Herron Class 6: Using Stained Paper

The process begins with staining your paper with an even coat of staining color.

Some Staining Watercolors are: Phtalo Green, Phtalo Blue, Phtalo Purple, Winsor Blue (it's the same as Phtalo Blue) and Alizarin Crimson. You can mix several colors if you want more of a tan or neutral color.

Wait at least a day for your stained paper to dry. Now, paint the mid-tones of your design onto the paper with watercolors. Next, paint the highlights with Chinese White*, which is white watercolor. Finally, paint on the darkest darks.

Note: *Chinese White is opaque. You may have to build up layers of Chinese White to get a bright white. It can also be tinted with regular watercolors to create opaque colors such as peach and light pink.

Green Trees by Jess Sanaie (c) 2010, 13x17in - For my painting, I stained my paper with Phtalo Green and diagonal brush strokes.

Miniature Flower Painting

While traveling this week I challenged myself to create a painting with limited supplies to avoid over-packing my luggage. I packed a: tiny watercolor block, #2 brush, small filbert brush, small tube of 6 colors (yellow, orange, red, purple, blue and green), one pencil and a reference photo.

Here was the result: Pink Flower Miniature by Jess Sanaie (c) 2010, 4x6in

In this painting I explored the challenge of doing a very small painting and learned the virtues of using a pencil to give the painting structure

(thus an exception to the post Supplies I Don't Use in which I said I prefer not using pencil). In this painting I also explored using a new color, Phtalo Violet.

Rose

Nothing says "Thank you" like giving a watercolor postcard.

Rose, 6x4, by Jess Sanaie (c) 2010

Poppy Flower Painting

This is the first time I've tried doing poppies. Do you have an idea for how I can improve how I paint these flowers?

Yellow Poppies, 7x10in, by Jess Sanaie (c) 2010

Sea Shapes

I did these sea shapes for my friend Amanda (visit her blog, Fine Prints). The seahorse is based off this image from Southern Maryland Online but I changed it a lot (simplified, recolored, redrew).

Seahorse, 7x10 in, Spiney Shell, 5x6in, Conch Shell, 5x6in, all by Jess Sanaie (c) 2010

Herron Class 5: Glazing

Glazing involves layering transparent washes of color over each other, air-drying in between. If you use a hair dryer instead of air-drying, you won't get good granulation (color separating). We started by doing a wash of yellow, then red, then blue.

Some transparent granulating colors are: Cerulean Blue, Opera and French Ultramarine Blue.

The glazing process is more time-consuming and less spontaneous than my usual style. I have not finished my work from Herron Class 5 yet, but below is an earlier painting I've done using glazing.

God's Field by Jess Sanaie (c) 2008, 12x16in

Flower Paintings

In Herron's Class 4 we did flowers. Here, I was practicing. I tackled a pink Gerber Daisy for my friend Amanda (visit her blog, Fine Prints).

Red-Orange Pansies, Third Pink Daisy, Second Pink Daisy, First Pink Daisy, Red-Pink Pansies

All (c) 2010 by Jess Sanaie, about 6x7in each

Watercolor Painting Supplies I Do Not Use

Unlike my previous post Supplies You Need to do Watercolors, I'd now like to list some common watercolor supplies and explain why I don't use them.

• Hot-Pressed Watercolor Paper: This paper is very smooth and doesn't hold pigment as steadfastly as cold-pressed paper
• Medium and Small Square Brushes: I love square brushes for doing acrylic paintings, but rarely use them for watercolor paintings - round and filbert brushes hold more paint
• Sitting Chair: I paint while standing so I can move my arms and shoulders freely and get a more accurate view of my work looking down on it (sitting in a chair skews your viewpoint).
• Paper Towels: Although formerly a big fan of blotting with Brawny paper towels, I now have a cheaper and more environmentally freindly option - a reusable cloth hand towel
• Pencils: Many artists draw their designs with pencil before painting; the pencil marks then become permanent - recently I've sketched my designs with pale paint instead - benefits are it's easier to erase and gives you an all-watercolor final product
• Masking Fluid: Pigment only travels to places where your paper is wet and applying masking fluid is not fun - being selective about the parts of my paper I wet is much easier
• Phthalo Blue and Green: These colors can be overpowering and very staining - use with extreme caution lest they take over your painting and drown out your other colors. However, Phthalo Purple is a lovely color.

