w.

How to Analyze, Identify, and

Develop Your Style
By Carl Schmalz
as

SSL

p^fl

i
I- $16.95

Witercolor
\burWky By Carl Schmalz
Disc? ter your own watercolor style, build on
your unique strengths as a painter, and learn to
i
watercolors in your own way
Noted watercolorist Carl Schmalz, author of
Watercolor Your Way, offers a practical self-
eva'uation program for discovering and devel-
oping your style in watercolor—for being original
an^ for being you! Twentv chapters each pose a
—
q .estion which S"- cuz calls a "critical con-
cern"—that you should ask yourself to help you
analyze your paintings objectively. The answers
to these questions might dramatically change
your watercolors.
Are you predominantly a stroke or a wash
painter? Is the usual light-to-dark procedure
(normally considered essential to transparent
watercolor) helping or hindering you? Are you
using paint textures for the greatest possible vis-
ual interest? Are "rules" of good composition
getting your way 7 Are you getting the most out
in

of your color mixtures? Does your lighting create

order,emphasize mood, and amplify color, tex-
ture,and compositional unity? Are you selecting
subjects freely and deliberately, or are you trap-
ped by habit. Are you being imaginative in your
choice of the size and shape of your paintings?
Are you varying the spatial arrangements in your
paintings. Are you optimizing the use of trans-
parent and opaque pigment? Are you exploiting
contrasts effectively? Critical questions such as
these guide you through this book.
In each chapter, the author clearly defines the
"critical concern", analyzes paintings by lead-
ing American watercolorists, which either exem-
plify the problem or solve and then proposes
it;

stimulating painting exercises or self-evaluation

projects to help you discover and develop your
style. Here are just these challenging
a few of
exercises. Paint three small paintings: one using
only washes, another using only strokes, and fi-
nally a combination of strokes and washes. List
all the colors in your palette to see how bal-

anced is and what it reveals about your per-

it

sonal preferences. Stand your paintings in front

of you and see how they "read" from three dif-
ferent viewing distances Create unusual tex-
tures with unusual tools such as sponges, sand,
cheesecloth, toothbrush, leaves Number the
s on a few of your paintings to see if the
overall pattern is habitually the same or if you

are adapting your values to the special require-

ments of each subject. On a new sheet of paper,
translate a scene you've painted outdoors in di-
rect light into a scene illuminated by moonlight.
you are ready to increase your creativity and
If

as a watercolorist, Watercolor Your

originality
Way is the book that can help you make that
"breakthrough.

152 pages. 8Va" x 11" (21 x 28 cm). 24 pages of

color. 120 black-and-white illustrations. Bibli-
ography. Index.

WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS
BOSTON
PUBLIC
LIBRARY
Witercolor
\bur\fey
Witercolor
Y)urWw
By Carl Schmalz

WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS/NEW YORK

PITMAN PUBLISHING/LONDON
To my mother and father
OCT 1378

W 9420
m
Edited by Connie Buckley
Designed by Bob Fillie

Copyright © 1978 by Watson-Guptill Publications

First published 1978 in the United States and Canada by Watson-Guptill Publications,
a division ot Billboard Publications, Inc.,

1515 Broadway, New York, NY 10036

Published in Great Britain by Pitman Publishing Ltd.,

39 Parker Street, London WC2B 5PB

ISBN 0-273-01207

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Schmalz, Carl.
Watercolor your way.
Bibliography: p.

Includes index.
1. Water-color painting —Technique. I. Title.

ND2420.S36 1978 751.422 78-644

ISBN 0-8230-5686-6

All rights reserved. No may be

part of this publication
reproduced or used any form or by any means graphic,
in —
electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
taping, or information storage and retrieval systems
without written permission of the publishers.

Manufactured in U.S.A.

First Printing, 1978

 Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6

INTRODUCTION 7

CHAPTER 1. THE "EASY" PICTURE 1

CHAPTER 2. STROKE AND WASH 17

CHAPTER 3. EDGES AND RESERVED LIGHTS 25

CHAPTER 4. PAINT TEXTURE 33

CHAPTER 5. DESIGNING FROM THE CENTER 41

CHAPTER 6. USING SIMILARITY 47

CHAPTER 7. EXPLOITING CONTRAST 53

CHAPTER 8. THREE VIEWING DISTANCES 59

CHAPTER 9. KNOWING YOUR PALETTE 63

CHAPTER 10. TRANSPARENT AND OPAQUE 71

CHAPTER 11. COLOR MIXING 79

CHAPTER 12. COLOR DESIGX 89

CHAPTER 13. LIGHTING 95

CHAPTER 14. COLORED LIGHT 103

CHAPTER 15. DRAWIXG, PATTERX, AND DARKS 109

CHAPTER 16. COHERENCE WITHOUT LIGHT 117

CHAPTER 17. SUBJECT SELECTION 123

CHAPTER 18. FOCAL DISTANCE AND SPACE 129

CHAPTER 19. PAPER SIZE AND SHAPE 139

CHAPTER 20. PAINTING YOUR WAY 145

BIBLIOGRAPHY 150

INDEX 151

CONTEXTS 5
Acknowledgments
No book is written, perhaps no gether with a few fine examples decade and a half. Equally, I sa-
human achievement is accom- from the past. I have also tried to lute Susan E. Mever, Editor of
plished, except by building on include as manv paintings as pos- American Artist magazine. She per-
the works of others. This book sible by people from all parts of mitted me to use the collected
owes, hrst, a great debt to the this country, paintings bv both photographs in her files, manv of
lateProfessor Arthur Pope of women and men, and bv people which appear in this book. I am
Harvard University and his pre- of different races, backgrounds, especially indebted to Robert E.
decessor Professor Denman Ross. and different degrees of fame. I Kingman, Amherst College pho-
It also is based on the special feel only partially successful in tographer, who is responsible for
knowledge and pedagogical gifts this, although I believe that the all black-and-white photographs
of Professor James M. Carpenter variety of illustrations achieved is not otherwise credited, and to
of Colby College as well as many still unusual. David Stansburv, whose skill and
others of my teachers and col- I am deeply obliged to manv care produced the color photo-
leagues. people for the illustrations that graphs that are not individually
have tried, in an abbreviated
I appear here. Owners, artists, acknowledged.
and sometimes awkward way, to dealers, and museum staffs were Finally, I owe an obligation to
adapt what I learned from Pro- particularly helpful. Among Professor Joel M. Upton of
fessors Pope and Carpenter them, I single out the staffs of Amherst College, whose critical

about the great art of the world the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, reading of my text aided and sus-
to the special nature of trans- the Fogg Museum, the Bowdoin tained me; to his wife, Sara \\

parent watercolor in America. I College Museum, and Colbv Col- Upton, who tvped it; to my wife,
trust that what 1 have said will be lege Museum. I am particularly who not only made the initial

useful. It is not, however, all that
either of those distinguished
mentors could have said.
A book of this sort requires il-
lustrations. I have tried to
present a good cross-section of
contemporary watercolors, to-
grateful to Dr. William C. Land- typescript but protected me from
wehr, Director of the Springfield unnecessary intrusion and bore
Art Museum in Springfield. Mis- with me through the long days of
souri,who lent me a wealth of labor; and to all of my students
photographs of works awarded from whom I learned something
purchase prizes in the splendid of how to talk about these matters.
Watercolor U.S.A. Exhibitions
run bv that institution for the last

6 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAV

 Introduction

There are many excellent books their presentation, not because mary aim of this book.
that introduce the beginner to they cannot paint well, but be- Way is based on
Watercolor Your
transparent watercolor painting, cause they cannot judge their two fundamental assumptions.
but few that deal with concerns work well. The first is that quality in paint-
encountered by painters at the How do
you select a group of ing is not basically a matter of
intermediate level. This book ad- pictures with which to introduce "beauty" or even "meaning," for
dresses some of those concerns. yourself to a gallery owner or neither can exist without order.
Although it is directed primarily dealer? Here you want to
again, Just as a statement in language or
to those of you who have had show only the very best. As with numbers must be appropriately
some experience with watercolor, choosing pictures for an exhibi- structured to be comprehensible,
I hope that it may prove helpful tion, it is —the
wise to get help so a painting must be structurally
to beginners and more advanced most expert you can find — but ordered in ways appropriate to
painters as well. often, and finally, the decisions visual language. There is no hard
Once vou have acquired basic must be your own. and fast grammar of visual lan-
skills in watercolor, vour primarv The last reason for learning to guage, as every painting repre-
need becomes regular, informed your own work is the
criticize sents a dialect of its own.
criticism. Except in certain areas most of all: painting is not a
vital Nevertheless, artists develop indi-
of our countrv, this can be diffi- mechanical affair; it is a human vidual dialects that they use with
cult to find; in many places there event. As you put paint on your slight variations in all of their
are few watercolorists. Les-
still paper, you constantly assess your mature work; hence, just as we
sons and workshops arranged bv progress, are alert to new possi- say that Madame B ovary is written
art societies, galleries, and muse- bilities, and are wary of things in —indeed, "in" Flau-
French
ums are extremely valuable, but that require change or refine- bert —we can say that the Polish
usually less frequent than one ment. You make continuous criti- Rider is painted "in" Rembrandt.
would wish, and not evervone has caljudgments. For an artist, mak- Pictorial order is created by the
the time or money for painting ing and judging are aspects of interplay among the artist, his

trips that would introduce him or the same process. Learning to see subject, and his materials. It is

herto new experts. pictures with some sophistication recognizable as what I will call

Were these the only reasons to is, therefore, just as central to here pictorial coherence or integ-
indicate the importance of learn- your task as is learning to paint rity —the wholeness and consis-
ing to criticize vour own work with competence and facility. tency that result from a marriage
they would be sufficient. But This book differs from most of singleness of vision (whether
there are other reasons, too. How how-to-do-it books because it tries trivial or profound) and well-
often have you attended a solo principally to answer questions used materials.
exhibition and wondered at the about how to see pictures, rather When you make a painting,
variation in the quality of the than how to make them. But you do a very special thing: you
works shown? Too few artists are since seeing and making are make a completely newborn
able to make the solid, ruthless interwoven in the act of painting, world. Like a god, you create it.
judgments that produce a really the questions related to both be- You alone are responsible for its

fine, high-level show. Artists mav come entangled at some points. life and which is why that
laws,
include a weaker work because Nevertheless, helping you to see white sheet can be so frightening.
thev "like something about it" —
pictures especially your own The order of your painted world
and thus diminish the qualitv of clearly and objectively is the pri- emerges from your response to

INTRODUCTION 7
 the world you experience, trans-
lated by your vision and skill into
the terms watercolor paint will
permit.When you are finished,
you have made a personal state-
ment about your understanding
of the human experience. This
statement reflects your strengths
and weaknesses, your sympathies
and dislikes. All this you have to
accept, for it is a consequence of
the responsibility you took on
when you gave life and order to
the blank paper.
This "world" you make must
be coherent: that is our first as-
sumption.
The second assumption is that
you can best grow as an artist by
building on your strengths rather
than concentrating on your weak-
nesses. I do not mean that you
can or should ignore your weak-
Perhaps an old dog can learn new tricks! This demonstration focused on nesses; but because they are,
reserving small lights to indicate die Queen Anne's Lace in front of the shack. in general, easier to see than
Apart from that, it is basically an "easy" picture, a tvpe which I describe in strengths, it is tempting to focus
Chapter 1. Photo by Alice Moulton.
on them. Unfortunately, this may
mean you overlook your
that
strengths, and that is folly, since
it is chiefly in what you do best

that you can most easily see your-

self as a painting personality.
Weaknesses, especially if you
have not been painting very long,
are more apt to be gaps than
flaws in your persona as a painter,
and you can't begin to find your
personality as a painter by look-
ing at gaps. In the chapters that
follow, therefore, even though I

will talk about faults often

enough, I want you to remind
vourself constantly to see faults in
the context of what you are
doing well.

How to Use This Book

Since this book is primarily about
how and most especially
to see,
about how you see and work,
there is no special list of materi-
Shack at Biddeford Pool by Carl Schmalz, 1974, 15" x 21" (38 x 53 cm), 140 als. W hat we
7
are interested in are
lb. hot pressed paper, collection of the author. Color variation helps to articu- your working habits, your subject
late the sky in this painting. Without it, pictorial coherence would be jeopard- selection, your palette, and your
ized, for the intricacy of the foreground flowers and weeds might be too
way of producing coherent pic-
different from the sky, making them appear to belong to quite distinct picture
tures.
worlds. I made the technical process easier for mvself in this picture bv paint-
ing a basic wash on both buildings and reserving the trim when I set in the This is an introduction to criti-
color for shingles, windows, and shadows. cism, not to painting itself. The

8 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

onlv thing you need, therefore. want to include more. Ideally lotof hours examining these
apart from some of the things these pictures will represent a picturesfrom many points of
listed on page 39 in Chapter 4. is total cross section of your work. view. Few mav come through the
vour usual gear. Among other The group mav include a few scrutiny unharmed: don't make
things, you are going to look pictures done as long as fiye or the results any harder on your-
through Your materials and ask six. even ten. years ago. but it self than you must. Put your best
Yourself why you haYe them and would be best if most of them pictures into your collection.
what theY will do. w ere done during the last couple One more word of caution
The principal thing you will do of \ears. fifteen pictures is the top limit.

is look hard and analytically at They should be varied. Include More than that will prolong your
your own work. Select from your all possible shapes, sizes, subjects exercises beyond tolerance and
work twehe to fifteen pictures, and treatments. But don't include clutter \our analysis beyond use-
although as few as eight will be anything you feel is not quite fulness.
sufficient if you can't or don't good. You are going to spend a

Simplon Pass: Mountain Brook bv John Singer Sargent. 14" x 20" (36 x 51
cm), courtesv Museum of Fine Arts. Boston. Sargent's painting is based on
strokes of essentially similar size and shape. He differentiates them to en-
hance the description of rocks, shrubbery, and water, but pictorial coherence
is so strong that in black and white it is difficult at first to make out the

watercolorist at work at center right.

INTRODUCTION 9
 Figun 1

Morning Fog. b) Carl Schmalz, 1969, 124" x 21f (32 x 55 cm), 140 lb. rough
paper, collection of the author. The easy progression of values from light to
dark, background to foreground is especially evident in a black-and-white
illustration: but without the pla\ of yellow and violet, and red. green, and
blue in the more distant objects, the dark boat at lower right demands too
much attention, creating disequilibrium in the design. Photograph bv David
Stansbury.

10 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAV


Is the light-to-dark
painting procedure,
essential to transparent
watercolor, helping or
hindering you?
Critical Concern
You may find the title of this
chapter misleading, since no
good watercolor is really "easy."
Yetin some transparent water-
colors, the relationship between
technique and representation
so close that it creates an effect of
and economy.
great simplicity
As commonly defined, a trans-
parent watercolor is one in which
no opaque white pigment is used.
Rather than whites or lights
being added as positive, active
marks that cover darks, all light
tones depend on the white paper
and the pale-valued areas being
reserved, or This
left visible.
means you must normally paint
the lighter colors in vour picture
before you applv the darker
areas that abut, overlap, or sur-
round the lighter ones. In other
words, the transparent nature of
your paint dictates the sequence
in which you paint the various
parts of your picture. You might
prefer to paint your picture in a
particular sequence but be forced
to alter this sequence because of
the technical requirements of
transparent watercolor. For ex-
ample, you may not be able to
CHAPTER 1
1 he easy
Picture
concentrate first on the central Illustrations
features of your picture if they Morning Fog (figure 1) is an ex-
are dark. There are some obvious ample of an "easy" picture. I be-
advantages to procedure, of
this gan this painting with a sky wash
course; among them is an obliga- in which wet blended brushloads
tion to work the paper all over so of orange-violet streaked the
that you keep the entire surface area, suggesting veils of drifting
in mind from start to finish. Nev- fog. When this lightest and most
ertheless, the naturalsequence of distant tone was dry, I added the
your creative responses must fre- shoreline to the right. While it
quently be ignored because you was still wet, I lifted out a few
must always place a light on the strokes with a wrung-out brush to
paper before you add a dark suggest wisps of fog. The silhou-
next to it. etted boatsand their reflections
There however, situations
are, went in next in the middle-
in which the process of painting ground, and then I put in the
is from light to dark is admirably slightly darker, warm grays of the
suited to your subject. This is wharf and shack to the left. In
true when you are painting the same drying time, I added
darker foreground objects against some slightly darker tones, re-
a lighter background, and it oc- serving the pilings and ladders,
curs often when your subject is in and painted the greenish reflec-
indirect light (see Chapter 13), tion of the dock. Last, I set the
such as in fog or on an overcast lobster boat and its reflection in
day. In such cases, the need for the foreground. I had to wait for
reserved lights is greatly reduced, these colors to dry before paint-
and the painting sequence follows ing the darkest values in the
the spatial "logic" of the subject. painting —the boat's interior,
Itbecomes easiest to lay down portholes, and other descriptive
your distant, pale tones first and details.
your near, dark tones last. There are two aspects of this
You still do not generally have procedure that bear thinking
the choice (as does the oil about. One purely technical fac-
painter) of painting your center tor is that direct light-to-dark
of interest first, but you can painting generally yields the divi-
achieve a natural pictorial co- dend of fewer and more easily
herence because the order in organized drving times. Morning
which you paint corresponds to Fog required only three drying
the order of the spatial planes. periods. The other point is that
This is the "easy" picture for you the light-to-dark painting se-
and for the viewer, who responds quence corresponds almost ex-
appreciatively to the ease with actly to the sequential process bv
which the picture is organized. which the illusion of space is es-
THE "EASY" PICTURE 11
 tablished in the painting. Paint-
ing from background to fore-
ground creates both a technical
and representational order that is

immediately (if subconsciously)

perceived by the viewer.
In practice, of course, most
"easy" pictures are not quite that
simple. Look at Above Lexington
Ave. (figure 2) by Eliot O'Hara.
Like Morning Fog, it is proce-
durally uncomplicated. The sky
wash went on first at the top of
the page, and before it dried, the
light washes of the buildings at
center and right were added
against the still dry white paper.
When the light washes were quite
drv, middle values were added in
the nearer buildings. Up to this
point, except for the reserved
steam, this is an "easy" picture.

But the middle-value buildings at

left, which set off the central

tower, as well as the middle-value

structures in the foreground, in-
terrupt the backward-to-forward,
light-to-dark movements. Even
so, we feel the economy of tech-
nique and the clarity of space in
this painting. Note also that the
drying times cannot have ex-
ceeded four, including the dark-
est accents. O'Hara was able to
apply his paint in a fairly sus-
tained rhythm and to think over
his next steps between applica-
tions of paint.
Despite the fact that the paint-
» .' '
-^ ing procedure is not perfectly
"pure," the picture projects a
Figure 2 satisfying simplicity that stems
Above Lexington Ave. by O'Hara, 1931, 2 If x 14f (55 x 37 cm), 90 lb.
Eliot
largely from the viewer's sense of
rough paper, courtesy O'Hara Picture Trust. Notice that here O'Hara usu- — the logical link between the tech-
ally so attentive to consistency of light effects —
uses darks arbitrarily to clarify
nical means and the pictorial
spatial relationships. At of the buildings are shadowed,
right, the left sides
while at the bottom, their left sides are lighter. A few pale "seams" at the illusion. As in Morning Fog (figure
edges of the building washes help to create a feeling of rainy wetness. 1), or William Preston's lucid
Snowbound (figure 3), the ob-
server feels and appreciates the
way in which the subject has been
translated into terms appropriate
to the process of transparent
watercolor.

Exercises
The essential problem posed by
thischapter can be divided into
two parts; the first is more or less

12 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

mechanical, the second is more
begin bv dealing
critical. Let's

with the mechanical part.

Get out the fifteen or so paint-
ings vou selected after vou read
the Introduction. Setthem up
where vou can see and compare
them easilv. Make yourself com-
fortable and. looking thought-
fully at your work, ask yourself
the following questions.
r-M,
1.Are any of these paintings
pure "easy" pictures? None of
fWW**
them ma\ be. In that case, are
-

any of them modified 'easy' pic-

tures, such as O'Hara's Above
Lexington Ave.} Look carefully
and your exact paint-
try to recall
ing procedure as you mull oyer
these questions. If there are three
or four such pictures among the
group, you are probably employ- Figure 3
ing transparent watercolor Snowbound, bv William Preston. 1969. 21" x 28" (53 x 71 cm), courtesy Shore
economically and effectively. and
Gallery. Boston. Preston reserved the snow-covered roofs of the buildings

On the other hand, there are

the window frames and trim on the barn. He accented the house with dark
trees behind it. but otherwise, this is a fairlv straightforward light-to-dark/
obviously a host of reasons why background-to-foreground painting. The procedure is especially evident in
vou mav have no "easv" pictures the trees at left. Photo bv George M. Cushing.
in your studv collection: for ex-
ample, vour subject preference
mav preclude this tvpe of han-
dling. important to recognize
It is

these reasons so vou can ask

yourself whether thev are valid,
given your artistic aims. For in-
stance, ifvou work in a highly
detailed fashion and think this

&£ MJ
makes the light-to-dark pro-
cedure impossible or undesirable,
consider Loring W. Coleman's
Quiet Afternoon (figure 4). Cole-
man faithfully records architec-
**
tural details and nuances of light, \
but the ease of the process is still
felt by the observer. Also note

the relatively few and simple re-

served lights.
Before vou go on to try to
specify why vou have no "easv" .
•

pictures among vour studv paint-

ings, it mav be helpful for vou to
make one. You can do this bv
adapting one of the pictures you
are looking at. Simplv get out a
fresh sheet of paper: draw in the
main areas broadlv: imagine that
the entire scene is in thick fog:
and then paint from light to
f
Figure 4
Quiet Afternoon, bv Loring W. Coleman. A. W. S.. 1974. 7f x llf (20 x 29
an), courtesy Shore Gallerv. Boston. This small picture is packed with telling
detail, vet it gives no impression of having been tedious to paint. This is
partly because the reserved areas were so well planned. The painting hardlv
qualifies as an "easv" picture, of course, because the background trees are
among the darkest elements in the picture. But within each spatial plane
Coleman uses the light-to-dark logic to create spatial clarity.

THE EASY' PICTURE 13

dark, background to foreground. generally to work from the mid- a scale of 1 to 9 (see Chapter 9)
Increase intensities and value dle values toward both light and or 1 Chapter 2 in
to 10 (see my
contrasts as you come forward dark. The overall value pattern book Watercolor Lessons from Eliot
(see Chapter 9 for a discussion of begins to emerge early and can O'Hara, Watson-Guptill, 1974).
intensities and values). The re- be developed along with the re- These numbers go right on the
sulting image may not look like presentation. In oil painting, drawing just before you start to
your usual painting, but it will since lights are more opaque than paint; they serve the double pur-
give you an eye-hand under- darks, they can usually be placed pose of reminding you to study
standing of the simplicity of this adjacent to darks more satisfac- your value relations carefully
process, its utility, and the tech- torilythan the other way around. while providing a ready reference
nical/pictorial coherence it pro- If you are not normally working during the painting process. You
duces. from light to dark in watercolor, can remove the most obvious
Now let's continue asking some it may be because you feel un- numbers later with a soft eraser.
further questions. comfortable about carrying your
3. Do your pictures seem to
picture forward —past the half-
include a large number of
2. Do you normally work light to —
way point without clear signs of
lapped or blurred edges?
over-

dark, if only in certain sections of the emerging value pattern.

The presence of many edges of
your picture? There are several common
this sort can give an appearance
A "no" to this question almost ways to deal with this problem.
of awkwardness to a picture and
certainly means that you are not Many watercolorists habitually
usually indicates insufficient
availing yourself of the simplest make one or more value sketches
attention to the light-to-dark pro-
transparent watercolor proce- before beginning their actual
cedure. A darker area can over-
dure —and you may be making painting (figure This might be
5).
lap a paler one with little sign of
the technical part of painting a a good practice for you as well.
the double edge, but a light value
good deal more difficult for You can also plan to set in one or
set next to a medium or dark one
yourself than necessary. two small darks relatively early in
will frequently show the "seam"
The most common reason for the painting to help you gauge
or blur the edge by picking up
not working light to dark is an your final value range. Another
some of the dark. We will discuss
artist's greater familiarity with the good cure for those "value
such seams further in Chapter 3.
opaque media, usually oil. In shakes" is to number the broad
opaque painting, the procedure is value areas from light to dark on 4. Do your pictures reveal that
you often resort to washing or
sponging out, scraping, sanding,
erasing, or other devices for
lightening areas after your work
is "complete"?
Excessive use of these perfectly
legitimate techniques is usually a
sign of value problems. Once
again, you may be failing to ap-
preciate the effectiveness of the
light-to-dark painting procedure.
These first four questions —
and
their answers — will give you a
pretty clear idea as to whether
the absence of "easy" pictures
among your works is a result of
some rational decision on your
part or a consequence of one or
more technical problems. Paint-
ing an "easy" picture as suggested
Figure 5 at the end of exercise 1 should
Sketch for Kitchen EH. bv Cad Schmalz, 1970, 5" x 7" (13 x 18 cm), collection also show you why the easiest
of the author. A simple notation from the sketch book I always carry with me, technical procedure can help you
thisserved not only as a memory aid, but also as an initial value plan. Al-
produce a painting that impresses
though I sketched the idea as a horizontal, in painting Kitchen Ell (figure 32) I

chose to emphasize verticality and to focus in much closer so that I could the viewer with its sureness and
make the ell window the prominent center of the picture (see the discussion grace — for the appearance of
in Chapter 5). Photograph by David Stansbury. hesitation and insecurity destroys

14 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAV

anv picture. Now look again at
your collection of paintings and
ask yourself these different,
though related, questions.

5. Do anv of your pictures ex-

ploit, even to some limited
extent, the inherent correspon-
dence between the light-to-dark
painting procedure and the spa-
tial planes in nature —lighter
tones in the distance, darker ones
in the foreground? If so, how
manv pictures, and which ones?
You will probably find that vou
have organized specific areas in
some of your paintings according
to the light-to-dark principle. In 40** :

O'Hara's Oregon Shore (figure 6),

for example, the entire area be-
hind the big rock is structured on
Figure 6
this principle. In front of the Oregon Shore bv Eliot OHara. 1962. 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), smooth paper.
rock, however, the lights and Here 0*Hara treats surf and rocks very broadlv, accenting the vigorous move-
darks are frequently reversed. ment of the water in contrast to the solid, immovable character of the rocks.
Lights are needed in the foam, The distance behind the central rock is organized bv the light-to-dark'back-

and the dark strokes low on the ground-to-foreground principle. Nearer than the rock, light and dark are
needed to create the contrasts that produce visual excitement suggesting mo-
center rock define the slope of
tion. Photo bv W'oltz.
the wave. In the eddving surf it-

self, lights and darks are em- This chapter considers only one look anemic, as though it could

ploved largely to create linear aspect of this complex matter, never come to a strong and
patterns suggesting the water's unique —
but essential to trans-— healthv maturity. Have faith in
movement. parent watercolor. The light-to- the procedure —and in vourself
dark procedure can vield an al- and remind yourself that you will
6. Where vou have used the light- most automatic correspondence introduce some stronger darks
to-dark procedure, were vou con- between the painting sequence soon! Also try to avoid this situa-
sciously taking advantage of its
and the spatial illusion of the fin- tion by making preliminarv value
technical ease and the pictorial ished picture. We have also sketches, by introducing a few-
coherence it creates? observed that this orderly corre- darks deliberately out of se-
You may have been unaware of spondence, or basic coherence, is quence, and bv numbering your
what vou were doing, but you normallv achieved onlv when values.
have probablv achieved a sense of particular subjects are repre- In any case, you can increase
ease and coherence in these sec- sented. In its purest form, the the pictorial coherence in your
tions of your picture anvhow As .
method is unsuitable for many work bv thinking through your
we shall see. it is often in those watercolors. Nevertheless, it can painting sequence before you set
parts of a picture vou painted be emploved in parts of most pic- brush to paper. Keep the follow-
you can dis-
least consciously that tures. Its use will contribute both ing aims in mind as you do so:
cover vour most personal tend- —
coherence and because it is the (1) wherever possible, reduce the
encies as an artist. "natural" way to applv trans- complexitv of the painting pro-
—
parent watercolor an air of ease cedure; (2) minimize the number
Summary and sureness to a painting. of drving times; (3) avoid awk-
This chapter has introduced the The light-to-dark procedure ward edges, so far as you can. bv
basic problem addressed bv this has a drawback that may have eliminating the need to juxtapose
book: what are the simplest ways dissuaded you from using it. It lighter tones against darker ones
to integrate your technique with seems to prevent early realization already on the paper; and (4) in-
your subject to realize a coherent of your picture's value pattern. clude reserved lights in your
statement of vour expressive aim? The half-done picture tends to light-to-dark plan.

THE "EASY" PICTURE 15


Figure 7 (top)
Stonehenge by Carl Schmalz, 1965, 10" x 22" (25 x 56
cm), 140 lb. rough paper, collection of the author. In a
stroke painting, surface coherence results from a consis-
tent use of visible brush strokes all over the paper. The
sizeof the strokes should normallv fall within some ac-
ceptable range. Here I used fairlv large strokes in the sky
—
and distant grass relatively unimportant to the repre-
sented subject. Smaller, more descriptive strokes call
attention to the stones and accent the foreground.
16 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY
.
Figure 8 (above)
Dusk, Stonehenge by Eliot OHara, 1968, 22" x 30" (56 x
76 cm), 300 lb. rough paper, courtesy O'Hara Picture
Trust. The surface coherence of this picture is based on
—
washes large ones in the sky and foreground and
smaller ones in the megaliths. Where the effect of a
stroke surface can be almost architectural, the wash effect
is subtle and flowing. Photo bv Woltz.
 CHAPTER 2

Stroke and
Wash
watercolorist's vocabulary, of and washes, or (4) in some or-
Are you clear about the course, but it may alsoencourage derly gradation or sequence of
the unwary artist to mix the two strokes and washes. The fourth
two chief ways to apply methods in a way so disorderly as method is most commonly

transparent watercolor to reduce pictorial coherence. It chosen, as it permits the greatest

important to know how this
and how these may is flexibility. It is also, of course, the
can happen. one that invites most surface in-
contribute to pictorial Because a painting is a created consistency, since it requires the
coherence? thing, it must exhibit not only the most self-aware monitoring.
order imposed by the artist's
mind, but an order that results Illustrations
Critical Concern from the materials he or she The two pictures of Stonehenge
A brush makes a mark that we uses. As we saw in Chapter 1, (figures 7 and 8) differ in many
name for the act that produced some of this order can stem di- respects, but each depends for its
it: a stroke. Paintings have always rectly from the nature of the unity of surface on one of the
been built up through an accu- materials and the procedures first two options for paint appli-

mulation of strokes; this has been they demand. But some of it can cation just described.My painting
true of most watercolors, as well also be a function of the mechan- isalmost entirely done by the
as works in fresco, tempera, and ics of applying the paint, which stroke method, while Eliot
oil. But transparent watercolor we recognize as the artist's "hand- O'Hara's is almost exclusively a
again differs from other media in —
writing" the very root of style. wash painting.
its capacity to flow over a surface, Indeed, it is through the basic or- For Stonehenge (figure 7) I se-
creating the effect called a wash. dering of materials that we recog- lected a smooth, hard-surface
We can define a stroke as the re- nize individual styles and are paper because it retains the direc-
sultof your control over the made aware of an artist's special tion and movement of each
brush, whereas a wash is the re- message. individual stroke. The sense of
sult of your control over the In Chapter 1 we saw that a pic- the brushstroke is visible even in
medium. ture can be tightly organized the sky and grass, where the
Although the wash is distinctive when the sequence of paint ap- paint handling comes closest to
to transparent watercolor, only a plication corresponds to the washes. The picture fully reveals
few major artists have used sequence of objects in space. Se- the interlocking strokes of which
washes as their primary tech- quence, therefore, may be termed the image and the paint surface
nique. Except in the hands of a a pictorial ordering principle. are made. Through this easily
genuine master, a picture made In transparent watercolor there perceived integrity of surface, as
exclusively of washes is apt to be are four fundamental ways of well as the unity of surface and
rather bland. Nearly all water- ordering paint application to image, you can grasp both the
colorists, however, incorporate achieve the surface organization wholeness of the world created
washes into their pictures, which necessary for pictorial coherence. by the artist and the magic of the
leads to opportunities and prob- You may apply the paint in the making.
lems particular to the medium. following ways: (1) exclusively in Dusk, Stojiehenge (figure 8) is

The availability of two different washes, (2) exclusively in strokes, painted on rough paper. The
modes of paint application (3) inan approximately equal paper's depressions retain water
strokes and washes —enriches the and regular mixture of strokes and allow the pigments to flow

STROKE AND WASH 17

 •''
-^ more freely into each other dur-
ing the extended time made
available by slower drying.
O'Hara maintains a consistent
surface by treating the monoliths
themselves as washes, smaller in
scale than those that define the
skv and ground. Rather than
building the stones with indi-
vidual brushstrokes, asI did, he

permits most colors within the

stones to merge into each other.
The dark strokes that indicate
hedgerows in the background are
kept broad and undetailed; thev
do not interfere with his unified
surface. O'Hara's world, too,
seems whole and complete, al-
though the total statement is very
different from mine.
These two examples should not
mislead you into thinking that a
stroke painting must be relatively
"tight" and a wash painting rela-
Figure 9
Up for Repairs by Domenic DiStefano, 1974. 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm), rough
c. tively "loose." Look at Up for
paper, collection of the Springfield Art Museum.
Springfield. Missouri. \\a- Repairs (figure 9), a bold, splashy
tercolor U.S.A. Purchase Award. 1974. A stroke painting need not be tight painting bv Domenic DiStefano
and detailed. Notice the breezy open character of this picture. Observe also
giving an impression of gener-
that in addition to keeping his strokes similar in size, DiStefano also tends to
keep them similar in shape and direction. This gives the picture surface a
osity and vitality; there is scarcely
strongly felt coherence. a washed area on the paper. In
contrast, DeWitt Hardy's Apple
and Five Leaves (figure 10) is done
entirely with washes, evoking a
sense of serene precision. Both
pictures display the surface con-
sistency that is so significant a
part of pictorial coherence.
A method frequently used to
integrate the stroke and the wash
is to intersperse them more or
less uniformly over the paper
surface. The End Hunt
of the (fig-

ure 11) illustrates Winslow

Homer's mastery of this type of
surface unity. He manages it
partly by using strokes to indicate
areas where the contours are
rather incidental, instead of
drawing descriptive shapes or
lines. At the top right, for in-
stance, generalized strokes
Figure 10 indicate clouds; in the fore-
Apple and Five Leaves bv DeWitt Hardv, 1975, 10" x 12" (25 x 30 cm) (sight). ground, the white ripples are
courtesv Frank Rehn Gallery, New York. This painting owes its delicacy pardy
separated by darker, broken
to linear precision and pardy to the uniformly soft merging of color typical of
strokes. The more distant water
washes. A strong sense of three-dimensionalitv is less important to Hardy
than clarity of two-dimensional pattern. The consistent handling of the and the background hillside are
washes, by its coherence, helps to emphasize this surface interest. Photo by composed of relatively large
Geoffrey Clements. washes that Homer manipulated

18 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

5S£-

while thev were wholly or par- Card's The Covey (figure 12), Figure 11

tially wet. Modulations of the where wet blending gradually de- The End of the Hunt bv Win slow
Homer. 1892. 15±" x 214" (39 x 55
yalues within these areas, es- creases from the picture's edges
cm), rough paper, courtesy Bowdoin
pecially the soft edges left bv toward the upper center. The College Museum of Art. Large wash
irregular drying, vary the washes weedy habitat of the birds is thus areas may be modified by playing
sufficiently to suggest foliage and played down; the quail blend with the drying time to create effects
similar to those produced by strokes.
reflections while preserying the with their landscape at the edges
Here, especially in the foliage at the
appearance of a worked surface. of the picture and are more visi-
right. \ou can see how Homer inter-
Because neither pure wash nor ble atits center. The gradual weaves genuine strokes and apparent
pure stroke appears in emphatic drying of the paper allowed the strokes that articulate his washes. In
form, the pictorial surface is both artist to increase descriptive detail addition, there is some use of
tightly knit and handsomely var- and to focus our attention by sequential organization as strokes be-
come clearer and more frequent in
ied. The world Homer creates is means of strokes.
the foreground.
coherent, full, and forceful. But wet blending is not the
Finally, you can achieve surface only way to obtain a coherent
consistency by utilizing some logi- surface by establishing a sequence
cal sequence from wash to from wash to stroke. Look back,
strokes. For example, vou might for instance, to my Stonehenge
treat all background areas with (figure 7). Although the skv is

washes, gradually using more painted wet-in-wet, I made sure

strokes as you develop the fore- that the brush marks remained
ground. This would establish a on the dried surface. Hence it is

logic in which wash means "dis- clear that the area is painted in
tant"and stroke means "near." strokes. But these strokes (like

Something similar to this occurs those in the grass) are much

when you paint wet-in-wet. An broader and less defined than
example is Judy Richardson those in the monoliths in the

STROKE AND WASH 19

 painting that is done all in

washes; one that is all in separate,

visually distinguishable strokes;
one in which washes and strokes
intermingle fairly equally over
the whole paper surface; and one
that moves from washes to
strokes as youwork from back-
ground to foreground. This will
give you examples of the four
primary methods of attaining
surface coherence in your own
"handwriting" and should make
it easier for you to identify your
personal preference. You will

probably feel more comfortable

working on one or another of
these small pictures, and you
should also be able to see which
exercise is most like the paintings
in your study collection.
When you think you have de-
fined your tendency toward a

Figure 12
particular mode of surface
The Covey by Judy Richardson Gard, c. 1973, 21" x 29" (53 x 74 cm), rough consistency, ask yourself the fur-
paper, collection of the Mercantile Bank of Springfield, Springfield. Missouri. ther questions listed below. These
Gard creates a coherent surface bv working with the natural order of diving. exercises will help you identify
Soft, broad strokes at the periphery of her picture give ua\ sequentially to
ways in which you may be realiz-
sharper, smaller, more descriptive ones in the birds at (enter. Added accents
ing surface coherence
of spatter help to keep the wetter parts of the surface visualh interesting.
incompletely. They will also sug-

gest how you can improve.

near foreground. So broader
strokes correspond to the areas
of lesser emphasis, while more
specialized and descriptive
strokes correspond to areas of
focus, creating the heart of the
subject.
Exercises
Now look again at your picture
collectionand think about your
surface consistency. How are you
achieving an orderly and coher-
ent surface, and how well are you
doing it?
1. Do your pictures demonstrate
any form of surface coherence?
If so, which method for obtaining
that coherence do you seem to
favor?
Consider these questions with
care. At first you may not be able
to identify your form of surface
consistency, and there may ap-
pear to be none at all. This
rarely the case. It is more
you are using one of the four
methods described, but realizing
it imperfectly. So look for a dom-
inance of (1) large and small
washes, (2) all-over strokes, (3)
uniform interweaving of strokes
and washes, or (4) a sequence or
gradation from wash to stroke (or
wet to dry).
If you have persistent difficulty
identifying the kind of surface
consistency you prefer, perhaps
you actually haven't any, or you
are just not sure what you are
supposed to be looking for. In
either case, it will be helpful for
you to try a small picture using
each method. It will take a little
time, but it be worth it.
will
Tear up some used paper (with
one clean side) into four quar-
ters, each about 11" x 15" (28 x 38
cm). From your paintings or
sketches select a subject that is
not too complex, something with
is mostly large areas. Using each of
likely your four sheets in turn, make
2. If you have found that you are
basically a wash painter, check
your pictures as follows:
Are you using wet-blended
areas for only one part of the
picture surface, such as the sky?
Since clouds, for example, are
"soft," it is easy to assume that
skies should be painted wet-in-
wet. Unless other parts of the
picture are also painted in this
fashion, however, your sky may
seem belong to a different
to
world from that of the rest of
your picture. Too great a differ-
ence in technique, especially if
the different technique corre-
sponds to a single represented
entity, can disrupt the surface
and reduce the sense of the pic-
ture's unity.
Do you habitually rely on
linear strokes for clarification
on leafless trees, for instance —or
to liven up your washed areas, as
a in rocks or bushes? A similar dis-

20 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

ruption of the surface can arise
from ill-digested linear accents.
In a basically wash-organized
picture, lines must either be scat-
tered generally over the surface
or be ordered so they build se-
quentially from related parts of
the picture to the place where
you need them. Many painters
who use the wash method of sur-
face organization avoid employ-
ing many lines.

3. If you lean toward the stroke

method of surface unification, try
the questions below.
Ask yourself the same question
that appears in question 2 above:
are you using wet blended areas
for just one part of the picture?
Then reread the comments in
that section. Also ask yourself
whether the sizes of your strokes
are consistently varied. That is, Figure 13
are you working with fairly broad Gentle Surf by Carl Schmalz, 1975, 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed
strokes all over your picture so paper, collection of the author. The focus of this picture is the cluster of
small strokes that suggest surf and ripples. I reserved similar shapes, some-
that smaller strokes, by contrast,
what negative strokes, in the sky so that it would not appear too different in
emphasize areas you intend to surface treatment from the rest of the painting.
point up?
It is not necessary to keep all

your strokes more or less the

same size, as Prendergast did
(color plate 4), but you should
work out some system for the
variations you adopt. For exam-
ple, in Gentle Surf (figure 13), all
the basic tones went on in broad
strokes, although I included con-
siderable variation in the sky and
rocks. was careful to reserve
I

some hard-edged lights in the sky

that resemble smaller, negative
strokes of approximately the
same shapes and sizes as those I
used to define both rocks and
water.
Always a hazard in transparent
watercolor, overpainting is es-
pecially tempting for the stroke
painter. Are you creating dead
spots that break the consistency
of your surface by overlaying too
many strokes, particularly in the
darker sections of your pictures? Figure 14
Winter Seas by James A. Elliott c. 1961, 21" x 29" (53 x 74 cm), rough paper,
It will be no news to you that
courtesy of the artist. In this picture Elliott organizes his surface in terms of
dead or muddy tones kill any evident strokes, though there is a slight move from background washes (the
part of the picture surface where skv and distant promontorv) toward foreground strokes. Snow-covered ledges
they occur. But perhaps you have in the immediate foreground are again treated quite broadlv. Photo bv Pierce.

