Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium by Tom Hoffmann Page B
Authors: Tom Hoffmann
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want to extend the quantity of paint by adding more water, don’t forget that you also need to add more pigment. Conversely, when you discover that the paint on your brush is too dark, you will naturally add only water until it is light enough. Remember, though, that your brush will now be fully loaded with the paler paint. You must still decide how much of that paint you want to carry to the paper. If you try to use a full brush for a small stroke, you will end up depositing an unruly blob. Shake the brush, or wipe it on the edge of your bucket. This is the step that, when forgotten, leads to the feeling that “the brush got too wet.”
TOM HOFFMANN, SOMBRAS FUERTES, 2008
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
16 × 18 INCHES (41 × 46 CM)
----
In this painting on hot press paper, I did not make enough paint for the large shadow on the street. The puddle ran out halfway across, and although I added the rest within 30 seconds, it still led to a patchy-looking result. Even so, I would rather leave it “wrong” than try to correct the mistake.
G AUGING THE W ETNESS OF THE B RUSH
How wet is the brush compared to the paper? Always knowing the answer to this question will prevent the majority of wetness problems. If you are not sure of the relative wetness of the brush and the paper, you would be wise to figure it out before making another stroke. Cultivating a sensitivity to any uncertainty about this relationship will keep you out of all kinds of trouble.
Try the following experiment before you read on. Make a 6 × 6–inch (15 × 15–cm) semigloss wash of any color on a piece of paper. Your brush will still be somewhat wet. Do not wash your brush, but add some pigment of a new color to it. (I know, I am asking you to touch the paint on your palette with a dirty brush! See this page for more about this.) On a dry area of the palette, notice how the paint behaves. It should be less fluid than the initial wash. Now make a stroke of the new color in the middle of the wash. Observe how it spreads.
Next, make another 6 × 6–inch (15 × 15–cm) semigloss wash, just like the first one, on a second piece of paper. This time, wash your brush and load it with the second color. Try to make your brush wetter than the paper. Make the same kind of stroke in the middle of the wash, and watch what happens.
In the first case, the brush was not wetter than the wash, because no water was added to it. The stroke of new color stayed where you put it, with some softening of the edges. In the second case, the brush was wetter than the wash. The liquid flowed from the brush, pushed aside the suspended pigment of the initial wash like flotsam in the path of a flood, and dropped it at the edges when the spreading stroke reached equilibrium. Voilà—a bloom.
The soft-edged stroke from the first half of the experiment is the kind of mark that is appropriate for countless situations. The bloom, on the other hand, is usually a big mistake.
JIAUR RAHMAN, SILENT LOVE, 2002
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
30 × 22 INCHES (76 × 56 CM)
----
Being conscious of the relative wetness of brush and paper allows the artist to use a variety of edges to establish an effective illusion of light, space, substance, and mood. In a twist on the usual approach to depicting depth, Rahman gives the dark foreground shapes soft edges, while the pale background forms are hard-edged.
TOM HOFFMANN, New Year, 2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
22 × 30 INCHES (56 × 76 CM)
----
This simplified landscape was done entirely while the surface was wet. The three colors in the cloud were laid down gold first, then light gray, and finally dark gray. In the process, the brush was never dipped into the water bucket. The gold was used as part of the light gray mix, which, in turn, was used as part of the dark gray.
TOM HOFFMANN, NEEDLES, 2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
30 × 22 INCHES (76 × 56 CM)
----
Just in case you’ve never seen a bloom before, there’s one in
TOM HOFFMANN, SOMBRAS FUERTES, 2008
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
16 × 18 INCHES (41 × 46 CM)
----
In this painting on hot press paper, I did not make enough paint for the large shadow on the street. The puddle ran out halfway across, and although I added the rest within 30 seconds, it still led to a patchy-looking result. Even so, I would rather leave it “wrong” than try to correct the mistake.
G AUGING THE W ETNESS OF THE B RUSH
How wet is the brush compared to the paper? Always knowing the answer to this question will prevent the majority of wetness problems. If you are not sure of the relative wetness of the brush and the paper, you would be wise to figure it out before making another stroke. Cultivating a sensitivity to any uncertainty about this relationship will keep you out of all kinds of trouble.
Try the following experiment before you read on. Make a 6 × 6–inch (15 × 15–cm) semigloss wash of any color on a piece of paper. Your brush will still be somewhat wet. Do not wash your brush, but add some pigment of a new color to it. (I know, I am asking you to touch the paint on your palette with a dirty brush! See this page for more about this.) On a dry area of the palette, notice how the paint behaves. It should be less fluid than the initial wash. Now make a stroke of the new color in the middle of the wash. Observe how it spreads.
Next, make another 6 × 6–inch (15 × 15–cm) semigloss wash, just like the first one, on a second piece of paper. This time, wash your brush and load it with the second color. Try to make your brush wetter than the paper. Make the same kind of stroke in the middle of the wash, and watch what happens.
In the first case, the brush was not wetter than the wash, because no water was added to it. The stroke of new color stayed where you put it, with some softening of the edges. In the second case, the brush was wetter than the wash. The liquid flowed from the brush, pushed aside the suspended pigment of the initial wash like flotsam in the path of a flood, and dropped it at the edges when the spreading stroke reached equilibrium. Voilà—a bloom.
The soft-edged stroke from the first half of the experiment is the kind of mark that is appropriate for countless situations. The bloom, on the other hand, is usually a big mistake.
JIAUR RAHMAN, SILENT LOVE, 2002
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
30 × 22 INCHES (76 × 56 CM)
----
Being conscious of the relative wetness of brush and paper allows the artist to use a variety of edges to establish an effective illusion of light, space, substance, and mood. In a twist on the usual approach to depicting depth, Rahman gives the dark foreground shapes soft edges, while the pale background forms are hard-edged.
TOM HOFFMANN, New Year, 2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
22 × 30 INCHES (56 × 76 CM)
----
This simplified landscape was done entirely while the surface was wet. The three colors in the cloud were laid down gold first, then light gray, and finally dark gray. In the process, the brush was never dipped into the water bucket. The gold was used as part of the light gray mix, which, in turn, was used as part of the dark gray.
TOM HOFFMANN, NEEDLES, 2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
30 × 22 INCHES (76 × 56 CM)
----
Just in case you’ve never seen a bloom before, there’s one in
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