
• lifting out: using a damp sponge or wet brush on dry paint to loosen the pigment then immediately blot it. A tissue can be rolled or scrunched for different shapes when lifting out. Lifting out works brilliantly on hot pressed paper.
• glazing: is the term used for a wash laid over other dry colours, and is a way of mixing colours on the surface, either the same colour or a different colour. Glazing should use a transparent colour.
• positive painting: painting an object
• negative painting: painting behind and around and object to show its shape

Terms related to brushes

• round brush: ‘round’ brushes is perhaps misleading because the heads more closely resemble a teardrop in shape, when wet, being rounded towards the base and slimming down to a point at the tip. It’s this shape that’s behind the versatility of the round brush, and a lot of work goes into getting it just right. The ‘belly’ (the bulbous part) needs to be in the lower part of the head. If it’s higher up, the brush will lack the required springiness. The belly is the brush’s reservoir – it’s where most of the wet paint is held.
• flat brush: These are chisel shaped brushes with a straight edge
• rigger: Brushes with very long, thin hairs that come to a precise point, originally used to paint the rigging lines in nautical paintings, but great for any rendering of very fine, long lines
• mop: Rounds made with very fine, soft hairs (usually squirrel hair) that can hold a large quantity of water when wet or can wick up a large quantity of water when thirsty. Because they take long to dry and take more effort to rinse completely, mops are not the best brush for paint application, but they are exceptionally good for wetting large areas of paper
• liner/script: Basically a rigger wrapped in a round. The hairs often do not come to a needle point (as in a rigger), so that the line rendered has a consistent thickness, which is scaled to the size of the tuft.
• fan: a brush with a fan shape used for drawing grass-like or twig-like clusters of parallel lines, for irregular line hatching or texturing, and for softly blending the edges of or gradations within wash areas
• hake: wide flat brush are used to coax the distribution of paint or water in wash areas after the wash solution has been applied with another (wash) brush
• tuft: the bundle of hair, bristle or fiber that holds and releases the painting liquid.
• ferrule: the metal collar that connects the tuft to the handle, supports the tuft during painting, protects the end of the wood handle from moisture and determines the size and shape of the brush.

I'm sure this list is not exhaustive and I encourage you to add more using the comment function below.

In the past couple of weeks I've been watching some old videos of Zoltan Szabo. His teaching technique in infused with passion. Here is a painting of his entitled "Little Haven".

Danielle