STROKE AND WASH 21

 Figure 15
Force Nine James A. Elliott, c. 1963, 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm), rough paper,
courtesy Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Here Elliott modifies his usual
stroke method to express the surf's power. Wet blending obscures some
strokes in both the rocks and water. Areas throughout the picture surface
verge on washes. But surface coherence is maintained because the mixed
treatment occurs all over the paper. Photo by Pierce.

22 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

not thought of mud as a threat to your pictures; can you tell richness of choice can easily lead
surface coherence. Since the in- whether you are leaning toward a to too much variety of technique
of the illusion depends on
tegrity background-to-foreground or- in a picture, thereby weakening
coherence in the materials and ganization or a periphery-to- its surface coherence.
their use, muddy color is simply center system? Observe whether The four basic methods of
inappropriate use of transparent you seem to care about distance creating an organized surface
watercolor. and atmosphere; if so, you may dealt with in this chapter do not,
want to adopt the distance-to- of course, exhaust all the pos-
4. If you prefer to organize your
foreground system. If deep space They are meant, rather,
sibilities.
paintings by intermixing washes
is not one of your main concerns, to give you a handle on the prob-
and strokes, ask yourself these
then perhaps the periphery-to- lem, a sense of what surface
questions:
center organization is more use- coherence in watercolor involves,
Are you achieving a fairly even
ful for you. Try to decide which and a way of identifying it. You
distribution of washes and strokes
of these organizational patterns will probably find that like most
over the surface of the painting?
best fits your past work and your painters you have one fundamen-
If not, you may be slipping into
present interests and then decide tal method, although you vary
one of the other systems of sur-
where you are weak in executing that method to suit your subject
face coherence. In any case, you
the system. and your expressive needs in any
are risking the unity of the
For example, is your transition given picture.
method you are using.
from the washed background to But these variations are proba-
Do your washes and strokes
the strokes of the middleground you may
bly related. For instance,
vary a great deal in size? Har-
or foreground too abrupt? This find that you are a wash painter,
mony of size, within a reasonable
might create a disruption in the but that you sometimes need to
range, is usually necessary to sur-
order of your picture. Similarly, move toward wash and stroke.
face coherence when you inter-
a too abrupt transition from James A. Elliott is basically a
mix washes and strokes. A large
washed periphery to stroked cen- stroke painter, although he often
flat wash, for example, will look
tral focus can isolate the center tends to work wash-to-stroke/
unrelated to areas treated with
from the rest of your painting. background-to-foreground. His
wash and stroke together. That
Winter Seas (figure 14) is quite
same large area, modulated by
Summary true to the latter method. But
wet-blended variations or by
Consistency in the treatment of Force Nine (figure 15) required a
some defining strokes within it,
the painted surface is one of your vigorous intermingling of wash
will cohere with the rest of the
most important ways of achieving and stroke, with generous wet
surface, as in the sky in Stone-
pictorial coherence. Without such blending over all sections of the
henge (figure 7).
coherence, your visual statement paper. Elliott's personal stroke-
5. Finally, ask these questions if is hesitant, flawed, and in- touch remains visible throughout
you are inclined to order your complete. the surface, but strokes are sub-
picture surface by a gradation The major cause of surface in- ordinated to the free, open washes
from wash to stroke. consistency in transparent that help express the wild force
Do you have a gradation sys- watercolor arises out of the me- of the waves against the rocks.
tem? If not, you may be the type dium's very versatility the — You can expect similar varia-
of painter who works more natu- variety of ways you can apply tions in your own work, and now
rally with a different system — paint. Not only do you have the might be a good time to take one
more even distribution of strokes wash and stroke, but you can em- last look at your study collection.

and washes. On the other hand, ploy wet blending and many You will probably find some
your system may be right, but not other surface treatments ranging range of related surface organiza-
fully matured. Look again at from scraping to spattering. This tion methods.

STROKE AND WASH 23

 Figure 16
Bermuda by Andrew Wyeth, c. 1950, 21" x 29" (53 x 74 cm), courtesy Bow-
doin College Museum ol An. Gifl of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Etnier, in Mem-
ory of S. Foster Yancey, 1930. Wyeth creates surface coherence bv mixing
main types of edges almost equally over the paper. Blended edges, crisp
—
ones, rough ones all appear in each section of the picture, so that the ob-
server senses that all represented elements have been fully translated into the
special watercolor language of the individual artist. The few reserved lights
are skillfully done so that they also become a part of the pictorial world.

24 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY


Are razor-sharp edges,
unexpected edges, or
messy edges reducing
the surface coherence
of your paintings?
Critical Concern
Edges present problems to paint-
ers in all media, chiefly because
"there are no lines in nature."
We identify what we call dif-
ferent objects bv perceiving their
contours, but these are actually
only juxtapositions of color and
value that vary from sharp to
scarcely visible gradations. Our
drawing conventions, however,
render all these distinctions as
lines, and the conventions neces-
sarily carry over to painting, since
the marks brushes make have dis-
tinct edges unless the artist
deliberately modifies them.
For painters, then, the edge
problem is generally less one of
technique than one of either in-
sufficient observation or
inadequate thought. For the
transparent watercolorist,
however, edges can be especially
troublesome because of technical
complications. There is a poten-
tial for inconsistency in the
contrast between the sharp, dry
edges that watercolor seems to in-
vite at the borders of both strokes
and washes and the soft edges
that wet blending produces. Also,
there is a sneakv tendencv for the
Reserved Lights
edges of washes or a sequence of
brush marks to add up to a to-
tally unplanned linear element
that can often prove very difficult
to disguise or remove. Such un-
expected "lines" can alter your
composition and interfere with
both illusion and surface integ-
rity. Finally, there is the
overlapped or blurred edge al-
luded to in the last chapter. Any
of these can decrease surface co-
herence and cause the painting to
look botched and incompetent.
Let's think briefly about each
of these three problem areas.
Few watercolor effects are as en-
trancing as the soft, wet-in-wet
blending of color that is
cial tothe medium. But we
seldom recognize that the clean,
hard edge of a wash or stroke
laid on dry paper is equally char-
acteristic of watercolor. The
capacity of the fully charged
brush to form a precise, linear
edge, although enhanced by the
use of cold-pressed or hot-
pressed paper, is fully evident in
paintings on rough paper as well.
The problem, then, is that even
though both blurred and precise
edges are natural to watercolor,
they are extremely different visu-
ally. A coherent painting nor-
mally includes almost exclusively
—
one or the other or a fairly bal-
anced mixture of both (see color
plate 17, Nursery by Susan
Heidemann).
Unexpected edges or undesir-
able linear elements can occur in
all media. Thev are usuallv a
CHAPTER 3
Edges and
sult of an inclination to add more
of anything that looks good. Un-
fortunately, we generally do
almost the same thing the second,
third, or fourth time. In trans-
parent watercolor, unwanted
edges or lines slip in easily, es-
pecially as dark touches are
added in an attempt to enliven
potentially dead areas. A se-
quence of such darks can become
a fortuitous line if not carefully
controlled. When painting sea-
weed on a beach, for example, I
have to refrain quite consciously
from overaccenting a sand slope
with these "helpful" darks.
For the transparent watercolor-
so spe- ist,however, the worst edge
trouble arises directly from the
light-to-dark procedure and the
necessity of reserving lights. If
vou are not painting light to dark
and reserving you are ask-
lights,
ing for blurred edges. If you are
reserving lights, you know that
placing a deep dark against a
very pale tone poses few diffi-
culties because the coverage will
normally be complete; but with
middle tones you must plan in
order to avoid overlaps, for here
the darker of the two tones is
likely to be quite transparent and
result in an unwanted seam or
blur.
Illustrations
When we speak of edges that are
too sharp, we must speak rela-
tively. The plethora of sharp
edges in The Ell bv Lonng W.
re- Coleman (color plate 5), for ex-
EDGES AND RESERVED LIGHTS 25
 Figure 18 (right)
Flop bv Carl Schmalz, 1976, 11" x 8|"
(detail)
(28 x 22 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper. Here
I ruined an interesting painting by letting my-

self become overanxious. I wanted the cracks

to stand out and, in the process, made the
central crack in this detail into so powerful a
line that it stays on the paper surface instead
of King in the rock surface. Compare this
with the well handled cracks in Larrv Web-
ster's Quarry Fragment (figure 103).
Photograph bv David Stansbury.

, I

Figure 11 (above)
Flop by Carl Schmalz, 1975.
(detail)
12" x 19i" (30 x 50 cm) 140 lb. hot
pressed paper. Preoccupation with
sharp edges creates an overemphasis
on shapes in this non-picture. The
luminosity of the shed and cottage at
left is contradicted bv over-precise
detail in thehouse at right. There is
also aproblem in the lack of consis-
tency between the rather looselv
applied paint and the sharp edges of
the shapes that further diminishes
surface coherence. This paper is a
candidate for the trash can! Photo-
graph bv David Stansburv.

Figure 19
Hop (detail) by Carl Schmalz, 1974, 8f' x 11" (22 x 28 cm), 140 lb. rough
paper. This probablv was not going to be a painting anyway, but I made sure
of it bv losing interest and sticking in darks thoughtlesslv. Not onlv is there an
unpleasant line at the junction between ledge and shrubberv, but the shadow
darks among the lower rocks are also insensitive as well. Photograph by David
Stansburv.

26 \\ ATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

ample, fits consistently with his from the foliage above it. The modified form, for a major por-
entire picture surface, and the ar- "line" thus formed seems to exist tion of almost any painting.
chitectural detail of his subject on the surface independent of When vou mix the masking-fluid
lends itself to a wealth of descrip- light effect and illusion. procedure with the reserved-
tive edges. The obligation to paint from lights procedure you tend to lose
A from one of my fail-
detail light to dark means that many surface coherence. This is be-
ures, on the other hand, illus- light shapes must be "reserved"; cause the masking fluid goes on
trates how sharp edges can assist that is, we have to paint darks as a positive mark. Unless vou
in the destruction of a picture around them. This involves the modify the mark considerably
(figure 17). I was initially inter- contradiction of making active after you remove the masking
ested here in effects of reflected marks that often serve a passive product, you will leave an in-
light on the adjacent cottages. purpose. Where most positive congruous positive light among
That feeling is finally overpow- marks stand for themselves, the vour reserved lights. This is ex-
ered, however, bv an insistence function of these is to clarify and actly the problem with using
upon architectural clarity, which define a light. The other main opaque white, and the reason for
I tried to accomplish through ex- medium in which this "upside- avoiding it except in special cir-

cessive attention to contours — of down" thinking is required is, of cumstances. In short, unless you
buildings, their details, and shad- course, drawing (which mav be need very small lights for exam- —
ows. The pattern of shapes made why the English usually refer to ple, tiny flowers in a field or a
prominent bv these edges con- watercolors as "drawings" and glint of light along a wire or on
flicts with the light effect, dimin- mav further have contributed to —
an icicle vou will almost always
ishing the power of both. The the resistance, in some quarters, find it technically easier to re-
would-be-picture has a split per- to accept watercolors as paintings serve, for if you mask or use
sonality and fails as a coherent on a par with those in other opaque you will probably
white,
statement of either pattern or media). The need to reserve have to spend almost as much
light. lights calls for watercolorists to time fudging the marks to make
Although overemphasis on pre- think with special flexibility and a them appear reserved as you
cision of edges occurs frequently particular kind of planning. would have spent reserving them
in the architectural elements in a Let's orient ourselves by re- in the first place. There will al-
landscape, it can happen any- viewing a bit. We employ the ways be those special circum-
—
where in trees, clouds, and, of light-to-dark procedure because stances in which masking fluid or
course, rocks. Another of my at- the technical ease it allows opaque white may be the only
tempts flopped because of a rock emerges in the final picture as possible solution: in such a situa-
crack that is too sharp (figure 18). visibleorder (see Chapter 1). The tion, by all means use it. But be
Compare the central crack in this procedure is simple, and it cre- alert to how it may diminish the
detail with the one at the right. ates a natural coherence in the surface coherence of your paint-
Preoccupation with descriptive materials we are using. It follows ing, and be prepared to disguise
accuracy makes the edges of the that ifwe are to achieve the its use to restore that coherence.
center crack too dark and too vis- greatest economy of means, both A good illustration of superb
ible, so the crack fails to take its in the process of painting and in economy in reserving lights is
place within the more general the appearance of the final prod- Win slow Homer's famous Homo-
treatment of the rock face else- uct, we must anticipate the sassa River (color plate 6). Homer
where on the paper's surface. location and tone of our lights. always made a careful pencil
Faulty observation and technical In this way. we can let a surpris- drawing before he began to apply
overkill violate the coherence of ing number of lights do double his watercolor. He concentrated
the painted surface and destroy dutv, and we can also control the on the objects he wanted to
the pictorial illusion. kinds of edges we desire. stress, rarely setting down more
Unexpected edges, which are Before looking at some classi- than background notes. As a re-
generally lines or linear elements callymasterful examples of sult, the more distant areas in his
that appear bv accident, can be reserved lights, let's consider the watercolors are frequently "ad-
controlled simplv bv remaining question, "Why not use commer- libbed" and most clearly reveal
alert. You will find that thev most ciallv available masking fluid and economies. In this picture,
his
frequently appear as darks, often save all of this nonsense?" The Homer put in the grayed blue,
where vou are looking for answer is that sometimes you can still largely visible at the right,
shadow accents. An example is a do this very successfully, but after the skv dried. Observe how
detail (figure 19) in which I these times are the exception the value varies within itself from
thoughtlessly outlined the top of rather than the rule. You will be right to left. He used a very simi-
an exposed ledge with shadows using reserved lights, at least in lar value for the lighter tree

EDGES AND RESERVED LIGHTS 27

trunks, laying them over the
gray-blue. After some of the
lighter foliage had been added,
he began to model the trunks
and to darken their upper
lengths against the sky.
these darks were also used to
suggest other trunks and vines
against the lighter jungle back-
ground. Finally, this value
becomes darker at left where it
defines a palm trunk and masses
of Spanish moss. The
luxuriant growth, light,
tance achieved by the judicious
is
use of essentially three colors,
some doing double
Although the edges of these
colors are all sharp, notice
Homer uses a variety of edges in
the picture as a whole, including
rough brushing in the palm
fronds and reflection, wet blend-
ing in the background and water,
and a blotted-out light in the im-
mediate foreground. The
observer recognizes in this variety
an all-over ordering of edge
types consistent with Homer's
over balance of stroke and wash,
as discussed in Chapter
In Maine Still Life
7), I had many lights to reserve.
In fact, the entire picture was
tually painted "backwards" by
comparison with the "easy" pic-
ture. After a quick pencil
drawing, I painted the palest
tones of the lilies, stems, and
weeds. As the light-middle value
of the lobster pots went on next,
I reserved the previously painted
vegetation. This tone, which
liberately varied to give a sense
texture to the oak slats,
the part of the pots in shade as
well as in light. I turned then
the modeling and detail of the
lilies, finally setting in
darks, which I also
details in the lobster pots.
ever possible I let a lighter tone
run under the edge that the
darker surrounding colors would
overlap. This gave me almost
complete control over the edge I
wanted. Here I used sharp edges
almost exclusively, letting the
L'H \\ ATERCOLOR YOUR WAY
character of the smooth paper edges work for or against your
add to the visual crispness that pictorial interests?
unifies the surface. Concerning the second point,
we have already seen that edges
Exercises can help create visual emphasis
Some of There are two parts to these ex- or focus, both representationally
ercises, the criticism and — for and compositionally. In Judy
those of you who would like a bit Richardson Gard's The Covey (fig-
more practical thinking about ure 12), we observed how a
reserving lights —a painting sec- gradation from wash to stroke
tion. To begin, setup your focuses attention on the center
pictures and look at the way you birds.This can also be seen as a
effect of treat edges. gradation from softer to firmer
and dis- Ifyou are a wet-in-wet painter, edges.The same shift is com-
you have relatively few edges
will monly used to indicate a
to check, since most will be softly movement from far to near in
duty. blended. Nevertheless, a study of the illusory space of a picture.
your use of edges, especially the Are you using edges to help de-
how relatively firm ones, will help you fine space inyour pictures? Are
determine whether you are (1) re- you taking advantage of edges to
lating edges to your main focus your composition?
pictorial interest; (2) using edges Finally, the properly controlled
effectively for representational treatment of edges based on gra-
focus and compositional empha- dation yields a surface coherence.
sis; and (3) exploiting the As with the stroke and wash,
possibilities of edges for surface there are two other principal
coherence. ways of achieving coherence of
Concerning the first point, a edges. One is through a consis-
all- thought tells you that the
little tent use of the same type of edge
sharpness of edges is a direct throughout the picture; the other
2. function of value contrast. For is through an even mixture of
(color plate example, the bare branches of edges. \l\ July 6, 1976 (color
leafless trees make striking pat- plate 8) is an example of the first.
vir- terns against a light sky, but Crisp edges, typical of smooth
grouped together, as at the paper, show everywhere except
border of a meadow, the separate within the larger washed areas,
branches are scarcely distin- such as the house at right, the
guishable because their value is distant foliage, and the shadowed
so nearly the same. So one of the trunks at center. In those areas I
first places to look for overstated have sought variation by permit-
edges is where tones close in ting colors to flow together.
value abut. From the standpoint Andrew Wyeth's Bermuda
I de- of observation, these junctures (figure 16) displaysall types of
of offer one of your best bets for edges without regard for dis-
covered softening edges, which will tend tance. Surface coherence is
to emphasize broad areas of maintained by distributing the va-
to value, and hence value pattern, riety of edges over the entire
in your painting. On the other surface, so some clouds have
the deeper hand, you may choose to make hard or ragged edges, some rocks
used to define the edges of shapes close in value have soft ones, and the figure
Wher- precise to clarify pictorially what and the boat, the focal center,
is visually unclear. In this case, share the general spectrum of
you may want to soften some possibilities.
strong contrast edges arbitrarily A consistent treatment of edges
for balance. This increases the leads to pictorial coherence as well
visibility of individual objects as surface coherence, in the same
while minimizing value patterns. way that a consistent treatment of
So consider: does your use of strokes and washes does. Again,
Figure 20
Lawn Chair by Andrew Wyeth, c. 1962, 22" x 15" (56 x 38 cm), smooth paper,
courtesy of the Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Westbrook College. This
later watercolor by Wyeth is done in the technique he calls "drybrush." It is
much more detailed than Bermuda, but most of the lights are still reserved,
despite their small size. A few lights, such as those in the right foreground,
are scraped out of the wet paint. Notice that Wyeth makes these scraped
marks look very much like the reserved areas. He uses the principle of se-
quence skillfully, building from less detailed areas of paint texture, such as
the foliage at upper right, to more detailed areas of descriptive texture, such
as the grass and chair itself. Photo by Tom Jones.

EDGES AND RESERVED LIGHTS 29

 C hi MAI

"^
X '^ -"^
V
Figure 21
Small Point, Me. (detail) by Carl Schmalz, 1965, 81-" x 11" (22 x 28 cm). Fin-
ished painting 13" x 31" (33 x 79 cm) 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collection of
the author. The lights of the dead spruce trunks and branches went on with
the lights in the sky, the distance, and the grass. I reserved them when paint-
ing the darker foliage and later modified their color where appropriate.
Photograph by David Stansbury.

30 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAV

Bermuda serves as an example. By or dry, sunlit weeds in front of a right, will not detract from your
means of edges, his personal shaded building. Remember that illusion. For example, the shadow
combination of stroke and wash, this is a technical exercise, not an on your picket fence may really
and his patent economy, Wyeth attempt to make a painting, so be a neutral blue, but it will work
constructs a compellingly unified don't undertake anvthing too just as well if you paint it the
picture world in which the viewer complex. same warm gray as the trim on
perceives a unique coherence be- Get out a half-sheet of your the building behind it, thus sav-
tween personal vision and usual paper (the back of a used ing one whole tedious operation.
materials as used by a single indi- one do fine). Even if you
will Having determined where vou
vidual. When we say that this is a normally work on full sheets, a can simplify your reserved lights,
picture with both vitality and half-sheet will be large enough consider what kinds of edges will
force, we are referring precisely for this task. Set up your paints. be appropriate for them. You
toour comprehension of this Now make a quick pencil want to consider two aspects of
complex and complete coherence. sketch of your subject, trying not —
your painting the actual variety
Wyeth's painting makes a good to be too detailed. Sit a few min- of edges in the objects you are
starting point for further discus- utes to plan your attack: this is representing and the relation-
sion of reserved lights. For the the most important part of the ships among them required for
most part, Bermuda is a straight- process. Keep in mind that your surface coherence.
forward light-to-dark picture. aim is to attain the desired effect Now paint your picture, keep-
The houses, their roofs, and the using the simplest possible pro- ing vour decisions in mind and
glint of light on the man's hat cedure. Check your birch trees, trying to complete it in as few
had to be reserved. As mentioned for example. They may be white steps as possible. This will give
earlier, the trick in making this against a hillside, but are they you a good sense of how the re-
process easy is to plan ahead, es- white against the sky? Could you served light problem has most
pecially to consider ways in which afford to spill sky tone onto satisfactorily (and most often)
lights can be doubly used. Wyeth, them, reserving only a few scraps been solved by transparent water-
for instance, allows some sky of white paper, thus making colorists.
tones to slip down into the roof painting the sky easier for your-
of the house at left where they self?A few darker tones might Summary
become variations within the roof then accent the branches against A coherent painting requires
area (see also figure 20). the sky, and you have your effect edges that are consistent and
In another example, a detail with minimal effort. Or, where compatible with the subject. As
from one of my pictures (figure your fence is in shadow, could with strokes and washes, edges in
21), you can see how undertones you let that tone run under the a picture may be similar or dis-
in the trees function as fine building behind it to avoid hav- similar, though equally distrib-
branches above, and reserved ing to paint the pickets twice uted over the paper surface, or
lights become trunks and larger once to put on the shadow and they may be organized sequen-
branches below. It is this kind of once to relieve the fence against a tiallv, such as soft edges in the

economy that is so often appar- darker background? distance that shift to increasingly
ent in Winslow Homer's painting; Study the subject for every pos- crisp ones in the foreground.
it is also essential to the technique sible opportunity to economize You can avoid unexpected
of many other artists. your procedure. Remember that edges chiefly by staying alert to
If you would like to try reserv- value is nearly always more tell- their presence, especiallv when
ing lights, select a subject (per- ing than hue: often a hue tells you are painting things that call

haps something vou sometimes the viewer more than is required for a series of similar brush-
shy away from) with plenty of and may contribute to a lessening strokes.
light-against-dark elements. This of color coherence (see Chapter Blurred or messy edges are
might be some birches or other 12 for more information about best controlled by planning your
light-trunked trees against ever- color coherence). A color that is painting process to take max-
greens; an architectural subject, not fully descriptive of the object imum advantage of the econo-
possibly including a picket fence; it represents may increase color mies offered by reserving lights.
coherence and, if the value is

EDGES AND RESERVED LIGHTS 31

 Figure 22
R.F.D by Charles Colombo, 1964, 23" x 17"
(58 x 43 cm), rough paper, collec-
tion of Mr. Francis Haugh. Colombo uses the descriptive
texture of the posts
as a theme texture" for the whole
paint surface so that rough brushed areas
occur even m the sky. This general distribution
of rough brushing unifies the
surface on the principle of similarity while
allowing maximally effective rep-
resentational texture. The painting is essentially
ordered by the wash-and-
stroke/background-to-foreground system as well.

32 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 4

Paint Texture

flow of very wet paint to the bris- Many watercolorists, perhaps

tlvcharacter of paint applied to most, like to contrast paint tex-
The texture of paint
rough paper with virtually no tures. As in other aspects of
creates visual interest. water. Your paper surface also picture-making, contrast adds vis-

Are you using the pos- affects your painted texture,

final ual excitement and drama to a
as does the brush and the relative work, but it also introduces the
sibilities imaginatively? coarseness of the different pig- danger of weakening the pic-
ments you use and the mixtures ture's coherence. The sample
you select (see Chapter 10). shown in figure 25 illustrates
Critical Concern There are, in addition, many pos- what mean. Here I've placed
I

When speaking of paintings, the sible textures obtainable through very rough drybrushing and spat-
word texture may be confusing be- the use of tools other than the tering on top of a wash applied
cause the same term can mean brush, the use of materials other very wetly. The great difference
different things. Sometimes it sig- than paint, and special treatment between the two is clear, and
nifies descriptive texture, the of the paper before, during, or even though the effect is visually-
represented surface look of ob- after the painting process. arresting, you can see that such
jects such as rough stone or slick Many diverse surface textures effects have to be controlled or
glass. But texture also refers to offer the watercolorist a broad itself may become
the surface
the look of the paint itself, which range of opportunities for ex- more interesting than the picture.
may be dry or wet and flowing. pression. At the same time, Once more, a usual means of
Texture can also refer to the par- incautious selection may result in controlling contrast of paint tex-
tial or entire look of the painted an unnecessary variety of surface ture is by applying it in grada-
surface created by strokes or treatment or in the use of tex- tions or sequences. Bogomir Bog-
washes, as discussed in Chapter tures that contrast so violently danovic's Central Park (figure 26)
2,and sometimes these primary that they disrupt the coherence illustrates one way of doing this.

meanings can overlap. In Charles of the picture. In most sections of the picture,
Colombo's R.F.D. (figure 22), for paint has been applied wetly but
example, a generally rough paint Illustrations speedily enough to leave a num-
texture characterizes the whole The simplest wav to create strong ber of rough, brushed edges on
surface, including the grass, pictorial coherence through paint the rough paper. This creates a
metal boxes, and sky. In the mail- texture is to use pretty much the fairly equal mixture of wet and
box posts, though, this unifying same texture all over the paper. drv texture. But additional dry-
paint texture becomes descriptive Susan Heidemann's Striped Leaves brushed details build sequentiallv
texture as well. (figure 23) offers one example of from the background to the fore-
This chapter is less about de- this. Working on a fairly smooth, ground bushes and figures and
scriptive textures than about the hard surface, she employs a mod- the details of tree branches at
use and possible misuse of paint erately wet brush, so that the either side.The logic of the shift-
textures. Like the other factors paint dries with small "oozles" ing texture from wet to dry paint
that create the painted surface of within most strokes. The strokes allows the greatest contrast of
a picture, texture can enhance or themselves are organized by se- texture to emphasize the nearer
diminish pictorial coherence. In quences of size change, but large elements that are the focus of in-
transparent watercolor the "natu- or small, they have a textural re- terest in the picture.
ral" texture range runs from the semblance. Although entirely different in

PAINT TEXTURE 33
 £
Figure 23 (right)
Striped Leaves bv Susan Heidemann,
1976, 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm), cold
pressed paper, collection of the artist.
This is fundamentally a stroke paint-
k*
ing. The strokes vary in size within a
controlled range, and all share a sim-
ilar fluid texture deriving from
their
initially wet application. Heidemann
does not tamper with her stroke once
it is set down, so the drying
often
tends to be a little uneven; this gives
both the strokes and the surface a
sense of loose aliveness.

Figure 24
Cattle by Charles Culver, 1947, 19" Figure 25
x 24" (48 x 61 cm), 90 lb. rough
a Ve
paper Texture Sample bv Carl Schmalz, 140
b Sh rOU
^XicL
overall picturere surft7 TH °" ^ Paper CTeateS a bristh ,ook
surface. The texture is reminiscent *
of the coarse hair of some
lb.rough paper. Utterlv different
cattle, so it not only helps textures tend to contrast so greatly
to unify the surface but it
also ennances
enhances the dc
he pie-
ture s expression. Photo bv that thev disrupt surface coherence.
Svlvester Lucas
Note that it is virtually impossible to
read the spatters and rough brushing
as behind the wet-blended strokes.
This is because they must actually
overlap the earlier washes due to the
light-to-dark procedure of trans-
parent watercolor. But the sharpness
of their edges also instructs us to
read them as near, as in the light,
rough-brushed marks at lower right.
The differences are so visible that we
cannot read a coherent paint surface
at all. Photograph by David Stans-
burv.

34 WATERCOLOR YOCR WAY


overall appearance, Gene
Wet Float (figure 27) illustrates a
similar system. There is a back-
ground-to-foreground shift from
wet to dry texture that corre-
sponds to a shift from general-
ized to specific descriptive texture
as well. Note that the background
water and much of the wet float
are treated quite broadly, as are
unessential details such as the
ropes at left and the lower
tion of the lobster pot at right.
Dry textures are largely used to
render more precisely the surface
textures of the baskets, rusted an-
chors, barnacle-covered pot
buoys, and other bits that
terize the locale.
Most dangerous to pictorial
coherence is adding textures not
typically obtained with the nor-
mal materials and tools of
transparent watercolor. I do not
wish to suggest that such textures
>*#*».
***»
Klebe's are taboo. On the contrary, they Figure 26
can be very effectively used, as in Untitled (Central Park) bv Bogomir
Bogdanovic, A.W.S., c. 1969, 22" x
Samuel Kamen's Berries (figure
28" (56 x 71 cm), collection of the art-
28). This small black-and-white ist. Bogdanovic combines two ways of
picture relies on crayon or pencil controlling contrasting paint texture.
lines to augment and vary the He mixes wet washes and drvbrush-
relatively homogeneous texture ing fairh uniformly over the paper
surface; but he also tends to increase
of student-grade, machine-em-
drybrushing toward the picture's
bossed paper; and partly because foreground, where the trees and fig-
of the prominence of the pencil ures are located.
textures, we easily accept the tex-
sec- tures of scratched-out lights.
Many artists enjoy using
speckling by splashing drops
from a brush, flicking bristle
brushes, rubbing a toothbrush
through a sieve, or some other
charac- method. This usually corresponds
best to the rest of the paint tex-
tures when the entire painting is
done in a rather free and splashy
manner. Murray Wentworth's
Overgrown (figure 29) illustrates
this combination well. Here the
splash-drop method seems inte-
PAINT TEXTURE 35
Figure 27 gral to the picture-making
Wet Float by Gene Klebe, c. 1969, 18" process becausesome drops were
x 28" (46 x 71 cm), rough paper, col-
spattered on when the washes
lection of Mr. James J. Rochlis, D.
Wu Ject-Key Memorial Award, were wet. The texture of the
A.W.S., 1969. Here two ways of con- splashes and drops matches the
trolling texture are also combined: (1) range of textures seen in the
overall distribution of soft and sharp strokes of the grave marker and
and (2) selected focussing of sharp
grasses. Similarly, one can imag-
definition at a series of points of in-
terest around the picture surface and
ine Wyeth's Bermuda (figure 16),
in the picture space. The result is a with its free and vigorous han-
tightly integrated work, full of tex- dling, augmented by purposeful
tural interest. or accidental spatters.
Knifing another technique
is
commonly used to produce tex-
ture or lights. John H. Murray's
Cranberry Island, Maine (figure
30) is an excellent example of a
painting given surface coher-
ence by knifed texture. Linear
scratches and gouges animate the
rocks, beach, and water; but they
are linked in appearance with
rough brushing in the sky and
background to produce overall
similarity of texture. The rough
striations of knifework in the
rocks in figure 31 correspond not
so much to the descriptive look
of such ledges as to the glacial
36 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY
grinding that formed them; that
is, the scratches profoundly ex-
press rather than merely record
the geological formation of the
rocks.
Exercises
Excessive contrast in paint tex-
ture is one of the principal ways
of upsetting a painting's co-
herence. The best way to
overcome excessive contrast and
hence use texture effectively is to
work for similarity of texture, a
balanced mixture of textures, or
sequences of texture change.
It is time to ask some more
questions, so get out your pic-
tures. Remember, these questions
are about how you are using paint
textures, not the textures that de-
scribe or represent your subject.
You have already made some
decisions about your preferences
and uses of stroke and wash, wet
and dry; you have seen how
these decisions and tendencies
merge into textural considera-
tions. We'll ask some questions
Figure 28 (left)
Berries bv Samuel Kamen, c. 1969, 6"
x 7\" (15 x 18 cm), rough paper, col-
lection of the artist. This elegant
small study shows how successfully
unusual textures can be incorporated
into a coherent textural surface.
Scraping and scratching are teamed
with rough drawing over free washes
to produce an equally worked sur-
face. Photo by Peter A. Juley.

29 (below)
Figure
Overgrown by Murray Wentworth, c.

1974, 20" x 30" (51 x 76 cm), very

smooth paper, collection of the artist.
Murray Wentworth's use of paint tex-
ture offers a superb example of
many varied textures unified into a
coherent surface. His organization is
sequential, so that visual excitement
coincides with his central points of
representational and expressive inter-
est. These are the right foreground
weeds, the front of the tombstone,
and the spruce branches at left.
Photo bv Fasch.

PAINT TEXTURE 37
 about these, but concentrate on
uses of textures obtained by
means other than the ordinary
materials and tools of transparent
watercolor.

1. Do your pictures tend to be

texturally bland? If so. your tex-
tures may be similar, thus
creating textural coherence, but
you may be overlooking an op-
portunity to add visual interest to
your work by varying the tex-
tures.

2. Is too much textural con-

there
trast inyour pictures? This mav
be the case if, as you look at the
works thoughtfully, you feel a
kind of purposeless activity in
them, a degree of visual excite-
ment unjustified by the subjects.
You can tame this tendency,
Figure 30 should you detect it, by harness-
Cranberry Island, Maine bv John H. Murray, 1962, 15" x 23" (38 x 58 cm), ing texture and making it work
rough paper, courtesv of Mrs. Virginia Murray. Rough paper, rough brush- for you. We shall refer to this in
ing, and rough knifing together form a coherent surface in Murray's picture.
His organization depends upon similarity of surface texture achieved through
a larger context later; for now,
cooperation between choice of paper, choice of brush handling, and choice of consider how similarity of tex-
unusual techniques. Here the overall roughness is more a way of expressing tures in your painting might
the innate nature of the place than simplv a description of it. unify the surface. Or, if that
seems inappropriate, consider
whether more or less of a par-
ticular texture throughout a
picture might help. If neither of
these alternatives works, what
about gradation from one texture
to another? Could you have
shifted from one texture to
another without unduly com-
plicating the technical process or
spoiling the representation?

3. In pictures where you have

made textures with something
other than brushes, are the extra-
ordinary textures well integrated
into the painted surface? For ex-
ample, to work really well,
knifing and scraping must be
done with the authority of
brushstrokes. Usually, the natural
movement of your hand makes
your knife strokes sufficiently
similar to your brush marks to
Figure 31 maintain surface coherence. But
Cranberry Island, Maine, (detail) 5" x 6f" (13 x 17 cm). In this enlargement
it is also useful to remember that
you can see clearly how paper, brush, and knife work together. The washes
are laid on roughly; the dark linear accents of cracks give a feeling of the modifying such strokes with
direction of the rock formation and shape; the vigorous knife strokes gouge brushed-on tones will very often
the paper surface and speak direcdy of the rocks* striation. rectify an outrageously visible

38 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

knifed or scraped area and so re- wet patches of middle-value arbitrarily and jeopardizing the
vive your surface coherence. An color, about 3" x 3" (8x8 cm), on surface coherence of vour paint-
example might be fence pickets, several papers. Then, proceeding ing unnecessarily. It mav be
knifed out and then modified methodically, use each of the helpful to look at these areas
with brushed-on shadow tones. "unusual" tools or materials on carefully and consider whether
one or more of the patches. Re- and how the effect you wanted
4. Are you familiar with the wide could have been achieved using
peat the process until you have
variety of textures you can create
tried all the possibilities. Now paint textures of the more "nor-
with materials other than
paint new patches, allowing them mal" sort.
brushes? If not, here are a few
to drv to the semigloss stage be-
possibilities worth exploring.
Get out some discarded paint-
fore manipulating them. Some of Summary
the tools and materials must be While impasto and other textural
ings with clean backs, or use
used on dry paint, so prepare a variations appropriate to the
fresh paper. Select several dif-
group of patches to dry. On opaque media are not available to
ferent surfacesand weights if you
these you can experiment with the transparent watercolorist, this
have them. Squeeze out some
erasers, sandpaper, scratching medium offers a wide range of
black or dark paint and assemble
with single-edge razor blades, textural possibilities, some "nor-
as many of the following mate-
and spattering. By pressing some- mal" and some made with "un-
rials as possible:
thing into wet paint and then usual" tools and materials. In-

Sponges onto the dry patch, you can ex- deed, the very richness and di-
plore various printing or versity of watercolor textures
Salt
Sand stamping techniques with the pose a central problem for the
veined backs of fresh leaves; cor- painter. Controlling these tex-
Knife
Single-edge razor blade
rugated board; pieces of rubber tures so as to use them effec-
flooring, door mats, or stair tively, while maintaining surface
Plastic scraper
treads: crumpled plastic wrap or coherence, poses an ever-present
Blotters (Kleenex)
paper; sponges; and other mate- challenge.
Cheesecloth
Plastic wrap rials. Remember also that you can The main principles to bear
use your hands and fingers to in mind to help integrate paint
Erasers (different kinds)
Old toothbrush modifv wet areas or dry ones by textures into the picture surface

Bristle brushes
printing. (See also figure 53. The are a balanced mixture and se-

Wooden sticks (match, orange

whole paper was crumpled be- quences from one texture to
fore painting.) another. In addition, it is useful
wood, twigs)
Leaves (fresh or dry) As you produce these varied to remember that utilization of
Cardboard scraps surfaces, think about how you the same "family" of textures,
Volatile fluids
might be able to exploit them in those that look similar or are
Inks (including India) pictures. But you must also con- made in similar ways, will provide
sider how you will integrate them order that will help avoid too
It would take too much space to into your picture surface. Tex- much And if you are es-
contrast.
outline all the possible experi- tures produced by means other pecially prone to overstate tex-
mental combinations that you than the brush are inherentlv dif- ture, it is good to ask yourself
should have before you; instead ferent from the "normal" surface why you are about to introduce a
of holding your hand through textures of watercolor and re- new visual accent. Is it necessarv?
each permutation. I'll give you a quire careful melding with brush Can you integrate it with the
procedure to follow. textures if surface coherence is to present or final surface of your
Line up your "unusual" tools be maintained. painting? Will it enhance mean-
and regular materials in a Looking again at your pictures, ing, or is it merely decorative?
convenient way. Line up your a good question to ask yourself Questions such as these will
different papers, too. (As usual is: what reason did I have for force you to consider how you
with watercolor, prepare care- using that unusual texture there? use paint texture and prevent
fully: much willdepend on If you didn't have a reason, or you from rushing headlong into
drying time.) Working as quickly can't now recall it, vou may be using textures without thinking.
as possible, place two or three using these powerful techniques

PAINT TEXTURE 39
 Figure 32
Kitchen Ell by Carl Schmalz, 1970, 23" x 17" (58 x 43 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed
paper, collection of the author. This chapter suggests that a simple approach
to composition is to identify what really interests you in a subject, put it near
the paper's center, and then design around that focus. Here, the window with
its flower pots attracted me. I cut my paper to a shape that almost duplicated

that of the window (3i x 24/79 x 6 cm), and placed the window just left and
below the middle of the paper. The rest of the composition fell into place
easily. For example, I mo\ed the central chimney slightly (compare with fig-
ure 5) so that its dark vertical shape continues that of the right section of the
window.

40 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 5

Designing from
the Center
tional artists the answer is its own organized world as well as
Do "rides" of good "Because I like it." "The sub-
or a translation of the represented
ject appeals to me." These are you must decide
things. First,
composition get in your rather vague answers, although what you want to repre-
thing(s)
way? we know pretty much what they —
sent what interests you. Center
mean. We don't often hear our- that and then see how the paper
selves saying something as context can be ordered to pro-
Critical Concern concrete "Because I think
as, duce both pictorial coherence
We know that since the sixteenth these angles and shapes will make and appropriate representation
centurv. and probably before that a great composition." And vet. of your chosen thing(s).
time, compositional rules were es- for many of us, it is just such a Often vou can identify quite
tablished to aid students of subliminal perception that sets us easily what the "thing" is: it will
painting. Many of these rules are to work. I have often been two- usually be the thing(s) that first
helpful. "Never put the horizon thirds along in a painting in caught vour eve. In Kitchen Ell
in the middle." for example, is a which I fullv intended to omit a (figure 32). for instance. I knew
generally useful obseryation. as telephone pole before realizing from the start that my primary
is "Don't allow a strong diagonal that the pole was essential to interest was the window with the
to run out of the corner of the what I saw as a good potential flower pots on the sill and the

picture." picture in the first place. tree shadows moving diagonally

Nevertheless, there are so This chapter is about raising up the end of the ell. But the
many of these rules that just re- your awareness so you can recog- context seemed useful, for there
membering them is stifling. nize more easily what interests were some verticals that could re-
Furthermore, they often seem al- you in a painting. It is desirable late mv central "thing" to the
most to contradict one another. to make such decisions because paper edges. I also saw some pos-
"Don't put a large object in the —
the easiest and frequently the sibilities for linking foreground
middle." and "Don't put a large best —way to begin composing a to distance.I cut my paper to a

object at the edge." leave vou picture is to identify what attracts shape proportional to the win-
with few places to put a large ob- vou most in a scene. You can dow, but I doubt that I thought
ject. In of composition
fact, rules then place that thing or things in much further before beginning
may be as bewildering as thev are or near the center of your paper the drawing. I worked from a
illuminating, and we mav do well and compose the rest of it to sup- sketch (see figure 5).

to approach the whole question port and strengthen that center The process of arranging a pic-
of pictorial design from another focus. ture is complicated, and I see
point of view. little gain in trying to simplify it.

