January 2009 Class: Let's Get Creative with Textures

[ona]

Please don't post comments in the tutorial thread, post your comments, questions, and homework exercises in the Homework Thread.

[ona]

Watercolor is such a great medium for showing texture. By using the properties of the water and mixing different thicknesses of paint you can create the impression of a whole variety of different textures. I use very small brushes but don’t worry you can use bigger brushes and still get similar effects. Just use the smallest you have.

Look around you. The world is filled with texture as well as color. Look closely at a rug or your fleece, your t shirt, look in your kitchen at the utensils you use everyday. Each has their own texture. If you look at your objects can you see dots or lines? Are they close together or far apart? Are they uniform or more haphazard? If you can take a photo of your object and magnify it on the computer or use a magnifying glass if you have one. If you need help to work out how you would create the texture post the photo in the homework thread and we can all help and experiment. It is worth it because suggesting an object's texture in a painting helps to bring that object to life and helps to make it have more depth and sometimes even makes it appear to leap out of the page.

For the next part of this month’s class I thought it would be an interesting exercise to take a simple three dimensional shape and use a limited palette of colors. The shape I chose is a cube and below are the 4 outlines that you are welcome to print out and use to save drawing the outlines again.

1. A pearlized glass box with a pebbled glass lid





2. A fleecy cube.





3. A furry cube.





4. A wooden Rubik's cube.





Follow the step by step instructions detailed in the next few posts and try painting one or as many of these as you would like.

[ona]

1. The pearlized glass box with the pebbled glass lid.

The box section

1. Wet the area of the box you are going to work on, and then leave till there is only a slight sheen, then wet again and wait until shiny but not really wet.

2. Position the paper so that the paint can run in the direction you want, then using quin red or similar colour put some paint on the top section and leave it to gravity to do the rest. Stand by with a tissue just in case, but with practice, knowing how long to wait before applying the paint, you will not often need it. Leave it to dry really well (about 30-45 mins).



3. Re wet the area carefully with a flat glaze brush and repeat step 2 using Perylene maroon.



4. You can do this with each section individually or work on another section of the box while waiting for the first to dry. Do not work on touching sections consecutively though, and do wait until all the shine has gone and it's light touch dry before angling the paper in a different way. You want the water to work with you and not against you.



5. Now you need to work on each part of the box in the opposite direction to the way you began. Wet the area again very carefully and put the paint on the opposite side (the side that probably still has white parts) and let gravity do its thing again.



6. Repeat with each area, first working one way and then, once dry, turn 180 degrees and repeat. You are just building the texture; don’t worry about the shadows yet. You can leave some areas white though if they are in the light.







7. Now using a mix of perylene maroon and a touch of paynes grey start to work in suggestions of shadows wet on dry. Then using a damp brush, soften the edges.



8. With a fine brush, add in the fine line shadow under the lip of the edges of the box.



To be continued in the next post...

[ona]

The pebbled glass

Wet on ever so slightly damp paper, paint in the color of the under rim of the box and the side that shows through the glass. Remember these will not be straight lines because the rough surface of the glass will distort the shapes behind. Using wet on damp, gradually build up the color. You cannot use gravity for this because the lines will be distorted, so will wiggle around with your brush. I use a fine brush for this because I like them, but it doesn’t need to be ultra fine. Keep the whole area ever so slightly lighter in tone than the actual box.



Paint in the colored pieces of glass. You are just painting in the color at this stage, the texture will come later.



Paint in the shadows on the floor behind the glass. I used a mixture of the maroon and paynes grey. Again these shadows will not be straight lines. At the same time, you can paint in the shadows on the floor.




When dry, use a fine brush to dot in the darker areas on the glass. I just used a darker red/grey mix for the white areas and a darker maroon or quin red mix for those areas. It looks a bit weird at the moment but don’t worry.



When the paint is dry, wet a flat wash brush with plain water and gently brush over the glass area. The water will then work to gently soften and blend the dots together and create the pebbled glass look.



The rim of the box

Use a mixture of quin gold, paynes grey, and a red brown (I used Indian red) and fill in the paint on the rim. For the shiny areas I just added some iridescent watercolor mix to some quin gold and touched in these areas once the paint was dry.



I deliberately kept my initial pencil lines quite dark so you could follow the steps more easily. Remember to make yours fainter before applying paint.

In the next post I will show you have to paint the fleecy cube.

Ona

[ona]

The fleecy covered tissue box

I thought I would show you the brushes that I used to paint this. I buy very cheap brushes for this and then I personalize them. (ok I wreck them) alternatively you could just use old brushes that you were going to throw away.

Warning... do not use your expensive brushes for this you can buy a cheap children's paint brush from a discount store for less than a dollar and still create the effect.

Warning... please cover all sable brushes and do not let them view the following photo



For your reference the brush with the yellow handle is a half inch glazer.

Ok.. if you haven't fallen on a heap on the ground by that photo, these are the steps to paint a fleecy cube.