UPDATE:

• I've found a use for pencils - they're good for getting all the details into smaller works like the inner parts of the flower in the post Miniature Flower Painting
• And I've found a use for phthalo colors - they're good for staining paper like in Herron Class 6: Staining Paper

Supplies You Need to Paint Watercolors

Supplies you can use to paint like me, starting with the most important:

• Sink: Having a fresh supply of water for mixing paint and cleaning brushes and your palette is very important
• Paper: I like to use 140lb Cold-Pressed Watercolor Blocks
• Brushes: Those I've found most useful recently are a: large square wash brush (1 1/2-in), medium filbert (#14), smaller filbert, small round (#2) for details, and mop brush (5/8-in) - my small filbert is actually an acrylic brush - it's OK to mix & match
• Towel(s): You can use disposable paper towels to blot away excess water and pigment from your brushes and paper; I prefer a reusable hand towel because it's more environmentally friendly
• Pigment: Colors I've used recently: Lemon Yellow, Winsor Yellow, Transparent Yellow*, Cad Orange, Winsor Red Deep, Quinacridone Rose, Alizarin Crimson, Caput Mortuum*, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber, Raw Umber*, Lamp Black*, Hooker's Green, Cobalt Green, Terre Verte, Manganese Blue, Coeruleum Blue, Prussian Blue*, Ultramarine, Ultramarine Violet; *=used sparingly
• Palette: I use a Skip Lawrence Palette; I like how it's easy to drag colors from their bins into the mixing area
• Water Bowl: A shallow bowl helps avoid dunking the brush in too deep; I try to avoid getting water in the ferrule
• Ref Photos: Even for unrealistic paintings reference photos can help, although I've done some pantings from my imagination

Here is where I've shopped for supplies:

• Cheap Joe's Art Stuff is great for shopping online
• Plaza Artist Materials is great if you're lucky enough to live nearby
• Michaels is okay for brushes but can be pricey for other supplies

More Favorite Past Artwork

I did this for my grandmother Amajoon a few years ago and it is one of my favorite paintings. Her favorite color is brown.
Reddish Brown Horse by Jess Sanaie (c) 2007, 10x14in

Color Field Painting

I like the work of artist Morris Louis. He did paintings by dripping acrylic magna paint down the canvas. Louis' work was part of the Color Field painting movement. Sadly, magna paint is no longer available. I tried to do a similar feeling painting but in watercolor this spring. Initially I didn't like it and the colors looked like pickles to me. But I found it the other day and now I don't know - maybe I like it. What do you think?

Finger Colors by Jess Sanaie (c) 2010, 24x18in

Herron Class 4: Loose Florals

For this class, Susan said she paints the background first, and then paints the flowers. However, she allows the flower shapes to combine with one another. When doing a vase, she said she deliberately causes bleeds.
Moody Violets and Vase by Jess Sanaie (c) 2010, 7x10in

Herron Class 3: Showing Brushstrokes

This class was about painting a landscape and showing your brushstorkes. First I did Blue Calm Water, 10x14in.

For my second work, I did Fall Road with Down-Sloping Hill, 24x18in, on a full sheet of paper (using a full sheet is supposed to be harder than doing small works). Unlike the in-class demo, I chose to overlap light leaves onto dark ones, have some branches going more horizontal than vertical, have smaller but more frequent patches of sky showing, have some trunks only semi-broken by leaves, and have some lighter trunks to indicate distance.

Both are (c) 2010 by Jess Sanaie.

Herron Class 2: Limited Palette

For the second class, we focused on limited palette, which means creating a painting using a total of only two or three colors. I created these:

Yellow Black Cat (top);

Caput Mortem Viridian Cat (middle);

Maganese Blue Winsor Red Cat (bottom)

All three by Jess Sanaie, (c) 2010, each 7x10in