This, in fact, is just what we've Illustrations Nevertheless, there are "natural"
been doing and what we shall Let's begin by noting that a pic- tendencies, physical and mental,
continue to do throughout this ture is not just "of" a thing or that you can rely on; and with
book. In this chapter we will group of things: rather it is of a conscious control, they help vou
focus essentially on how design- thing or things and their context, create an orderly design to sup-
ing lines, axes, and surface transformed by you into a new port your central "thing."
shapes affect compositions. —
context the context of a sheet of In Kitchen Ell, I placed the
Whv do you paint a particular paper of a certain shape and size. focal window to the left of the
picture? For many representa- The paper context must become vertical center of the paper. The

DESIGNING FROM THE CENTER 41

 right edge of the shadow inside
the right side of the frame is al-
most at the exact vertical center
of the sheet. The top of the win-
dow is about a quarter of an inch
below the horizontal center of the
picture. So my central focus is

close enough paper center

to the
to demand the attention I want it
to have and also to reinforce the
vertical and horizontal center
lines of the paper.
Had I placed the window at
the exact vertical center of the
sheet, it would have altered the
intervals at either side of the win-
dow and made them less varied.
The result would have been a
considerable loss of interest in
the proportional relationships of
these elements. I located the win-
Figure 33
dow below the horizontal
slightly
Quail's House bv Nicholas Solovioff, 1976, 14" x 22" (36 x 56 cm), cold
pressed paper, collection of the artist. The bizarre architecture of the cottage center of the paper because I
interested Solovioff. so he located it in the middle of the paper. Subsidiary wanted enough bright blue skv at
buildings at each side relate the cottage to the left and right margins. A the top of the picture to balance
suggestion of strokes in the skv helps liken it to the broadly stroked fore- the visual interest created by the
ground, where there is hardly a hint of descriptive grass texture.
irregular shapes and value con-
trasts of the tree shadow s on the
foreground snow.
Having made these decisions,
partly without being fully con-
scious of them, I painted the
picture. As I painted, I con-
tinuallymade decisions, but
again, many of these decisions
were made unconsciously. Dis-
regarding colors, let's see what
happened.
The composition is based
final
on a series of verticals. The win-
dow becomes not only the repre-
sentational center of interest, but
also the focal statement of the
main compositional theme. Its
horizontals are picked up in
other architectural elements.
There are architectural sub-
themes, too, notablv the white
triangle to the left of the ell
roof, which appears as an invert-

Figure 34 ed echo of the gable. This sub-

Buoys bv John H. Murray, 1956, 18" x 23|" (46 x 60 cm), rough paper, theme reappears even in the
courtesy of Mrs. Virginia Murray. Through the use of multiple parallel and snow shadows and the branch
sequential lines Murray relates the paper context to his centrally placed pile pattern at upper right. The im-
of decaying lobster fisherman's paraphernalia. Some are very subtle, such as
portance of this kind of echoing
the parallel between the edge of the rocks at lower right and the shadow of
the shack at upper left. Notice also the light-to-dark sequence below the crate is significant, for I am concerned
at center left. As in Cranberry Island, Maine (figure 30), the consistentlv rough not only to include the repeat, as
surface also contributes to pictorial coherence. in ornamentation, but to make it

42 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

work expressively for me. Re- shadow) and permanence and
peats order a picture by stating a tangibility (the branch). This is
likeness between superficially dis- appropriate to the picture as a
similar things or by emphasizing whole, which is about the consis-
likenesses generally overlooked. tency of change — the winter sun
Let's examine this concept. picking out the clay pots that will
Notice that the shape of the grow green plants when spring
shadow on the snow at the bot- comes.
tom of the paper is strongly Another by-product of our
echoed in the lowest branch com- human urge toward order is the
ing in from the upper right. The likeness between the contour of
angle of the shadows makes it the distant hill and the fore-
clear that the shadow cannot be ground snow at the base of the
cast by this branch. Rather, it is a ell. The lower contour of the
product of my use of the human snow moves to the left in a curve
tendency toward repetition. But that suggests a parallel of the un-
even if it was unconsciously done, seen hilltop curve and so makes
observe the result. Not only do I what is hidden almost visible.
gain a valuable compositional re- Two quite different wavs of de-
peat, but I make a statement signing the context around a
about the similarity between tran- centrally placed focus can also be
sience and insubstantialitv (the seen in figures 33 and 34. In
Figure 35
Afternoon by Robert W. Ducker. 1975. 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), 140 lb. hot
pressed paper, collection of the artist. The force of this picture derives from
clearly created and limited foreground space contrasted with the infinite space
of the sk\. The play between finite and infinite is stated thematically by the
central vertical of the porch support, which bounds the view of skv under the
porch while pointing to the unfettered space above and to the right.
Nicholas Solovioff's Quail's House,
alternating serpentine lines of
sand and grass lead in from the
foreground to the small value
contrasts of the central cottage.
Murray's Buoys, on the other
hand, is treated as an "outdoor
still life," with order created by
the sequential lines and their
echoes.
Exercises
Start this section withsome doo-
dling. Get out a sketch pad, some
half-sheet backs of old watercolor
papers, and a couple of large
pieces of paper, if you have them
(newsprint will also do). You'll
need a pencil, crayon, brushes,
and black paint.
Take your usual painting posi-
tion. Let vour mind become as
DESIGNING FROM THE CENTER 43
 blank as possible and then begin
drawing with your pencil on your
pad. These should be fairly small
marks and combinations of
marks. Doodle until you have
filled up at least one sketchbook
page, two if you can. Now switch
to cravon, still working on a
sketchbook page, and do a page
or two of doodles.
Using a medium-size brush,
either round or flat, do the same
thing with black paint on a half-
sheet back. Try to work as fast
and as mindlessly as you can. If
vou find yourself wanting to vary
—
vour marks, do so trying not to
slow down.
If you have larger paper, try a
shot or two at it (using a bigger
brush if you have one).
Rest a minute. If you have re-
ally forgotten yourself, you may

be inexplicably tired. Look at

your sketchbook pages. You
should quickly spot a good deal
of similarity among your marks,
even if, despite yourself, you
tried hard to vary them. The sim-
ilaritiesw ill be those of shape,
size, angle, and interval between

lines and will include both repeti-

tions and sequences. You will

probably notice that the kinds of

I. marks you made displav a re-

semblance, even though you used

/
different techniques and dif-
Figure 36 ferent sizes. You can check this
Portrait of R. Confer bv Robert Andrew Parker. 1963. 27" x 20" (69 x 76 cm), by comparing what you did on
collection of Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Rochlis. Parker, like Ducker, uses a central
the sketchbook pages with the
space expressively. Three-dimensional space is of little concern to him. but
the two-dimensional gap between the sitter's head and the bases of the trees
half-sheets and the newsprint.
forces the viewer to make a connection between them. The picture surface is This adventure has a twofold
highly coherent because of the brush and scratch marks all over it. purpose. First it demonstrates
that insofar as "composition" de-
pends upon similarity or likeness,
it is natural, if not unavoidable.
Orderly repetition or repetition
with variations is inherent in
human beings and is the basis of
design. Second, it provides you
with some simple abstract exam-
ples of your compositional
tendencies and preferences.
Get out your group of paint-
ings now for comparisons and
analysis.

44 WATERCOLOR VOUR WAV

 1. Perhaps your doodles tend to reinforced and enhanced it com- vou thinking about how such rep-
be bold and angular, or thev in- positionally, you can start to etitions might be formed and
clude lots of parallel lines, right think more adventurously about used.
angles, or oval or circular lines. creating a composition in which Often the basic trick, though, is

Compare the doodles with your the focus is away from

definitely discovering precisely what it is

paintings to see whether any of the center. Remember that you that interests you. Thinking
them contain a similar boldness, can rely on your natural ten- clearly and deliberately about
angularity, or other tendency dency to repeat parts of this main your subject helps but think —
you've noted. The chances are shape elsewhere in the design, with your pencil in your hand,
that vou will see in not all of your but you also need to think con- for a painter can only think visu-
paintings, but in some, the same sciously about the placement and ally about painting. Your doodle
propensity. And you may find visual emphasis of such repeti- exercises should provide you with
that these similarities to your tions. some clues as to the kinds of lines
doodles appear most often in Ifyour paintings seem to van and shapes that attract you.
those parts of your pictures a lot as to the kind of forms they Something in your subject that
where you feel most secure and display (especially if they vary reflects those lines and shapes
have to think least consciously. significantly from vour doodles), may provide a kev to \ our inter-
Check skies for instance, or back- and if the center of interest tends est in it.

grounds, or the periphery of to become lost or deemphasized, It is always possible that the
your pictures, such as the very you will probably do well to do central thing that interests you
near foreground at the bottom of the following when painting: (1) isn't a "thing" at all, but some
your paper. Sometimes your very try very hard to decide exactly eloquent space or gap, as in
choice of subject may reflect what interests vou most in a Robert W. Ducker's Afternoon
these preferences, as when a per- given subject; (2) place it near the (figure 35), for it is less about the
son who prefers curvilinear middle of the format; and (3) architecture of the cottages than
forms avoids architectural sub- look for similarities between vour about the infinity of sea beyond
jects, or a person who likes acute subject and its context that can be them. In a similar way. Robert
angles rarely undertakes pure used for both design and expres- Andrew Parker's Portrait of R.
landscape. sion in your pictorial context. Confer (figure 36) centers on the
space between the head and the
2. Have you been placing your
Summary trees, suggesting simultaneously
center of interest near the center
A simple, sound way to think that Mr. Confer lives among
of vour format? Is it still clearly
about composition is to deter- trees, is sitting in front of them,
the picture's focus? If not, can
mine what interests you most in a and is thinking about them. Yet
you figure out whether vou mis-
subject and put it near the mid- another alternative is that vou are
understood what your interest
dle of your paper. Vou can count drawn by a cluster of things
was, failed to emphasize the cen-
on human nature, as well as vour around the center, as in Wet Float
ter of interest sufficiently, or
own sensibility, intelligence, and (figure 27) by Gene Klebe. Re-
tried to place the main focus de-
experience, to create a composi- gardless of what you identify as
liberately off center? If you
tion inwhich repetitions and the focus of your interest, you
maintained the primary interest
sequences help form a good de- can begin to think about compos-
in your picture as the focal point
sign that may also enhance ing your picture by setting it near
of the painting and, even better,
expression. You will find that a the center of your paper.
few preliminary sketches will start

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 Figure 37
Antique Dealer's Porch by Louis J. Kaep, A.N.A., 9" x 11" (23 x 28 cm),
collection of Mr. George V. Mallory. Any sequence of diminishing size tends
to powerfully direct the observer's eye. When accompanied, as here, bv per-
spective lines, the rush into pictorial space is precipitate. Kaep controls this
force with the screen of trees at left, and counters it with the horse weather-
vane that points so determinedly to the right.

46 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 6

Using Similarity
/^^
'V
Cv(
f
The same phyj
Are you using logical tendencies ^ i

v £_, i he msis-
achieve composit ( ,
,, .

similarity in your through repetitic ^ '

"^ • of the porch pillars
.^iticals

painting as an active balance of lines, shapes, sizes, are repeated in the grasses below
and intervals can also produce and in the bare trees at left, as
ordering principle well as by bits of architecture
boring pictures. Unless you con-
or merely as sciously seek effective and imag- within the porch. The pillars

inative similarities, uncontrolled avoid dreariness because of the

passive reiteration?
repetitions may rob your paint- sequential gradation of their size,

ings of expressive force. the intervals between them, and

Critical Concern We have all experienced the variety of ways in which they
Similarity is the basic ordering moments of fatigue or inattention are interrupted —mostly by hori-
principle in human thought. We while painting. These are the zontals. The ornamented "capi-
all perceive many kinds of like- times when the brush, almost by tals"of the pillars resemble trees,
nesses in the world around us, itself,makes a group of marks a motif that is emphasized by the
ranging from the practical to the that add nothing to the picture's pillars' similarity to the vertical
poetic, the useful to the mistaken. development and may actively trees and grasses.
Perceived similarities help us sim- ruin it. As you emerge from such Among the horizontal ele-
plify and organize our complex a trance, you wonder how you ments, the bodies of the horse
world. Furry animals with four could possibly have made all the and centaur weathervanes are
legs, for example, are usually trees so nearly the same size and looselyechoed by the hill at ex-
mammals. If they share more shape! You can avoid this prob- treme left, linking foreground
similarities, they may fit the cate- lem by becoming more aware of and background in terms of
gory of horse or cat. Mistaken your particular tendencies and shape.
likenesses can be tragic, as when learning to discipline them. Paint- In this picture, repetition of
a driver "sees" a shadow across ing is always partly a matter of vertical lines and similar horizon-
the road that is, in fact, a log. turning a fault into a virtue. tal shapes (as well as many other
Poetic and artistic perceptions of refinements) not only knits the
likeness are less practical and Illustrations composition together, but en-
often suggest some unusual in- Louis J. Kaep's Antique Dealer's hances its meaning. This is what
sight.They are presented in Porch (figure 37) is a painting finally prevents similarity from
terms appropriate to poetry or dominated by repeated vertical being merely dull: it has an ex-
painting. lines. Yet the picture is far from pressive as well as compositional
For artists the most important dull. First notice that the major purpose in the painting.
types of similarity are repetition, themes of the work are focally We might say that the painting
sequence, and balance. These can stated by the centaur weather- literally describes an antique
occur in the color elements (see vane. Rising up the vertical cen- shop, or that it projects emotional
Chapter 9) and in the spatial ele- ter of the design, it includes a overtones of nostalgia. But Kaep
ments and in both two and three base that is the wrought-iron clarifies these more superficial
dimensions. Here we will deal equivalent of the grasses, a ball meanings by his use of sequences,
primarily with two-dimensional that repeats as a contrapuntal since sequences, especially grada-
spatial elements. shape across the horizontal center tions in any of the spatial ele-

USING SIMILARITY 47
 merits, always connote change in
a purely visual way. It is the na-
ture of pjants to grow and
change. And weathervanes, so
prominent in the porch display,
have the express function of in-
dicating change. Kaep links these
ideas together in the stability of
horizontal/vertical contrasts, the
shifting of height and interval,
and the of near and far.
shifts
Just as the central weathervane
(an allusion to antiquity) states
— ^t the visual themes, it also states
the "narrative" themes, for the
changing direction of the wind is
opposed to the stability of the
compass points. Hence the sub-
ject of the picture is not just an
old porch, but fixity versus fickle-
ness. The wind becomes a meta-
phor for time, the passing of
Figure 38
Spain by Arne Lindmark, A.W.S., 1969, 22" x 28" (56 x 71 cm), which is inevitable but which
rough paper
collection of the artist. Simple, bdt highly effective, brings unpredictable alterations.
repetitions of size and
shape between the gables below and the arbitrary "clouds" Thus, because they are pro-
create
unity across
the picture surface. Notice that value contrasts foundly expressive, the similar-
and linear accents build se-
quentially toward the center of the painting, and
that the generall) horizontal and repetitions here are any-
ities
cluster of buildings forms a right angle with
the tower of birds.
thing but dull.
Arne Landmark's Spain (figure
38) illustrates a quite simple use
of similarity ofsize and shape.
The sky portion of the picture is
linked to the land portion by ga-
ble shapes that echo the real
gables of the buildings below.
Notice that the cloud and build-
ing shapes are similar in size, too,
although the clouds are tilted and
thus differ in axis. The birds, ar-
ranged more or less vertically just
to the right of center and de-
creasing in value as they ascend
the paper, help link the upper
and lower parts of the picture,
since the angles of their wings
are like those of the roof sil-

houettes.
William Zorach's White Christ-
mas, Robinhood, Maine (figure 39)
offers an interesting study in bal-
Figure 39 ance. Balance is rarely simple
White Christmas, Robinhood, Maine by
William Zorach, c. 1957 15" x 22" (38 symmetry, and here strong value
x 56 cm), cold pressed paper, courtesy
Mr. and Mrs. Tessim Zorach SimHari
ues of repetition, sequence, and contrasts at the side margins of
6 "" 31 Snd h0n
balance help to provide coherence
n C for ZT
KTe'Th
Pine ree Thrreis"
Tthe bare tree
u k- f
Cft
T
T^ **"*** ° f

.leff^^.^KT^
'^
wel1*
°f
^
tal HneS and 3XeS Ca

*™ d
" be found h ro ughout he
"" plcked U P bv the ce
™ ^^°
bal ances of value contrast
"^
n ln the bra " c hes
between that tree
the paper balance each other, al-
though the shapes they suggest
are very different.
trunks at left
The tree
balance the fence at
and the
i
building at right and between tree
trunks at left and fence a^ht right more symmetrically. It is

48 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

worth noting that the central
pine tree near the foreground
balances the deep center build-
ings in three dimensions.

Exercises
Get out your picture collection
again. You have two things to
look for: the various similarities
themselves and the way and de-
cree to which vou have made use
of the similarities to increase pic-
torial coherence. Notice that we
are not now speaking of abstract
design alone, but rather of how
compositional repetitions rein-
force or enhance your expressive
intentions.
Let's examine these four as-

pects of similarity: line, shape,

size, and interval.

1. means more than just

Line
ropes, wires, and twigs; it refers
also to direction and includes
dominant or highly visible edges,
as well as the axes of shapes. For
example, in White River at Sharon
by Edward Hopper (figure 54A),
both the left side of the foliage of
the tree at center right and the
vertical axis of the tree may be
called lines.

important to realize
2. It is also
that shape not limited only to
is

easily recognized shapes such as

houses, boats, mountains, clouds,
or squares, triangles, and circles.
All these do constitute shapes, but
you must also train yourself to
see less obvious ones. The shapes
of relativelv light or dark areas, Figure 41
even those that include more Chez Leon bv Eliot OHara. 1952. 22" x 15" (56 x 38 cm). 140 lb. rough paper,

than one represented object, courtesy. O'Hara Picture Trust. O'Hara takes the St. Raphael billboard as his
often carry great visual force. central theme, its rectangular shapes echoed in the store windows in
tilted
perspective. Illuminationfrom shop interiors is diffused and then reflected in
Look, for instance, at the large,
the rainy pavements. The yellowish light pulls the whole lower part of the
generally dark shape of the water painting together. Much lower values and intensities of yellow appear in the
in my Fort River, Fall (color plate dark buildings above.
9) or at the dark island at upper
left and the light shape of the
beach in Indian Point (color plate
10). Despite variations of color
and value within them, these are
dominant shapes in the pictures.

3. As vou check your pictures for

keep in mind that
size similarities,

size is different from shape. Two

USING SIMILARITY 49
quite distinct shapes can, of adjustments you- might have ing s corners, are you integrat-
course, be very nearly the same made to enhance compositional ing them with the rest of the
size. In fact, size is among the unity. It is much more probable paper by making them parallel or
most treacherous of pictorial that you are using these sim- perpendicular to other lines or
factors for this reason. For in- ilarities, but doing so partly or edges? In O'Hara's Chez Leon (fig-
stance, it is all too easy to pro- completely unconsciously. You ure 41), you'll notice that the
duce a foreground in which may also discover that you are arbitrary line at the lower left
rocks, bushes, and logs, although of line and
alert to similarities parallels the dominant oblique
varied in shape and color, pro- shape, but not to those of size angle of the St. Raphael sign in
duce a deadening effect because and interval. the center of the picture.
of excessive similarity in size. Having checked your pictures In John Smith's Beach (figure

can also be for the presence of similarities of sequence in the

42), a linear
4. Seeing intervals
tricky because, on a picture sur- shape, size, and interval, you
line, waves changes the angle of the
face, they are not equivalent to
must now address the even more lines from a slight tilt in the

the spaces between objects. The important question of how you lower left to horizontal at the
two-dimensional breadth or are using these elements. To do middle right. A suggestion of
height of an object itself con- this, ask yourself, picture by pic- such a sequence also occurs in

stitutes an interval as well. This

ture, what purpose (or purposes) the sky at top left. The upper
element was carefully weighed is being served by the similarities and lower sections of the paper

when I considered the placement you've noted. Do this systemat- are further linked by similarities

of the window in my painting ically, observing your use of of shape in the clouds and rocks
Kitchen Ell (figure 32). similaritiesof line first, then below.
You may not have to examine those of shape. Pay special atten- You may find that you tend
allyour pictures for these ele- tion to size and interval, for they to make the humps of cumulus
ments of similarity, but look are normallv the most easily over- clouds the same shape and size.

carefully at a minimum of six or looked of the spatial elements in This can often happen with rocks
eight paintings. Ask yourself first design. At this point concentrate and bushes, too. Dullness may be
whether you are even taking ad- on the similarities that seem to be compounded if all three are simi-
vantage of these elements. It is serving a purely compositional lar toeach other, for even
unlikely that you are not, since, function. though a metaphorical signifi-
as we have seen, they tend to ap- Consider how you are using ar- cance may be intended by these
pear- spontaneously. But should you
bitrary lines, for instance. If likenesses, the eye is quickly
you discover that you are ignor- like to "contain" your pictures bored by such repetition and is
ing them, consider what with lines that cut off the paint- unlikely to grasp your meaning.

Figurt 42
John Smith's Beach by Carl Schmalz. 1963, 10T x 22^" (27 x 57 cm). 140 lb. rough paper, collection of the author. A

sequence of directional changes in the waves helps to hold the distant headland together with the foreground. The same
end is served by shape likenesses in the clouds and nearby rocks.

50 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 An interesting use of similarity sive, thoughtless, or careless and as possible means of order-
of interval appears in O Haras similarity, however. Most artists ing the varied lines and shapes of
Plaza Borda, Taxco (figure 43). are alert to the value and hazard vour subject. In other words,
The from the bottom of
distance of line and shape. Few utilize size consider how you can plav the
the picture to the bottom of the and interval similarities as imag- spatial elements against each
buildings is about equal to the inatively as thev might. Try, other for varied emphasis in your
distance from the base of the therefore, to be more aware of pictures, especially as a means of
buildings to the eave of the roof: these, both as possible explana- coordinating vour composition
and the distance from there to tions for visuallv boring pictures with vour expressive intent.
the top of the next light is again
close to the same. Similarly, the
height of the roof and that of the
darker horizontal band behind
the foliage above are nearlv the
same. These likenesses provide a
scaffolding of somnolent reg-
ularity against which O'Hara can
plav his strong value contrasts
and brilliant colors.
You mav have found that vou
are using similarities intelligendv.
but as compositional devices onlv.
Obviously this is fine, for composi-
tionis simplv a word for two- and

three-dimensional integration of
vour picture. Nevertheless, vou
can strengthen vour work bv
using similarity as a support for
your expressive purposes as well.
In this way, vou introduce a co-
herence between what your pic-
ture is and what it says. This is
what vou must look at now
Recall the ways in which com-
positional structure supports and
emphasizes meaning in Kaep's
Antique Dealer's Porch (figure 37).
and use our analvsis of it as a
guide in vour assessment of vour
own use of similarity. As vou go
through vour paintings, vou will
discover that vou often have
done something good without
knowing vou were doing it. This
will, of course, continue to be the

case: but the more vou can rein-

force vour meaning w ith vour
design through thought and
awareness, the richer vour pic-
tures will become.
Figurt 43
Summary Plaza Borda. Taxco bv Eliot 0*Hara. 1937. 22" x 13f (56 x 39 cm). 140 lb.
Similarities among the spadal ele- rough paper, courtestv O'Hara Picture Trust. O'Hara uses intervals tellinglv
ments — shape,
line, and
size, here, both to organize the picture surface and to reinforce expression. The

interval —offer some of vour
most powerful means for achiev-
ing pictorial organization and
coherence. Danger lurks in exces-
interval from the bottom to the base of the building equals that from the base
to the eave. As vou look up the picture, there is an A. A. B. A. B rhythm.
Both intervals are also repeated horizontally. From the left margin to the light
architectural vertical just bevond the tree is A. B occurs in the openings at
lower right.

USING SIMILARITY 51
 Figure 44
Deserted Dock h\ Gene Klebe, A.W.S.. c. 1968, IS" x 28" (46 x 71 cm), rough
paper, collection of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur K. Watson. Contrasts of both line
and value make this an arresting picture. Klehe tames the contrasts with se-
quential changes in the axes of the posts and hoards. Strong value contrasts
are spread faith evenl) over the paper, creating an asymmetrical balance.
Focal areas are pointed up through judicious use of descriptive texture.

52 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 7

Exploiting
Contrast
Obviously we cannot get along Contrasts of size and interval are
Is thoughtless use without contrast, but we must prettv straightforward, and value

of contrast violating
harness and tame it. To tame it. contrasts —black and white or
we can deliberately modulate it. dark and light are equally clear.
the coherence of your or we can use various types of

pictures? similarity to counter-balance it. Illustrations

But to make it work for us. we Gene Klebe's Deserted Dock (figure
must think about where and how 44) a painting based largely on
is

Critical Concern to use it in everv painting we un- an ingenious interplay of lines,

If similarity is the primary order- dertake. chiefly visible through value con-
ing or unifying principle in yisual As with similarity, there can trasts. Notice that there are virtu-
language, contrast is certainly the be contrast in spatial elements no right-angle intersections
ally

primary principle of differentia- line, shape, size, and interval among the posts and supports of
tion. Contrast is essential to our and in the elements of color the old pier. Nevertheless, con-
vision: we cannot separate the hue. yalue. and intensity. Here trast of directions is very strong,
simplest figure from its ground we will deal with spatial elements, for many junctions are almost
without some sort of contrast; but will include yalue as well, right angles. Klebe tames these
lack of contrast makes camou- since it provides one of the strong oppositions by relating
flage and protecti\e coloration in strongest types of yisual contrast. manv of the lines either sequen-
animals and birds work. It is not difficult for most of us tially or bv direct repetition. For
All drawing and painting begin to recognize similarity, but con- example, the two dominant posts
with contrast; it is the root of trasts can sometimes escape in the right foreground begin a
representation. Perception of dif- notice. Let's review some of the right-to-left tilting sequence that
ferences allows us to show a tree most common kinds. is picked up bv the short fore-

against a wall, a wall against a There are two types of linear ground post, which is paralleled
an ear against a head.
sk\. or can contrast in
contrasts: lines by the more distant leaning pile
Without contrast we could not position or in quality of move- at left and then neutralized
see: without similarity we could ment. The strongest contrast of among the entire group of piles
not order what we see. position is opposition, such as near the left margin. A similar
Precisely because it is so basic lines or axes meeting at right an- set of changing angles relates
to seeing, contrast is often a gles (either horizontal/yertical or some of the horizontal or nearly
cause of grief to artists. It is all at other angles). A strong con- horizontal elements. The long
too easy to oyerstate differences. trast in quality of movement piece of railing at top left is inte-
We have all been plagued bv the would be a straight line versus a grated into a sequence that in-
too-sharp gable, the too-big wavv line or a jagged line versus cludes the two major lines imme-
mouth, the too-sharp edge, the a curving one. Firmlv drawn lines diately below it and ends in the
too-dark, too-light, too-red, and also contrast powerfully with de- two long leaning posts at right.
so forth. These are of all sins liberately hesitant ones. In addition, the direction of the
well-meant, but oyerdone, con- Shape contrasts also varv: circles main joist of the dock at the up-
trast. We are painting what we contrast with squares or triangles, per left parallels the axis of the
see. isolated and exaggerated bv and all three geometric shapes boat below it.
contrast. contrast with non-geometric ones. Since the distant scene is al-

EXPLOITING CONTRAST 53
Figure 45
Pumpkins and Apples b\ Samuel
Kamen. c. 1938, pi" x 6|" (13 x 17
cm), rough paper, collection of the
artist. The jar is similar to the
pumpkins in size, but contrasts with
them in shape. The apples are simi-
lar in shape, but contrast in value.
The framed picture is similar in
value (and pattern) to the left
pumpkin, but contrasts in shape.
Kamen's use of contrast is completely
controlled in this complex and re-
fined little painting. Photo by Peter
A. Julev.
34 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAV
most obscured by the fog, one
might contend that this fore-
ground and middleground plav
of contrasts and similarities is
really Klebe's subject. Sequences
(or gradations), especially of line,
very often carry the visual con-
notation of temporal change, as
we saw in Kaep's Antique Dealer's
Porch (figure 37). Here they pro-
vide an apt image of decav.
whereas the contrasts of direction
indicate the original strength of
the structure.
Two small paintings bySamuel
Kamen provide interesting exam-
ples of contrast in shape and size.
Pumpkins and Apples (figure 45)
displays a very sensitive balance
between shape contrast and size
similarity. The two pumpkins and
the jar vary in shape but are simi-
lar in size. They are arranged in
a tight inverted triangle that sta-
bilizes the design; the decoration
on the jar and the base of the
pumpkin at left echo each other
almost exactly. The apples, sim-
ilar in shape and size but varied
in value, form a sub-theme,
whereas the smaller whites create
a visual counterpoint through
their strong contrast and asym-
metrical placement.
In Berries (figure 28), Kamen
clusters small whites in the upper
left. This group of small accents
contrasts strongly with the larger
white of the jar at lower right. A
subtle, but easily perceived, bal-
ance results. Both of these
paintings are designed with re-
markable elegance and reward
careful analysis.
An astonishingly bold use of
interval contrast distinguishes
Arne Lindmark's Side Street,
Seville (figure 46). Approximately
the left two-thirds of the paper is trast is the basic principle of Figure 46
a barely articulated wall. The differentiation in seeing, and that Side Street, Seville bv Arne Lind-
mark. A.W.S., 1969, 22" x 28" (56 x
right one-third of the paper is it functions the same way in art.
71 cm), 300 lb. rough paper, collec-
split again, so that two-thirds of Some of the implications of this
tion of the artist. Lindmarks daring
this section is the view at the end are of special significance to you contrast of intervals makes this a
of the street, and the remaining as a representational painter. highlv unusual picture. He uses pro-
one-third is the enclosing wall at Pure differentiation is clearly portional relationships among them
to "tame" the contrasts and provide
the extreme right. These propor- the enemy of coherence. Nev-
an orderlv scaffolding for the paint-
tional relationships are very ertheless, you must use contrast, ing. Notice also how he contrasts
important to the success of the for it is the essential tool required washes with descriptive lines which
picture, for they provide a foun- to make a picture of any thing or are built up sequentially to his focal
dation of regularity on which to things. You make a white pine areas.

base dramatic contrast. tree, for example, by making it

Contrast can also occur in different from the other trees in

other aspects of pictorial order, your picture, not just by trying to
of course. In Rocks and Sea (fig- make it look like itself. Further, a
ure 47), Charles Hopkinson picture with few and subdued
strains contrast of paint texture contrasts is likely to be bland, for
to its very limit, but the similarity contrasts create visual excitement.
of his bold strokes maintains sur- Strong contrasts also demand
face coherence. the viewer's attention, attracting
and holding his eye. Hence you
Exercises must use vour contrasts carefully,
We emphasized earlier that con- placing them only where they will

EXPLOITING CONTRAST 55
4%&

w/it'jvA

Figure 47
Rocks and Sea by Clunk's Hopkinson, KU" x 22" (34 x 56). courtesy, Museum
of Fine Arts. Boston. Startling contrasts of value (and color), shape, and sur-
face handling contrive to project enormous visual excitement appropriate to
Hopkinson's dynamic subject. The picture is held together bv similaritv in the
brush strokes and, more subtly, bv similarity of the sizes of the areas. Note
also the sequences of directions in the water and rocks. This picture is very
different in treatment from Eliot O'Hara's .\lor>ii)ig Surf (figure 109).

56 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

enhance your purpose. quiet by nature. Just recall that you may not be exploiting con-
And, finally, you must contain these are positive qualities; you trasts as fully as possible. Check
your contrasts, hedge them with want to express them affirma- your work to see whether the vis-
appropriate similarities, so that tively, not make pictures that are ual excitement produced bv
the world of your picture does visual shrinking violets. Try using contrasts is enhancing your in-
not fly apart from excessive dif- more vigorous contrasts in the tended expression.
ferentiations. Fortunately, the spatial elements while calming
Spread your pictures out now
human habit of rhvthmic repeti- down your color a little.
and refer to your notes if you
tion will help you here; and
2. Has your picture too much have some. Ask yourself what
nature of course, offers
itself,
contrast? If so, it will tend to be general tendencies you see in
countless examples of compelling
uncomfortable to view. It may your use of contrasts. Is contrast
similarities. Your pine tree will
have a slightly explosive quality weak in more than half vour pic-
normally share its verticalitv with
a big noise about nothing. These tures? If so, you might deliber-
its birch and maple neighbors.
responses are all signs of dimin- ately try to intensify it. If you are
Get out your paintings now,
ished coherence and disinte- using it well, could you do better?
and rather than spread them
grating pictorial unity. Could you tie contrast to your ex-
around the room, stack them so
You probably only need to get pressive intent more subtlv? More
that you can look at them one at
contrast under control. A good strongly?
a time. You will eventually want
way to start is to reduce all con-
to draw some conclusions, so per-
trast quite consciously for a while. Summary
haps a notebook or pad will be
But it will you can figure
help if Contrasts are essential to seeing
useful.
out what type of contrast seems and to painting, since they dis-
This exercise may be a little
to be unharnessed. Is it mainlv tinguish one thing from another.
trickv at first because we've been
one of the spatial elements? Or But the principle of contrast is
talking about black-and-white im-
does it seem to be chiefly over- opposed to that of similarity,
ages, and yours, of course, are in
stated value contrasts? If you can which you need for pictorial co-
color. Try to separate out the
identify the source of the prob- herence. As a result, contrast
color as much as you can. Look-
lem, you can overcome it quickly, must be used with intelligent con-
ing through your eyelashes will
but don't forget that you want to trol.
help.
tame contrasts with similarities as There are two primary ways to
Keepnumber of considera-
a
well as use contrasts in expres- use contrast.First, you can make
tions in mind as you examine
sively effective ways. your picture interesting and ex-
each of your pictures. Remember
citing simply as a composition.
that you will try to confine vour-
3. Does contrast contribute to the This is important, since a paint-
self to contrasts in the spatial
meaning of your picture by
— shape,
factors line, size, and in-
focusing your attention on the
ing with
going to be
little contrast
To
is clearly

terval— and that these

dull. control con-
will often
significant sections of the work? trast in thisway, you need to
be expressed as value differences.
Have you placed contrasts in the tame it with similarities. Second,
1. Has your picture enough con- locations most advantageous to the way to exploit contrast is to
trast? Sometimes we are intu- your subject? Ideally, you are harness it to meaning. Not only
itively timid about putting strong using contrasts judiciously, tam- do you use it to arouse visual ex-
contrasts in our work. This can ing them so that they integrate citement, but you employ
lead to pictures which seem to well in a coherent picture sur- contrast for focus; you use its ex-
say, "Why look at me? I'm not face. You usually do not place citement to call attention to the
doing anything." You may be a verv strong contrasts way down points of primary concern in
person who is subtle, tender, and in the corner of your paper or your picture.
very close to its edge. Even so,

EXPLOITING CONTRAST 57
 Figure 48
Among Bare Maple Boughs by Loring W. Coleman, A.W.S. c. 1975, 28" x 20"
(71 x 51 cm), courtesv, Shore Gallery, Boston. At the intimate viewing distance
Coleman's super-realist approach invites prolonged enjoyment of the descrip-
tive textures he produces. His strong composition helps to tie together the
minutia of his observation so that the picture carries well and also rewards
inspection from the normal viewing distance.

58 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY


Are you aware of the
different viewing
distances from
which representational
pictures are enjoyed?
Critical Concern
Viewing a representational paint-
ing is complex to
sufficiently
make it helpful to divide and
analyze the ways we do it. When
you enter a room or a gallery
and glance around at the pictures
on the walls, some usually stand
out more than others.
recognize that the pictures that
arrest vour eve from a distance
have especially strong overall pat-
terns, usually of light-to-dark
contrasts.
A painting that attracts vou in
this way invites closer inspection.
You want to move up
fortable distance to enjov a
longer acquaintance with
pending on the size of the
picture, you may want to station
yourself four to eight feet awav
from it. I am referring to com-
monly used sizes of watercolor
paper, from a quarter to a full
sheet— 11" x 15" to 22" x 30" (28 x
38 to 56 x 76 cm). Obviously the
"normal" viewing distance for
very large or very small paintings
is different. At this
closer, viewing position,
tention is most likelv to
the representation —the subject
CHAPTER 8
Three Mewing
Distances
and "narrative" content of the a picture or pass by is deter-
it
painting. mined by its composition. From
Then, if you are like most the distant viewing position, the
most important aspect of a paint-
lovers of painting, you will be ir-
resistibly drawn farther forward, ing is the force of its major de-
often to within a few inches of sign components. These are nor-
the picture. At this more intimate mally perceived chieflv through
viewing distance, you admire the value contrast and include the
artist's —
technique you relish the picture's linear structure, the pat-
brushwork, the flow of colors, tern of its primary shapes, often
and the deftness of characteriza- the size and interval relation-
tion. ships, and sometimes the color
The reason for this analvsis will (see Karl Schmidt-Rottluf s Land-
be obvious to you: as a painter, scape, color plate 11). In a truly
not merely a viewer, you clearly fine picture, these components,
can profit from these three dif- seen from afar, clearly state the
ferent ways of looking. You want themes of the composition when
to produce pictures that attract viewed more closelv. In a repre-
You soon
attention from afar, sustain it at a sentational picture, the design
normal distance, and reward elements are so closely allied with
even the closest inspection. the subject that they also an-
nounce the dominant expressive
Illustrations theme of the painting. This is ex-
Loring W. Coleman's A mong Bare actly what happened when we
Maple Boughs (figure 48) is a first looked at Among Bare Maple
painting that is worthy of the Boughs (figure 48).
to a com-
most careful scrutiny. Let's exam- Composition, then, is not sim-
ine it from the standpoint of the ply a matter of creating a
it. De-
three viewing distances. pleasant, balanced design; it is
your means of stating simul-
Distant Viewing. Imagine yourself
taneously both the visual and
fifteen to twenty feet awav from
expressive themes of your pic-
the picture. As it catches vour
ture.
eve. vou cannot help but be
gripped bv the thrusting central Xormal Viewing. As vou draw
darks against light and the mas- nearer to Coleman's painting,
sive light against dark below. At you increasingly sense its com-
the same time, you recognize a plexity — not just in terms of
huge, bare-limbed tree. When descriptive detail, but especiallv
normal, or you draw closer, you realize that in terms of design. Whether vou
your at- Coleman has achieved his first initially read the design motif of
focus on aim: he has intrigued vou. the tree as a strong vertical axis,
Whether vou choose to look at as modulated S-curves, or as a
THREE VIEWING DISTANCES 59
basic X (all, and others, are possi- magic was done and to make the position. Remember that with the
ble), you find that these readings acquaintance of the hand of the light-to-dark painting procedure,
can alternate with each other. magician. You draw in close to your value pattern is slow to
You find, too, that each reading admire the paint handling, no- emerge, so you have to see your
becomes richer and is supported ticing how nicely the background picture as leading toward your
by more and more echoes as you wash is varied (and linked to initial value sketch.
get close enough to see more parts of the coarse bark) by As you look at your pictures,
layers of meaning. patches of rough brushing. You observe what "sticks out" in each.
v ou are now at a normal view- look, too, at the many examples Look from one to the next. See
ing distance, about four to five of crisp, deft drawing in details, whether there are similarities
feet, from the painting. Perhaps the economy of effect in some of among the major patterns; if so,
you become newly aware of the the stones, the freshness despite ask yourself whether they are jus-
focal role of the big limb scar in precision. tified. That is, are the similarly

the middle of the tree (and As you move back, now, for patterned paintings all pictures of
nearly the middle of the paper). another overall look, you know similar subjects? If the subjects
You can almost read it as the in- you have had a thoroughly satis- are different, it is possible that
tersection of the X. You notice fying experience. This is what all you are using a basic composition
how many times, and with what good paintings provide, and it is only through habit. Such habitual
subtle variations, the slight curves what you want vours to give. use of design is a good thing to
of the limbs are repeated; and nip in the bud: it generally
you observe the way the white Exercises means that you are not thinking
birch atieft and the larger trunk You will want to do quite a bit of enough about the "expressive"
to the right echo each other while moving around for this exercise, part of your art, and probably
picking up the branch shapes. so you might vour selection
limit not even enough about the "dec-
Perhaps you also enjoy the inter- of pictures to four or five. Pick orative" part. Variety for variety's
play of wedge shapes of similar what you think are your best sake is a step in the right direc-
size in the sky, background, ones and them up together at
set tion,but it is better when it
trunk, and foreground. one end of the room or in a wav springs naturally from your
Above all, however, you are that allows you to get well back thinking and feeling about your
now in a position to appreciate from them. (Take them outdoors, expressive purpose in each pic-
the artist's interpretation of his if the weather is good, but place ture.
subject. The huge-crowned maple them in the shade.) You max find Ideally, from this distance your
spreads its limbs all about it, but a note pad helpful. pictures reveal strong, varied
those to the right, away from the compositions. Wonderful! But do
sun, seem be dead or dying.
to 1. Distant Viewing. Station yourself the compositions provide clues to
Twigless, are these the "bare at least eighteen to twenty feet the design in detail and to the
boughs" of the title, so stark in away from your pictures. If possi- subject and meaning of each
contrast to the lively interlacing ble, try looking at them from work? Again, ideally, they do. Al-
of the small branches at left? You even farther away. Do you see most all of us, however, can
see that someone has cared about clear pattern or compositional profitably continue to work at
this tree: some dead limbs have structures in your pictures? If making this integration more
been cut off fairly recently. The not. your paintings do not "car- effective. Trial sketches can be an
birds, the wall, and the shadows ry" well. Not all pictures should. aid in helping you think through
point you to the right, however, Both the expressive aim
artist's your particular interest in a sub-
to the dead side of the tree. So and the purpose of the pic-
final ject.Painting a subject over and
you may sense that, although the ture affect the need or lack of — over will work, too. In both cases
imposing old maple has little time it —
for "carrying power" (see you give yourself an opportunity
left, it stands as a monument to Chapter 19). But if you are not to explore variations of design,
itself, a record of own com-
its deliberately seeking to make point of view, and color that will

plex life. And, with

aware- this quiet, retiring pictures, you may allow you to see in preliminary
ness, you recognize that the com- be making namby-pamby ones in- form what your conscious and
plex twists and alternations of advertently. In this case, resolve subconscious mind, working to-

your perception of the design to make much more forceful gether through your eyes and
parallel the artist's visual expres- value studies before you begin to hand, is making of the subject.
sion of his subject. paint and to get well away from You can then decide more easily
your work at least three or four on composition, color emphasis,
Intimate Viewing. By now you are times during painting to check on and the other variables in your
probably bursting to see how the the development of your com- bag of skills as an artist.

