Sunset : a painting

Title: Sunset

Size: 18 x 27 cm

March 2009

Medium: Watercolor on Handmade paper

I returned from the BITS, Pilani to Baripada in February 2009. I was excited about art after getting the prizes in BITS. You can read about that story here. BITS had given me assignments to do. I had a month to complete my assignments. As soon as I finished my assignments the art fever took over. I painted the “Winter trees”. The story behind it can be found here. I painted the “Sunset” in the same week.

It would be good to read the story about winter trees where I describe the variegated wash. In ‘Sunset’ I began with variegated washes with Prussian blue. I wanted to give the feel of coming night. I wanted to mix a shade of yellow to signify the setting sun. The yellows were allowed to blend with red and brown in the lower part of the paper. Unfortunately the top two colours mixed and gave a shade of green in the sky! I have warned about this in “Winter trees”. However this can be used to ones advantage if one is using blue-purple-red-orange- yellow sky by using variegated washes of blue, red and yellow in a proper manner.

I diluted off the green by pouring water and let the whole thing run across the page by hanging the page side-on. By the time the paper is nearly dried I poured extra water and allowed it to take away some pigment and form the formation of clouds. I dabbed a little bit with a old handkerchief. Doing it too much can spoil the paper.

Once completely dry, I did the distant trees with light shades of yellow and brown. The building was painted with grey. A part of it was made with transparent wash allowing the sunlit sky to shine through the building.

The fence was drawn with linear perspective. The oddities in the structure signify the rickety road to the Church. The dark silhouette of a tree in the foreground ‘pushes’ the rest of the painting behind and brings about the depth required.

I was careful to add the shadows of the structures away from the light source.

Hope you liked this and have learnt something from it. Happy painting.

Winter Trees: a painting

Title: Winter Trees

Size: 18 X 27 cm

Medium: Watercolor on Handmade paper

March 2009

After I painted “The Path”, the feedback I received motivated me to paint again. Of course I was a getting busy as in the hospital where I was working. So, there was a gap of about 9 months between ‘the path’ and this.

I had seen a couple of videos made by a self taught artist Bob Davis. He has a website which can be found by clicking this. You could access these videos and teach yourself too.

The “winter trees” was made using a layered approach. By this I mean I have painted this painting in layers. There is a wash which covers the entire sheet and then after the paint dried I painted over it.

The first was a variegated wash. By this I mean I load a brush with blue paint and run it on the top of the paper and I progressively move down by diluting the lower border of the layer with water till it is just plain water by the time I come to the middle of the painting. This gave the sky a smooth appearance. I added yellow on the lower border and took it to the middle in similar fashion till it is plain water in the middle again. This is pretty important. If not done properly the two colours could mix and give out a green at the horizon!

Once the layer has dried, I painted the distant trees with a random touch of yellows and light brown allowing some amount of mixing to happen on paper. I keep those colours light in value as it adds perspective of depth. Farther objects are lighter and nearer objects are darker in value.

Once these distant trees dried I painted the brown tree. I first painted the tree and the branches. The source of light is from the left side of the painting. So I saw to it that the opposite side is darker due to shadow. I painted the leaves with dry brush techniques running the strokes from periphery to centre of the tree. It is important for us to know the outer limits of a tree when we paint them. It is a common mistake for beginners to start from centre of the tree and keep on going without knowing limits. It is quite tempting indeed to do that.

I painted the grey tree after the brown tree dried. I added green to the foreground. A tint of brown was added to green and was used in areas beyond the road. I added the grasses on both sides of the road. This brought contrast and brought the road ‘out’. I painted the shadows for the trees. This helps to root the trees to the ground. One should not forget the source of light while painting the shadows. I carefully left a patch of non shadow area in between the trees. This added to the sense of depth. The tree shadow falling on the road in the foreground pushes the rest of the stuff ‘behind’, further adding to depth. The tree which is not in the field of painting but casting its shadow adds drama to the painting.

After I framed the painting I felt that adding few birds could have been better. I must add that absence of ‘life’ better depicts winter. So maybe this is just fine 🙂

Hope you learnt a couple of techniques and principles reading this post. Happy painting,