Paint wet in wet washes of Quin red and UM blue, one on each section of the box, and leave to dry. This is not a flat faced box so there will be variation in the tonal quality of the color, so go with the flow and let the paint/water mix decide.







Shade on the floor to make the box sit on a surface. I used a mixture of paynes grey and perylene maroon for this.



Using a small brush, stipple on top of the washes with the same color but slightly thicker in consistency



Gradually add layers of stippling, building up the feel of thickness in the fluffy material.

Darken any areas that would be in the shade to make the surface look less flat.



Repeat the steps above with each color. For the third side I used quin gold.

Here is my finished cube:



In the next post I will show you how to create a furry cube.

Ona

[ona]

Furry Cube

• Paint in washes of color on the cube. I have used the same colors as I used on the fleecy cube: quin red, quin gold and ultramarine blue. I used the same technique too, applying wet on damp and not worrying about getting a uniform covering.
  
  
  
  
• Using a fine brush and moderately juicy paint, begin painting in the fur (just a normal brush not a personalized one). Begin at the bottom of each section and work backwards following the direction of the fur. Unlike cotton, the fibers do not go neatly in one direction, so you can be haphazard with your brush as long as the general direction is similar.
  
  
  
  
• The effect of the fur develops with layering, so gradually add more layers with slightly different tones of paint or using a very similar pigment, e.g, for the red I used quin red and perylene maroon, for the blue, I used UM blue and Dumont blue.
  
  
  
  
  
• Make sure you put the darkest furry areas in the parts you want to look more shady.
  
  
  
  
• Repeat with each side of the cube.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  until you have finished and yes.. it really is that easy
  
  
  
  In the last demo, I will show you how to create a wooden texture. This will follow in the next post.
  

Ona

[ona]

Wooden Rubik's cube

• Paint in washes of color on the cube. I have used the same colors as I used on the fleecy cube and the furry cube: quin red, quin gold and ultramarine blue.
  
  
  
  
• With a fine brush, paint in the wood grain. Have a look at something made of wood, and study the flow of the grain. You don’t need to paint in every grain, just a suggestion. Leave to dry.
  
  
  
  
• With a wash, brush darken some areas, particularly around the knots in the wood.
  
  
  
  
• With a damp brush and some clear water, wash over the whole area following the grain of the wood.
  
  
  
  
• Touch up around the knots with the fine brush and along the joins of the small cubes.
  
  
  
  
• Repeat with all areas of the large cube.
  
  Your finished cube should look like this.

So get practicing, and please post your studies in the homework thread. I would love to see them.

Advance Notice

On January 1st, I will be setting you a creative challenge in this thread. In this challenge, you will need to use at least one of these textures so get practicing — keep watch and enjoy getting your brushes wet

[ona]

Happy New Year!!!!!

So here is my challenge to you all for January

Textures can be fun to play with especially when they are not the texture that you usually associate with the object e.g. my wooden Rubik’s cube. Imagine if you applied this to a group of similar still life objects.

So I challenge you to take a group of similar objects and then for some reason make one a different texture in your painting.

Worried you are not creative enough to think of a good reason why this one is different?

Being creative is not hard. We all had the ability as a child….taking a cardboard box and imagining it was a space ship or a fire engine, but in the process of growing up imagination and creativity often get stifled. In truth though we adults can be even more creative than children because we have so much more experience to draw from, you just need to get into the right mindset.

Here is a photo of some apples.







Yes… the photo is just of a group of red apples carefully positioned around a candle and one green one on its own but not if you think of them as alive and having feelings and emotions. Everything a living thing does is for a purpose. Why are the red apples around the candle? Why is the green one on its own? What if there is a reason that they are positioned the way they are… Maybe it is a cold wintry day with the wind howling and the snow whirling. The apples around the candle are trying to keeping warm, rather like the penguins by huddling close but the one apple on its own has developed a different way of keeping warm. I hope you have a picture of this in your mind. Maybe this apple has a fleecy or furry skin instead of its usual peel or the other extreme maybe it is so cold it has turned into pebbled/frosted glass.

Once you have your idea think carefully about the whole painting. A painting can be like a novel. The best ones set the scene, provide the atmosphere for the main characters to live and breathe in. You can do the same with a painting. The background then becomes an integral part of the painting. You might paint a snowy, windswept background with snow on the floor or a general whitish blue background. Paint the 5 apples huddled around the candle together relatively normally but with maybe some snowflakes on their outer skins then paint the solitary apple with its own fur or fleece or as a glass apple instead of its usual skin. Use the background to highlight your centre of interest. James has tried to help you with some colored lighting when he took the shots.

You can use these ideas if you wish but don’t leap into it before really letting your mind be creative. After all what if you take the same photo and this time maybe it’s the green apple that is ‘normal’ and maybe the red ones are getting too hot being so close to the candle… What might happen then? If you choose this your background would be very different in texture tone and color.