60 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

2. Normal Viewing. Move up now
to four or five feet from your
—
paintings a comfortable, normal
viewing distance. Check each pic-
ture individually. How does it
measure up to what it promised
from a distance? Does the design
follow through with elaborations
on the initial theme? Did the ini-
tial impression tell you what the
subject theme was and make you
curious to see it more closely?
Are you, in fact, rewarded by
finding out more about it? Fi-
nally, does the composition
support and qualify the subject?
The answers to these questions
should give you a good idea as to
whether you are using your artis-
tic knowledge to the best advan-
tage. If any one of them is nega-
tive, you are missing an oppor-
tunity for pictorial coherence that
you probably should be using.
The best way to deal with the
problem is to tackle it a bit at a
time. Try to work on whatever
omission seems most apparent in
your work, and don't worry
about any others until you have
that one under control.
3. Intimate Viewing.Get up to
within a foot or so of your pic-
tures. How do they hold up at
close range? This is where you
examine technical finesse. Apart
from good, workmanlike water-
color, are there some nice
felicitous passages? Are there
prises? These may be "happy
accidents," or they may be places
where something worked even
better than you thought it would.
Figure 49
Interior, New Mexico bv Edward
Hopper, 1925, 13&" x 19&" ( 34 x 50
cm), courtesy of the Art Institute of
Chicago. The basically triangular
composition insures clarity at a dis-
tance. It also encloses the "subject"
notice that the book is just below the
center of the paper. Hopper's tech-
nique is almost deliberately awkward.
Close inspection shows that he
wanted the viewer to sense how the
paper surface had been worked and
changed by the artist. You might like
to compare this painting with two
others of girls reading, figures 112
and 113.
sur-
THREE VIEWING DISTANCES 61
Figure 50 Look especially carefully at those Summary
Westerly by Carl Schmalz, 1965, 10|" areas where you were most sure The three viewing distances are a
x 23" (26 x 58 cm), 140 lb. hot
of yourself. You may find there reality, of course; but delineating
pressed paper, collection of the au-
thor. Alternating sequences of dark
the best indication of vour own them this way is also a device for
and change direction in a nice
light stylistic bent. analyzing your pictorial prob-
gradation around the reef at right, Perhaps you are a watercoloi ist lems. The simple fact is: a good
forming a visually exciting pattern who values overall results and is picture works well from any view-
that tells the viewer about the subject
not much interested in facility of ing distance.
even from a distance. Mam nuances
of color in the foam and rocks give
technique. You will be intrigued, You will find it useful to
interest to the intimate view. then, by Edward Hoppers Inte- scrutinize your works in this way
rior, New Mexico (figure 49),

which, range, provokes

periodically —
perhaps twice a
at close year. And you will learn a lot
wonderment of a different sort. about the process by looking
How can such seeming clumsi- carefully at any pictures available
ness resolve into so solid and to vou. Go to museums, traveling
unassailable a statement? At the your library, friends'
exhibitions,
intimate viewing distance. Hop- homes. Try to submit pictures to
per's painting is fascinating. One this kind of analysis whenever
way or another, yours ought to you can. You will learn a lot
be too. about what works and what
If you have am energy left, —
doesn't and why. All of it will
you might go through this pro- help you identify ways of improv-
cess with the other pictures in —
ing your own work what to try,
your collection. In any event, what to avoid. And, do be patient
look over your notes and collect with vourself. Painting well is an
your thoughts so you can deter- immensely complicated business.
mine where vou will put your It takes effort, and it takes time.
first efforts toward taking more

systematic advantage of the

three viewing distances.

62 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 9

Knowing
Your Palette
understanding with which to which the spec-
circular scale in

Is your palette working judge the results of the exercises trum from breaking
that results
you will be doing next.* down white light is bent into a
for you or against you? Most of the colors we ordi- circle, joining the red and blue
narily perceive arecomposed of ends at purple at the bottom (see
three elements. These are value section B, color plate 1). Yellow is

Critical Concern (lightness or darkness), hue (blue- at the top, with the warm hues
Despite a multitude of books and ness, redness, greenness, and so (reds and oranges) at left and the
articleson the subject, color per- forth), and intensity (brightness or cool hues (blues and greens) at
ception is one of the least dullness). right. (Yellow and purple may be
understood elements in human Value can be measured on a warm or cool, depending on con-
Even painters do not
vision. scale of nine neutrals (colors with text.)

know much about how it works
(although over the centuries they
have accumulated a good deal of
practical information about how
to use it). Still, color is one of the
most powerful tools at your com-
mand, and vou need to know as
much as possible about it.
The color situation closest to
home is your own palette. How
long has been since you really
it
thought about what colors you're
using, much less about what
other tubes of paint you have in
) our box or drawer? Curious col-
lections of paint can turn up on
an unexamined palette. Perhaps
now is the time to see what you
have, what you can do with it,
no hue or intensity), ranging Red, yellow, and blue cannot
from white to gray to black (see be mixed from other colors; they
section A, color plate 1). This are the primaries. Orange, green,
means there are seven value lev- and purple can be formed by
elsexcluding white and black, mixing red and yellow, yellow
with level five being the middle and blue, and blue and red re-
value. Middle value contrasts spectively: they are called
equally with white and black; secondaries.Each of these six col-
level three contrasts equally with ors can be mixed with the one
white and middle; level four con- adjoining it to form six interme-
trasts equally with three and five, diate colors (red-purple, blue-
and so forth. green, and so forth): they are
The nine-value scale gives you often called tertiaries. These
a useful number of divisions and twelve hues are ordinarilv
a wayunderstand an impor-
to enough for common description
tant relationshipbetween value and discussion of color, although,
and hue. If you are accustomed any number of in-
theoretically,
to designing within a framework termediate colors exists.
of fewer values than nine, this This division of the hue scale is

and whether it may be limiting scale can be simplified to

easily somewhat arbitrary, since there
vour expression. five —
white, light (three), middle, are, for instance, many more pos-
dark (seven), and black or to — sibilities for hues in the yellow
Illustrations —
three white, middle, and black. family —according to the spec-
In this chapter we are going to Hue is most usefully dia- trum breakdown of white light
analyze charts more than pic- grammed for painters on a than in the purple family. As
tures. Our purpose is to review painters, however, we are inter-
the basic dimensions of color, *The substantive material
ested less in what light can do
in this section
outline fundamental color rela- is based closely on the invaluable work than in what pigment can do,
tionships, and speak of some of of my
former teacher, Professor Arthur and since this simplification is
Pope Harvard University, to whom
of
the peculiar properties of color, gratefully record my debt (see Bibli-
I

made for pigment, it serves.

so that you will have a refreshed ography). When someone says, "green,"

KNOWING YOUR PALETTE 63

you almost certainly think of desired hue for lower intensities. Exercises
green most characteristic,
at its its The intensity of a hue is almost The scales we have discussed rep-
greenest. Most people do. We always related to its value. Notice resent ideal colors and relation-
rarely think first of, say, the color that the full intensity colors on ships, so you now need to dis-

of some plastic trash bags, al- the hue scale differ in value. cover what you r palette is like.

though they are also green. The They are arranged so that yellow, Get out your materials and in-
difference, of course, is one of the lightest, is at the top of the clude a couple of clean, discarded
intensity (and perhaps value). On scale and would be at about value painting backs, some scrap paper,
the hue scale, the hues are shown two, while purple, the darkest, is a ruler and compass, and a fresh
at the highest intensity achievable at the bottom and would be at water supply, as well as your
by pigments at full intensity. about value eight. Orange and brushes and palette. Also, put all

You know that to dull a hue, green are nearly the same in the tubes of paint you own in a

you can mix it with its complement, value, at about value four, as are handy spot.
the hue opposite it on the scale. red and blue, at value six. Since Draw a circle eight inches in di-
Hence, full-intensity red and each of these colors is shown at ameter on one of your sheets.
green mixed in approximately the highest intensity achievable Mark the center; then mark off
equal proportions will yield a with paint, it follows that any the yellow and purple positions at
gray of a value about halfway be- change in them will lower their top and bottom and the red-or-
tween the values of full-intensity intensity. If you add black or ange and blue-green positions at
red and green, or about middle white to one of them, vou will left and right. Use your compass

value (five). The same thing hap- not only lower or raise its value to establish the remaining eight
pens with other mixed comple- but also lower its intensity. This is hue locations, and measure off
mentaries. because both black paint and two points, by eye, between each
If you add only a little green to white paper (the "white" of trans- of the four established positions.
your red, you will dull it (lower parent watercolor) are neutrals. Make three interior concentric
its intensity) much less. Similarly, Modeling, therefore, will inevita- circles one inch apart to repre-
ifyou add only a little red to bly involve some degree of sent the intensity scale. Label the
your green you will obtain not a intensity reduction. location of each of the twelve -

gray, but a relatively less intense You should also note that due hues— Y, YG, G, BG, and so
green. If we imagine middle- to the variation of value among forth —but do not paint them on.
value neutral at the center of the hues at highest intensity, the light The object of this exercise is to
hue scale, as shown in sections B and dark ranges of hues vary. For discover something about vour
and C of color plate 1, and then example, the possibility for dark palette's actual potential. Check-
imagine three steps each way purples is very small, as are the ing first to see that your paint is

from neutral to full-intensity
green on one side and from neu-
tral to full-intensity red on the
other, we can measure off inten-
sity: intensity (or neutral), 1/4
intensity, 1/2 intensity, 3/4 inten-
sity, and full intensity,
the terms I will use here. These
terms provide a scale of inten-
sitiesthat will enable you to think
more clearly about this most elu-
sive aspect of color.
For example, if you mix blue
and yellow produce green, this
to
combination will produce a green
of about 1/2 intensity;
possibilities for light yellows, a
fact reflected in verbal
English has many words
purples, such as orchid, violet,
lavender, and none that
think of for dark purples;
which are however, there are few words for
and many for dark
light yellows
—
ones brown, mustard, gold
To sum up, the diagrams and
their relationships in color plate
provide a means by which we can
describe, discuss, and think about
color with reasonable accuracy;
and the terms used here will be
whereas, if those employed in the following
absolutely clean, take up a
language. brushload of one of your yellows.
for light Put a dab on a piece of scrap
paper. While it dries slightly, try
I can to remember its tube name. (If
you can't remember, don't wor-
ry.) Now look at the dab. Does it
seem more greenish than "true"
.
yellow? More orangish? If it
seems neither more green nor
1 more orange than "true" yellow,
place a new patch of it outside
your circle at Y. Otherwise, place
the patch to the right or left of Y
at a distance that seems to indi-
cate about the degree to which it

you mix yellow-green and blue- chapters. Be sure that you under- appears green or orange. (In art,
green, the green yielded will be stand them because they will be color is a psychological as well as
greater than 3/4 intensity. Hence used in later considerations of a physical phenomenon. Each of
you can derive this general rule similarity and contrast of color. If us will, therefore, have a slighdy
for color mixing: mix full- you are interested in pursuing different notion of what a "true"
intensity hues that are closer to the subtle characteristics of color, hue looks like. So use your best
the desired hue for higher inten- I recommend that you read Color judgment and don't think you
sities; mix hues farther from the in Art (see the Bibliography). are establishing absolute hues for

64 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 A. B.
YELLOW

1 WHITE

YELLOW-ORANGE YELLOW-GREEN

ORANGE GREEN

GREEN MIXED
FROM BLUE-GREEN
3 LIGHT AND YELLOW-GREEN

RED-ORANGE BLUE-GREEN

RED BLUE
5 MIDDLE

RED-PURPLE

FULL-INTENSITY
GREEN

7 DARK
3/4

1/2

NEUTRAL
1/4

1/2

9 BLACK FULL-INTENSITY 3/4

RED

D.
CADMIUM YELLOW PALE

CADMIUM YELLOW MEDIUM

THALO YELLOW GREEN

Color Plate 1
CADMIUM ORANGE
A. Value Scale. B. Hue Scale. C. In-
tensity Scale for Red and Green. D.
Location of Pigments on Hue/Inten-
sity Scale. This is a hue and intensity VERMILION
map of the colors ha\e regularly
I
IND
used on my palette for the past few
years. I add phthalocyanine blue and/
or green occasionally. CERULEAN BLUE

ALIZARIN CRIMSON
GOLDEN 'COBALT BLUE

THIO VIOLET
FRENCH ULTRAMARINE BLUE
COBALT VIOLET

THALO PURPLE

KNOWING YOUR PALETTE 65

 CADMIUM ALIZARIN CRIMSON
YELLOW PALE GOLDEN

CADMIUM VERMILION LIGHT

YELLOW DEEP

BRILLIANT ORANGE #1

CADMIUM YELLOW
MEDIUM

CADMIUM YELLOW
ALIZARIN CRIMSON PALE
GOLDEN

THALO YELLOW
GREEN

PHTHALOCYANINE
GREEN
COBALT VIOLET

CERULEAN BLUE

THALO PURPLE
PHTHALOCYANINE
BLUE
DIOXAZINE PURPLE

COBALT BLUE
FRENCH
ULTRAMARINE BLUE
FRENCH
ULTRAMARINE BLUE
COBALT BLUE

THIO VIOLET

CERULEAN BLUE
DIOXAZINE PURPLE

THALO YELLOW
GREEN
INDIAN RED

ENGLISH RED
LIGHT
RAW SIENNA
BRILLIANT BROWN
LIGHT
RAW UMBER
RAW SIENNA

SEPIA
BRILLIANT BROWN
DEEP

RAW UMBER

Color Plat, 2.
Transparency/Opacity Tests. Column A shows the relative transparent:) of ltf colors selected from m\ own palette and a
few from the palettes of m\ students. The extreme right ends of these color samples have been exposed to 350 to 400
hours of direct sunlight. Note that only one shows an) change. This, marked with an asterisk, is vermilion light, which
has darkened slightly. Column B shows similar colors, with phthalocyanine blue and green added. The right ends of
these colors have been sponged off. he phthalocyanine blue, a student grade, washed off as completely as the cerulean
I

blue. Indian red. a ver) opaque color, stained deeply. Surprises like this illustrate the importance of running these tests
on am new color you acquire, even on the same color made bv different manufacturers. These tests also reveal that
artist-grade colors are far more reliable and predictable than student grades.

66 WAT KRCOI.OR Y(H R WAV

 CADMIUM CADMIUM
GREENS CADMIUM YELLOW YELLOW
VERMILION ORANGE MEDIUM PALE

CERULEAN BLUE

COBALT BLUE

FRENCH ULTRAMARINE BLUE

ORANGES
VERMILION THIO VIOLET

CADMIUM YELLOW MEDIUM

CADMIUM YELLOW PALE

PURPLES
VERMILION THIO VIOLET

COBALT BLUE

FRENCH ULTRAMARINE BLUE

Color Plate 3
Secondary Mixing
Exercises

KNOWING VOIR PALETTE 67

 nwi«jQjm&*i^

Color Plate 4 (above) all time!) Write the abbreviated sects the relative intensity circle.
Band Concert bv Maurice Pren-
tube color name near the patch if Label the tube name as before
dergast, c. 1909-10, 13^" x 9f (34 x
24 cm), rough paper, courtesy, Am-
you can. Go through this same and continue with all the neutrals
herst College Collection. Prendergast process with all full-intensity col- on your palette. This will pro-
unifies his surface principally b) ors on your palette and try to duce a "map" of your palette
keeping brushstrokes relatively small label thoseyou are unsure of by similar to that of mine in section
and about the same in size (and often a process of elimination. D, color plate 1.
in shape). He breaks up larger areas
Your next step is a little more You are now prepared to take
arbitrarily to avoid excessive contrast
between them and the areas articu- difficult. Estimate both the hue a good analytic look atyour pal-
lated by obvious strokes; therefore, and the your more
intensity of ette as a working tool. You may
the sky here is treated as a discon- neutral colors (such as burnt si- want to set up your paintings
tinuous wash. He also employs color along with this schematic map of
enna, Payne's gray, yellow ochre).
patches for surface coherence.
In the same way as before, paint your palette.
Color Plate 5 (opposite page)
a patch on scrap paper. Consider
The Ell bv Loring YV. Coleman, 1. Consider firstyour palette's
first what hue (or, if it is very low
A.W.S. 1976, 20" x 40" (51 x 102 cm), balance. Do you have a lot of col-
cold pressed paper, courtesy, Shore in intensity, its hue family for — ors grouped in one part of the
Gallery, Boston. Thekey to surface example, reds) most closely ap-
it
hue scale? Sometimes this exer-
coherence is not a particular kind of proximates. Next, checking the
edge, but consistency in the handling cise reveals a painter with, say,
patch against the full-intensity
of edges. Coleman treats all edges one lonesome yellow. Often you
colors outside the periphery of
here with crisp clarity. Concern can recognize in your palette
with accurate descriptive textures su- your circle and against the center
map the same preponderance of
percedes emphasis on paint texture gray, if you have one, judge
colors that you can see in your
and is the basis of a unified surface which of the intensity lines inside
that can include the smooth blue sky pictures. If you are not al-
your circle most closely corre-
as well as the grassy foreground. The together happy with the overall
reds of door and chimney relate, and sponds to the intensity of your
color tonality of your pictures, it
the blue window shade forms a tri- sample. Then paint a patch of it
is easy to see what to do about it.
angle with the reds. where the appropriate hue inter-
Suppose, for example, your pic-

68 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

tures are running to a 1/2-
intensity blue-green look.Check
your reds, red-oranges, and or-
anges. Have you only a few? Try
eliminating some of your blues
anyway. In general, it is wise to
strip down your palette while re-
taining as much richness of
mixing as possible (see Chapters
10 and 11).
can exercise over your palette.
Especially in a period when man-
ufacturers of artists' pigments are
developing new colors every vear,
it is important for every painter

and greens and adding a red or to do some exploring. Only a

3. Oneof the watercolorist's plea-
two. Perhaps you have many decade ago we were still in antiq-
sures is buying tubes of new
patches on your inner circles. uity with respect to agood
colors. It an innocent indul-
is
Maybe you should consider elim- permanent purple; now there are
gence and an indispensable way
inating a few neutrals and adding several. Indeed, today you can
of exploring new coloristic
some full-intensity colors. In gen- paint with a palette close to the
ground, but it can produce a
eral, the warm colors tend to be full-intensity hue scale if you
large number of rejects. If you
somewhat weaker in mixtures wish.
have energy (and space) enough,
than the cool ones. So if your Many painters, too, are sub-
you might now either add to
palette shows more warms than jected to the limitations of their
your palette map samples from
cools, this is usuallv all right. For- local art supplier. Too often onlv
the additional tubes you have at
more warms
tunately, there are
than cools among pigments.
—
hand or, better, place them on a
one brand of watercolor is availa-
ble. Habits are formed that have
new hue and intensity scale. This
nothing to do with informed
2. Another common result of this will suggest to you something
choice. Try to familiarize yourself
exercise is the discovery that your about your color preferences.
with the products of all the repu-
palette includes more colors than The new colors may reflect the
table manufacturers; each makes
you your palette
really need. If pattern of your actual palette, but
some useful colors not produced
map is packed, you should per- the\ may also reveal a secret try-
by the others. I regularly use
haps think about some econo- ing to get out! More intense
paints of three, sometimes four,
mies. Start with redundant colors colors? More warm colors? More
major brand names.
such as phthalocyanine blues by violet colors? If you seem to be
It remains true, however, that
two manufacturers; you don't trving to tell yourself something,
with experience all artists tend to
need both on your palette at the why not act on it? Make some
use fewer colors in more varied
same time. Do you seem to have substitutions; see what happens.
ways. So, while remaining open
a lot of browns? Check your pal-
to new possibilities, you should
ette to discover whether any Summary
seek an economy of color consis-
browns are hard and dry. Those It is all too easy to fall into com-
tent with your expressive needs.
might be eliminated, since you fortable color habits and forget
are not using them very often about the intelligent control you

KNOW INC; VOL R PALETTE 69

 Color Plate 6
Homosassa River h\ Winslow Homer. 1904. 19|" x 14" (50 x 36 cm), collection of the Brooklyn Museum
Purchase Fund. Homer's use of reserved lights provides an econom) of technique that made the actual
painting of the picture simpler and makes the viewer sense that simplicity even though he may not
recognize how it was done. Particularly effective here is the wa\ the same wash is employed for the
distant jungle at the right and. bv reserving, for the Spanish moss and the palm trunk at left. Some
lights were lifted out bv wetting a dried area and blotting it after a moment. This is true of the fore-
ground tipples. Color organization is based on similarity of low intensities as well as similarity of hues:
orange, vellow-orange, yellow, \ellow-green. green, blue-green, and blue, plus accents of red-purple.

70 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 10

Transparent
and Opaque
relative transparency/opacity of paints are made are often lakes.

Are you aware of the your colors so as to use them These are man made pigments
effectively. produced bv dying powdered
options of transparent alumina hvdrate or some other
and opaque pigment Illustrations inert base. In general, inorganic

that your palette offers? For the ordinary artist
cult to find out exactly
watercolor paints are
what makes various colors behave
Critical Concern so differently. We have all
Artists working in all media have watched some astonishingly ag-
long been aware of the different gressive color "invade" still-wet
effects that result from the rela- colors already on the paper. We
tive transparencies of their also know that a smooth wash of
paints. Tempera painters of the low value is impossible with some
it is diffi- pigments tend to be opaque,
how whereas organic ones tend to be
made and transparent.
Although the precise recipes
for colors vary considerabh . wa-
tercolor paints are basically made
from a mixture of pigment and a
binder of gum, glvcerine, and
other substances, including ox
gall, a "wetting" agent. Apart

thirteenth and fourteenth cen- colors, and that relative trans- from the inherent transparencv
turies treated the more trans- parency and strength in mixtures of the pigment particles, their
parent red madders in ways quite vary greatly. Here is a general particular refractive index affects
distinct from their handling of explanation of why some of these their transparencv when made up
vermilion, which is fairly opaque. things happen.* as paint. The closer the refractive
Oil painters of the seventeenth Pigments are tiny substances index of a pigment is to that of
century, notably Rubens, also ex- that absorb some light rays and water, the more transparent that
ploited the varying transparencies reflect others. For example, co- watercolor paint will be. Some
of paints. balt blue absorbs nearly all rays heat-treated earths, for instance,
To the transparent water- (or wavelengths) except blue are far more transparent than
colorist.however, this variability ones, which it reflects, making it their raw counterparts (for exam-
offers perhaps even greater op- look blue to our eyes. These sub- ple,burnt and raw umber)
portunities. Especially at the stances van in molecular struc- because their refractive index has
intimate viewing distance, the ture, which causes them also to been changed. With some pig-
play between the limpid clarity of vary in particle size, in inherent ments, relatively little colorant is
a wash of transparent color and transparency, and in refractive needed to make a satisfactory
left bv more
the granulation index (a measure of the power to paint. This also increases that
opaque pigments can be a lively absorb, transmit, and bend light). paint's transparency. Converselv.
source of pleasure for the viewer. There are two main classes of the synthetic organic paints very
In addition, the behavior of the pigments — inorganic (mineral) often contain proportionatelv
two types of pigment in mixtures and organic (vegetable). Today more colorant, which is also often
is distinctive, and all these varia- the latter are nearly all svnthetic. stronger than most inorganic pig-
tions can be used for particular and those from which artists' ments. Hence, synthetic organics
effects, some descriptive and tend to stain the paper.
some more exclusively for pic- *l am
deeply grateful to Mr Murray Among the inorganic pigment-
torial coherence and expression. Greenberg. Chief Chemist at M. Grum-
based paints, some settle otit. or
bacher. Inc.. for providing much of the
important, therefore, that
It is
following information, and clarifying granulate. This is the result of
you acquaint yourself w ith the much else their "grind," that is. the size of

TRANSPARENT AND OPAQUE 71

Cobr Plate 7
Maine Still Life Carl Schmalz,
15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), 140 lb.
pressed paper, collection of the au-
thor. In its major portions, this
picture was clone almost entirely by
reserving lights, which allowed me to
paint economically and relatively
quickly and to preserve a sense of the
logic of transparent watercolor pro-
cedure. The initial wash on the
ster traps was mixed chiefly with
dian red and cobalt blue, two fairly
opaque pigments. I laid on the wash
quite wet in order to obtain the gran-
ulation caused by the settling out of
the pigment particles. This texture
transforms descriptive texture into
paint texture similar to the paint sur-
face elsewhere on the paper.mini-
I
mized detail on the lobster traps be-
hind the center spray of lilies to in-
crease a sense of space there.
particle necessary for optimum
1974. color effect. Larger particles will
hot
settleout of a wash or mixture as
a granular sediment. Finally,
some pigments require much
more of the wetting agent than
others if they are to flow and mix
easily. When a paint with more
lob-
wetting agent is placed next to a
in- wet wash of a paint with less,
former will "invade" the latter.
Usually painters lack the scien-
tificbackground necessary to
understand specific explanations
of paint behavior, much less pre-
dict how paints will behave; so
each watercolorist must take re-
sponsibility for determining the
functional properties of his
paints. The following tests will
help you do this.
Exercises
The purpose of these experi-
ments is to acquaint you further
with your own palette. Since your
palette probably already reflects
predispositions that are more or
less your own, the exercises here
are designed to help you decide
whether it is as useful to you in
all ways as it might be.
1. First, test your colors for rela-
tive transparency (see column A
the color plate 2). You will need a
fresh half-sheet of paper; again,
the back, of a discarded painting
will do. Get out your usual mate-
rialsand, if you have it, some
waterproof India ink.
Paint a line about one-half inch
wide down the length of the left
edge of your sheet, using the In-
dia ink or the blackest pigment
on your palette. Leave enough
space to write on the left side of
the line. If you have more than
about twenty-five colors, set down
another line parallel to the first,
about ten inches to the right of it.
While these lines dry, survey

72 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

your colors. Make notations to had set aside during the exercises Color Plate 8
the extreme left of the top of the inChapter 9. Be sure to label July 6, 1976 by Carl Schmalz, 1976,
15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), 140 lb. hot
left line, indicating the first four each stripe with the tube color
pressed paper, collection of the au-
colors you will use. and, if you have more than one
thor. Edges here are consistendv
When the black line or lines color the same, the brand name. sharp, except for a few soft-edged
are thoroughly dry, begin making Now let the whole thing dry. variations within larger tones. I used
pigment mixtures of the colors As the stripes painted first dry, edges as well as strokes to achieve
surface coherence; thus there is no
you already noted. To produce you will discern differences in the
variation to indicate distance. This
the clearest results, make your opacity of each color against the
subject presented an intriguing com-
color mixtures fairly heavy. Use a black.The metal-based pigments positional challenge because the high-
brush that will give a stroke willbe the most opaque. Some of intensity reds and the insistent stripes
about one-half inch wide. The the earth colors (many of which of the flag were so different from
their surroundings. I put a distant
proportion of paint to water are from natural metals or min-
tree in the center of the picture, par-
ought to be such that, although erals) will be fairly opaque, too.
alleled the stripes with the treetrunks
the paint flows on evenly, the There are variables among the at the left of the flag, neutralized the
color is as intense as possible. If synthetic pigments, since some sharp movement into pictorial space
you have used paint to make contain a more inert base than created bv the procession of trees by
placing the vanishing point behind
your black line, put on only one others, but in general the organic
the lower center of the flag, and
stroke of color; otherwise the synthetics will nearly always be
picked up some of the whites and
black will pick up and muddy virtually transparent, regardless blues in the houses at left. Color or-
your test strips. When your first of their inherent value and tint- ganization is basicallv red/green, with
color is ready, paint a three-inch- ing power. In any case, you will a sub-theme of the contrasting com-
plementaries, blue, blue/purple, and
long strip across the black line. probably discover some surprises.
vellow/orange.
Do this for all the colors on your
palette. If you wish, continue 2. The staining properties of pig-
with the spare colors that you ments are not necessarily related

TRANSPARENT AND OPAQUE 73

Color Plate 9 (top)
Fort River, Fall by Carl Schmalz, 1974, 15" x 22" (38 x 56
cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collection of Ellen Berezin
and Lewis A. Shepard. The water's edge divides this pic-
—
ture into two distinct parts the upper is crisp and in-
tense, the lower is somewhat darker and less intense. The
rock and leaves in the right foreground are linked in
color and value to the upper section. The overall shape
of this light is echoed bv the red reflection at the center
of the picture.
74 WATERCOLOR YOUR WA\
Color Plate 10 (above)
Indian Point by Carl Schmalz, 1965, lOf x 22|" (26 x 57
cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collection of the author.
Sometimes similarities are hard to detect. Here, for exam-
ple, the general mass of rock and trees at left is similar in
shape to the much smaller rock on the beach at far right.
The light top of the left foreground rock is similar in
size, but not shape, to the light water area above and left
of it. The shape and size of that rock is echoed in the
dark island ledges at extreme left.
to their transparencies. If you
know only about relative trans-
parency, you can't easily predict
whether a pigment will wash off
easily and completely. Since this
information is valuable, you need
to do another experiment, ex-
emplified in column B, color
plate 2.
Using discarded paper to cover
the stripes you've already made,
mask off all but about one-half
inch on the right side of each
stripe. Ifyou have two rows of
stripes, do both, but also protect
the left ends of the stripes on the
second row. Hold the paper mask
down well and, with a small
sponge, wash as much as you can
off the exposed ends of the
stripes. You won't need much
water, but must be clean.
it
Depending upon the make and
quality of your paints, there will
be some surprises here, too. (I
had one phthalocyanine blue — Color Plate 11
—
student grade wash off com- Landscape. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff,
1911, 19£" x 25£" (50 x 65 cm), collec-
pletely!) In general, the more
tion of the Dr. William R. Valentiner
transparent colors do not wash Estate. One of the German Expres-
off as easily as the more opaque sionists, Schmidt-Rottluff uses bold
ones, but again this is variable. strokes and intense colors for max-
The ultramarine blue of some imum visual excitement. Color is
controlled principally bv similarity of
manufacturers is quite opaque,
high intensity and, to a lesser degree,
but nearly all ultramarines stain by a sequence around the hue scale.
fairly deeply, as do the darker Similarities of shape also order the
cadmiums. surface, containing the powerful
color that draws the viewer's atten-
3. Finally, you may wish run to tion from a distance and delights him
on longer obser\ation.
one other test of the colors you
are using. This test is imperative
if you are using anything but the
finest artists' colors produced by
a reputable firm. This is a light-
fastness test (column A, color
plate 2). Using a heavy opaque
board, cover all but one-half inch
of the left end of your stripes.
Fasten the paper and board,
paint side out, against the glass in
a south window (or east or west,
TRANSPARENT AND OPAQUE
 *\ & ,J>
tf Mm
Color Plate 12
SaltMarsh, June by Carl Schmalz,
1976, 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), 140 lb.
hot pressed paper, collection of Polly
Bain. This painting "carries" because
of color contrast. Value contrast is
minimal, but the color is relatively in-
tense. Color design is based on
yellow-green/red-purple and orange/
blue complementaries. The surface is
unified overall by strokes which vary
in size within a reasonable range and
by deliberately courted granulation
obtained from opaque colors.
76 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY
ifyou have no southern ex-
posure), and leave it until you
calculate that is has received be-
tween three and six hundred
hours of direct sunlight. With
good paints, you should find little
change. Some reddish purples
are still not very fade resistant,
and vermilion will occasionally
darken and lose its brilliance.
Overall, you should discover that
your paints are remarkably per-
manent, but you should probably
abandon, however reluctantly,
any color that fades markedly
under treatment.
this
Apart from ridding your pal-
etteof any impermanent colors,
what can these exercises tell you?
Most importantly, by identifying
your opaque colors, you acquire
the knowledge necessary to use
them well. Surely you were al-
ready aware of some opaques,
but you have probably found
C t* *A A L Z_
4HL 4 r "
I
more. You also know which
opaques are most easily removed.
You can now decide which blue
to use for a sky that you will
need to wash color from for
lighter yellow-green foliage. You
know which colors not to use be-
neath a glaze.
Similarly, you have identified
your transparents and know
which lift most completely.
Transparents are good for any
glazing or overpainting, and
those that stained most are excel-
lent for underpainting. Trans-
parents are also your best bet for
keeping dark areas lively. Those
that are naturally dark are par-
ticularly good.
Finally, in mixing,you know
which colors to reach for to pro-
duce a clear, luminous wash (of
whatever size) and which will
produce the lovely granulations
mentioned earlier. Almost any
two opaques will give you some transparent. This rule doesn't al- Color Plate 13
granulation, but the most opaque ways work, but it may be helpful Bell House by Murray Wentworth,
22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm) smooth paper,
will generally provide it best. as a guide. In general, the most
collection of the artist. Color organi-
Among the double mixtures most opaque paints are best used in zation here is based on similarity of
used for these effects are: areas of lighter value because very low intensities and balance of
cerulean blue and Indian red, they can so easily become muddy, complementaries. Value contrasts
vermilion, cadmium red, or co- whereas dark transparents are form the basic upside-down "T" of
the design, and are also used to ac-
balt violet; cobalt blue and Indian helpful for dark and very dark
cent much of the descriptive detail.
red; cadmium yellow light and areas.
The visual interest of the bell at left
cobalt violet; and cobalt violet The usefulness of your palette is equalized by the wealth of weeds

and Thalo yellow green. The depends on the degree to which and splashes of intense color at right.
background interest in Ebbing you understand it as a tool. You Overall, the paper illustrates a se-
quential ordering of brushstrokes,
Tide, Kennebunkport (color plate should know it as profoundly as
from the quite broad strokes at the
16) derives largely from this type possible —where it is flexible;
edges to the small, fine, descriptive
of mixture. where it is obstinate; when, how, ones near the center. The movement
and why you must augment it; implied by sequential ordering helps
Summary when you can limit it. It is as to emphasize the breezy quality of
the representation.
A rule of thumb forjudging much an instrument of your will,
transparency/opacity is this: met- wish, and feeling as your brushes.
als (for example, cadmiums, The colors you employ and the
cobalts, iron oxides, manganese, mixtures that express your ideas
vermilion) tend to be relatively are only as rich as your palette's
opaque, as do mineral earths; capacity. So don't take that array
organic colors, including synthet- of paints too lightly!
ic organics, tend to be relatively

TRANSPARENT AND OPAQUE 77

 **\

1
r-*i<

*
m

mm
'/

: *

Color Plate 14
Landscape, Bermuda by Charles Demuth, 1916, 8"
x IOf (20 x 27 cm) hot
pressed paper, courtesy, Amherst College
Collection. Demuth organizes his
color m this little landscape chiefly in terms
of a hue sequence from blue
through the greens to yellow. The viewer senses
strongly the family resem-
blances of these colors. Played off against
them are high-value, low-intensity
complements-pale purple and pink-in small amounts.
The interlocking of
snarpedged shapes of about the same sizes unifies
the picture's surface

78 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 11

Color Mixing

aware as possible of these choices, 2. To alter a hue with minimal

Are you getting the most for recognizing that color mixing loss of intensity, add the intense
involves selection is one of the hue nearest it on the hue scale in
your palette can offer? most effective ways of grasping the direction vou wish to change
the essence of painting. Painting it. For example, to push phthalo-

Critical Concern
is ordering —ordering all of your cyanine green toward yellow, add
visual means according to your cadmium yellow lemon, pale, or
As were Chapters 9 and 10, this
personal sense of priorities. It is light, rather than cadmium
chapter is more about the essen-
your intellect, eyes, and hands yellow medium.
tials of color than about criticism.
employing your materials to im-
It is a necessary preliminary to Most of you are so familiar with
pose a visible structure on your
Chapter 12, "Color Design," these rules that you scarcely think
emotions. Selecting among the
however, as well as to some of of them anymore. In fact, you
millions of color possibilities your
the concerns of later chapters. probably have developed a num-
palette affordsis one of your
Since brilliance one of trans-
is ber of shortcuts for graying
most powerful means of ordering
parent watercolor's primary colors. Most commonly, shortcuts
your perceptions.
attractions, it is easy to forget involve mixing a color you want
that the reflection of white paper togray with one already low in
Illustrations
through a pigment layer, which is intensity,such as raw umber or
For the representational painter,
what produces watercolor's lumi- burnt sienna. An equally good
the principal usefulness of color
nosity, is also responsible for but less frequently used shortcut
mixing isreduce intensities, or
to
some of the subtlest effects in all is mix hues distant
deliberately to
to gray colors. This is because the
painting. Using pure color, or from your intended hue. That is,
world we see normally shows rel-
colors only slightly mixed, en- where phthalocyanine green and
atively few full intensities, and
courages brilliance; but you also cadmium yellow lemon will yield
those usually in small quantities.
need to know how to create softly an intense yellow-green, a neutral
Apart from the blue sky (and its
luminous tonalities. This means yellow-green can be mixed from
reflection in water), birds, but-
understanding the color mixtures cerulean blue and cadmium or-
terflies, flowers, fruits, and
your palette can provide. ange. This neutral yellow-green
berries are typical sources of nat-
The simplest color mixtures will be quite distinct from one
ural high-intensity colors, which
are "double" —that is, one color
is why fall foliage is such a de-
mixed from phthalocyanine
added to another. If your palette green and cadmium yellow lem-
light.
contains eighteen colors, those on, and grayed with, say, alizarin
The other function of color
you add
possibilities total 153. If crimson, although they can be
mixing is to alter the hue of a
the variations in value and pro- very close in hue and intensity.
paint. Your palette, no matter
portion of each double mixture, The usefulness of color theory
how copious, is hue-limited. The
your number of possible colors of any
in predicting the results
particular yellow-green of a field
becomes astronomical. given mixture must, of course, be
in sunlight usually must be
Actually, you choose to use augmented by experience. Unless
mixed. The simple rules of these
only a few of these possibilities, you are using a scientifically pre-
two types of mixing are:
and only a few of the customary pared spectrum palette which is —
triple and quadruple mixtures as 1. To
gray a color, add its com- uncommon among watercolor-
well. You should try to be as plement. ists —you know that few of your
COLOR MIXING 79
80 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY
 *
Color Plate 15 (above left)
Winter's Workby Carl Schmalz,
1965, 13" x 30f (33 x 77 cm), 140 lb.
hot pressed paper, collection of the
author. Virginia Beach Boardwalk
Show, Frank Dewolf Award for Tra-
ditional Watercolor, 1965. A
sequential reduction in value and
value contrast depicting the cloud-
shadowed distance is especially visible
in the right third of the picture.
Color design is due in part to sim-
ilarity of one-half to one-quarter
intensities, the hue range being
nearly complete. The nearby clutter
and strong value contrasts of the boat
at left balance the drive into space
along the right road, which is stop-
ped by a third boat.
Color Plate 16 (left)
Ebbing Tide, Kennebunkport by Carl
Schmalz, 1976, 15" x 22f (38 x 57
cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collec-
tion of the author. This is a pretty
standard "easy" picture, modified
only by the need to reserve whites
for the boats. I chose to use my most
opaque colors in the sky and dis-
—
tance cerulean and cobalt blue,
indian red, Thalo yellow green,
—
etc. painting them on very wetly to
insure maximum granulation. This
adds paint texture interest to other-
wise unmodulated areas. Notice that
there is a rough correspondence be-
tween the darker foliage at left and
the boat at left, and between the two
boats at right and the foreground
posts. This occurred spontaneously,
and is an example of the human ten-
dency toward order mentioned in
Chapter 5.
^A'-
TO
Color Plate 17 (above)
Nursery by Susan Heidemann 1976, ,
22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm), 140 lb. rough
paper, collection of the arust. Heide-
mann selects an unusual subject and
treats it with and subdety.
skill
Strokes organize the surface in a
beautifully knit pattern. Her color or-
ganization is based on the triad
yellow-orange/blue-green/red-purple
with accented areas of red-purple's
complement, yellow-green. This is an
interesting variation on the red/
yellow/blue triad of primaries. Re-
member that there are two other sets
of triads that can be useful as a basis
for color organization.
COLOR MIXING 81
 Color Plate 18
Wind Blown Iris bv William Preston, 20" x 14" (51 x 36 cm), rough paper,
courtesy, Shore Gallery, Boston. This painting beautifully illustrates an overall
balance of sharp, ragged, and soft edges, as well as skillfully reserved lights.
Note especially the foliage at lower right. To augment the drawing, Preston
accents the intensity contrast between the weathered shingles and the leaves
and blossoms, creating a strong sense of intervening space. Though the
blossoms are massed to the left of center, the intensity and complexity of the
leaves balances them effectively. For an interesting contrast of technical han-
dling compare w ith Color Plate 7
this •