James and I have taken some more ref shots that you are also welcome to use as a basis. We have tried to arrange in a way that stories should pop into your mind relatively easily and have tried to keep to simple things to draw out but if you are feeling really creative why not set up our own reference shots. Just take a group of similar objects and arrange on a table. Then think of a reason to make one different by using one of the textures that you have learned to do by working through the studies.

Why is the yellow domino different? You don't need to make it a different color in your painting. I have just used a yellow to point out that one is different. You can even change the domino that is different if you want if you choose this ref photo.




Why is there one tennis ball on it's own hiding away in a bag?



Why is one apple peeling?





You are welcome to use any of these photo's but remember that it's ok to create your own reference shot too


Be sure to continue posting your studies and now your steps towards creating your challenge paintings in the homework thread. I am looking forward to seeing them all. If you’re really stuck for ideas post too, don’t lurk in confusion. I’ll try to help and I’m sure others will too. So what are you waiting for?


Release that creativity of yours and get those brushes wet but most of all enjoy using you newly learned skills, playing with textures and having fun.

[eeJamesK]

Hi,

Ona and I have been working on a WIP video for painting wood texture. It's going to be quite long, so I'm breaking it into several parts. Part 1 is available on YouTube now, and part 2 is slowly squeezing down the wire!

Be warned - I got a little carried away with the soundtrack, and the end of part 1 may cause uncontrollable mirth. Hey, can't be taking ourselves too seriously now, can we.

All the movies will be available at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/eeJamesK

Regards,
James.

[ona]

Gail asked me to demo painting an apple so here's a quick attempt at one.

The photos are a little larger than the real life painting

First I drew an outline of an apple and then wet on wet using perylene maroon, cadmium red, lemon yellow, sepia, indigo and UM blue, yes really all those colors are in a red apple (that's James expression when he saw my list) I painted in the basic color of the apple.



sorry its a bit shiny. I was impatient and took it when it was still wet.

Once it was dry I lightly wet the surface and using a smaller brush, not the teeny tiny yet, I dabbed in some more color, not uniformly this time because an apple even though smooth still has texture. When doing this I began following the contours of the apple with my wet on wet lines



Once dry again I used my teeny tiny brush to put in yet more wet on dry, very juicy paint, lines following the contours of the apple again.



Then, when dry, I very carefully washed over with clear water to soften the lines. If you look at an apple very carefully you can also see that it has tiny dots on the skin so I added these in using hookers green. Wet on ever so slightly damp just to get some blur.



Finally I added the stem and middle part of the apple, again with my teeny tiny brush. I also added a blemish or two using sepia.

The finished apple



Hope this helps

Ona

[eeJamesK]

Hi,

All four parts of Ona's wood texture video are now on YouTube. Since the music on part 1 was obviously a bit over the top we made sure to tone things down a bit for part 4. Understated and subtle, that's what we went for. Oh yes.

Ok, let's see how many different ways we can link to this. There's the 'channel' where any more videos we do will turn up:

http://www.youtube.com/eeJamesK

There's a playlist for the wooden table which should play each video in the right order (here's hoping!):

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...6FFA81FEBB06BA

And here are the links for the individual parts so that you can skip straight to the one you want to see

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

James.

[ona]

I know several of you are having difficulty turning a normal still life set up into something creative so I looked in the image library and will talk you through how I approach it to see if this helps. Its about making another s reference image your own. Each of us will see different things in an image just like we see different things in a piece of art work... it all depends on our own experiences.

I just typed in cherries because it was the first thing that popped into my head. One of the first images I saw was madmums 'Life's a bowl of cherries'



Initially I wondered why the three cherries were out of the bowl... it made me think of a school playground... I expect that's because I'm a teacher. You will probably think of something completely different. So I thought...had these three cherries had an argument with the others? Were they adventurous and going off to explore the table? or did they want to be in the bowl but were not allowed in? All typical things that might happen in a playground full of children. maybe they are not allowed into the ' bowl' friendship ring because they were different How? maybe they are just wooden cherries desperate to be included. Then I thought.. how would I alter their position to show this? Maybe I didn't need to. One already looks as if he is longingly looking up , the other two are dejectedly looking away.

Then I saw this image



and I thought.. I wouldn't want to be that cherry on top.... it would be sooo cold. Brrrrr. If I were that cherry I would change my skin for a fur coat (must be all the cold snow around at the moment)


so just use your experiences, follow your trains of thought and see where it takes you.


I know, this exercise is silly but even if you don't end up turning something like this into a major art series like me it is still an invaluable skill for an artist because it will then take you out of the realms of 'copydome' and towards something far more original. Yes we are just using this skill in a still life as a fun way of practicing textures but it can be applied in the future to every ref image you see. Why do you choose a ref photo to paint from? why do you take that photo yourself to paint from? its because there is something in it that connects to you, maybe only subconsciously but it is there. Learn to tap into that and use it to enhance and develop the image into something that only you would have painted.

have fun

Ona