82 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 ~U^£fftr£: '6)

pigments fall exactly on "true" that your hue scale provides a Color Plate 19
hues. This makes accurate pre- handy reference to the relative Lawn bv Fairfield Porter, 1969, 1 15-" x

diction difficult, but is
great advantage because
mits all kinds of wonderful
maverick mixtures; these you
actually a hues of the paints on your pal- 15f (29 x 39 cm), 140 lb. rough
paper, collection of the author. This
it per- ette. Remember to label all your sketch is both strong and delightful:
mixtures. strong because of telling value con-
trasts, delightful because of richly

simply have to learn. 1. Begin by making simple double
mixtures, approximately half and
Exercises half, of the intense hues on your
These exercises are designed to palette that are most nearly com-
give you some systematic under- plementary. Where you do not
standing of the mixing capabili- have an exact complement, use
ties of your palette. You will need the hue closest to a complement.
modulated color. Mild overcast
masses the darks and softens colors
so that nuances of hue and intensity
are more perceptible. The shapes of
low-value touches in the foliage de-
scribe different kinds of trees.
Color —overall about 1/2 to 3/4 inten-
sity —organized around a red/green
is

balance, accented by touches of blue

two or three sheets of paper, For example, if you have no
and orange.
preferably clean backs of old or yellow-green, use whatever is
discarded paintings. It will be closest —
your yellowest green or
helpful, but not necessary, to in- greenest yellow. If you have no
clude various kinds of surfaces, red-purple, use the purplest red
such as cold or hot pressed you have.
paper, in addition to rough. If This effort will produce six
you use more than one kind of mixtures. They may vary greatly
paper, make patches on each as in relative neutrality. Your blue-
you go along. Get out your usual orange mixture may be quite
equipment, including your regu- gray and your yellow-purple one
lar palette. You may also find much less so. You should come

COLOR MIXING 83
Color Plate 20
12:15, Cape Porpoise bv Carl
Schmalz, 1976, 14£" x 21J" (37 x 55
cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collec-
tion of the author. Color organiza-
tion in this picture is based on blues,
greens, and yellow/greens at rela-
tively high intensities and values and
in large quantities, accented bv reds
and purples at very low intensities
and in small quantities. Small darks
plaved against the larger, more
broadlv handled areas, enliven the
surface and focus attention. They re-
sult naturally from strong top
lighting. Notice that this also pro-
duces emphatic reflected light in
shadows.
84 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY
up with at least three pretty good
grays, though, including red/
green, red-orange/blue-green,
and orange/blue. Fewer than
three suggests that you may
it helpful to rethink your palette,
substituting another paint for
something presently there, to
give vou increased complemen-
tary graying strength.
Consider this with care,
ever. You may be graying
with natural neutrals, such as In-
dian red with phthalocyanine
green; or you may be graying
very satisfactorily with black.
Both are perfectly acceptable
ways of graying colors, although
many painters use little or no
black because they feel other
mixtures have finer undertones.
To complete the complemen-
tary mixing exploration, you can
make samples of intense colors
mixed with their neutral comple-
mentaries. These might include
ultramarine blue and burnt
enna, cadmium yellow lemon and
mars crimson and
violet, alizarin
terre verte. You might
also mix
neutral complements such as
lamp black (bluish) and burnt si-
find enna or yellow ochre and mars
violet.
2. Now try altering hue with the
For
least possible intensity loss.
this you can make a continuous
graded wash changing from, say,
how-
lemon yellow to phthalocyanine
largely
green. This will show you the
range of hue changes and indi-
cate how much, if any, intensity
reduction results from the mix-
ture. Do this with all your intense
hues, going around the hue scale,
mixing each color with the one
closest to it. For example, you
might next mix phthalocyanine
green with phthalocyanine blue,
phthalocyanine blue with ultra-
marine blue, ultramarine blue
with alizarin crimson, and so
forth.
si- 3. Next, to determine the range
of your palette in both graying
power and hue alteration, it is
useful to try mixing secondaries
from primaries, that is, using
anything that might plausibly be
called yellow and mixing it with
anything that might plausibly be
called blue to make vour green
range. Set up a grid, such as that
in and label each
color plate 3,
and each horizontal row.
vertical
Make similar grids for the orange
and purple ranges.
4. A double mixture test of
last
great value is to mix each of the
colors you identified as relatively
opaque with each other. For this
a grid will again work.
5. Triple, quadruple, and other
complex mixtures are often nec-
essary in watercolor, and they
frequently arise spontaneously
during the painting process. If
you want to test some of them, I
recommend the grid procedure
in which you use a particular
double mixture for one coordi-
nate and mix it with a selection
of other colors. For most paint- Color Plate 21
ers, complex mixture experi- Sunset between Santa Fe and Taos
by Eliot O'Hara, 1936, 15f x 22£" (39
ments are most instructive if they
x 57 cm), 140 lb. rough paper, cour-
are organized in some way; for tesy, O'Hara Picture Trust. Tinted or
example, you might try alizarin colored light pulls all colors it falls on
crimson and ultramarine blue on toward the color of the light itself. In
one coordinate, and mix that O'Hara's painting this is expressed bv
the way almost every visible object
mixture with any set of other col-
leans from its normal color toward
ors. When using complex mix- red-orange/red/red-purple. The pic-
tures be especially wary of your ture is unified by natural similarity of
opaque pigments: thev can easily hue. A few blues, justified by die
go muddy. dark clouds and sky above, act as a
color counterpoint to the dominant
similarities.
6. There one other tvpe of
is
mixture you might like to explore
here, although it approaches the
subject of the next chapter. This
is the triad. We all know about
painting a picture with red,
yellow, and blue; but we often
forget that, on a twelve-hue scale,
there are three more such triads.
These, too, can be used as the
basis for paintings. To see which
are available on your palette, and
how you like them, try making
three small sketches using your
hues nearest to red-orange,
COLOR MIXING 85
Color Plate 22 yellow-green, and blue-purple; Most watercolorists agree that a
Enclosed Garden bv Carl Schmalz, orange, green and purple; and good basic palette is the "double-
1976, 15J-" x 2 If (39 x 55 cm), 140 lb.
hot pressed paper, collection of Mr.
yellow-orange, blue-green, and primary" palette —that is, have a
and Mr. Constantine L. Tsomides. In red-purple. warm and cool version of each
this painting the preponderant darks primary. For example, I have
function in a passive way, defining Summary vermilion light and alizarin crim-
areas lighter than themselves. This is Knowing the mixing capacities of son golden; cadmium yellow
very clear in the picket fence, and
your palette is necessary to your deep and cadmium yellow lemon;
only slightly less so in the leaves and
the clarification of the blossoms. Nev- using it intelligently. A series of ultramarine blue and cerulean
ertheless, I tried to vary the shapes testssuch as you have made will blue.Such a palette allows con-
and sizes of these darks to help dis- also help you identify any further siderable flexibility in mixing
tinguish the different kinds of foli- lacks your palette may have. If secondary hues. Many artists also
age. One further note: the shadows
you have discovered any serious like good intense secondaries,
on the picket fence were painted be-
fore anything else, in continuous gaps, you can remedy them at too, such as cadmium orange,
strokes across the paper. They were your nearest art supply store, for phthalocyanine green, and Thalo
then dry when the time came to the colors available today cover purple. The only tertiary color
paint over them to define the pickets the spectrum pretty thoroughly. not available today is blue-purple;
with darker colors.
In case you have concluded that the others have been purchasable
your palette requires a really for decades, except for Thalo
drastic overhaul, here are some yellow green and Thio or Acra
suggestions. Remember that they violet (red-purple), which have
are not prescriptions! recently come on the market.
Tertiaries are normally unneces-

86 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 ;
1^
--yV*^

sary except for their ability to enna, raw sienna, yellow ochre, 23
Color Plate

add interesting new transparent raw umber, sepia, and lamp Beinn Tangaval, Barra by Carl
Schmalz, 1972, 15|" x 22" (39 x 56
and opaque colors to your pal- black. You won't need all of
cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, cour-
ette. them, and again, their relative tesy of Mathew N. Schmalz. I chose
Therefore, in addition to the opacity may help you select which the classic middleground focus for
double primaries and, perhaps, will work best for you. this study of the empty landscape of

the intense secondaries, you may Some other useful colors are the Outer Hebrides. Three cattle and
three birds, all in the middle space,
wish to consider the transparent- Cobalt Violet (a weak mixer with
animate the bleakness; and the lower-
opaque characteristics of your nice opacity),Thalo yellow green ing sun warms it. The plainly painted
palette. The same colors by dif- (very intense and opaque), cobalt sand and mountain frame and con-
ferent manufacturers can vary blue (as nearly "pure" blue as we trast with this zone of life. Color

quite widely in relative opacity, so have), manganese blue (not as organization is based on orange and
blue, plus yellow/green, which lies
you may have to shop around a strong as cerulean and a little
halfway between them.
little. Hansa yellow will give you a greener), burnt umber (a good
good transparent yellow to play warm brown and a low-intensity
against your cadmiums. Cad- yellow-orange), and ivory black (a
mium reds are opaque against warm black and a good mixer).
the alizarin colors, and phthalo- Sixteen to eighteen colors
cyanine blue, in addition to being should provide you with ample
cool, is highly transparent. range and flexibility for most
You will need some natural painting. You can always add a
neutrals, too. Among the most color for special subjects.
useful are Indian red, burnt si-

COLOR MIXING 87
 Color Plate 24
Meditation, Warwick Long Bay by Carl Schmalz, 1976, 15£" x 22" (39 x 56
cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collection of the author. This distant-focus
picture is somewhat modified by the figure in the middle distance; but the
real center remains the oddly sculptured Bermuda rocks farthest from the
viewer. I left brushstrokes in the sky to give it a "painted" look. Some of the
strokes also parallel the foot tracks on the beach. Color organization runs
—
from yellow/green, through the cool colors, to purple and red/purple all at
fairly high intensities. Low intensity orange, the complement of blue, occurs
in the sand.

88 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 —

CHAPTER 12

Color Design

ters 6 and 7). These ordering the West and the East have ac-
Isyour use of color principles apply equally to your cepted paintings in monochrome,
use of color. Understanding them normally absolute neutral
enhancing your range gives you a handy, organized way (grisaille, sumi ink), and drawings

of expression and of dealing with color problems in in low-intensity orange (sepia ink
planning a painting, as well as a and bistre wash). Usually,
pictorial coherence?
sound means of analyzing and however, Western artists have
making critical judgments about elected to use more than one
your paintings. hue.
Critical Concern Similarity of hue can be ob-
The importance of color as an Illustrations tained by using analogous colors
expressive factor in painting is The most basic form of color (colors in the same hue family,
equaled only by its significance as similarity is, obviously, the use of such as three adjacent hues on
a means of attaining pictorial co- only one color, a monochromatic —
the scale red, red-orange, and
herence. And, as with spatial picture. The simplest mono- orange, for example). The ex-
elements, in the best pictures chrome is that using no hue, just pressive tone and pictorial
color serves both functions simul- black, white, and grays.Samuel coherence of this sort of arrange-
taneously. Kamen's Pumpkins and Apples (fig- ment are very perceptible, but,
Most disregard
artists rightly ure 45) is such a picture. Notice because it lacks contrast, it per-
"rules" of color coordination as that in eschewing both hue and mits the representational artist
they appear in home economics intensity, a monochrome painter very little descriptive scope, even
courses and household tips, not must rely only upon value con- when you admit intensity and
because there anything inher-
is trasts for representation, design, value variation. Nevertheless, it is

ently wrong with them, but and expression. (We have already occasionally used, most often at
because they are normally too pat discussed how Kamen uses both low, rather than full, intensities.

for a painter's use. Although per- paint texture and spatial elements Similarity of intensity is one of
fectly sensible, these rules do not to achieve impact.) the more common methods of
encourage the flexibility and sub- The main difference between a creating color coherence while si-

tlety that artistic expression completely neutral monochrome multaneously setting the emo-
requires. Part of the restriction of (using black) and one using a hue tional tone or mood of a picture.
these rules stems from the fact of whatever intensity is in the Karl Schmidt-Rottluffs Landscape
that they deal almost exclusively overall "feel" of the painting. (color plate 11) is an excellent ex-
with hue relationships (such as This one indication of the ex-
is ample of similarity of high
analogous, or neighboring, hues, pressive power of color. For intensities. Red, orange, yellow,
or complements) but ignore val- instance, if you imagine Pumpkins green, and blue all occur at or
ues and intensities. and Apples painted with a neutral very near their fullest intensity.
You will recall that line, shape, warm such as Indian red, its Because these colors cover a
size, and interval —referred to as effect would be different from fairly wide value range, the com-
spatial elements in painting the original neutral version as bination maximizes your aware-
were discussed interms of sim- well as from the same picture ness of the different hues and
ilarity, sequence, and balance and painted in an intense cool such as adds visual excitement to visual
were set against the discriminat- phthalocyanine blue. order.
ing factor of contrast (see Chap- Tradition and custom in both Similarity of relatively high in-

COLOR DESIGN 89
tensities used to organize color occur next to each other around is,red-orange and the colors near
and suggest the sparkling bril- the hue scale (analogous colors) iton the hue scale contrast with
liance of sunlight was an as already mentioned. Schmidt- blue-green and its neighbors. Psy-
Impressionist invention. It is ex- Rottluff s Landscape (color plate chologists and physiologists have
emplified in the watercolors of 11) is again an example, since it done little work that suggests why
Childe Hassam, Maurice Pren- consists of red, orange, yellow, this contrast should be so signifi-
dergast (color plate 4), and green, and blue. Charles De- cant. The most relevant research
Dodge Macknight, among other muth's Landscape, Bermuda (color was done by Edwin Land more
Americans. plate 14) also illustrates a sequen- than a decade ago, in preparation
Much more familiar today are tial scheme: varying intensities for the Polaroid color camera.
pictures ordered by similarity of from blue, blue-green, green, His work indicates that the
middle or low intensity. These yellow-green, to near yellow are human eye has a tremendous ca-
are a result of what is frequently set off by low-intensity red. pacity for distinguishing subtle
called a "limited palette." I prefer More common in representa- differences in relative wave-
to name all such deliberate plan- tional painting are sequences of lengths quite apart from identi-
ning of color a "controlled" intensity, frequently accompanied fying the particular wavelengths
palette, recognizing that every by corresponding value se- that we name orange, green, and
palette is to some extent control- quences. (This is often because of so forth. Possibly it is this ability
led by the artist who selected it. the regular decrease in intensity that makes us so sensitive to the
For example, if you intentionally that results from raising or lower- warmness or coolness of color.
use Indian red, burnt sienna, raw ing value; see Chapter 9.) When Whatever the cause, warm ver-
sienna, terre verte, Payne's gray, objects are modeled from light sus cool is basic to hue percep-
and mars violet, you will make a into shade, for example, se- tion, and the color organization
painting easily marked by sim- quences of decreasing intensity of many paintings is rooted in

ilarity of low-to-medium intensity. and value occur. In Winter's Work this distinction, which we seem to
You have all six major hues and (color plate 15), the background appreciate as balance. As warm/
a full value range, but you have is shaded by clouds. You can see cool contrasts become higher in
created color coherence by sim- the gradual intensity reduction intensity, so that individual hues
ilarity of intensity. In the same into the background at right. are clearly discernible, we refer
way, you might select burnt Similarlv, atmospheric perspec- to most of these contrasts as com-
umber, raw umber, and lamp tive decreases intensity and raises plementary. (Yellow and purple,
black to yield a picture ordered the darker values as more distant although complementary, are nei-
by similarity of very low intensity. colors gradually approach the ther warm nor cool until, by
Murray Wentworth's Bell House color and value of the atmos- further contrasts, we make them
(color plate 13) comes close to phere itself. It was this kind of so.) Complementary hues exhibit
this. Very low intensity yellows, sequential ordering that you cap- similarity through opposition or
oranges, and blues are set off by- italized on when you painted the balance. Hence in this case, con-
tiny, brighter splashes of the "easy" picture in Chapter 1 (see trast performs an ordering
same hues. color plate 16). function. Complementary hues,
For the representational Otherwise, value, as you know, therefore, often provide a basis
painter, achieving order in color is most often employed as a con- for pictorial color organization.
by establishing similarity of value trast element in painting. Indeed, The burnt umber/raw umber/
does not ordinarily work very in the usual representational lamp black scheme that was men-
well. When at least some such painting, value (and various of tioned earlier as an example of
order is feasible, rather strong the spatial elements) provides similarity of low intensities is, of
contrasts in hue and/or intensity contrast, whereas likenesses course, also an example of warm/
have to be used for both descrip- among the spatial elements, hues, cool (that is, hue) balance. Maine
tive differentiation and visual and/or intensities provide sim- Still Life (color plate 7) is a warm/

stimulation. My Salt Marsh, June ilarity. With color, as when cool painting in which relatively
(color plate 12) exemplifies near dealing with spatial elements, art- high intensity oranges and
similarity of value. Only a few ists generally set the integrating yellow-oranges balance larger
darker and lighter accents inter- principle of similarity in one or amounts of relatively low inten-
rupt a surface that is at value more elements against the dis- sity blues and blue-purples.
levels two to three overall. Con- criminating principle of contrast In Salt Marsh, June (color plate
trast of hue and intensity in others. 12), I saw a subject that I had
substitutes for value contrast. Apart from value, the basic painted before and which con-
Sequential relationships in contrast in the color elements oc- tinues to interest me. In this
color generally involve colors that curs between warm and cool; that particular version I organized

90 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

color bv intertwining complemen-
taries, basically, vellow-green and
red-purple. As we have already
noted, the values are close and
rather high. This means that the
vellow-green can be fairlv in-

tense, but the red-purple will

necessarily be neutral, and the
red-purples in the foreground
grass are quite neutral. Blue and
orange are the complementary
pair used as a counterpoint. The
blue is not dominant a rather —
neutral bit in the sky,
the water and the
and a bit in
shadow on the
V •
boat. Orange, on the other hand,
is intensely present in the mid-
dleground marsh grass where it

provides a hot accent in the pic-

ture and where the blue in the
water becomes vibrant against it.

The hue complements and rela-

tively high intensities keep the
* *
middleground as interesting as
Figure 51
the more visibly stroked sky and Overcast Island bv Carl Schmalz. 1976. 144" x 214" (37 x 55 cm). 140 lb. hot
foreground, so that all parts of pressed paper, collection of the author. By compressing the dark values here.
the surface are about equally in- I extended the range of variation in the lighter values. This gave me a good

teresting. deal more freedom, especially useful in the skv. which needed articulation
because of the relatively large proportion it occupied on the paper surface.
A simpler picture based on
color balance is m\ July 6, 1976
(color plate 8). Thisis a green-

red picture. There are a few tell-

ing accents of yellow-orange and
blue, but the painting is basically
a plav of red and green. The in-
tensities here are sufficiently high
that the complementary organiza-
tion is and appreciable.
visible
High intensities and snappy value
contrasts balance and "contain"
the inherently interesting flag.

Containment could, of course, be

achieved bv lowering the intensity
of the flag, but that would pro-
duce a less cheerful picture.
Color organization is often
based on a three- or four-color
scheme, such as a regular triad
from the color circle or a triad
plus one complementary. In this
case, similarity arises from our
recognition of the regular inter-
vals between the dominant hues.
Susan Heidemanns Nursery (color Figure 52
Machiasport Marsh bv William Preston, c. 1973. 14" x 21" (36 x 55 cm), rough
plate 17) illustrates this sort of or-
paper, courtesv Shore Gallerv. Boston. Preston pushes all the lights toward
ganization. Heidemann uses the the white of the paper, which increases his range for the middle and darker
triad yellow-orange/blue-green/ values. This enables him to describe value and color variation in the marsh
red-purple, plus yellow-green. and background trees in greater detail. Photo bv George M. Cushing.

COLOR DESIGN 91
Most of the yellow-oranges are considerations. What does your evidence of this tendency, resolve
high in value and very low in in- response to the subject demand, to number your values for a
tensity, but they pervade the how does it make you feel? What while, to try and obtain a better
picture. The red-purples are also can your palette deliver? What proportional relationship between
of high value and low intensity, principles can you impose on the values of nature and the
so the colors we are most aware both to make the best possible much narrower range of values
of are the yellow-greens and translation? your palette can produce.
blue-greens that define the nurs- Ordinarily, you want to decide Because of the value limitations
ery plants. on some basic principle of color of your palette, it is sometimes
While contrast of hue creates a organization and then modify it desirable to push the values at
balance that can act as a basis for to suit the particular circum- one or the other end of the value
color ordering, value and inten- stances. You think about both the scale together arbitrarily. In my
sity contrasts act predictably as similarities and the contrasts that Overcast Island (figure 51), for ex-
differentiating agents. Contrasts are most suitable to your ends. ample, the darks are all low and
of intensity are frequently used You recognize that some organi- close in value, giving me extra
to focus visual attention and/or zational principles and some leeway for variation of value
augment spatial description; in kinds of contrast or visual excite- from level six up. Compression
the absence of contradictory evi- ment are inherent in your of the light values strengthens
dence, an intense hue always subject. In fact, they may even be William Preston's Machiasport
appears nearer than a less intense one reason for your interest in Marsh (figure 52). The lighter
one. In William Preston's Wind- the subject and should be taken values are all pushed toward
Blown Iris (color plate 18), the advantage of in your painting. white, allowing the artist a wider
blossoms attract our eye partly Doing this, you will be freed range of darker values to detail
through their relatively high in- from the boring artificiality of the varying rich colors of the
tensities. Notice that they are rules that require you to put an marsh, buildings, and trees. The
balanced effectively by the in- arbitrary dab of any color you same device is used by George
tense yellow-green of the turned use in two other places on your Shedd in his Maine Gables (figure
leaf at right. paper, as well as from the inad- 53). The object of these pro-
The powerful visual excitement vertent production of pictures cedures is to retain the force of
of value contrast is, as we have that are all similar in color. light7dark contrast while extend-
seen, principally employed for ing as much as possible the value
the descriptive differentiation Exercises range one end of the scale.
at
fundamental to representation. It is time to get out your painting Check to see whether you are
(We will consider this further in collection again. Spread the pic- using this device in your all-over
Chapter 15.) But artists can use tures out and get comfortable. "light" or "dark" pictures. Con-
some sort of equalization of value Your primary purpose in this ex- gratulate yourself if you are!
contrast over the picture surface erciseis to discover how you are Since value is primarily useful
to produce order, as well as use using color well and where you to you for contrast, examine the
such contrasts to focus attention. could improve. way in which you are exploiting
Color, as all other aspects of it. Do your contrasts of value oc-

pictorial language, is relative. 1. Start by analyzing your use of cur at points in your pictures
The color elements are relative to value, since this is usually easiest where they tend to support or
each other, of course, and to the to see. Do your paintings re- emphasize meaning, or are they
spatial factors in design. The size semble each other in overall merely creating unnecessary vis-
of color areas is especially signifi- value or in value pattern? That ual excitement? Value contrast is

cant, since a large area of intense is, are they all generally light or so powerful a tool that you want
color attracts your eye much dark; or do a lot of them have a to use it as effectively as you can.
more than a smallone (see color dark in, say, the lower right cor-
plate 22, where the developed ner? Probably not, but if so, you 2. Hue is very important in rep-
blossoms are far more visible may be using value in a habitual resentational painting. It tends to
than the buds). Even more im- way rather than adapting the discriminate areas, so you must
portantly, color isrelative to your power of value to your expressive control it to avoid producing a
expressive needs. This means that requirements each subject.
in coloristically chaotic surface. The
to achieve effective color de- As you know, watercolor dries two most usual ways of doing this
sign —
ordering of color you — lighter than it goes on. One re- are by selecting a limited number
must ask yourself what you are sultof this is a common tendency of hues, ordinarily related bv
aiming to express as you begin a toward pictures rather uniformly similarity or complementarity,
picture. This involves three main pale in value. If you notice any such as yellow, yellow-green, and

92 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

blue-green; or yellow -orange,
yellow, yellow-green, and blue-
purple: and by using a fuller
range of hues but imposing some
intensity limitations on them. Ex-
amples of the latter (nearly
always the option chosen by rep-
resentational painters) include
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff s Landscape
(color plate
ilarity
11),

of high intensities;
Fairfield Porters Lawn (color
organized by sim-
A \
plate 19), organized by similarity
of 1/2 to 3/4 intensities; as well as
pictures painted with the better
known "limited" palettes such as
PaYne's grayand burnt sienna.
Another option is the use of a
fairly full range of hues with
varving restricted intensities. My
12:15, Cape Porpoise (color plate
20) shows an organization based
on blues and greens at fairly high
intensities and in relatively large
quantities, played against reds
and purples at low intensities and
M
Figure 53
in small quantities. Maine Gables by George Shedd, c. 1972, 94" x 12§" (24 x 32 cm), 72 lb. rough
Look your pictures to see
at paper, collection of the author. Here Shedd, like Preston, compresses the
lights. All are unmodulated white paper. The full value range is thus reserved
what you are doing with hues. Do
for description of variations within the middle and darker colors. Extra tex-
you have some color preferences? tural unity was achieved bv crumpling the entire sheet of paper before Shedd
Probably you do. As with value, began painting. You can see the effect in the sky and the foreground grass.
though, you want to be sure that
your selection of particular colors ing to understand its use by might ask yourself.
and combinations of colors is not taking refuge in the assertion, Am I using overall color —and
just reflexive, but represents "Color is personal." Well, of intensity —for expressive effect,
thoughtful purpose on your part. course it is; but so is every aspect creating a similarity of, say, hue
Try to figure out whether you of picture-making. not only for a coherent design,
are exploiting the different "feel" L sing
T
color as intelligently as but also for unity of design and
of hues and hue families; using you use the spatial elements in content?
high intensities as much as you painting requires only that you Have I been as adventurous
might; playing off warm and cool appreciate its three dimensions and imaginative as I might be
as effectively as possible — all with and their relationships. Although about selecting colors, not just to
reference to the expressive pur- you may find that planning color be different, but to enhance my
pose you envisioned for each before you paint is inhibiting if meaning?
picture. done in detail, you will certainly Do my pictures really hang to-
If you like medium to low in- discover that a general color plan gether coloristically, or are there
tensities, consider whether you is easier to think about when you places where a too-strong value
are using as full a range of hues understand color well. And contrast or a too-strong intensity
as you might. Also, could your whether you plan your color at contrast seems to jump off the
pictures be visually richer and ex- all, knowing how color works paper?
pressively more forceful with helps enormously when you as- Is there an overall balance or
occasional high-intensity touches? sess your efforts after completing sequence (usually toward the
a picture. focal point of the painting) in the
Summary To aid you in color analysis of visual interest of color in my pic-
The purposes served by color are your own work, here are some tures?
so varied that we often avoid try- additional sample questions you

COLOR DESIGN 93
Figure 54
Maine Morning by Carl Schmalz,
1973. 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm). 140 lb.
hot pressed paper, collection of the
author. Cast shadows, especially the II
longer ones that usually result from
side lighting, aid you in explaining
the three-dimensional shape of the
forms on which they fall. Here the
lawn bank at right is so described as
well as the peculiar hump of the
road. On the central house, the
angle of shadows on wall and roof
help to clarify their planes; and, to
!T?

v*l t
m \t
the left, the cylindrical tree trunk is
defined by shadows cast upon it.

Figure 54 A
White River at Sharon bv Edward Hopper, 1937, 19|" x 27|" (49 x 70 cm), rough paper, collection of the Sara Roby
Foundation, New York. The revelation of three dimensionality afforded by side-lighting is clear throughout this picture;
but it is especially evident on the tree at center right. Notice how Hopper emphasizes the shadow contour. Cast shadows
help to define spatial planes in this area. One falls on the rock in front of the tree, another sneaks down behind that rock
and the others to the left. A bit of illuminated ground then establishes the distance between the center rock and the tree
behind it. Notice, also, the way in which shape similarities link the feathery clouds and the foliage shapes below them.
Photo bv Oliver Baker.

94 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 13

Lighting

more or less from the side. When maintain high hue intensities, it

Are you fully exploring you are painting nearby objects, was necessary "model" with
to in-

you can often change the light tense hues, so that darks were
lighting possibilities? you see by moving yourself or painted with reds, blues, and
the subject around to produce purples — the naturally dark hues.
more or less direct side lighting, White River at Sharon (figure
Critical Concern
or even a different kind of light- 54 A by Edward Hopper, is an
),
Light is one of many representa-
ing. excellent example of the way side
tional elements in painting. Like
Artists in the Western tradition lighting emphasizes three-
the spatial and color elements, it
have tended to prefer side light- dimensional solidity. Notice es-
can emphasize either similarity or
ing to all others because it most pecially the trees, tree trunks,
contrast. Visual perception de-
pends on light, and the amount,
emphatically reveals the three- and rocks. My Maine Morning
dimensional form of objects and (figure 54)shows how cast shad-
kind, and color of the light fall-
the spaces between them. In side ows reveal the form of the areas
ing on objects alter their appear-
lighting the strong value contrasts on which they fall. Shadows in
ance. In antiquity, and since the
of direct light create dark shad- the foreground show the con-
Renaissance, Western representa-
ows that provide visual clues to tours of lawn and road; and on
tional painters have appreciated
an object's form. Hence, in addi- the house in the center, shadows
the enormous power of consistent
tion to the profiles you see at the of leaves accentuate the vertical
light to unify a picture, so the di-
edges of an object, you also see a plane of the facade and the pitch
rection of light is also important
shadow contour on the object that of the roof. The strong value
to artists. Clearly, a systematic
confirms or modifies the profile contrasts of both pictures are a
understanding of the ways you
edges. The shadow contour gives typical result of side lighting.
represent light will be valuable to
you 50 percent more information
you.
about the surface shape than the Top Light. This is direct light
two profiles alone as it reveals the from above. It occurs outdoors at
Illustrations
solidity or mass of the object. or near noon and commonly pro-
There are two fundamental pos-
Side lighting also creates rela- duces a rather flat effect that can
sibilities in painting ordinary
tivelylong cast shadows, which be very useful to artists. If you
daylight: direct light and indirect
are useful in orienting yourself in think of it as a kind of side light
light. When the unclouded sun
a world of space and solids. Cast from above you will realize that
sheds its white light on objects,
shadows conform to the shape of the three-dimensional form of
they are in direct light. For art-
the surfaces on which they fall. objects is not concealed by it, but
ists, there are four primary kinds
This helps to indicate the dis- revealed in a relatively unfamiliar
of direct light side light, top light,
tance between objects as well as way. Nevertheless, because cast
back light, and front light. Here are
the shape of the ground or other shadows are short and small, a
some of their characteristics, ad-
objects on which they rest. great deal of light from sur-
vantages, and disadvantages for
With side lighting, as with most rounding illuminated surfaces is
you as an artist.
direct light, value contrasts tend usually reflected onto the shadow
Side Light. This is sometimes re- to be high and to overpower sides of objects, lightening them
ferred to as cross lighting and more subtle color relationships. and generally reducing the mod-
occurs when the sun, or any Both Impressionist and Expres- eling. Especially in regions close
other light source, strikes objects found that to
sionist painters to the equator, this results in a

LIGHTING 95
powerful effect of immateriality.
Since the sun always shines
down at a slight angle, except at
the equator, top lighting nor-
mally offers the artist a choice of
viewing a scene from a relatively
illuminated or a relatively shad-
owed point of view. As in side
lighting, strong value contrasts
often characterize top lighting
and thus reduce subtle hue rela-
tions.
To sum up, the opportunities
offered by top lighting are: light
and dark shapes not encountered
in the more normal side light; a
tendency toward flattened forms;
a reduced sense of physical sub-
stantiality; and the visual stimulus t
v mi
of sharp, often small, darks.
David Campbell's Tall Weeds
and Houses, Gloucester (figure 55)
is a morning picture, done a bit

earlier than high noon. This

choice of time offers him strong
three-dimensional forms, lumi-
nous reflected lights, and fine
patterns in the darks. Similarly,
top lighting in my 12:15, Cape
Porpoise (color plate 20) yields
three dimensionality coupled with
flickering dark accents, especially
in foliage areas.
Charles Burchfield exploits top
lighting in In May, 1938 (figure
56). Using the foliage shadow
patterns (simple or compound
arc-shaped brushstrokes) created
by the light from above, he estab-
lishes a similarity of shapes that
extends from the foreground to
the clouds.

Back Light. This is sometimes re-

ferred to as up-sun and is a
choice that is interesting to many
produces intensified
artists. It

value contrasts, usually accom-

panied by strongly silhouetted
shapes and a minimum of model-
ing. Hues become somewhat less
important in this light, and inten-
sities are often low. It is chieflv
useful to the artist for dramat- its

ic emphasis of dark (shadowed)

shapes.
Glenn MacXutt's Cobblers Cove
(figure 57) is an example of a

96 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

Figure 55 (above left)
Tall Weeds and Houses, Gloucester
bv David Campbell. 1973. courtesv of
Hallmark Cards. Campbell takes
knowing advantage of strong re-
flected light and kev descriptive
patterns in the darks in this painting.
— —
The time mid morning gives him
the advantages of side lighting plus
some of the most interesting effects
of top lighting. Note how strokes
modulate the skv. preventing it from
appearing too different from the
landscape below
Figure 56 (left) Figure 57 (above)
In May, 1938 bv Charles E. Burch- Cobbler's Cove bv Glenn MacXutt,
field, 1939. 24*-"' x 19|" (63 x 50 cm). 1952. 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm), 250 lb.
smooth paper, courtesv. Museum of cold pressed paper, courtesy of the
Fine Arts. Boston. For Burchfield. artist. Back lighting produces em-
top lighting becomes a means of phatic light/dark contrasts and
creating shape similarities that help silhouettes. MacXutt capitalizes upon
to provide pictorial coherence. Arc- these, focusing the viewer's attention
like brushstrokes describe the shadow on the play between near and far
patterns in manv of the trees and that expressed by the similar
is
bushes. The shape is repeated shapes of the shack's openings and
throughout the picture, even in the the value contrasts between interior
clouds. Many sequences into the dis- of the shack and the distance.
tance, including the cloud shadows,
are prevented from becoming too
strong by the concentration of inter-
est at the center crossroads. Dark,
differentlv shaped elm trees farther
back also prevent the viewers atten-
tion from escaping too far into space.
LIGHTING 9^
 back-lit subject in which descrip-
tive textures in the relatively dark
foreground contrast with the
deep darks of the shack's inte-
rior, which in turn contrast with
the relative lights of the sun spots
and background.
Although technically top lit, my
Tuna Flags (figure 58) shows
many characteristics of the back-
lit By stationing myself
subject.
on the shadow side of the fisher-
man's shed, I was able to dram-
atize the simple shape of the
building against a light back-
ground and emphasize the
shapes of lobster traps, barrels,
and other illuminated parapher-
nalia in the foreground. The
light in EliotO'Hara's Brigus,
Newfoundland (figure 59) is much
the same, creating a zone of spar-
kling light and dark silhouettes
Figure 58
across the center of the picture.
Tuna Flags by Carl Schmalz, 1975, 15" x 22f (38 x 57 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed
paper, collection of the author. This picture illustrates very simply the use of
dark shapes to announce a representational theme from a distance. The darks Front Light. Illumination from be-
of the shack, the lobster car at right, and the barrels and boxes can be read hind the artist falls on the front
clearly from afar. They are justified by the same kind of shadow values of objects and is. often termed
against light that often occur with back lighting. down-sun lighting. It is used by
artists less often than the types of
lighting already discussed, but
should not be overlooked, for it

offers some interesting advan-

tages.
Front-lit subjects, like back-lit
ones, do not usually reveal much
modeling. The relative flatness of
such light is often relieved by
small, very dark shadow accents.
It emphasize color;
also tends to
most elements in such a scene are
distinguishable by hue and inten-
sity differences, since value con-
trasts are minimized. Hence, this

light presents special opportuni-

ties for expression through high-
intensity hues and tapestrylike
patterns. Maurice Prendergast
(color plate 4) often adapted such
light to his personal mode of wa-
tercolor, and Fairfield Porter's
Lawn (color plate 19) exemplifies
near-frontal light softened by
Figure 59 mild overcast. The somewhat flat
Brigus, Newfoundland by Eliot O'Hara, 1931, 14 J" x 19|" (38 x 49 cm), 200 lb.
shapes are characteristic of down-
rough paper, courtesy, O'Hara Picture Trust. O'Hara uses back lighting to
dramatize his center of attention. The boats and village are revealed in terms
sun illumination.
of strong value contrasts, and hue variation is also greatest here. Surface The other basic type of day-
interest is equalized by broad rough brushing in sky and water- time light is indirect light. In

98 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

most temperate climates it occurs
often, soit will be helpful for you
to understand what is involved in
painting it.
Just as we would be unable
see form shadows without re-
in
flected light, so we would not see
things on sunless days without
indirect light. Indirect or dif-
fused light occurs when clouds
cover the sun and cut down the
amount of light coming through.
Clouds, fog, rain, snow, dawn,
and dusk produce indirect light.
One important effect of clouds
obscuring the sun on overcast
days is a lessening of value con-
corresponds more closely to na-
ture's range, giving you a better
chance of rendering an illusion
of nature's full color variations.
to Because fog and snow (as well
as heavy rain) actually fill the air
with a material substance, they
tend to produce accentuated
value contrasts between fore-
ground and background as in
Morning Fog (figure 1) or More
Snow (figure 60). They also re-
duce hue and intensity variation,
pulling all colors toward their
own relative neutral.
Fairfield Porter's Lawn (color
plate 19) an example of the
is
Figure 60
More Snow bv Eliot O'Hara, c. 1929,
15" x 20" (38 x 51 cm), 140 lb. rough
paper, courtesy, O'Hara Picture
Trust. Fog, snow, and heavy rain ac-
centuate the effects of atmospheric
perspective, causing both lights and
darks in the distance to approach the
hue and value of the atmosphere.
This is clearly visible at right. O'Hara
spattered opaque white over the en-
tire surface of this picture to obtain
the effect of falling snow. It is no
longer quite "pure" transparent wa-
tercolor, but it is convincing.

trasts compared with contrasts subtle strength of color on an

apparent in direct light. This overcast day. Notice the nuances
means that hue and intensity in the greens and the delicate
variations tend to become more play of pinks. More Snow by Eliot
visible, revealing color richness. O'Hara (figure 60) shows both
The reduced value contrast cre- distant darks and lights coming
ated by diffused light also means closer to the value (and hue) of
that your palette's value range the atmosphere, especially in the

LIGHTING 99
Figure 61 mountain at right. Laurence Sis- A preference for either is, of
The Osprey Nest Laurence Sis-
b\ son's The Osprey Nest (figure 61) course, perfectly all right; neither
son, 1973, 24" x 36" (61 x 76 cm),
emphasizes dramatic value con- is inherently better than the
rough paper, courtesy. Shore Gallery.
Boston. Light is greatly reduced un- trasts among the low-intensity other, and sometimes particular
der heavily clouded skies, which hues characteristic of light under personal expressive needs are
simultaneously reduce intensities; heavily clouded skies. much more responsive to one.
hence, here we tfend to perceive value However, if you have not yet
contrasts as primary. Sisson exploits
Exercises made a conscious decision as to
value contrasts to create counter-
movements in the light wedge of Get out your picture collection the general kind of light you use
water and the sweeping clouds. Photo again, make yourself comfortable, predominantly, you will probably
by George M. Gushing. and start thinking. There are two find that about two-thirds of your
main categories of questions to pictures are painted in direct
deal with here: (1) How effec- light and one-third in indirect
tively are you using both the light. This proportion does not
unifying and the expressive pos- reflect the weather in your part
sibilities of direct light? (2) Are of the world, but indicates that
you taking sufficient advantage of watercolor landscapists seldom
the opportunities for coherence paint in rain and snow! A sub-
and expression offered by indi- stanially different ratio of sub-
rect light? jects painted in direct or indirect
It may be easier if you divide light may indicate a semicon-
the first question into the lighting scious or unconscious preference.
categories just discussed, but first Try to figure out why you paint
take an overview of your work to subjects in the light you seem to
decide whether you appear to prefer. Is it accident, or do you
prefer direct or indirect light. actually feel better on sunny

100 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

davs? Do you like the muted
color of overcast days? Does the
drama of stormy weather attract
you? What personal reasons for
vour choice can you discover?
Are there artistic reasons for
thispreference? Do you enjoy
working with a strong feeling of
the volume of things? Do you
prefer high intensities? Low in-
tensities?
The answers to these questions
are neither right nor wrong; they
simplv vield information about
you as a painter and show you
where you might increase your
range or build on your strengths.
Here are a few questions you
might ask vourself about vour
use of direct light.
Fignre 62

1. Side Light. Are vou making
good use of the unifving effect
direct light bv carefullv indicating
the consistencv of the light
source? (This question applies
equallv to other direct lighting
Reflections bv Eugene Conlon. 15" x 21^" (38 x 55 cm) rough paper, pur-
chased bv the Junior League of Springfield, Missouri and donated to the
of
Regional Girls" Shelter, Springfield. Top light (like side light) falling on any
irregular surface will produce manv small shadows that can often be used to
add excitement to a painted surface. Reflections is largelv articulated bv the
varied repetition of the clapboard shadows and paint texture, and repre-
sented texture is used with equal skill.

situations, but often has special

ated value contrasts and emphatic gradated values created by hard
force in side lighting.)
shapes might answer your ex- rain, snow, and fog?
Are vou capitalizing on the in-
pressive needs?
formation about volume and Summary
surface offered bv the shadow 4. Front Light. Have vou explored Light variations offer you oppor-
contours on objects? this least-used lighting option? If tunities for both unifying your
Are vou using cast shadows to vou are interested in the unifving pictures and differentiating ele-
help vou model the forms on effect of surface patterns and the ments within them. A consistentlv
which thev fall and to help define similarity of intense hues, this presented direct light from any
the space between objects in may be something to try. angle is one of the strongest uni-
depth? fying agents in picture-making.
You also need to ask questions
At the same time, direct lighting
2. Top Light. Is top light an op- about the pictures in which you
offers you numerous ways of dif-
tion you use often? Occasionallv? used indirect lighting. Look at
ferentiating pictorial elements.
Never? Could you profitably ex- them now and consider the fol-
plore it further? lowing queries.
These include value, hue, and in-
tensity contrast, as well as em-
Are vou making the most of
1. Are you taking full advantage phatic lines and shapes.
the unusual shapes created by
of your palette's capacity to re- Indirect light in its various
top light?
flect narrow value
accurately the forms gives you the chance to
Are vou using the flattened
range created by an overcast sky? increase pictorial coherence
forms sometimes associated with
This can produce greater subtlety through similarity of hue and/or
top lighting to enrich vour pic-
in value relations than is usuallv intensitv. It can reduce the clarity
ture pattern and surface?
possible in direct light. of lines, shapes, and intervals,
Are you seeing and exploiting
permitting a harmony not
the visual excitement offered bv 2. Are vou enjoying the unifying
achieved so easily in direct light.
the small darks that top lighting possibilities of medium- to low-
frequently produces? (See Reflec- intensitv similarities and the rich
On the other hand, in rain, snow,
and fog (and in the often pale
tions, figure 62.) color relations tvpical of overcast
skies of other types of indirect
days?
3.Back Light. Have you used light), vou have opportunities for
back lighting? If not, have vou 3. Have vou made the most of representational value contrasts
thought about how its accentu- the neutral colors and spatially that can define shapes and space.

LIGHTING 101
 Figure 63
Mexican Bus bv Carl Schmalz. 1946, 13" x 19" (33 x 48 cm), 90 lb. rough
paper, collection of the author. This was painted from the memory of waiting
for a bus to start late at night. Though I had no notes and was working six
months after the experience, the vision remained in my mind sufficiently
clearly for me to reconstruct it. One small incandescent bulb provided the
only light source, accounting for the very dark shadows; there is almost no
reflected light. Light diminishes very rapidlv away from the source, so that
the right side of the picture is relieved only by the glint on the metal pole.

102 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 14

Colored
Light
Illustrations your task as a representational
Do you understand The first thing to remember artist is to edit color constancy to
about a tinted or colored light serve your pictorial ends. In ordi-
the theory and uses
source is that it is incomplete light. nary light you want to learn to
of colored light sources White light contains all wave- see the actual color, the bluish

in painting?
Critical Concern
Although the occasions for using
colored light sources in water-
color painting are rather few, at
lengths of the visible spectrum gray, so as to paint it. But in col-
from the long reds to the short ored light, color constancy can be
violets. A colored light source is extremely useful, since it permits
deficient in some wavelengths. you com-
to avoid painting a
Firelight, for instance contains monochromatic picture.
pletely
virtually no short wavelengths, To go back to the example of the
whereas moonlight contains al- firelight scene, color constancy al-

least in practice, they are fre- most no long ones. This means lows you to include some low-
quent enough to justify your that you cannot see blue by fire- intensity blues and greens, rather
being aware of both the special light or any red by moonlight. than paint only black for cool col-
problems and special oppor- Everyone has probably had the ors. The same phenomenon also
tunities they present. experience of seeing lipstick and usually gives you the opportunity
Conditions under which you other reds go black under mer- to employ some low-intensity
can expect colored (or perhaps cury vapor street lamps. We can- warms in a moonlight picture.
only tinted) light include sunrise, not see reds by this light because Because colored or tinted light
sunset, moonlight, firelight, and there are no red wavelengths in it is incomplete, it is usually quite
light from nearly all artificial to be reflected back by the pig- weak compared with sunlight.
sources. Hence any night scene, ment that appears red in ordi- Hence, it generates or no
little

interior or exterior, will almost
surely involve colored light
sources.
The primary artistic advantage
of subjects illuminated by colored
light is its strong tendency to
unify the scene by similarity of
color. This can also, of course, be
thought of as the disadvantage of
color limitation. But a more im-
nary daylight. When complete reflected light, so shadow areas
(white) light falls on something tend to be very dense. Silhouette
that looks red to us, it appears effects are frequent, and shapes
red because the surface has on or are prominent because contrasts
in it a substance that absorbs of value are strong. These offer
most other wavelengths and re- you splendid opportunities for
flects only the red ones. powerful, dramatic paintings.
It follows that in a firelight Eliot O'Hara's Sunset between
picture, all colors will be warm or Santa Fe and Taos (color plate 21)
black. Since the human visual ap- is a fine example of the unifying

portant reason for relatively few
watercolorists using colored light
sources may be that such subjects
frequently produce pictures that
are dark in overall value. In
transparent watercolor, large
areas of low-value colors can be
tricky to handle effectively.
paratus is remarkably adaptive, effect of tinted light. Apart from
however, we actually perceive a the blues, the colors range from
surprisingly wide range of hues yellow-orange all the way around
in colored light. This capacity is the warm side of the hue circle
called color constancy. Because of it through the reds and red-purple.
we see the shadow side of a white Even the snow picks up a red-
building as white, even though it purple reflection from the clouds,
may be bluish gray. Much of and the most distant mountains

COLORED LIGHT 103

I are veiled in orange haze. Value ture. But just in case you have sibilities you faced, mainly be-
contrasts strengthen the picture one or two, here are a few ques- cause the tint of the light varies

and emphasize the forms of the tions you might ask yourself so much, but also because the
mountains. about them. amount of One
1 I painted Mexican Bus (figure dle,
light varies.
such as Georges de la
can-
Tour
1. Ignoring for a moment the
63) many years ago, before my often painted, provides a single
kind of colored light that may be
personality as a painter was de- weak, warm source in which
involved, have you made full use
veloped, but remains a picture
it forms are potently relieved
of it as a unifying factor? Have
of considerable interest because against extreme darks. Sunset,
you overemphasized the unity of
of the telling value pattern and however, often produces fairly
the way the strong light/dark con-
color — is your picture too ex-
diffuse, but still quite strong,
clusively pink, orange, green, or
trasts are unified by the pervasive warmly tinted light. Moonlight is
whatever? If so, you may have
yellows from the incandescent bluish or greenish and, after you
disregarded the factor of color
bulb. More importantly, the low adjust visually, it appears single
constancy.
intensities and generally warm and strong. Actually, it is ex-
I once painting an up-
recall
colors help reinforce a mood of tremely weak light, which ac-
coming summer storm at dusk
tranquil, late-night waiting. counts for its inability to create
that turned out all pink, gray,
Chez Leon (figure 41), O'Hara's reflected light.
and black. The drawing and
mildly abstract Paris night scene,
painting were fine, but the pic-
A typical late-twentieth-century
has some of the same expressive interior includes multiple light
ture lacked coherence for an
qualities. It, too, is a low-intensity sources, often of different tints.
interesting reason. It was purely
picture in which value contrasts If you have tried painting a con-
representational except for the
are fairly strong and are respon- ventional living room, for exam-
color, which reminded me of a
sible for most of the accented ple, you have faced quite compli-
Hollywood bathroom or a young
shapes. Light comes from several cated problems. But let's take
girl's carefully planned party cos-
sources — the various shop fronts
tume. Because the color scheme
sunset as an example. Did you
—and is reflected in the wet
read as abstract, it conflicted with
paint up-sun (subject backlit),
street surfaces. The architectural which is customary, for the sun-
the rest of the picture. Color con-
clarity of the painting helps make set color is in that direction? You
stancy is not just an excuse for
it quite serene. It depicts a far- lose two things painting that way:
broadening your palette in col-
from-nasty night. the pronounced modeling that
ored light situations; it is an in-
Jonee Nehus's Polly's Piano (fig- results from low light, and the
herent perceptual faculty in all of
ure 64) treats a night interior transformations of greens and
us. To overlook it may result in
with great sensibility. Value con- blues that would result if your
an unnatural-looking, hence in-
trasts of lightand shade are un- subject were illuminated by such
coherent, picture.
derstated. Nehus reserves her deeply orange light.
darks for shape accents across the 2. Have you capitalized on the
3. If you chose cross light, did
picture surface and exploits the value contrasts that figure so
limitation of warm incandescent prominently in most scenes il- you achieve warm neutral greens
range of muted, in trees and grass? Again, have
light to create a luminated by colored light? In an
middle-intensity colors of great interior scene with a single light you utilized the long descriptive
subtlety. These empha-
visually source such as my Mexican Bus shadows? Have you made your
size the auditory harmony sug- (figure 63), the strongest value
whites sufficiently pink or orange?

gested by the piano, and the var-
ied darks strike the eye in much
the way separate piano notes
would strike the ear. The whole
evokes a palpable mood of the
delight of music in a quiet room
at night.
Exercises
The chances are excellent that
among your selected pictures
you have none that employ s col-
ored or tinted light. In fact, the
chances are pretty good that
contrasts, as well as the most
ing silhouettes, tend to be located
near the middle of the picture. A
moonlit scene, on the other hand,
may not arrange itself so easily.
Outdoor, sunset, or night subjects
must be as carefully thought out
as any scene in sunlight. For in-
stance, have you used the best
angle to take advantage of long,
descriptive cast shadows?
The tvpe of colored light illu-
minating what you have painted
makes a significant difference in
tell-
4. If you looked into the light
(up-sun), did you get sufficient
color into the silhouettes? Did
you color the sky enough?
5. Finally, whatever type of col-
ored light effect you painted, are
your darks dull and lifeless or
glowing and vibrant? As you
know, the very nature of trans-
parent watercolor is hostile to
large areas of extremely low
value. Since the luminous quality
of the medium depends on light

you've never painted such a pic- the pictorial problems and pos- reflecting from the paper's white

104 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

Figure 64
Polly's Piano by Jonee Nehus, 1976. 22" x 15" (56 x 38 cm). 140 lb. hot

pressed paper, collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Chew. Xehus understates
the darks here: thus the viewer onlv slowlv recognizes the significance of the
dark windows. More important at first is the plav between muted color and
the accents of dark, as thev build a convincing image of the absorbed pianist
and her instrument.

COLORED LIGHT 105

surface up through the paint cludes anything that is
layer, you want to avoid a paint direct light, a very pale wash of
layer so dense that reflection neutralized blue-green should go
from the paper through it is pre- over it. Do not make it darker
vented. This heavy or dense than value level two (see Chapter
paint layering is what we usually 9). You want to constrict your
call a dead or muddy passage. value range as little as possible.
Such a passage stands out because The neutral blue-green of this
it disrupts surface coherence. tinted light will affect every other
white in light, after all, that provides part
of the unity of your picture.
Summary
Subjects in colored light provide
an infrequently accepted chal-
lenge to the transparent water-
Although the color of
colorist.
the lightitself imposes color co-

To minimize the chance of object in the picture. Objects that herence on the subject which —
deadness in extreme darks, you are cool in color will therefore contributes to pictorial co-
must use the most transparent tend to be more intense than —
herence the problem of
darks on your palette. These may warm-colored ones. The latter painting lively darks may dis-
include sepia, alizarin crimson, should also be painted considera- courage more artists than it

red-purple (such as Thio violet), bly darker than they appear in needs to.
purple (such as Winsor or Thalo daylight, for little cool light can In addition, virtually all col-

purple), some ultramarine blues, be reflected from warm surfaces. ored be

light subjects must
and phthalocyanine blue and The be propor-
sky, also, will painted from notes in the studio.
green. Working carefully with tionately darker than it is in the If you habitually paint on the
these or comparative colors, you daytime, so you may want to spot, thischange of working pro-
can attain low-value areas that delay painting it until the values cedure may also be deterring you
still remain quite vivid. Mixtures of objects in direct light have from attempting such subjects.
and glazes often yield even lower been put in. It will be a neutral As we have seen, though, the
values, although you will proba- blue, lightening slightlv toward problem of the darks can usually
bly not produce an absolute the horizon. When the picture is be overcome by thoughtful selec-
black. Here the trick is to push finished, you can pick out a feu tion of paints and extra care in
your whole value range up just stars with the tip of a knife. execution. Learning to paint
enough to make your darkest The value of all things in the from notes takes a little practice,
darks read as black. picture will be somewhat darker but is not sufficient reason to
than in your daylight version of deny yourself the fun of dawn,
If you have never attempted a the scene, but remember that dusk, and nocturnal subjects. All
picture illuminated by colored both the shadow sides of objects you need is a notebook, drawing
light, or have not done one re- and the cast shadows will be es- tools, and a good method for
cently, might interest you to
it pecially dark. Be sure to reserve noting hue, value, and intensity.
attempt one now. Since we have enough of your lower value Such a method may easily be de-
been dealing mostly with land- range to accommodate these. The rived from the color system
scape in this book, try a moonlit strength of the contrasts they discussed in Chapter 9. For ex-
landscape. present is absolutely necessary to ample, intense orange at value
First, you need a picture to the illusion of moonlight. level four might be noted: 0-4.
work from. Select a painting Look carefully at the warm col- Blue at value level six, somewhat
from among your supply not — ors in your original picture. You neutralized, could be noted:
necessarily one of the group willhave to cut their intensity B-6 — 3/4 (intensity). This is sim-
you've been using in these exer- greatly and also reduce their ple, clear, and as accurate as you
cises. It should, of course, be a value. But, allow ing for color will need. A color-annotated
scene painted in direct light, and, constancy, you can include some sketch, including enlarged draw-
since you will be concentrating on warm Think about where
darks. ings of particular details, com-
color and value, it need not be they might look best and be most ments, and other memory aids,
overly complex. Check your pal- believable. gives you plenty of information
ette to be sure you have fresh, You should be ready to con- for a painting. With a little expe-
workable amounts of your most tinue painting at this point. Pro- rience you will learn to include
transparent darks, squeeze out ceed as usual, moving generally whatever other kinds of informa-
new color if desirable, and get a from the lighter to the darker tion you find particularly useful.
clean sheet of paper. Draw your tones. Begin thinking about the If you remain reluctant to try
scene on the paper as usual. colorsyou will use for your deep pictures set in colored light, re-
Now you have to think about darks shortly after you start member that they stand out on a
colors. Moonlight is very cool, a painting values below the middle wall, not only because they are
sort of neutral blue or green and be conservative about
level, generally dark and dramatic, but
tone. Hence, if your picture in- warms. It is the effect of cool because there are so few of them!

106 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

Figure 65
Highland Light, North Truro bv Edward Hopper, before 1930, 15f x 24f
(40 x 63 cm), rough paper, courtesy, Fogg Art Museum. By looking nearly
up-sun. Hopper gets most of the advantages of back lighting w ithout forfeit-
ing those of side lighting. The pattern of changing gable shapes unites the
block of buildings against a lighter ground. Notice that angles in the clouds
repeat some of those in the roofs below, and the turn in the road falls imme-
diately under a similar curve of the roof of the lamp housing.

COLORED LIGHT 107

 Figure 66
Rural Fire Station h\ Carl Schmalz, 1976 15f x 21f (39 x 55 cm), 140 lb. hot
pressed paper, collection of the author. The vaguely triangular or wavelike
shapes of the shadows on the white pine foliage differentiate the foliage from
the rounder, broader, less regular shapes of the maple shadows at left. I
included the red stop sign to prevent the road from pushing too drastically
into the picture space: but I kept it relatively low in intensity (and of a hue
close to that of the chimney) to maintain its integration into the picture sur-
face (refer back to Chapter 12).

108 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 15

Drawing, Pattern,
and Darks
tance of understanding how they sharply relieved by a generally
Are you seeing and function cannot be stressed too light background.
much. Taking advantage of strong sil-
using dark shapes houettes includes using the shad-
effectively? Illustrations ow contour, the revealing edge
Although there is some overlap, on Chapter
objects discussed in
for clarity's sake let's divide the 13. It is especiallyimportant in
Critical Concern Hopper's painting because it re-
use of darks into four categories
Virtually all painting is drawing,
that we can consider more or less veals the cylindrical volume of
but this is particularly true of di-
separately. These might be: (1) the lighthouse tower. It is also
rect painting where you apply one of the main ways in which
characteristic silhouette, (2) shad-
colors with relatively little pre-
ow patterns, (3) reserved lights, forms are specified in Murray's
liminary preparation. And, as
and (4) design or composition. Buoys (figure 34) and Preston's
noted in Chapter 2, among the Wind-Blown Iris (color plate 18).
forms of direct painting, trans- Characteristic Silhouette. The point
Selection of telling darks is as
parent watercolor is preeminently of view from which you approach
necessary in diffused as in direct
drawing. Recall again the likeness a subject and the lighting condi-
light. Bell House by Murray Went-
between pen or pencil drawing tions surrounding it alter the
worth (color plate 13) is a case in
and watercolor. In both, you placement of your darks. Because
point. Relatively light in overall
work on a white (or light) surface of the role these options can play
value, it nevertheless packs a wal-
and apply tones gradually in a in attaining descriptive clarity,
lop because of the shape and
general light-to-dark sequence. you need to be aware of them as
placement of darks. The large
Since you do not normally add you begin painting.
window, slightly to the left of
any lights, the darks have an es- Edward Hopper's Highland
center, anchors the palely lit
pecially important function: they Light, North Truro (figure 65) is
structure and helps define its
must describe the shapes of both interesting because, as far as we
pyramidal form. The opening in
dark things and lighter ones, can tell, he had an unobstructed
the bell's base is another signifi-
while also providing visual excite- view of the subject from any di-
cant dark shape. The straps and
ment or giving sparkle to the rection. It is instructive to think
bolts that hold the bell are ac-
image. why he chose the angle he did.
cented darks, as is the glimpsed
The chief differences between You'll notice that it is almost, but
underpinning of the house itself.
what is usually called drawing not quite, directly up-sun. He
Details of dark weeds proliferate
and transparent watercolor are achieves here maximum back
to the right of center, their small,
that you work in color in water- lighting, with its pungent revela-
spiked shapes attracting the view-
color, you work with washes as tion of characteristic silhouettes
er's eye by contrast.
well as strokes (which tend to be in the gable shapes and chim-
somewhat wider than drawing neys, and sacrifices very little of Shadow Patterns. An inescapable
strokes), and you normally can- the volume revealed by cross necessity in working with trans-
not erase your darks, as you can lighting. In addition, the late parent watercolor is acquiring the
with pencil or charcoal. morning light creates relatively skill to see and paint the patterns
Because darks serve so many small cast shadows, so that the —
of shadow areas both the shad-
purposes, and because they are generally dark pattern of the ow side (and shadow edge, or
largely ineradicable, the impor- whole complex of buildings is contour) on objects and shadows

DRAWING, PATTERN, AND DARKS 109

 (figure 68) is full of retiring
darks that "draw" the reserved
lights, notably in the porch col-
umns and railing. The windows
of the cupola at the top left of
the house offer another example.
The shadows on the side of the
house isolate and bring forward
the illuminated corner of the
wing projecting toward us, and
the darks under the porch at left
describe the low branch of the
shrub in front of it. The viewer
senses a justness and economy of
technique that contribute to pic-
Figure 67
torial coherence.
Detail by Carl Schmalz, 1975, 10" x 14" (25 x 36 cm), 140 lb. rough paper
collection of the author. Darks of varied shapes and sizes differentiate the Isought a similar correspon-
lush vegetation of the Maine coast. Color modulation also helps; but I hoped dence of method and representa-
to produce an effect of roses, grass, and sumac sufficient to alert those famil- tion in The Anchorage, October (fig-
iar with them to their identity. For other vegetation, simple differentiation is
ure 69). The subject particularly
enough to produce pictorial interest and maintain pictorial coherence.
interested me because it encour-
aged playing with reserved lights.
cast by objects on other surfaces. such greenery. Accurate observa- The erratically lighted trunks and
This is' particularly important in tion almost always promotes
dead leaves of the oak trees were
representing foliage and other economy of means and helps you painted in a series of variegated
nongeometric volumes, but it ap- deal succinctly with most complex washes so that some of the illumi-
plies universally. forms such as rock formations,
nated lower trunks and the more
Complex (or nongeometric) wood piles, industrial detritus,
distant foliage masses were
volumes reveal their structure and other apparently confused.or painted at one time. I did the
through shadow patterns, just as complicated subjects. Remember, same thing with intermediate val-
simpler forms do; discerning too, that Burchfield (figure 56)
ues and then defined particular
them is only a matter of attend- deliberately made these shapes trunks and branches last with low
ing to them with an analytical similar: he was enough aware of value mixtures of reds, purples,
eye. Note the difference in shad- them to use them to unify rather
and oranges.
ow shapes (and relationships) than differentiate, a use to which There are many examples of
between white pine trees and de- you might also want to put them.
the directness, economy, and co-
ciduous trees or bushes in my herence attained by skillfully
Rural Fire Station (figure 66) and Reserved Lights. Chapter 3 has al-
reserved lights among the illus-
Winter's Work (color plate 15). ready dealt with some aspects of trations for other chapters in this
Also note the difference between this procedure so exclusive to
book. It might be helpful to look
the shadow shapes among the transparent watercolor. Although for them.
background trees, the dahlia the problem of edges was the
leaves, and the baby's breath in subject discussed there, it was Focal Contrast and "Sparkle." The
Enclosed Garden (color plate 22). mentioned that underlying the desirabilityof locating strong
The same distinction of shadow problems painters face with edges value contrasts at or near the
shapes in the detail of the fore- was the fact that watercolor darks representational focus of your
ground 67 differentiates
in figure are applied as positive marks even painting has been mentioned in
grass, bayberry, sumac, and other though they often serve to define several contexts. Remember,
vegetation. something light. Hence, when though, that the effectiveness of
Merely distinguishing these they are used to affirm and clar- this device is enhanced if the con-

darks is, of course, not the point.
Rather, the idea is
shadow shapes of
characteristic
commonly encountered trees and
shrubs. These shadow patterns
can then be employed,
tion to typical silhouette
branch structures,
ify lighter shapes, they have a trast also announces the pictorial
to observe the negative or passive function. theme. This can be quite simply
Therefore, in addition to think- done, as in Mary Kay D'Isa's A
ing about drawing shapes in Brush with Winter (figure 70).
shadow areas, you must consider Here the central mass of dead
in addi- this self-effacing but vital role of weeds and bushes contrasts
and darks. strongly with the surrounding
to identify Dee Lehmann's 405 Hill Street —
snow the fundamental theme of

110 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

the picture.Not only is this shape
repeated with variations in the
distant woods, but you also see it
mounds of the
in the swelling
snow-covered ground. In addi-
tion, at the representational level.
the contrast of dormant life
against hostile snow sets the ex-
pressive theme of the whole
painting.
Sidney Goodman's Eileen Read-
ing (figure 112, Chapter 20) is a
very complex picture, but
has the basic design theme near
it, too,
Jk'Trfli
the center in the contrast of the
light, rectangular paper against
;.^»xr
the dark, rounded head. This
painting will be discussed further
in Chapter 20.
"Sparkle" is the visual result of
Figure 68
contrasts of relatively small darks
405 Hill Street bv Dee Lehmann, c. 1974, 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm) (sight), 140
against lights. It may be largelv lb. cold pressed paper, collection of Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel C. Baker. Leh-

non-representational, as in the mann emplovs reserved lights defdv and with an understanding of their
left foreground of D'Isa's A Brush profound contribution to economy as well as to the viewer's sense of the ease
u'ith Winter; or it may be more of picture making. Notice here the manv places, in the foliage as well as the
architecture, where a shape is defined bv the darker color around it. The
closely associated with representa-
picture is also interesting as composition. The pale triangle shape at center is
tion, as in my Enclosed Garden repeated in varied ways throughout the house (it even appears, modified, in
(color plate 22), Dodge Mack- the shadow on the foreground grass), and the building is enclosed bv yellow-
night's First Snow-Winter Land- green and green foliage at near right and at more distance at left. A sensitive
scape (figure 71), and Nicholas symmetry is set up that unites the picture surface with the illusory space.

Solovioff s Martinique Boats (fig-

ure 72). The chief thing to re-

member about this delightful,
eye-catching possibilitv is that it

can be arbitrary (visual

easily
"noise" without justification) or
overdone (too much of a good
"WSk
thing).

Exercises
Drawing is first of all the accurate
seeing and recording of shapes.
This does not necessarily mean
recording with scientific exacti-
tude, but rather with an eye to
revealing inherent patterns.
Drawing is also recording the il-

lusion of volume (modeling) and

the relationship of things in il-

Here we are mainlv

lusorv space.
Figure 69
concerned with seeing and re-
The Anchorage, October bv Carl Schmalz, 1976, 15*" x 2 If (39 x 55 cm). 140
cording shapes accurately, espe- lb. hot pressed paper, collection of the author. The lighting here is virtually
cially shapes defined directlv bv frontal. It gave me a chance to contrast the architectural patterns of the

dark-value areas and indirectlv bv buildings with the organic patterns of the trees. But what interested me most
was the opportunity to develop the trees simply, bv planning reserved lights.
darks that define light-value
areas.
The trunks were painted at the same time as the foliage lights modulating —
color. Darks were introduced, also with modulated color, to serve as interme-
Arrange your selected pictures diate colors in both foliage and trunks. Only three drying times and some late
now and prepare to examine dark touches were required.

DRAWING. PATTERN. AND DARKS 111

your use of dark shapes in them.
This will involve a straightfor-
ward appraisal of each of the
four divisions set up in the Illus-

tration section of this chapter.

1. Do your
Characteristic Silhouette.
most im-
silhouettes, at least the
portant ones, usually emphasize a
characteristic, readily identifiable
aspect of the object drawn? In
modeling objects, do you often
use the shadow edge or contour
to give extra information about a
subject's shape?
Resolve to study these possibil-
ities more consciously in the
•*'"*•
future if you feel that you could >.2i; v*
better utilize them. Eliot O'Hara's
Llamas, Cuzco (figure 73) is an ele- . it- "^

gant, simple example of adroit "

use of dark silhouettes.

2. Shadow Are you mak-

Patterns.
ing wise use of shadow patterns
in complex volumes such as trees,
shrubs, and rocks? Are you ana-
lyzing shadow contours to aid
you in defining the structure of
the subject? If you are not, the
shadows on most of your trees,
mm
k f™ :
bushes, rocks, and so on probably
look much the same. They may *: *
5*
appear mushy and undifferenti-
ated, except, perhaps, for color.
Crispness and sureness in the
representational aspects of your
picture, even in those aspects that
may not be central to your ex-
pressive concern, are a mark of
consistent handling, which is a
part of pictorial coherence. If
you have been neglecting the vis-
ual order in shadow patterns on
the surfaces of complicated vol-
umes, try sketching them with
pencil or felt pen whenever vou
have the chance. This practice
will help you to see them better
when painting.

3. Resented Lights. Are you attend-

ing enough to the role of darks
in reserving light shapes? This
question has two parts. Are you
using darks for economy in
painting by reserving lights with
them; and are you tailoring the

112 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

Figure 70 (above left) Figure 77 deft) Figure 72 (above)
A Brush with Winter bv Mary Kav First Snow —Winter Landscape bv Martinique Boats by Nicholas Solo-
DIsa. 1974. 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm), Dodge Macknight. before 1936. 17J" vioff. 1976. 15" x 21" (38 x 53 cm)
300 lb. rough paper, collection of the x 224/' (44 x 57 cm), rough paper. (sight), hot pressed paper, collection
artist. D*Isa*s theme, both expressive courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts. of the Solovioff is more inter-
artist.
and compositional, is contrast: winter Boston. Macknight was among the ested in wedding sparkle to form
against potential life. She translates very few pure Impressionist water- than in emphasizing sparkle alone.
this into pictorial terms by her repre- colorists in America. His works are A thoroughgoing stroke painter, he
sentation, but the power of the pic- vibrant with intense hues, mainlv in contrives, through value contrasts
ture lies in the expressive means. Wei small quantities. His aim was sparkle, and color, to express a sense of il-
against dry, spatter against scraping, and in a winter scene, vou can see it lumination and movement. In fact,
low dark against white. Similarities of even in black and white. The touches one might say that the paradoxical
likeness and sequence pull these con- of the brush are uniformlv small and "subject" of this picture was summed
trasts into a coherent whole. We have quick. Light dark contrasts abound. up in the plav of moored sailing ves-
mentioned the shape likenesses: Edges are loose and unconhned. The sels, all headed into the current at

notice that the spatters are both drv
and wet. linking the areas at lower
left. Further, the color intensities are
extremelv low. so that strong sim-
ilaritv of intensity and litde hue
contrast make the picture cohere
while underlining its expressive
thrust.
artist conveys a precise sense of the
day. Notice, too. how he uses cast
shadows to define the snow surface,
the sleighs ruts, and the depressions
around the bases of trees.
left against the cruise ship moving
right. Small value contrasts in the
clouds, boats, and water create visual
which is balanced bv the
interest,
"worked" skv above. Note that the
nearbv strokes in the water are about
the same in size and direction as
manv that describe the boats in the
middleground. Photo bv Robert A.
Grove.

DRAWING. PATTERN. AND DARKS 113

 Figure 73 (above) Figure 74 (right)
Llamas, Cuzco by Eliot O'Hara, 1933, Sea-Belle, Falmouth by Carl Schmalz,
15£" x 22f (39 x 58 cm), 140 lb. 1972, 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), 140 lb.
rough paper, courtesy, O'Hara Pic- hot pressed paper, collection of the
ture Trust. O'Hara adroitly uses an author. Darks that reserve and define
—
age-old device here throwing the lights can often function actively as
foreground into shadow. The dark well. For economy of handling, it is

silhouettes help to define clearly the wise to be alert to this possibility, as I

illuminated space behind them. At tried to be in the upper left back-

the same time they announce the lo- ground of this picture. Notice also
cale, a theme confirmed by the how the pile of boards in the fore-
arches at left. Brilliant blue-purples, ground is suggested mainly by
reds,and red-oranges accent the analysing characteristic shadow
foreground and, at lighter values and shapes.
lower intensities, describe the rough
stuccoed surfaces of the buildings so
that hue similarities help to create
pictorial coherence.

114 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

darks so that they not only help
in reserving lights, but also act as
independent, positive darks
whenever possible? Ask yourself
where, in your selected group of
paintings, you deliberately al-
lowed an initial lighter wash to
overlap an area that would even-
tually be darker; and where did
you set in a color because you
wanted to reserve it later?
For the second part of the
question, how well do your darks
that are used to reserve lights
also function in their own
as darks? For example, in the up-
per leftsection of Sea-Belle, Fal-
mouth (figure 74), I set in a num-
ber of light colors for trees,
houses, and masts. The darks
that defined them, however, also
describe theshadow planes of the
buildings and the characteristic
shapes of elm and maple tree
shadow patterns.
The more ways you can make
any given stroke or color count,
the more economical your paint- shapes and shape relationships
ing will be, and the more inte- underlie forceful representation.
grated the world of your picture As a representational painter,
will appear to the viewer. you are working under a multi-
tude of handicaps: you must
and "Sparkle."
4. Focal Contrast
employ every possible means of
How you uniting the eye
well are
clarifying your picture's expres-
appeal of major value contrasts
sion and integrating your person-
with the expressive focus of your
al picture "world." Include intel-
painting? Is "sparkle," or small,
ligent (and sensitive) choice of
sharp value contrasts, a part of
characteristic silhouettes among
your painting repertoire? If so,
your tools. Learn to use typical
are you using it purposefully, for
shadow patterns, telling reserved
expressive ends, or is it using you
lights, and eye-attracting "spar-
and perhaps robbing your pic-
right kle" to amplify your painting
tures of focus and expressive
repertoire.
clarity? "Sparkle," as with other
Remember that for the repre-
devices external to basic trans-
sentational painter, pictorial
parent watercolor technique,
coherence includes coherence in
must be used with tact and know-
representation. This means that
how if it is not to disrupt either
appreciable similarity of repre-
surface or representational co-
sentation must permeate your
herence.
painting. A Picasso cubistic head,
Summary for example, would not
hap- fit
Good painting requires good This
pily into Sargent's world.
drawing because clarity, preci- exaggerated example should
sion, and expressive pungency of warn vou what to look for.
DRAWING, PATTERN, AND DARKS 115
Figure 75
Hill by Gene Matthews, 1963, 22" x
28" (56 x 71 cm), rough paper, collec-
tion of the artist. In this painting
Matthews has pushed rocks and trees
to the edge of abstraction. They are
no longer recognizable, but are only
suggested by the linear patterns and
textures that unite the surface. With-
out light effects pictorial coherence
frequently demands such modifica-
tion of represented objects.

Figure 76
Landscape with Trees and Rain by
John Marin, 1914, 14" x 16" (36 x 41
cm), rough paper, collection of the
Colby College Art Museum. Paying
virtually no attention to light effect,
Marin states as directly as possible,
through his technical means, the ex-
perience of being in rain. He is less
interested in the appearance of a
rainy day, than in the feel of one.
The intermingled wet washes are ar-
ticulated by strokes that suggest trees
and falling rain. Pictorial coherence
isincreased by the use of rather low-
intensity colors with few sharp value
contrasts.

> ~**& lh
<>v. Hrf»'» <

116 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 16

Coherence
Without Light
the dvnamic forces of nature, as tance is suggested chiefly b\ the
Are you aware of your is often the case with Marin, to sizeof the islands and their hori-
the almost cubistic excitement of zontal bottoms (which tell the
options regarding city activity, as in Dong King- viewer that they are verv near the
representational man's New York Cits at Daybreak high horizon). Second, represen-
(figure 77 1. tational accuracy is played down
painting without the
Despite what vou seek to gain in favor of general shapes. Fi-

unifying power of light? bv giving up light effect, you are nally,vou notice a number of
losing a formidable tool for creat- arbitrary marks in the picture
ing pictorial coherence. You must that seem to have little to do with
Critical Concern therefore raise your other means actual appearance.
About 1900, many progressive to a new significance (many art- Rather than concentrating on
artists deliberately gave up the ists enjoy this challenge for itself) the look of nature, Marin has
long-standing and powerfully to achieve integrity and unitv in suggested something of the feel
unifying agent of light, while re- vour pictures. These other means of spring rain. The wet flow of
maining essentially representa- include surface, spatial, and color softlv neutral blues, greens, and
tional in their painting. This pos- elements. They also include manv grays over all the surface speaks
sibility was quicklv picked up bv representational elements: but directly of our experience of
watercolorists. John Marin (figure with little or no light effect, these rain. The same
experience is
76) was among the of them,
first must often be used differently. then stated symbolically by the al-

but Maurice Prendergast often
eschewed the effects of light in
works executed before World
War I, and Karl Schmidt-Rott-
luff's Landscape (color plate 11) is
an early example. Later, Arthur
Dove and Charles E. Burchfield
continued to explore the pos-
sibilities of this kind of non-
naturalistic representation.
largegroup of watercolorists
day work primarily in non-
illuministic styles. You may be
among them, or vou may want
experiment in the mode. If so,
this chapter will discuss some
things vou should consider.
The chief reason for eliminat-
ing or in some way modifying
light effect is you wish to
that
emphasize something else. The
expressive concern you are pur-
suing may range from a sense of
Gene Matthews*s Hill (figure 75) most calligraphic rain lines at
is an example. upper left and center. These
form an important visual focus,
Illustrations as they contrast with the rest of
John Marin's Landscape with Trees the picture surface. But other,
and Rain (figure 76) offers a good similar signifying (rather than de-
starting point for this discussion scriptive) lines prevent this con-
because it is a picture done on trast from disrupting the total
the kind of dav when considera- visual statement. For example,
A tions of light are minimal. If vou the casual, almost clumsy quality
to- normally take light into consid- of the lines found in the spruce
eration, this should help vou trees and in the foliage marks in
remember that you have already the right foreground helps us ap-
to faced some of the problems ad- preciate the lines as similar to the
dressed by this chapter manv "accidental" (natural) flow of the
times. wet-in-wet brush marks. The pic-
How, does Marin's pic-
in fact, ture holds together; it is a small,
ture differ from a "normal" delicate recording of coolness,
treatment of rainy weather? First, moistness, and the felt power of
value (and color) relationships be- earth's fecundity under the fertile
tween foreground and back- rain.
ground do not allude exclusively This deliberate linking of
to atmospheric perspective. Dis- courted accidents and symbolic

COHERENCE WITHOUT LIGHT 117

 —

Figure 77 lines or shapesa hazardous

is boats, bridges, skyscrapers, the
New York City at Daybreak b\ Dong game terms of pictorial
to play in Statue of Liberty.
Kingman, 1969, 22" x 30" (56 x 76
coherence, and even Marin did For the many who work
artists
cm), rough paper, private collection.
Kingman uses light abstractly, em- not always bring it off success- in a non-illuministic manner, the
phasizing the excitement of the value fully. But it is fun! lack of unification by light seems
contrasts it creates rather than its A quite different approach is to pose no problems. This is be-
modeling capacity. Spatial effect is taken by Dong Kingman. New cause they use other means to
minimized in favor of an all-over pat-
York City at Daybreak (figure 77) underscore their expression and
tern of approximately equal visual
interest that is underscored bv the
includes strong shadow areas, to create pictorial coherence.

spotting of intense colors. Surface co- some that model forms and oth- Look at Richard Yarde's Parade
herence depends also upon similarity ers that break it up. Value con- II (figure 78). The picture is
of rectangular shapes that recur in a trasts are very strong, and so is "about" a group of people, pre-
broad sequence of sizes. The picture
color intensity. Space, however, is sumably only a segment of a
expresses in direct visual terms a
sense of urban early-morning bustle. again of relatively little concern: longer line, who move erratically
the surface pattern sets up a field along a pathway. We do not
of stimulating visual excitement know whether it is a street or
that communicates directly to the where the line is. The people are
viewer a sense of the city waking forever frozen in their slow, but
to traffic noise and activity. King- somehow purposeful, progress, as
man uses not light but the sharp though a news film had been
value contrasts it creates to fash- stopped. Yet there a sense of
is

ion a shifting, sparkling surface inevitability about their onward

full of agitation. Like Marin, he
does not describe appearances so
much as directly provide an ap-
propriate visual experience that
he specifies with symbolic tags
shuffle.
How does the artist do it? First,
he creates a compellingly inte-
grated world. Regarding the
surface elements, notice that this

118 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

is a wash painting; the smallest saic. Verticals and horizontals of her body —almost completely
paint areas, although they have alter their position in easily ap- unmodeled — presents a sharp,
some stroke qualities, are treated preciated sequences. But con- central, visually exciting focus
as washes. And the washes never trasts of interval, especially be- that helps balance the lights at
get very large: the pavement is tween the figures, clarify and de- right.
handled as several separate scribe the informality of the pro- Before leaving this painting,

washes. Overlapped edges are cession. notice how sensitively Yarde se-

created deliberately so that the It is in the freedom of color or- lects characteristic shapes in both
viewer can never quite forget the ganization that we most clearly darks and lights to tell the viewer
surface or the paint. The sense of see the direct result of liberation succinctly about the varieties of
gently controlled, loose paint per- from unity of light, as is the case human form represented in this
vades the paper. Its coherence is in Prendergast's Band Concert parade. Also observe how he bal-
very strong. (color plate 4). The color areas ances narrow dark-against-light
Yarde uses the spatial elements vary between fairly neutral and shapes at the right border with
ingeniously. He plays the "pic- very intense, jewellike, trans- light-against-dark ones at the left.

ture" shape against the horizontal
rectangle of the paper so that the
marchers turn gradually down-
hill, while the slope hovers be-
tween an increasing curve and a
diagonal. This ambiguity marks
—
the picture as a whole it is its
visual, representational, and ex-
pressive theme.
Most of the color patches are
similar in size, and many share a
resemblance in shape as well, re-
calling the logical order of mo-
parent passages. They are not The amount of contrast is similar
wholly "naturalistic" either. By enough to achieve visual balance,
abandoning the effect of natural but the different terms of the
light, Yarde, too, is free to treat contrast prevent monotony.
the colors of objects with a good Autumn Bluff (figure 79) by
deal of latitude. In figure 78, you Daniel Peterson, also a non-
can see that this freedom dramat- illuministic picture, illustrates a
ically affects value. Check only very different expressive aim.
one example, the woman just to Once again we note ambiguous
the left of center: although some space and a fragmented light
darker tones in her skirt help re- effect, but here the artist seems
duce her contrast with the deep to "reconstitute" space and light
darks around it, the upper part to emphasize the energy they in-

Figure 78
Parade II by Richard Yarde, c. 1976, 16" x 28" (41 x 71 cm), rough paper, courtesv of the artist. Like Kingman, Yarde
employs light arbitrarily and abstractly; like Prendergast (color plate 4), he breaks up the surface in patches of wash that
have somewhat the force of strokes. Space and atmosphere are not as important as color and shape relationships on the
picture surface. Ambiguities of value and color set a theme that places the scene in a mysteriously present past.

COHERENCE WITHOUT LIGHT 119

 be helpful, for future reference,
to make some notes as you go
along.

1. Look one painting at a time

at
(you probably not want to ex-
will
amine all of them, at least not
now). Ask yourself how accu-
rately your picture reflects the
actual subject —that is, how liter-
ally have you transcribed it? If
you have been extremely faithful
to what you saw —
and we'll as-
sume that this was your intent
and is a part of your "style" give —
some consideration to what alter-
ations, minor or major, you
might have made to increase co-
/ > herence and add expressive
force.

It will probably help if you

proceed in your analysis in the

order we've used in this book. So,
start thinking about whether
Figure 79 modifications of surface treat-
Autumn Bluff by Daniel Petersen, rough paper, courtesy of the Com-
c. 1969, ment might have been desirable.
merce Bank Sequences of sweeping lines and similar
of Springfield, Missouri.
For example, could you have sac-
shapes invest this picture with dynamic energy and movement. Though there
is no descriptive light, value contrasts suggest its presence. Recognizable trees,
rificed some descriptive texture,
shrubs, and grasses tell the viewer what the scene is; but Petersen takes care as in arough tree trunk, to add
that they do not become too naturalistic in appearance, lor ih.it would remove coherence to the handling? If
them from the world he has created by means other than traditional repre- you had done so, would that have
sentation.
allowed other textures, more im-
portant to your expressed con-
fuse into the landscape. pend on light's unifying power to assume greater visibility?
tent, to
Space is treated as long, broad attain pictorial coherence and Are there any lines that might
arcs that converge and intersect welcome the constraints of work- have been changed a little? For
at center and upper right. These ing with the everyday appearance instance, there might be a barn
linesform a group of similar of nature. Nevertheless, it is in- gable that, shifted slightly, would
shapes, some of which are repeat- structive to see how artists work- major tree branch or
parallel a
ed in branches and shrubs. The ing outside this tradition achieve form part of a linear sequence of
sense of space is increased by the you can use
pictorial unity, for shifting diagonal directions.
gradually reduced size of the arc most of these tools yourself. You are looking for minor
shapes and in the irregular Their use is sometimes referred changes now, small things that
shapes of the trees and shrubs. to as "artistic license." Seeing ar- would affect the representation
Although light effect is sepa- tistic license employed in what very little. What about shapes?
rated from volume and space, its may your purposes, a
be, for Suppose your gable line were
flicker and movement are sug- somewhat exaggerated form, may —
changed would that disrupt a
gested by the areas of strong give you additional ideas about similarity of shape between it and
value contrast, chiefly in the up- how you could adapt it to your a shed gable? Or could you have
per part of the paper. From this own needs. made the line alteration and
the viewer intimates the presence Now you need to take a echoed the shed gable more
of low, strong sun. thoughtful look at your selection closely at the same time? Trade-
of paintings. You will have to try offs are usual in this kind of ad-
Exercises and remember as best you can justment; you want to anticipate
Perhaps you have not tried many their subjects as they actually ap- them and try to make the judg-
non-illuministic paintings. Most peared, as well as scrutinize them ment that you the most
gives
representational artists both de- as objects in themselves. It may expressive arrangement commen-

120 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

surate with the greatest coher- tionships or created ones that consider with equal concentration
ence. look forced? Is your color sim- the content that can be empha-
Ask yourself similar questions ilarity too obvious, blatant? sized in pictures without light
about possible modifications in effect.
3. Finally, reflect a little on the
size and interval. Then tackle the One way to undertake such an
proportion of conscious altera-
color elements —hue, value, and tions for either compositional or
experiment is to look thought-
intensity — in the same way.
representational ends to those
fully at one of vour pictures and
see what it might express that it
2. Now let's assume that you do unconscious ones that you almost
doesn't. Then figure out how vou
not normally "copy" exactlv, but certainly have discovered. If most
could give force to that expres-
rather make some adjustments in are conscious, and work unob-
sion by freeing yourself from the
vour subject as you transfer it to trusively and effectively, vou are
particular constraints of appear-
painting. What changes do vou painting with excellent control
ances such as light, atmosphere,
make, and why do vou make and probablv are fashioning pic-
and, to a lesser extent, form,
them? This can prove tricky be- tures that reflect your hoped-for
space, and natural color. You
cause you may find that you result a good percentage of the
must think about changes in sur-
—
tend as do most artists to — time. If most are conscious, but a
face and paint texture and the
make involuntary adjustments in bitclumsy, you need to consider
spatial and color elements. Try it!
vour subject. You should make toning them down a little. If most
You might like it!
note of these signs of your indi- are unconscious, but seem to
vidual idiosvncracies, for we shall work, vou probably don't need to
return to them in the last chapter do much of anything else. The Summary
The usual sort of changes only improvement you might Representational painting in
made in transferring a subject to want to attempt gradually is at- which the artist deliberately gives
a painting are expressed in terms taining a greater awareness of up the unifying function of light
of representation: "I made the your devices so you can use them obliges him to rely much more
tree larger": "I moved the house even more effectively. heavily on the non-representa-
to the right"; "I raised the hori- If vou have uncovered uncon- tional elements for pictorial
zon." Having identified one or scious changes that don't seem to coherence. He must be especially
more such alterations, ask your- be doing the job very well, you aware of the "abstract" possibil-
self what compositional ends were should look carefully again at ities for similarity (and contrast,
served by your change. That is, what vou've been doing. Select with its expressive power) of the
how did the change enhance pic- those changes that are simply ha- and color ele-
surface, spatial,
torial coherence? Did it actively bitual and get rid of them as ments we've been discussing in
increase similarity of size or expeditiously as possible. You can this book. As a painter of ap-
shape? Did it create some sim- start using more consciously pearance, there is much you can
of interval? Did you mod-
ilarity those that have possibilities with a learn from such pictures bv con-
ifyanv of the color elements for view to refining them. Don't wor- scious study, for these paintings
analogous reasons? ry that by raising your devices to show a wide variety of de-
clearly
Next, ask yourself what repre- a conscious level you will be you can apply to your
vices that
ends were served bv
sentational jeopardizing vour "creativity" own work under the rubric of
vour changes. (Here we are talk- vou will constantly develop new "artistic license."
ing mainly about your use of unconscious ways of strengthen- The non-illuministic artist, free
contrast.) Were representational ing your compositions and repre- from dependence on light and
relationships clarified? Did vou sentation and the expression they related aspects of pictorial unitv.
intensify linear, shape, or color form together. at the same time gains an expres-
contrasts to sharpen your visual Perhaps vou have never at- sive liberation that can inspire
means of expression? tempted a picture unified by you. Although vou paint within
These questions are necessarily means other than light. If this is the constraints of natural ap-
rather general. In vour analysis, the case, it would be instructive pearance, thought will suggest to
however, try to pick out specific to try —
one not because that is you a multitude of ways in which
alterations soyou can better un- the way you finally wish to struc- vou can adapt the methods of the
derstand what it was vou were ture vour expression, but because non-illuministic painter to your
attempting to do and how well it obliges you to think fiercely expressive ends, thereby giving
vour strategy worked. Have vou, about achieving pictorial coher- your pictures more arresting
for example, oversimplified rela- ence bv other means and to communicative force.

COHERENCE WITHOUT LICHT 121

 Figure 80
Government Wharf bv Carl Schmalz, 1972, 15V' x 22" (39 x 56 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper,
collection of the author. This and figure 81 show how the same subject can generate very
different paintings. This red bait shack on its pier is the "Motive No. 1" of my summer classes:
I have painted about twenty times bv now. and each picture is different. Here the day is
it

foggy, the tide is low, and colors are very low in intensity. I flooded on opaque mixtures to
increase the surface interest caused bv the sediment and the granulation of pigment.

, I *4 /,, * I 7

Figure 81
Fisherman's Morning bv Carl Schmalz, 1975, 15£" x 22£" (39 x 57 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed
paper, collection of the author. As in figure 80, this is also a demonstration painting, but done
on a very different day. Bright sun and nearlv full tide are external factors that differentiate
this picture from the former one. But there are many internal differences, too. The design
here is horizontal with vertical accents rather than about evenly balanced horizontal and verti-
cal axes. I used many more transparent colors to achieve the high intensities I wanted. Surface
interest is in brushstrokes instead of granulation. Although the basic subject is the same, this
picture is "about" a man out early for fishing while the earlier one is "about" mood.

122 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 17

Subject
Selection
Illustrations was. in fact, never completely
Are you trapped Probablv the first and one of the overcome, even during the last
most insidious subject constraints third of the centurv. when Im-
by custom or are you
facing you is the weight of tradi- pressionism exerted its influence
selecting subjects freely tion in representational trans- on watercolor painting.
and deliberately? parent watercolor. All of you Although Winslow Homer was
have been to manv watercolor never truly an Impressionist, his
shows and have felt there the work does reflect the intense con-
Critical Concern drearv redundancy of subject cern with light effect that lay at

From the most insignificant idea matter. Frequently as many as 90 its heart. John Singer Sargent's
and from the first
to the greatest, percent of the subjects shown are later watercolors are very close to
glimmer of the idea to the final predictable. There are small Impressionism, both in subject
framing of a picture, there is no shifts, to be sure. New England choice and handling. And many
choice in painting that is not an barns are currently seen less than other Americans, including
intensely personal one. Among they were in the 1950s; but fish- Hassam and Macknight, worked
your first important choices is se- ing boats and shacks remain in the Impressionist mode.
lection of a subject. highly favored, and abandoned The twin heritage of Romanti-
As pointed out before, the farm machinerv has recently cism and Impressionism remains
picture you paint is a separate been very popular. with us, influencing profoundly
and self-defining world. It is your This extreme conservatism in the subjects of transparent water-
creation, and you are responsible subject derives from at least two color. The force of tradition is

for its order, its wholeness, and sources. The first is watercolor's seen in subjects that are over-
its meaning. Clearly, the more as- historv as a medium over the last whelmingly landscape, often with
pects of vour picture over which two hundred vears, and the sec- expressive overtones derived
vou exercise conscious choice the ond is public expectation based from Romantic preferences, such
better job you will do. No aspect on that historv. (broken-down evi-
as nostalgia
is more fundamental than the ini- Watercolor first began as a dences of earlier habitation) or
tial choice of subject. The freer commonly used sketch medium anthropomorphism (the persever-
vou can be about this basic deci- (just as Diirer employed it ing tree deformed by wind). It is
sion, the better. around 1500) during the early seen also in the dominant con-
There remarkable number
is a nineteenth century. It was a cern of watercolorists for
of subject constraints on contem- quick way of making color notes emphasis on the total effect of
porary watercolorists; you may and was largelv employed for illumination.
not be fully aware of many of landscapes. Turner, Constable, The American watercolor-lov-
these. As with all other aspects of and other European artists ing public has become deeply
painting, some constraints are ex- worked in the ambience of Ro- attached to these subject choices
ternal and, to a greater or lesser manticism, which tended to and treatments. National exhibi-
degree, bevond individual con- infuse nature with human senti- tions have, on the whole, tended
trol. Some are internal, and most ments. In the work of the later to reinforce them, and private
of these are subject to your per- English watercolorists, traces of galleries, out of economic neces-
sonal decision. this Romanticism lingered on. It sity . have largely catered to this

SUBJECT SELECTION 123

Figure 82 taste. There is not very much the of subjects is, therefore, a serious
Studio Door b\ Paul C. Burns, constraint for most watercolorists.
individual painter can do to alter
A.W.S., 1971. 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm),
300 lb. rough paper, collection of the
so ingrained and complex a situa- We also tend to return again and
artist. Even home has interesting tion. again to subjects with which we
corners, and all possess doors. Such Of course, there is nothing are familiar, a practice that is
subjects are not inexhaustible, but inherently wrong with such sub- fine, if deliberate (see figures 80
they certainly bear investigation. and 81); and we are often influ-
jects. I usually paint them, and
Burns here put together a dramatic
probably so do most of you. Per- enced by the subject selection of
composition that speaks explicitly of
—
the painter's world books and refer- haps if we had an irresistible our painter friends or by what we
ences, other paintings, an antique desire to engage different sorts see by other artists in exhibitions,
chair, and the open door to the of problems, we would
artistic magazines, and homes.
world beyond the work place. The not be painting in watercolor at If travel and acquaintance with
importance of what is outside is seen
all! Even so, this tradition tends the work of other artists inspire
in the light reflections it brings into
the studio. to limit our choices, often more us to try new subjects, this sort of
than we like. example good thing. If it
is a
The question is: why do you provides a smoke screen behind
paint what you paint? And one which we hide a refusal to come
answer may be that it is what actively to grips with our own
dealers and purchasers demand. subject preferences, however, it

Well, we've seen why it may be may be deleterious.

so, but we don't have to knuckle How many of you know an art-

under, do we? ist who is a whiz at and "loves"

There are constraints on you painting flowers, but who actually
other than tradition. Unless you paints flowers chiefly because of
are content to depend on photo- lack of confidence with perspec-
graphs, you cannot paint Brazil tive? Real or imagined inability to
unless you go there. Availability draw well is an all-too-frequent

124 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

subject selector for many artists.

Do you never put figures in your

landscapes because you like the
"feel" of barrenness that a lack of
them creates? Or don't you draw-
figures very well? Do you avoid
intense color subjects because you
seek the modesty and calm of low 7

intensities? Or do you fear the

power and potential for dishar-
mony inherent in full intensities?

Obviously each of you enjoys

painting particular subjects; but is

of conscious choice?
this a result
Throughout this book, the aim is
to control as many decisions in
painting as possible, and subject
selection is among the most im-
portant.

Exercises
If you have not already been
tempted to glance at your picture
collection, get it out now and
spread it around so you can see
all your paintings easily.

1.Begin by dividing your work

intobroad subject categories. For
example, have you only land-
scapes, or are there still lifes,

portraits, figures, and interiors

among your subjects? You can
then subdivide each category in
which more than one picture fits.
Because you probably have quite
a few landscapes, let's use that
category as an example. You
might divide your landscapes into
categories such as rural and ur-
Figure 83
ban, those with and without
Seams, OK by Lucile Geiser, A.W.S.. 1965, 30" x 22" (76 x 56 cm), 165 lb.
buildings, and those with or with-
rough paper, courtesy, A.P.S.F.A. Alliance. This straightforward wet-in-wet
out water. And you could further painting, enjoyable in itself, suggests innumerable possible subject variations.
divide them according to focus The many kinds of household tools and appliances, old and new, carry varied
that is, a distant or close-up view associations that artists can explore. Look around you at the potentials of

of subject (see Chapter 18). washing machines and driers, mixers, vacuum cleaners. New stoves may not
be as quaint as old ones, but they can provide as good a painting subject.
This kind of analysis organizes
your sense of what subjects in
general are interesting to you
and gives you an opportunity to
reflect on the degree to which
your conscious choice has been
operating in subject selection. It
may also encourage you to con-
sider trying some different
subjects or different approaches
to familiar themes.

2. How about attempting an inte-

rior? Look at figure 82, Paul C.

SUBJECT SELECTION 125

Figure 84 Burns's Studio Door. This is a sub- How about pavements, with or
The Tender
154"
b\ Osral B. Allied. 1967,
x 21y," (39 x 54 cm), rough
ject available toam of you and — without gutter detritus? Where
one open to virtually endless vari- are the paintings of dumps, car
paper, collection of the Springfield
Art Museum. Springfield. Missouri.
ations. Or look at Lucile Geiser's graveyards, freeways, and bill-

This unusual close-up makes a strik- Seom.\, OK (figure 83). a charming —

ing image. Itself a variation on the
old machinery theme, it provokes
thoughts of still other subjects, such
as the granite footings and beams of
barns. But newer things also come to
—
mind the business end of a cement
truck, bridge under-pinnings, and a
trailer truck rig.
boards all ubiquitous evidence
picture that may be taken as a of civilization's impact on the
type of "domestic" Con-
still life. earth, and all loaded with pic-
around
sider such possibilities torial potential.
your house. Think what might be
4. If vou are put off by seami-
done with sinks, supper clutter,
ness, think about closeups, what I
unmade beds, the paint shelf,
call "outdoor still lifes." Charles
corners of garages, vegetable gar-
Colombo's R.F.D. (figure 22) is an
dens, gardening tools, cellars,
example. Or look at Osral B.
and attics.
Allred's The Tender (figure 84), a
3. Apopular subject for at least a powerful image suggesting a rec-
decade has been sign-covered ognizable Franz Kline. William
facades or building walls, often Preston's Wind-Blown Iris (color
embellished with fire escapes, plate 18) and mv Maine Still Life

street junk, or old machinery. (color plate 7) are further exam-

How about looking even closer at ples of this type. Adaline Hnat's
such subjects? Could anything be The Flock (figure 85) is another
done with peeling plaster itself? unusual and successful variation.

126 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

The purpose of these questions
to helpyou decide whether or
not you are in an involuntary
subject rut and, if so, to suggest
ways of shocking yourself out of
it. If your subjects tend to be
rather similar, however, that is
not necessarily disastrous. In the
final analysis, you can only paint
well those subjects that interest
you, that prompt a personal re-
sponsive resonance in your mind
and spirit. You may have, even
subconsciously, selected a class of
subjects that appeals to you and
have learned to treat them in
ways that satisfy you. But if you
have the slightest yen to try
something new and different, in-
dulge that appetite; it can only-
lead to your further growth.
Summary
The subject of a representational
painting is the sum of recogniz-
able elements that specify the
meaning of the materials that
make up the picture the brush—
marks, colors, shapes, lines, and
values. The subject is also usually
the source of the artist's first
germ of an idea about the mak-
ing of the picture, so it is the
beginning and the end. Its im-
portance is central.
For watercolorists, subject se-
lection has been circumscribed by
tradition, and although the tradi-
tion has probably exerted consid-
erable influence on which artists
become watercolorists, it is still
possible, and probably desirable,
to extend the range of watercolor
subjects. Certainly the individual
artistcan benefit by increasing his
or her breadth of subject, if only
to enlarge drawing capacity and
technical skills. Even more impor-
tant, pushing out toward new
subjects widens and deepens
one's imaginative power and
nourishes sensitive perception.
The main reason for seeking
subject variation, however, is
increase control and masterv of
is
Figure 85
The Hock by Adaline Hnat, 1976, 14" x 20" (36 x 51 cm), 140
lb. rough paper,
collection of the artist. Hnat's evokation of bird flight almost Oriental in
is
subject and treatment. The economy of handling and the almost "unfinished"
look of the birds help to express the birds' motion. Most of the characteristic
subjects of Chinese and Japanese painters have also been explored bv Western
artists, but insects are little used by us and bear investigation. From attractive
moths and butterflies to less immediately appealing creatures such as hornets
and spiders, insects offer a wide range of barely explored subjects.
your art, to give yourself the it is modeled. Sketch at every op-
amount of free-
greatest possible portunity. Figures and faces will
dom to paint and say what you yield to a similar, vigorous attack.
want. Your scrutiny of your own Take the bull by the horns.
work shows you pretty clearly There is only one way to learn
whether or not you are presently new ways; that is to try them
free to range as widely as you'd again and again. Put out some
like over the gamut of subjects new colors and give a really
available to all alert painters. bright painting a try. Take a
Should you conclude that you —
weekend trip not necessarily-
would like to acquire greater very far away, but somewhere
range, look again at your picture you've not painted before. If you
collection. Try to figure out what are a non-driver, or otherwise
is inhibiting you. If it is a reluc- housebound, look around you vet
tance to draw buildings, go get a once again. There must be views
book on perspective from the li- and corners out of which you
brary and practice, or take a could squeeze a different picture.
course —but learn. You can over- In short, adopt an actively seek-
come any limitation of mere ing attitude, look everywhere for
technique. The same thing ap- subjects, draw as much as possi-
plies if you are uncomfortable ble, and put down every picture
drawing "pure" landscape. Prac- idea that crosses your vision.
to tice trees and foliage, look for the Never turn off the painter's eyes
structure of the land, notice how vou own.
SUBJECT SELECTION 127
Figure 86 (above)
Robinhood Cove b\ William Zorach,
c. 1950. 14" \ 21" (36 x 53 cm) (sight).
courtesy, Mr. and Mrs. Tessim
Zorach. In this panoramic view,
Zorach tends to look down and in, but
the water surface takes one easil) *
past the fish weirs to the distant hori- •

zon. The junction of earth and sk\ is

the real focus of the painting, just as
its subject is a sense of the largeness

of creation.

Figure 81 (right) fl
The Latch by Larry Webster. 21" x
30" (53 x 76 cm), collection of the
artist. Webster exploits the fore-
ground focus to emphasize both
painterly and descriptive texture.
Notice that he combines them, using
a sequence from periphery to center
that parallels the increase of descrip-
tive texture toward the center.

f&V'i Hi . .<

128 W ATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 18

Focal Distance
and Space
case in point. The old sewing ma- eye over it?
Are you capitalizing chine, with its archaic complex- No matter what your prefer-
itiesand its continued utility, be- ences, the spatial organization of
on your options comes a metaphor for the wealth your picture must be consistent
for different focal of human knowledge and social in itself and congruent with sur-
evolution. It is a good subject, face design and expression if
distances and spatial
well handled as a close-up. your painting is to attain the
constructions? The least-used, and least-un- complete coherence that makes it

derstood, focal distance is the an unassailable "world" of its

Critical Concern
Selecting a subject of course,
is,
only a beginning. Your response
to that subject demands a great
many decisions as you translate
your sense of it into the visual
order that makes your expression
appreciable to viewers. Here our
primary concern is your overall
organization of pictorial (or il-
lusory) space.
There are three primary ways
of focusing a picture: in the fore-
ground, in the middleground,
and in the distance. Not only
most watercolorists, but also most
representational landscapists have
traditionally focused their sub-
jects in the middleground
because this allows the artist to
balance or contrast the fore-
ground against the subject, which
may also be set off by the dis-
tance behind or beyond it. This
an excellent way of expressing a
great many human concerns, but
itdoes not exhaust the variations.
The second most used focal
distant one. Its difficulty
the fact that it makes the
ground an introduction,
were, to nothing. Yet the distant
focus offers some really splendid
subject treatments. Look
William Zorach's Robinhood Cove
(figure 86), for instance.
emptory treatment of the fore-
ground and the casual indications
of the fish weirs in the mid-
dleground indicate that Zorach
was interested in the whole pan-
orama. This is tantamount to
saying to the viewer, "None of
this important except the sense
is
you have of the whole." The
whole, of course, is the edge of
—
the world the distant land mas-
ses juxtaposed against the sky.
The distant focus presents ex-
pressive worlds infrequently
explored by recent watercolorists.
There are other sorts of spatial
is organization and structure that
you need to be aware of. For
also
example, do you like to look up,
at, out at, and around your sub-
ject? Or do you like to look down
lies in (and your) own.
fore-
as it Illustrations
Some of the advantages of a fore-
ground focus can be seen in
at Larry Webster's The Latch (figure
87). Most obviously, this focus al-
The per- lows you to concentrate on
represented, or descriptive, tex-
tures.Look back at Charles
Colombo's R.F.D. (figure 22), for
example, and at Glenn MacNutt's
Cobbler's Cove (figure 57); in these
paintings, too, descriptive texture
forms the basis of the pictorial
concern. Not only texture but
—
precision in drawing especially
of small or intricate parts of a
subject — is also possible with the
foreground focus. Nuances of
color can support these details
and surfaces (see color plates 3
and 22). In addition, many,
though by no means all, fore-
ground-focus paintings tend to
be fairly easy to design. Because
they frequently include little
depth, their surface organization
is often uncomplicated by consid-

point is the foreground. This can at and into it? If your focus is in erations of orderly arrangement
be an emphasized, even an exclu- the middleground or distance, do in the illusory third dimension.
sive, focus. It allows the near and you prefer to give the fore- Middleground focus usuallv in-
the little to become large. Lucile ground approximately equal cludes deep space, presenting
Geiser's Seams, OK (figure 83) is a interest, or to vault the viewer's you with the classic foreground

FOCAL DISTANCE AND SPACE 129

Figure 88 (right)
Lighthouse and Buildings, Portland
Head by Edward Hopper, courtesy.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Be-
quest of John T. Spaulding. The
effectof space isolation in this pic-
ture derives in part not only from
Hopper's placing the buildings in the
middleground (which pushes them
back from the viewer) against a bar-
ren distance, but also from his sep-
arating them from the paper's edges.

Figure 89 (below)
Broadway, Newburgh, N.Y. bv
Childe Hassam, 1916, 15f x 2U" (39
x 54 cm), rough paper, courtesy,
Colby College Art Museum. One of
the true American Impressionists,
Hassam was among the few who
worked much in watercolor. He de-
^•4
veloped a technique of extreme
fresbness and lucidity, seen here in a
top-lit scene. The middleground
—
focus tree, windows and flags is—
embraced and characterized bv
strong verticals and horizontals.
,

130 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAV

problem as well as more options
and risks in surface organization.
Edward Hopper's Lighthouse and
1 .»
Buildings, Portland Head (figure
88) is a simple solution. He treats
the foreground grass as paint
texture, which introduces the
viewer to the more complicated
strokes and textures of the mid-
dle distance (where, of course, he
places the center of interest). The
sea and sky are a pictorial dimin-
uendo both as illusory distance
and as paint.
In Beinn Tangaval, Barra (color
plate 23),I have done a similar

thing. A
few zigzags take the
viewer through the foreground
to the dunes, modeled and col-
ored by the afternoon light. The
mountain is a coda in the dis-
tance, modeled by delicate hue
and value changes. As for surface Figure 90
design, it is the simplest: the Torment, Puerto Rico by Henry G. Keller, 1926, rough paper, collection of
dunes and cows are the subject. Mr. William M. Milliken. Keller, a near contemporary of Marin, worked in a
modified Expressionist mode. His color is relatively intense, his designs bold,
They are near the center, and
simple, but subtle. Notice how the dark foliage that enters this composition at
they place in perspective the lower left exhibits a sequence of more and more agitation at its upper contour
otherwise unsealed foreground as it moves into the picture. By this device Keller prevents the viewer's eye
beach and more distant mountain. from straying out the corner.
A different example of
middleground focus is Childe
Hassam's Broadway, Newburgh,
NY. (figure 89). Even in black
and white, it takes but a moment
to realize that the focus here is
on the dark tree, windows, and
flag at the center. The rest of the
painting merely enfolds and
qualifies this center, and most —
—
important guides us there. Ob-
serve how difficult it is for the
viewer to get out. Strong verticals
at left and dark ones at right,
strong horizontals above that stop
the perspective of the street, and
the powerful brush activity at
center all contain a middle-
ground its whole en-
that gives us
vironment in terms of Hassam's
brush and color.
Note that the "foreground
problem" has been taken care of Figure 91
by a dark at left that describes Corner Shadows by Murray Wentworth 20" x 30" (51 x 76 cm), smooth paper,
perspective. The same thing hap- collection of the artist. Well used, the vignette is simply a kind of sequence: it
is a gradation from less to more representation from the edges of the picture
pened in color plate 23, and
to the focal center. Wentworth uses it deftly here, so that foreground detail is
Henry Keller employed essen- actually found mainly deep into the picture space. The foreground — treated
tially the same solution in in the same sequence as the rest of the painting — is largely paint texture.

Torment, Puerto Rico (figure 90), Photo by Fasch Studio.

FOCAL DISTANCE AND SPACE 131

Figure 92 (above) where the focus is more distant,
Garden Market by Ruth P. Hess,
LJ butstill middleground. Slightly
15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), 140 lb.
right of center is the storm,
rough paper, courtesy, Mr. and
Mrs. Ralph Benz. Hess unifies her which strikes the part of the hills
picture by treating the entire sur- most set off by value contrasts.
face with approximatel) the same We are led into the picture by
degree of representational detail. the amorphous vegetation at
As a result, her foreground is as
lower right, with its strong value
broadly handled as the rest of the
painting —areas of bright color contrasts and personal brush-
specified bv occasional calligraphic work. The episode is concluded
lines. Picture space is also indi- with a rousing finale in the dis-
cated chiefly by color and value.
tant mountains and clouds at
Figure 93 (right)
upper left.
Wall Pattern, Venice by Phoebe The foreground problem is
Flory, 22" x 12" (56 x 30 cm). 140 best met (until you have other
lb. hot pressed paper, collection of ideas) by keeping the treatment
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Rorabacher.
of brushstroke or wash compat-
This fine example of the head-on
view of a wall or other flat surface
ible with the rest of your surface.
illustrates how such a spatial or- You can be detailed or vague, but
ganization permits a design that is your first obligation is to the
based largely on subtle placement painted integrity of your picture.
of objects of importance in this— This may allow a kind of vignet-
case, the windows. The subject
and treatment also emphasize both ting, which is very successful in
paint surface textures and descrip- Murray WentworuYs Corner Shad-
tive textures. Flory rubbed and ows (figure 91); or it may call for
drew on waxed paper laid over descriptive detail to about the
the surface to produce the resist
same degree that other parts of
textures on the wall and in the
the picture are described, as in
grillwork.
Garden Market (figure 92).

132 WATERCOLOR VOIR WAV

 There are two basic ways of plane to several "yards" into pic-
handling a distant focus paint- torial depth, as in Everett Ray-
ing —
low horizon or high mond Kinstler's Morning—19th St.

horizon. Since your center of in- (figure 95). This is a powerful

terest is far away, you are usually and effective means of ordering
obliged to produce a panoramic space precisely because it estab-
view. This means that you want lishes a right-angle relationship
either an interesting sky or a between the viewer's line of vi-

foreground and middleground sion into illusory space and the

that amplify and qualify your
main focus without stealing the
show from it.
Color plate 21, Eliot O'Hara's
Sunset between Santa Fe and Taos,
illustrates the first solution.
the sky is the qualifying element
surfaces of both the picture and
the wall in the picture. This same
right-angle theme can then be
amplified on the two-dimensional
surface of the wall where the
Here shapes of doors and windows
echo the shape of the picture it-

that dictates the entire color self. Two- and three-dimensional

scheme of the painting. It is rep- spaces are linked through the
resentationally dramatic and the right-angle repetitions.
paint handling is equally interest- Pictures organized this way al-

ing. My Meditation, Warwick Long most always have a foreground

Bay (color plate 24) sets the hori- focus, but this is not invariable.
zon closer to the middle of the For example, Empty Barn bv
picture, but still includes a good Charles H. Wallis (figure 96)
deal of sky. A bit of cloud at left plays an interesting foreground Figure 94
and some purposefully left plane against a central mid- Morning and Snow bv Man Blackev.
c.1969. 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm),
brushstrokes at right help keep dleground, and both act as a
rough paper. Blackev adapts the
the area interesting; the fore- contrasting foil for the real cen- head-on spatial design to a forest.
ground is articulated bv foot- ter of interest, the infinite sky. The space is ambiguous, providing
prints and seaweed; the mid- The theme of the picture —emp- the viewer with a pleasing sense of
dleground is marked by the tiness — is persuasively stated by fluctuating depth that/^/5 the wav
gentlv swaying trees look.
seated figure. the window that contains nothing.
Salt Marsh, June (color plate 12) The view from above can
exemplifies the alternative option. create a similar spatial organiza- frequently yields dramatic diago-
In this case it is the lower, or tion because, although it pro-
nals on the picture surface, as in

earth, section of the picture that duces a ground plane tilted into Edward Hopper's Universalist

had be interesting without

to the picture from foreground to Church, Gloucester (figure 100);

challenging the focus on the dis- background, one can often in- that view can be used to monu-
tant buildings and tree lines. I clude little or no sky, so the mentalize almost any subject.
used color intensity, color con- ground plane becomes the sub- Larry Webster's Dock Square
trast, and highly visible brush- ject. If the view is seen head Florist (figure 101) illustrates an-
strokes, but tried to avoid much on, horizontal and vertical axes other sort of spatial organization,
specific descriptive detail. frequently order the surface, as the simple center placement of a
One variety of spatial organiza- in Sidney Goodman's Towards the main feature with more distant
tion that has been much favored Perns' (figure 97) and my En- things falling away at the sides.
by watercolorists in recent years closed Garden (color plate 22). This greatly reinforces center-
is the flat, head-on view of the Seen at an angle, such views pro- focused design by adding spatial
wall of a building or other wall- duce a network of diagonals on emphasis to it. A similar strength-
like subjects. An excellent exam- the surface. This is the basis of ening occurs with the opposite
ple of this is Phoebe Flory"s Wall spatial organization in William
treatment of space, in which spa-
tial depth is greatest near the
Pattern, Venice (figure 93).Mary Preston's August Wild Flowers (fig-
Blackey's Morning and Snow (fig- ure 98) and Eliot O'Hara's center of the painting. Charlie's
ure 94) illustrates a way of Gargoyles over the Seine (figure 99). Lane bv Al Brouillette (figure
ordering trees in this manner. Notice that whereas Preston's pic- 102) is a good example of this.

Characteristic of this arrange- ture has a foreground focus,

ment is a very shallow picture O'Hara's focuses on the mid- Exercises
space. The "wall" can range from dleground. To start, line up all your selected
immediately behind the picture Architecture seen from below paintings so you can examine

FOCAL DISTANCE AND SPACE 133

 •~**° •
'
i

Figure 95 (top) Figure 96 (above)

Morning — 19th bv Everett Raymond Kinstler, 15" x
St.
28" (38 x 71 cm), rough watercolor board, collection of
the artist. Here the wall is placed well back in the picture
space, but the basic spatial organization is the same as
that in the previous two figures. This painting is dis-
tinguished by unusually rich paint textures and very
subtle variations of rectangular shapes.
Empty Barn by Charles H. Wallis, c. 1973, 26" x 32" (66 x
81 cm), rough paper, courtesy, Springfield Art Museum,
Springfield, Missouri. Wallis varies the head-on wall
type of spatial organization by allowing it to be pene-
trated by a hole within a hole. The picture is basically a
wash painting, enlivened bv paint textures and descriptive
textures.

134 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

JL^j
met *,

to

Si *
•4»-r

^r-

1
'

FzgT/r? 97 (left)

Towards the Perrys' bv Sidney

Goodman, 1974, 10" x 13f (25 x
34 cm), rough paper, courtesy,
Tern Dintenfass, Inc. This pic-
ture shows how a head-on view
from above can yield spatial or-
dering based on horizontals and
vertical accents. This is basically a
stroke painting. The center focus
on the house is augmented bv
very delicate balances between the
clump of trees at right, the utility
poles, and the foliage masses.
Photo by Robert E. Mates and
Paul Katz.
Figure 98 (above)
August Wild Flowers bv William
Preston, 1967, 21" x 28" (53 x 71
cm), rough paper, courtesy, Shore
Gallery, Boston. A close-up from
above, this picture is viewed from
The board wall or
a slight angle.
fence at the upper margin forms a
diagonal that is countered by the
general direction of the grasses.
Implied diagonals in the axes of
the flower masses produce com-
plementary major and minor
crosseson the surface. Photo by
George M. Cushing.

FOCAL DISTANCE AND SPACE 135

 ; i
r

them from the point of view of

spatial focusand organization.
Ask yourself first about focal
distances. Are all three repre-
sented among your pictures, or
do you tend to use one fairly ex-
clusively? Remember that your
subject preferences have consid-
erable effect on your choice
of
focal distance. If you have a rela-
tively narrow range of subjects,
you can expect that this will be
reflected in a somewhat restricted
treatment of space. Similarly, if
you enjoy painting flowers, say,
or still lifes, you are likely to
have
a lot of paintings with a fore-
ground focus.
Makethese allowances for
yourself and then look at your
pictures again. This time ask
yourself whether the similarities
Figure 99 (or differences) of focus were
jus-
Gargoyles over the Seine In Elk). tified. Were they the result
O'Hara, 1948. 15" x T2" (38 x 56 cm) of
lb. rough paper, I.. I

courtesy, O'Hara Picture Trust. deliberate decisions? Are you

This painting has a middle
ground focus, bu. it, too, is a view iron,
above a, an angle prod n consciously considering the best
trunks, 'T'
,/a " ,,n
minks' reflections
d
ST T imer,aCed d ^nals. Smfiler
and buddings-provide sub-theme
,
veS-^e focus for effective expression of
accents. Photo In Woltz
each subject, or are you painting
pretty much the same sort of
pic-
ture through unexamined habit?
If there are many different focal
distances among your pictures, is
itbecause you tried to fit them to
your expressive aim, or is it varia-
tion for variation's sake?
The point here, as always in
this book, is to increase control
over your painting by helping
you become aware of your
choices. There is no law that for-
bids you from employing the
same focal distance in every pic-
ture you paint; but if this is
happening unconsciously, it sug-
gests that
you might do well to
explore other options— and
broaden your subjects as well!
Ask yourself now the same
questions about spatial organiza-
tion inyour pictures. Have you
Figure 100
some or do many of
diversity,

Universalis! Church, Gloucester by your paintings resemble one of

Edward Hopper, 14" x 194" (28 x 50 cm)
oom * "H* Art the examples already discussed in
from'heT
r uH V?? tTe ate dram "
Mmcum, Kinceton
^ P— UnLSy this chapter? Do you
atlfr ^n ^H
at left a
ee
against
S
each other and.
v

ma
„
T T
he chimney shadows at
P ^
t

?
aJ IeS and ex
tHe *"* r M,f and eaves
'
diagonal lines on
"
'" Perspective
right. These lines are at right
subliminal wav. restore the right-angle
angles to
to look up, out,
down and in?
always tend
and around? Or
From above? From
buildings that is distorted by the
regufr Lof the below? At a centered object? At a
artists viewing position
centered space? Or, since we

136 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

have by no means exhausted the
possible forms of spatial organi-
zation, do your pictures tend to
fall into some other category of
similarity?
Subject selection is not the only
controlling factor here, of course.
Each of us has profound under-
lying preferences in spatial
organization, as in color and all
other aspects of art. As you study
vour pictures, you are getting to
know some of these preferences,
to know better what it is that you
like about your own work as well
as what in your work is most you.

Summary
This chapter clearly does not
cover all possible types of spatial
organization in representational
painting. Its purpose, rather,
suggest a few ways of categoriz-
ing treatment of depth in order
to simplify your task of thinking
Figure 101
is to
Dock Square Florist bv Larry Webster, 1968, 28i" x 30^" (72 x 77 cm), 300 lb.
cold pressed paper, collection of the artist. Obrig Prize for Watercolor, Na-
tional Academy of Design, 1970. This painting is a variation of the head-on
wall type of spatial organization: but here, the recession at the sides gives a

criticallv aboutit. Each general

special prominence to the center facade. The deceptively simple design is
given great subtlety bv numerous sequences of shape, size, and quantity of
type of spatial treatment is sub-
detail. Note that the clutter of boxes, plants, and signs concentrates attention
ject to virtually infinite variations in a horizontal zone at the bottom of the picture. Also the succinct indication
and combinations. Further, the of the figures integrates them into that total impression of busyness.
ways you devise to link spatial
order to the two-dimensional or
surface organization of your pic-
ture offer additional opportu-
nities for diversity.
If you have concluded that you
could afford to be more adven-
turous in spatial organization, do
not hesitate to be bold about it.

Set hard problems for yourself:

try a painting of nothing much
but a distant water tower. Paint
your cellar wall or the side of
your house. But be imaginative,
too. Fifteen years ago I decided
that my interest was in the mid-
dle distance and far distance, so
for quite a long time I painted al-

most exclusively on narrow,

horizontal sheets as in Westerly
(figure 50), Indian Point (color :• /
and Winter's Work (color
plate 10), Figure 102
That way I could mini-
plate 15). Charlie's Lane by Al Brouillette.1973, 20£" x 29" (52 x 74 cm), rough paper,
mize the foreground and keep collection of Mr. T. H. B. Dunnegan, Bolivar. Missouri. Where a dominant
mv interest center. So, consider central form in Figure 101 almost pushes forward, here a dominant central
space receeds into the picture. In both cases the center motif provides a basic
another shape or size of paper.
compositional theme of major diagonals that are echoed and augmented bv
The next chapter will discuss this other lines and shapes. Notice how Brouillette stops the wedge shape of the
option at greater length. snow bank at right with the strong light/dark contrasts of the house farther in
the distance at left.

FOCAL DISTANCE AND SPACE 137

 Figure 103
Quarry Fragment by Larry Webster, 1970, 26" (66 cm) diameter, smooth sur-
face illustration board, collection of the artist. In this close-up study of a
quarry face, Webster uses the uncommon circular format to qualify expres-
sion — the round enclosure suggests images seen through a microscope, and
the detailed texture brings to mind associations of equally detailed micro-
scopic "scenes." The circle also emphasizes continuity, which is developed in a
pronounced sequence of angles formed by the cracks from the left of the
picture to the right center vertical: thus the viewer senses both the durability
of rock and the changes that affect it. Photo by Larry Webster.

138 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 CHAPTER 19

Paper Size
and Shape
you usually paint on Imperial washing machine in the cellar.)
Are you thinking about half-sheets or full sheets? (There The size and shape of a picture
are other habits as questionable.) is, in part, a function of the pur-
how size and shape If so, I'd bet that your honest rea- pose it is to serve. Paintings made
are related to your sons are mainly practical. That is, with only one purpose in mind,
you have mats, glass, frames, and namely exhibition, will be suitable
expressive intent
crates already fitted for your for living rooms or other large
and the purpose to usual sizes. By now these sizes spaces, but they may not work in

be served by your
picture?
Critical Concern
For just over a hundred years,
the art of painting has been
adrift. Those of us who paint do
so because we recognize that we
make a vision new for ourselves
and for those who respond to
our work. Most of us have no pa-
tron with whom to share our
thinking about the values and
purposes of each picture. In-
stead, we face free-market
competition in which our "unnec-
essary" product enjoys no
advertising campaigns. As
our only route to financially
backed appreciation is the exhibi-
tion. There are two types of
exhibitions, although they are not
and shapes may seem to be your
"natural" way of envisioning a
picture, but can you stop a mo-
ment to consider what an
insidious inhibition you are im-
posing on yourself?
It is true that we have to deal
with the world as it is. But we
don't have to refuse to change it.
And the first thing to do, of
course, is to change ourselves
put our intelligence, imagination,
and art to work.
Illustrations
Raphael did the designs for the
paintings in Pope Julius IFs bath-
room; and small pictures still
have a place in less grand homes.
it is, Some of you cannot, for impor-
tant reasons —
your special vision,
your economic circumstances,
—
your health produce large pic-
tures. Good, then! Make small a
halls or smaller rooms. You will,
of course, want to continue to
produce exhibition pictures, but
perhaps not to the exclusion of
other possibilities. Not only do
most homes have places for small
paintings, they also have places
for high, narrow ones, low, wide
ones, and round or oval ones.
Each of these formats offers you
the exhilaration of new composi-
tional challenges as well as the
opportunity to broaden the range
of usefulness of your "product."
Look at Larry Webster's Quarry
Fragment (figure 103), for exam-
ple. This might easily —
almost
automatically —have been a stand-
ard Imperial 22" x 30" (56 x 76
cm) picture. The composition
would have been stable and satis-
fying. Instead, Webster sets up
lively tensions among the verti-
and dynamic
cals, horizontals,

seriously different; one is the
public show, open or juried, and
the other is the gallery show.
former bestows prizes, publicity,
and renown; the latter, endorse-
ment, sales, and renown. Both
are extremely expensive for the
virtue. Be realistic about where diagonals of the rock face and
people live and what they do: their enclosing circle. The con-
The some of the greatest prayers in excitement
trast creates a visual
the Judeo-Christian tradition are that the "standard" format would
about washing hands. Why have lacked.
should you not say to the world Similarly, Phoebe Flory's Wall
that you have wonderful pictures Pattern, Venice (figure 93), with its

artist because both are dependent for over the sink, the bathroom tall, permits em-
vertical shape,
upon profit for their existence. wall, even the vacuum cleaner phasis on the varied shapes and
There is a serious purpose to closet? (I keep a serious and sizes of the windows at the same
this familiar litany of woes. Do much-loved tiny painting by the time that it reinforces the sense

PAPER SIZE AND SHAPE 139

 Figure 104
West Point by Carl Schmalz, IO5" x 22" (27 x 56 cm), hot pressed paper, collection of the author. Here the long,
narrow, horizontal format enhances the dominant horizontals of the composition, making sequential changes of
shape and position of subjects more visible bv contrast. The lobster traps at left move into space at alternating
angles, and the gable triangles, thematicallv stated bv the shack at left, progress from center to right.

Figure 105
Landscape by Samuel Kamen, 6" x 8" (15 x 20 cm), rough paper, collection of the artist. Kamen's little black-
and-white painting carries a lot of punch for its size, partly because of his knowing use of value contrast and
partly because of the surface integration provided bv textures of paper, paint, and manipulated surfaces. In
spite of its smallness, it is a picture that would demand considerable space on a wall

140 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

of architectural height. Here the
size and shape of the paper have
been determined as much by the
subject as by any anticipated pur-
pose to be served by the picture.
This is true also of my West Point
(figure 104), where the long and
repeated horizontals are echoed
by the shape of the paper itself.
We have seen how powerful
small pictures can be in works
such as Samuel Kamen's Land-
scape (figure 105). Helen
Schepens-Kraus also paints pic-
tures in various sizes, recognizing
the broad range of uses to which
they may be put. Her small land-
scape studies are economically
handled, with great delicacy of
color to reward intimate viewing,
and she treats flowers, fruits,
vegetables with equal subtlety
(figure 106). Very large water-
colors can also, of course, create
enormous impact; witness Larry
Webster's Interior (figure 107).
As a transparent watercolorist,
however, you know that a large
painting is not just a medium-
sized one blown up. Several fac-
tors contribute to the difficulty of
large watercolors. A basic one
finding paper in dimensions
greater than Imperial (22" x
30756 x 76 cm). Few art sup-
pliers stock Double Elephant
(26|" x 40767 x 102 cm) or Anti-
quarian (31" x 53779 x 135 cm),
the two traditional sizes larger
than Imperial. Hence, many
ists such as Webster have used
illustration board
as a surface.
This is easily obtained in a 30' x
40' (76 x 102 cm) size and can be
purchased in 40' x 60' (102 x 152
cm) With a good quality rag
size.
surface, offers a sound sup-
it
port. Finally, one can always do
as Charles Burchfield did and
piece together watercolor paper
glued on a fiberboard base to
make any specific shape and size.
The primary problem with a
large picture, however, is the
technical one of getting enough
paint onto extensive surfaces in
one drying time. This requires a
larger palette than normal, big-
Figure 106
Squash and Onion. Helen Schepens-
and Kraus. 1977. of x 4|" (12 x 12 cm),
90 lb. rough paper, collection of
Charles L. Cohen. Small size does not
automatically mean triviality or even
intimacy of expression, any more
than large size automatically confers
importance and seriousness of pur-
pose. Schepens-Kraus has a refined
sense of the relationship between the
size and the function of a painting,
and she beautifully anticipates the
uses to which her works may be put
by adjusting the scope of her subject
is
and the subtlety of treatment to the
dimensions of each work. Here, for
example, she focuses on the delicacy
of color and form in a painting to be
viewed up close.
ger squeezes of paint, and
brushes larger than you could
ford, if they were made.
art- painting, you often wish your
arms were longer, too! Stroke
painters will, in general, have
fewer difficulties of this sort than
those whose method is
washes. In either case, the secret
is your picture thor-
to plan
oughly, proceed deliberately, and
paint area by area as much as
possible. If you have trouble, re-
member that a successful large
watercolor is a real tour-de-force,
and keep trying.
The purpose of a large paint-
ing in our current market
situation is normally as an exhibi-
tion piece. Nevertheless, such
works can fit into homes, and be-
cause of their size, they can also
serve in public spaces such as lob-
bies, board rooms, and audi-
toriums. Their size also suggests
that their subjects be of some-
what greater substance than is
suitable for paintings of modest
scale. In fact, the size of a paint-
ing usually says something
immediate and compelling about
the significance ofits expression
or message, so that the smaller a
picture, the more casual its sub-
ject can afford to be. Hence a
large painting with a trivial sub-
ject comes across as bombast.
Exercises
Now, let's look at your pictures.
Get them all out and consider
them from the point of view of
size and shape.
The chances are good that
most of them are pretty much
the same in size and shape; most
are horizontal, with a few verti-
not the case, and
cals. If this is
there isgood deal of variety,
a
ask yourself why. Have you al-
tered the shape and size of some
bv judicious surgery? Have you
been parsimonious with vour
paper, or are you given to em-
ploying scraps as best you cam-
There is nothing wrong with anv
of these practices, of course. But
the variety they produce is almost
accidental:it is not the result of
af- planned, thought-out congruence
When between the subject of the paint-
ing and an intended purpose
other than exhibition. Important
though exhibition is, it can be
thought of as an incidental func-
based on tion of a painting. Pictures made
for other purposes can, after all,
be excellent candidates for ex-
hibition. Indeed, in most cases
thev should be. Exhibition alone
is a rather slender reason for
painting, despite the realities of
our time. Some serious thought
about the way a picture of a
given subject might be used bv a
purchaser can lead to greater co-
herence between the finished
work and its ultimate purpose.
Ideally, of course, this sort of
coherence is attained by painting
PAPER SIZE AND SHAPE 141
 Figure 107
Interior bv Lain Webster, 1969, 40" x 30" (102 x 76 cm), smooth surface
board, collection of Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Musil. Here again is a
illustration
painting handsomely adapted to its format in both shape and size. The large
surface with its dark, forbidding border encourages the viewer to look into
the illuminated space of the room bevond. The interior is linked to the out-
side through the open window. The sequence is a continually renewed
achievement of liberation, a subject big enough for the pictures dimensions.

142 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

on commission. You might con-
sider this possibility. Portraits
have continued to be painted on
—
commission the only major art
form today done so on a regular
basis. But there is a largely un-
tapped market for "portraits" of
homes or the views from homes,
and there is no reason why you
cannot paint certain kinds of sub-
jects, if not specific scenes, on a
commission basis. We have, per-
haps, been less imaginative than
we might be regarding such pos-
sibilities.
If your paintings are nearly
the same size and shape, ask
yourself whether this results from
unexamined assumptions, the
pragmatic reasons discussed ear-
lier in the chapter, or a deliberate
artistic decision on vour part.
It is quite possible that you
have simply not thought about a
relationship between size, shape,
and pictorial purpose as it affects
your artistic decisions. If so, ex-
amine your pictures again and
consider what format changes
might be desirable. Do you have
a painting that looks as though it
could be larger? Would it be
more effective if it were smaller?
Is there one that might have
been vertical rather than horizon-
tal? Could one be even stronger
as a circular or oval composition?
How do you visualize your pic-
tures in homes? Can you see
them comfortable only in living
or dining rooms, and perhaps oc-
casionally in a bedroom, library,
or den? Would any of them make
good kitchen pictures or go over
a telephone table? Could they
hang on a stair wall, in a front
hall, or in a dressing room? What
about public spaces? Do any of
your pictures have the panache
to affect a bank or a theater
lobby? How might they look in a
doctor's or dentist's waiting room, If you have made a deliberate
a restaurant, or a hospital room? artistic decision to limit your pic-
As you ruminate on these ques- tures to one, two, or three shapes
tions, remember that the subject and sizes, and you really feel
itself must be considered. Your comfortable with them, go to it!
subject preferences, as well as You will have found sufficient
your explorations of size and ways of dealing with your sub-
shape, may easily predispose your jects to achieve thedegree of
pictures for one use over others. variety you want; you may even
That's fine. We
cannot be all have become a specialist of a
things to all people and purposes. kind; and you will certainly real-
On the other hand, there is a ize that experiment only for the
human tendency to put blinders sake of experiment is an exercise
on and overlook alternate pos- in futility.
sibilities once we have reached a
all comfortable plateau in our work. Summary
Perhaps a little aggressive out- Congruence among subject, size,
reach would open new pictorial shape, and the ultimate function
adventures to you. of a painting is a source of pic-
If, on reflection, you think that torial coherence that is often
your pictures are similar in size overlooked today. Because we
and shape for pragmatic reasons, paint chiefly for exhibition, the
you might re-examine the neces- final function of our pictures is
sity of this self-imposed stricture. usually unknown to us. We paint
Could you, for instance, retain in a void, with only a vague no-
your selected format for some tion of the use to which our
portion of your work, so that pictures may be put.
your standard mats, frames, Nevertheless, with some imag-
crates, and so on continue to save ination you can think more
you trouble and expense, while clearly about the possible pur-
you also make a deal with your- poses of your work and create
self that would permit special paintings suitable for a consider-
framing for an affordable num- able variety of uses. Even this
ber of more exploratorv, even little clarification will allow vou to
eccentric, sizes and shapes per adjust size and shape to meet
year? particular needs.
You might look at your paint- You can also consider actively
ings oncemore to discover seeking commissions, even
whether you show any sign of though this is presently unusual.
falling into compositional habits. This would mean that you could
This is a real danger that springs see the room your picture would
from working on the same size hang in, talk with the potential
and shape of paper. It is de- owner about his or her feelings
pressingly easy to develop three about it, discuss subject and
or four basic designs that you un- color, and set about solving a
consciously repeat with variations. very particular and personal ar-
The shock that comes only from tistic problem. For some, such a
dealing with a different paper situation appears to offer more
shape can help set you back on than tolerable constraints, but
the road to growing as an artist. other artists could well enjov its
You may owe yourself this kind special pleasures and challenges.
of opportunity.
PAPER SIZE AND SHAPE 143
 Figure 108
Granite Coast by Carl Schmalz. 1973. \~ik" x 22" (39 x 56 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper,
collection of the author. My wav working emphasizes light and volume above energy and
of
movement. It is a wav that cannot easily speak about change because it focuses mainly on
duration. While painting can comprehend many feelings that would be paradoxical if ex-
pressed in prose, it has its own logic and limitations

Figure 109
Morning Surf bv Eliot O'Hara, 1936, 57 cm), 140 lb. rough paper, courtesy
15" x 221" (38 x
O'Hara Picture Trust. This painting, of O'Hara's earlv maturitv, was probablv a
in the stvle
class demonstration painted in forty minutes or less. Its air of dashing bravura is based on the
artist's intimate knowledge of his tools — —
brushes, paints, paper and a delicate sense of timing.
The dramatic back lighting on the spume allows O'Hara to silhouette it against the lighter sea
and gives him fine dark shapes as well. Perfect estimation of drving time makes possible the
knifed-in swirls of foam.

144 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAV

 CHAPTER 20

Painting
\burWiy
for worse — in the visible structure grounds^ —those parts of pictures
Are you looking for of your painting. This is why self- where you were most confident.
criticism is so difficult; it is you Here you may unexpectedly find
and developing what is
having a discussion with you. fluid brushwork, economy of rep-
"right" in your pictures This book has inserted itself into resentation, delicacy of color, or
the middle of that conversation, a similar evidence of your talents
or are you bogging down
third voice providing some of the and preferences that you may
in what seems "wrong"? objectivity and detachment that have overlooked in your pursuit
will help you see yourself as of more obvious aims. These can
clearly as possible in your pic- give you an index of capacities
Critical Concern tures. You need to know your that you may not have even con-
By this time you may have de- painting personality so you can sidered: certainly they can
cided that your pictures are see what to abandon and what to suggest some reliable facets of
pretty good, or you may never build on. your painting personality.
want to look at your group of se- Identifying the best in your
lected pictures again! Never- Illustrations work may also involve accepting
theless, as you've examined them Have you ever said to yourself or the "worst." To the degree that
from one point of view after an- a friend, "Gee, if I could only you honestly put yourself on
other, you have doubtless been paint like so-and-so!"? Probably. paper in your pictures, you ex-
identifying and thinking over We all have. It's silly, of course, pose your weaknesses all of
your preferences in technique, for as we paint better and better, them. These can range from
design, color, and subject, as well we can only paint more like our- shakv drawing and clumsv execu-
as inmany smaller aspects of pic- selves. But it is a phrase that can tion to a host of insensibilities
ture-making. You have also betray a kind of wrong-headed- and biases. Okay. We can't all be
begun to differentiate your pref- ness. A person who would like Michelangelo or Rembrandt, but
erences from those practices that to make skies like Adoph Dehn, the Jan Steens and Alfred Sisleys
are merely habits. The distinction for example, is saying tacitly, of this world have their place and
is a significant one, for preferences "There's something I don't like purpose, too. In any case, the
are the foundation of your style, about my skies." He is con- one thing that you can count on
while those things that you do centrating on what he feels fails as impossible is seriously altering
through unexamined habit are its in his work and looking at the yourself. This is a fundamental
enemy. While skilled habits may stylesof other artists for exam- reason for building on the things
yield a coherent picture, it will ples of healing suggestions. Such you do best, trusting that they
have little content or expressive a procedure is certainly not all will eclipse your weaknesses.
purpose, which can result only bad. But why not build from Some problems, especially
from a thoughtful selection and strength? Identify the best in those of technique, representa-
exercise of preferences. your pictures and try to improve tion, and design, can, of course,
Your preferences are the rec- those aspects of your painting. be remedied. As we noted in
ognizable tips of the deeper As mentioned previously, this Chapter 17, courses, books, and
elements of your personality that may mean looking carefully at practice will help you overcome
form the essential you. This is the ways you've handled "insig- many of these deficiencies. Sup-
the you who paints and who nificant" parts of your work pose, however, that you balk at
leaves an imprint —for better or distances, corners, perhaps fore- the amount of time required to

PAINTING YOUR WAV 145

 (figure 110) is not accessible
through my style, any more than
the world of form and light in
my Granite Coast (figure 108) is

accessible through hers. And nei-

ther of us possesses a style that
permits the sheer dash and flam-
boyance of O'Hara's Morning Surf
(figure 109).
» V Rather than consciously pursu-
ing a style, therefore, you might
better work at developing what
we can call your "personal vi-
sion." This may be splitting hairs,
but it is intended to help you
concentrate your focus in a way
that will produce your style rather
than encourage you merely to
seek one. Style is too often
thought of as an end, a stationary
Figure 110 "thing," and the last thing we
Haunted Island by 1957, 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm),
Susie (Wass Thompson), c.
want is to acquire our style and
90 lb. rough paper, collection of the author. Susie Thompson, a lobsterman's
then just churn out paintings.
wife, is a self-taught artist. She learned a lot from John Marin, however, for
whom she kept house during the later years of his life. Her stvle is remark- Am st\ It- worth the name grows

ably her own. despite the force of Marin's presence. Broad and vigorous and changes precisely because it

strokes in muted wind and water movement.

colors convey the essence of is a reflection of the artist's per-
Graduated sequences of main sons even evoke the wind. sonal vision, his thought about
the world he experiences. For
achieve your ends; or for some a time when few values are gen- this reason it is best to look for
other reason, the thing you need erally shared by our society, and what you respond to most deeply
to learn is impossible to attain; or but one is commonly held — indi- in your subjects, your paintings,
you simply would rather base vidualism. In art this takes the — —
and cautiously the pictures of
your future painting personalis form of "originality," which others, gradually identifying the
on what you can already see of it. sometimes appears to be prized unique bent of your talent and
In these instances you face facts. above all else in painting. Style is nourishing and building on this
You say something like, "If my very frequently equated with base. Your stvle will then start
color is weak, I'll use a controlled originality (although they are not emerging; it will become a living,
palette and work on strengthen- necessarily either identical or in- growing means of expressing
ing values"; or, "Since perspective separable), with the result that your own growth as a person and
is my bete noir, I'll stop worrying artists can be made to feel they as an artist.
about spatial effects and concen- are nothing until they have
trate on color and pattern." achieved their stvle. Exercises
Actually, no artist fully exploits Style, though, is really only the For a change, let's look at some
allof the options discussed in this evidence of visual thinking, so if pictures other than your own!
book. Each of us must select you pursue style merely for Our purpose is to see what ele-

those elements in picture-making style's sake, you risk shallowness ments artists have chosen to use
thatmost suit our own tempera- and imitation. The only style that and how they have put them to-
ment, preferences, and expres- counts is the one that develops gether to form their different
sive aim. In the end, the final out of your own painting person- coherent picture worlds.
kind of pictorial coherence is ality. You must also recognize August 17 by Bill Tinker (figure
congruity between artist and that although a style is liberat- 111) is not an "easy" picture, al-

painting. This unity of subject ing — in the sense that it permits though he has made econom- it

transformed into the visual and you to create your own coherent ical by placing darker, modeling
physical order of paint produces picture world — it is also limiting, washes over lights in many areas,
that wholeness of the picture for it can be responsive only to a by reserving lights, and by main-
world that is called style. particular set of possibilities. The taining loosely crisp edges. It is

About style, however, a word world of dynamic natural forces basically awash painting in which
of caution is in order. We live in created by Susie in Haunted Island surface coherence arises in part

146 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

from the viewer's appreciation of has selected the darks and how Figure 111
the uniformity of paper texture. they define the autos and archi- August 17 by Bill Tinker, c. 1970,

The composition is a modified tectural details. 29f x 36f (76 x 93 cm), collection of
the Springfield Art Museum, Spring-
center-focused design: the couple The subject is absorbing, for it
field, Missouri. In this large
with the child are placed at the is a visual encapsulation of time. wash painting, Tinker kaleidoscopes
below the
vertical center just Probably working from old pho- objects as figures of memory. His
horizontal center of the paper. tographs, Tinker assembles a style, in certain technical ways, re-
sembles that of DeWitt Hardy
Its visual richness derives from virtual collage in which spatial
(figures 10 and 113), but style is not
the complex interplay between contradictions and strange jux- just a way of handling paint or de-
similarities and contrasts of line, tapositions of objects and styles signing compositions. Finally, it is the
shape, and size, as well as con- suggest the jumble of visual re- way we see; it is our personal vision,
trastsof value. The large value collection. Time does not just ordered and structured in our own
way. Tinker and Hardy each give the
pattern of lighter areas from stand still within the picture's en-
viewer a valuable, though very dif-
lower right to upper center con- framement, it telescopes. A large
ferent, visual statement about their
trasted against middle tones painting, its size is fully justified human experience.
creates an attractive thematic by its subject.
statement from a distance, while How
does he make this bizarre
smaller darks create flickering assemblage work? By means of
contrasts at normal viewing dis- the artistic devices mentioned
tance. above, he presents viewers with a
Tinker has relied heavily on coherent idea and gives them
the force of his design for pic- clues to it. For example, the pres-
torialcoherence because he chose ence of the cars tells viewers to
an essentially non-illuministic think back to the late 1920s or
kind of representation. Notice, early 1930s, and the clothing
nevertheless, how effectively he styles support this. The late-

PAINTING YOUR WAY 147

 nineteenth-century architecture
suggests a generation even fur-
ther removed. This is confirmed

by the empty chairs and the

wraithlike presence of the people
at right who are thin and small
compared with the building be-
hind them. Contrast is the
primary means by which the art-
ist clarifies his meaning, while

similarity helps maintain the

work's coherence.
Notice that, despite contradic-
tions in the fractured picture
space, there is a clear movement
back into illusory depth. The se-
quential diminution of size in the
fence, the chairs, and, to a lesser
extent, the figures creates this
Figure 112 feeling of movement, which also
Eileen Reading by Sidney Goodman, 1974, 15" x 22£" (38 x 57 cm), collection
functions as a paradigm of pass-
of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Schwartz. Goodman's vision emphasizes sturdy verti-
cal and horizontal lines, full modeling of volumes in light, and eloquent con-
ing time. One wonders whether
trasts of curvilinear and rectangular shapes. Value contrasts are also signifi- the artist is the child at the paint-
cantly used. ing's center.
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff's Land-
.W scape (color plate 11) is obviously a
very different sort of picture. Al-
though there is a sense in which
allpaintings of quality even —
those with brutal subjects —
can be
said to be celebratory, Schmidt-
Rottluff's undeniably is. It freely
and spontaneously offers joy.
Although its effect derives pri-
marily from the luminous color,
the sense of wholeness also de-
pends on similarities and
contrasts of line, shape, and size.

The blue roof shape at the center

of the picture is repeated in a
varying gradation to the left, and
the reserved gable shapes are
echoed at right. The embracing
beach shape above the center
roof appears inverted in the edge
of yellow grass at the bottom of
the painting. These curves are
sharpened in the various globular
trees and shrubs and more
loosely reaffirmed in the top of
the dark forest between the
houses and the foreground.
Figure 113 Curves similar to the beach are
Studio Interior, Fall by DeWitt Hardy, 1975, 32" x 22" (81 x 56 cm), cold also visible in the ocean. All the
pressed paper, courtesy Frank Rehn Gallery, New York. Hardy's vision em-
curves and angular shapes con-
phasizes diagonals, letting horizontal and vertical lines provide accents. His
trast strongly with each other,
modeling is marvellously limpid, but played down. Value contrasts tend also
to be accents at the edges of the subject, such as the Cosmos flower against heightening and qualifying the
the book at right and the flicker of sunlight on the floor at left. visual excitement of the intense,

148 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

complementary colors.
The picture ismainly a wash
painting, but it was done with
such verve that stroke marks re-
main embedded in the washes,
recording the vibrancy of
ecution over the entire surface.
This liveliness informs the whole
scene and lets the viewer see
perennially filled with light and
life. It radiates affirmation.
Finally, let's compare two
paintings that in a terse catalogue
description might seem to have
exactly the same subject: a girl
lying down, reading. A quick
glance at Sidnev Goodman's
Eileen Reading (figure 112) and
DeWitt Hardv's Studio Interior,
Fall (figure 113) shows that the
pictures could not possiblv be
confused, an observation that
dramatizes the fact that paintings
are couched in terms of visual not
verbal, organization. They
self-defining and, ultimately, self-
sufficient.
But how different are thevr
And hou are they different? Here
1
we want to articulate as
pletelv as possible the reasons for
the distinctive expression pro-
jected by each of these pictures in
order to help you with an exam-
ple as you try to analvze the
unique qualities of your own
work.
First, Goodman puts strokes on
a fairlysmooth paper, whereas
Hardy puts washes on a moder-
ately rough one. Goodman
softens most edges and achieves
surface textures through modula-
tion of his strokes, whereas
Hardy creates delicate but
edges and achieves texture
through pigment granulation.
Both artists place the paper or
magazine the center of the pic-
at
ture, together with the head and
hand of the reader, and the
whole of Goodman's figure is
there, too. Beyond this, the two
artists develop their compositions
very differently.
Goodman emphasizes
fuse light to model forms and
bleach awav the reader's exterior
world. Hardy's light is very gen-
tle; even the direct sunlight
coming through the window is
muted. Form is softly rendered
and the exterior world is not only
its ex- visible through the window but
brought within through the vase
of flowers.
it as Goodman looks perpendicu-
larly toward the room's back wall
and lets the sofa push directly
into his vigorously created space.
The arrangement creates strong
vertical/horizontal contrasts on
the two-dimensional surface.
Hardv's space is less emphatic,
stressing a very different two-di-
mensional pattern. Vertical and
horizontal here form a contra-
puntal theme played against two
interlocked arcs in illusory depth.
One is relatively light, moving
from the reader's feet, along her
body and left arm, out through
are the light of the window. The
other, darker, extends from the
table and books at foreground
right and along the blanket to the
books and shaft of sunlight at
com- left. Just above the intersection of
these arcs is the reader's head,
magazine, and hand. Light, re-
flecting from the page she holds,
—
illumines her face symbolic of
the mind's illumination from
reading (a device Rembrandt
used). To the far left is the edge
of a mirror, also symbolic of re-
flection and the private life of the
mind. Notice, too, that the rec-
tangular shapes of the closed
books echo the magazine's shape
and relate to the vision through
the window panes as well an- —
win other way of stating visually the
fruits of understanding.
The vanishing point in Good-
man's picture comes behind the
center of the newspaper (also a
device as old as Masaccio), which
further emphasizes the news-
paper and the part of the
reader's face that we can see.
Notice that Eileen's face, too, is il-
luminated by light reflected from
strong dif- her paper. The circular shapes
that Goodman plays against his
architectonic structure are em-
phasized by the strong lateral
verticals.The primary curve of
the sofa support relates to the
more open reverse curve below;
it is modified by the shape of the
girl's hips and changed again to
the shape framed by her legs.
This is picked up and inverted in
the table legs at right. As we
study these changing shape rela-
tions, we see how the reader's
head also inverts the sofa arm
curve and how her head is picked
up by the mirror above. As in
Hardy's painting, it is not the
overt subject, but the interplav of
these shapes and their meanings,
that provides the artist's expres-
sion.
Both pictures are about intro-
spection and reflection and about
privacy and the weakness of one's
defenses against invasion of it.
Both express this in terms of
woman's vulnerability and hence
both carry erotic overtones. Be-
cause of the painters' very
different approaches and their
distinctive selection of artistic op-
tions,however, our response to
each picture, each coherent
within itself, is quite singular.
Goodman's picture is assertive
but tender; Hardy's evokes a
more pastoral mood of inno-
cence.
As you become more and more
yourself as a painter, your pic-
tures will speak through their
visible order more and more
clearlv of the worlds that only
vou can see.
Summary
What I have tried to do in this
book is provide suggestions about
some of the kinds of decisions
you can and should make. Please
don't take anything I've said as a
—
Rule except one: your picture
world must have a coherent
order. It's your creation, you're
its boss. You owe it form, clarin.
and structure. Only then can it
aspire to meaning or beauty. And
on the way remember: nothing
that works is wrong! Good luck.
PAINTING YOUR WAV 149
Bibliography

Albers, Joseph. Interaction of Gombrich, Ernst. Art and Illusion. Mayer, Ralph. The Artist's Hand-
Color. New Haven and London: Bollingen Series XXXV 5. New and Techniques.
book of Materials
Yale University Press, 1971. Ex- York: Pantheon Books, 1960. An 3d ed., New York: Viking Press,
amples and discussion of rela- interesting discussion of the pro- 1970. London: Faber and Faber,
tionships among pure colors, size, cess of picture-making from the 1964. A complete compendium
and shape. point of view of both history and of materials and their uses.
the psychology of perception.
Evans, Ralph M. An Introduction to Pope, Arthur. The Language of
Color. New York: John Wiley 8c Gregory, R. L. Eye and Brain, The Drawing and Painting. New York:
Sons, 1948. A thorough discus- 2d ed., New
psychology of Seeing. Russell and Russell, 1968. An ex-
sion of optics and the physical York and Toronto: McGraw-Hill cellent introduction to drawing,
behavior of light, with good ma- Book Company, 1963. A history, painting and color.
terial on vision. and discussion of the present un-
derstanding, of human visual Ross, Denman W. A Theory of
Fisher, Howard T., and Carpen- perception. Pure Design. Boston: Houghton
ter, James M. Color in Art: A Mifflin Co., 1907. An early publi-
Tribute to Arthur Pope. Exhibition Grumbacher, M. Color Compass. cation, outlining an analytic
Catalogue, Fogg Museum, Har- New York: M. Grumbacher, Inc., theory of design.
vard University, Cambridge: 1972. A concise summary of
1974. A complete presentation of color as it affects the artist. On Drawing and Painting.
the Pope color theory, with ex- Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
amples of its use in analyzing Hill, Edward. The Language of 1912. An introduction to the
works of art. Drawing. Englewood (Miffs, N.J.: principles of design and their ap-
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. A plication to representational art.
Gettens, Rutherford J., and provocative and illuminating
Stout, George L. Painting Mate- analysis of drawing. Shahn, Ben. The Shape of Content.
rials. New York: D. Van Cambridge: Harvard University
Nostrand Co., Inc., 1942. Land, Edwin H. "Experiments in Press, 1957. A description by an
London: Dover, 1966. An es- Color Vision." Scientific American, artist of an artist's working pro-

pecially thorough treatment of May, 1959. (Available in separate cess as well as other thoughts on
pigments and supports. reprints.) A report on some inter- the artist's place in society.
esting possibilities regarding
human color vision.

150 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

 Index

Above Lexington Avenue, by Eliot Colombo, Charles, illus. by, 32 Force Nine, by James A. Elliott, 23
O'Hara, 12 Color, constancy, 103; mixtures, 79; illus., 22
A Brash with Winter, by Mary Kav D'Isa, primaries, 63; secondaries, 63; terti- Fort River, Fall, by Carl Schmalz, 49
110-111; illus., 112 aries, 63 illus., 74
Afternoon, by Robert W. Ducker, 45; Color in Art, 64 405 Hill Street, by Dee Lehman, 110
illus., 43 Complements, 64 illus., Ill
Allred, Osral B., illus.by, 126 Conlon, Eugene, illus. by, 101
Among Bare Maple Boughs, by Loring Contrast, 53, 57; linear, 53; sharp, 53 Garden Market, by Ruth P. Hess, 133;
W. Coleman, 59; illus., 58 Corner Shadows, by Murray Went- illus., 132
Anchorage, October, The, by Carl worth, 132-133; illus., 131 Gargoyles over the Seine, by Eliot
Schmalz, 110; illus.. Ill Covey, The, by Judy Richardson Gard, O'Hara, 133; illus., 136
Antique Dealer's Porch, by Louis J. Kaep, 2;'illus.,20 Geiser, Lucille, illus., 125
47-48, 51, 54; illus., 46 Cranberry Island, Maine, by John H. Gentle Surf, by Carl Schmalz, 21-22;
Apple and Five Leaves, by DeWitt Murray, 36; illus., 38 illus., 21
Hardy, 18; illus., 18 Culver, Charles, illus. by, 34 Goodman, Sidney, illus. by, 135, 148
August 17, by Bill Tinker, 146-147 Government Wharf, Carl Schmalz, 122
August WUdflowers, by William Preston, Demuth, Charles, illus. by, 78 Granite Coast, Carl Schmalz, 144, 146
133; illus., 135 Gene Klebe, 52-54
Deserted Dock, by
Autumn Bluff, by Daniel Petersen, Detail, by Carl Schmalz, 110 Hardy, DeWitt, illus., 18, 148
119-120; illus., 120 D'Isa, Mary Kay, illus. by, 112 Hassam, Childe, 90; illus., 130
DiStefano, Domenic. illus. by, 18 Haunted Island, by Susie Wass Thomp-
Band Concert, by Maurice Prendergast, Dock Square Florist, by Larry Webster, son, 146
119; illus., 68 133; illus., 137 Heidemann, Susan, illus.; 34, 81
Beinn Tangaval, Barm by Carl ,
Doodling, 44-45 Hess, Ruth P., illus., 132
Schmalz, 131; illus., 87 Dove, Arthur, 117 Highland Light, North Truro, by Edward
Bell House, by Murray Wentworth, 90,
Ducker, Robert W., illus. by, 43 Hopper, 109; illus., 107
Dusk, Stonehenge, by Eliot O'Hara,
109; illus., 77 Hill,by Gene Matthew, 117; illus., 116
Bermuda, bv Andrew Wyeth, 28-31, 36; 17-18; illus., 16
Homer, Winslow, illus., 19, 70
illus., 24 Ebbing Tide, Kennebunkport by Carl ,
Homosassa River, by Winslow Homer,
Berries, by Samuel Kamen, 35, 54; 27-28; illus., 70
Schmalz, 77; illus., 80
illus., 37 Hopkinson, Charles, 56
Edges, 25-32
Blackey. Mary, illus. by, 133 Eileen Reading, by Sidney Goodman, Hopper, Edward, illus., 49, 94, 107,
Bogdanovic. Bogomir, 33, illus. by, 35 11, 149; illus., 148
130, 136
Brigus, Newfoundland, Eliot O'Hara, 98
Ell, The, by Loring W. Coleman, 25-27;
Hue and intensity scale, 65
Broadway, Newburgh, N.Y., by Childe illus., 69 Hues, 63, 92-93; cool, 63; relation-
Hassam, 131; illus., 130 Elliott, James A., illus. by, 21, 22
ships, 89; warm, 63
Brouillette, Al, illus. by, 137 Empty Barn, bv Charles H. Wallis, 133;
Buoys, by John H. Murray, 43, 109, illus., 134
Indian Point, Carl Schmalz, 49, 74
illus., 42 Enclosed Garden, by Carl Schmalz 110, In May, 1938, by Charles E. Burchfield,
Burchfield, Charles E., 117 illus. 96 96'
111; illus., 86
Burns, Paul C. illus. by, 124 End of the Hunt, The, by Winslow Intensity, 63; scale for red and green,
Homer, 18, 19; illus., 19 65; location of pigments on, 65
Campbell, David, illus. by, 96 Interior, by Larry Webster, 141. 142
Central Park, bv Bogomir Bogdanovic, FirstSnow-Winter Landscape bv Dodge , Interior, New Mexico, by Edward Hop-
33; illus., 35 MacKnight, 111; illus., 112 per, 62; illus.61
Charlie's Lane, bv Al Brouillette, 133; Fisherman's Morning, by Carl Schmalz,
illus.,137 122 John Smith's Beach, bv Carl Schmalz,
Chez Leon, by Eliot O'Hara, 50, 104 Flock, The,bv Adaline Hnat, 127 50-51; illus., 50
Cobbler's Cove, by Glenn MacNutt, Flory, Phoebe, illus., 132 July 6, 1976, Carl Schmalz, 28, 73, 91
96-98, 129; illus., 97 Focal contrast and "sparkle", 110-111,
Coleman, Loring W., illus., 13, 58, 69 115 Kaep, Louis J., illus. by, 47

INDEX 151
Kamen, Samuel, illus. by, 37. 54. 140 O'Hara, Eliot, illus. bv. 12. 15. 16. 50. Small Point. Me., Carl Schmalz, 30. 31
Keller. Henry G., illus. by. 131 136.144
51. 98, 99. 114. Snowbound, bv William Preston. 13
Kingman. Dong, illus. by. 118 Oregon Shore, by Eliot O'Hara. 15 Solovioff. Nicholas, illus. bv. 42. 113
Kinstler, Everett Raymond, illus.. 134 Osprey Nest, The. Laurence Sisson. 100 Spain, bv Arne Lindmark. 48
Kitchen Ell, by Carl Schmalz. 40. 41, 50 Overcast Island, bv Carl Schmalz. 92; Squash and Onion, bv Helen Schepens-
Klebe. Gene, illus. by, 36. 52 illus.. 91 Kraus, 141
Overgrown, bv Murray Wentworth, 35; Stonehenge, bv Carl Schmalz. 17. 19
illus.. 37 illus.. 16
Landscape, bv Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Striped Leaves, by Susan Heidemann.
59. 89, 90,' 93. 117. 148; illus.. 75 Paper, sizes of, 141 33; illus.. 34
Landscape, bv Samuel Kamen. 141; Parade II. bv Richard Yarde. 118. 119 Studio Door, bv Paul C. Burns. 125-127;
illus., 140 Petersen. Daniel, illus.. 120 illus.. 124
Landscape. Bermuda, bv Charles De- Pigments. 71-72 Studio Interior. Fall, bv DeWitt Hardv.
muth. 90; illus.. 78 Plaza Borda, Taxco, by Eliot O'Hara. 51: 149; illus.. 148
Landscape with Trees and Rain, by John illus.. 51 Style, 145-146
Marin, 117; illus.. 116 Polly'sPiano, by Jonee Nehus, 104. 105 Sunset Between Santa Fe and Taos, bv
Latch, The. bv Larry Webster. 129; Porter, Fairfield, illus. by. 83 Eliot O'Hara. 103. 113; illus.. 85
illus.. 128 Portrait of R. Confer, bv Robert Andrew Surface coherence, creating. 20-23
Lawn, by Fairfield Porter, 98; illus.. 83 Parker. 15; illus.. 44
Lawn Chair, bv Andrew Wyeth, 29 Prendergast. Maurice. 90 Tall Weeds and Houses. Gloucester, by
Lehman. Dee, illus. by, 111 Preston. William, illus.. 13. 82. 91. 135 David Campbell. 96
Light, back. 96, 101; front. 98, 101; side Pumpkins and Apples, bv Samuel Tender. The. bv Osral B. Allred. 126,
95, 101; reserved. 110. 113-115; top. Kamen. 54. 89; illus. 54 127
95. 101 Texture Sample, bv Carl Schmalz, 34
Lighthouse and Building, Portland Head. Quail's House, bv Nicholas Solovioff. Thompson, Susie Wass. illus. bv. 146
by Edward Hopper. 131; illus.. 130 ^43; illus.. 42 Tinker. bv. 147
Bill, illus.

Lindmark, Arne. illus. by. 48. 55 Quarry Fragment, bv Larry Webster, Torment. Puerto Rico, bv Henry G. Kel-
Llamas, C.uz(o. bv Eliot O'Hara, 113; " ler. 132; illus.. 131
139; illus.. 138
illus., 114 Quiet Afternoon, by Loring W. Cole- Transparencv/Opacitv tests. 66
man. 13 12:15, Cape Porpoise, bv Carl Schmalz.
93. 96; illus.. 135
Machiasport, Marsh, bv William Pres- bv Fugene Conlon. 101
Reflections, Tuna Flags, bv Carl Schmalz. 98; illus..

ton. 92; illus.. 91 Representation. 120-121. 127 98

Mac Knight. Dodge. 90; illus.. 112 R.F.D.. bv Charles Colombo. 33. 127.
MacNutt, Glenn, illus. by, 97 129: illus.. 32 Universalist Church, Gloucester, by Ed-
Maine Cables, bv George Shedd, 92; Richardson, Judy, illus. by, 20 ward Hopper. 133; illus.. 136
illus., 93 Robinhood Cove In William Zorach, Up for Repairs, Domenic DiStefano, 18
Maine Morning, by Carl Schmalz, 95: 129: illus.. 128
illus.. 94 Roiks and Sea, by Charles Hopkinson, Values, 63. 65
Maine Still Life, bv Carl Schmalz. 28. 55: illus.. 56 Viewing: distant. 59-60; intimate.
90. 127; illus.. 72 Rural Fire Station, by (-ill Schni.il/. 60-62: normal. 59-61
Marin. John, illus. by, 116 110; illus.. 108
Martinique. Boats, by Nicholas Solo- Wall Pattern. Venice, bv Phoebe Flory,
vioff, 111; illus.. 113 Salt Marsh. June, by Carl Schmalz. 91. 133. 139-141; illus.. 132

Materials, 39 133;illus..76 Wallis. Charles H.. illus. bv. 134

Matthews. Gene, illus. by, 116 Sargent. John Singer, illus. by, 9 Wash. 17

Meditation. Warwick Long Bay, by Carl Schepens-Kraus. Helen, illus. by, 141 Watercolor Lessons from Eliot O'Hara. 14
Schmalz. 133; illus., 88 Schmalz. Carl, illus. bv. 8. 10. 14. 16. Watercolor. transparent. 11
Mexican Bus. bv Carl Schmalz, 104; 21. 26. 30. 34. 40. 50. 62. 72. 73. 74. Webster. Larry, 128. 137. 138. 142
illus.. 102 76. 80. 84. 86. 87. 88. 91. 94. 98. 102. Wentworth. Murray, 37. 77. 131
More Snow, bv Eliot O'Hara. 99-100; 108. 110. 111. 115. 122. 140. 144 Westerly, bv Carl Schmalz. 62. 137
illus.. 99 Schmidt-Rottluff. Karl, illus. bv. 75 West Point', bv Carl Schmalz. 140. 141
Morning and Snow, by Mary Blackev. S-curves. 60 Wet Float, by Gene Klebe. 34. 36. 45
133 Sea-Belle, Falmouth, bv Carl Schmalz. Wet-in -wet. 28
Morning Fog. bv Carl Schmalz. 11-12. 115 White Christmas. Robinhood. Maine.
'

99; illus., 10 Seams, OK. bv Lucile Geiser. 127. 129: 48-49; illus.. 48
Morning-19th St.. by Everett Ravmond illus.. 125 White River at Sharon, by Edward Hop-
Kinstler. 133; illus.. 134 Secondary Mixing Exercises. 67 per. 49. 95; illus.. 94
Morning Surf, bv Eliot O'Hara. 146; Shack at Biddeford Pool, by Carl Windblown Ins. by William Preston. 92.
illus.*; 144 Schmalz, 8 109, 127; illus.. 82
Murray. John H., illus. by, 38, 42 Shadow patterns. 109-110. 113 Winter Seas, bv James A. Elliott. 23;
Shedd. George, illus. by, 93 illus.. 21
Side Street, Seville, by Arne Lindmark, Winter's Work, bv Carl Schmalz. 90.
Nehus, Jonee, illus. by, 105 54-55; illus.. 55 80
110; illus..
Neutrals, 63 Silhouette, characteristic, 109. 113 Wyeth. Andrew, illus. bv. 24. 29
New York City at Day Break, bv Dong Simplon Pass Mountain Brook, by John
Kingman. 117, 119; illus.. 118 Singer Sargent, 9 Yarde. Richard, illus. bv. 119
Nursery, bv Susan Heidemann. 25, Sisson, Lawrence, illus. by. 100
91-92: illus., 81 Sketch for Kitchen Ell, Carl Schmalz, 14 Zorach. William, illus. bv. 48. 128

152 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY

Carl Schmalz received his PhD in Art History
from Harvard University and studied and taught
watercolor painting with Eliot O'Hara. He has
taught courses in both the history and practice
of art for over twenty-five years, and is currently
Professor of Fine Arts at Amherst College. Since
1970 he has conducted the summer Carl
Schmalz Watercolor Workshops in Kenne-
bunkport. Maine. An active painter and print-
maker, his work has appeared in many group
and one-man shows, mainly in the eastern
United States. He has won several important
prizes, among them the Frank De Wolf Award for
Traditional Watercolor at the Virginia Beach
Boardwalk Show and the Southern Missouri
Trust Purchase Award at the Watercolor. U.S.A.
Exhibition at the Springfield Art Museum,
Springfield, Missoun. His paintings are included
in numerous public and private collections.
A
former Associate Director of the Bowuoin
College Museum, Professor Schmalz has\vntten
many exhibition catalogs and critiques. He has
served on juries, lectured and demonstrated
widely, and run mini-workshops in various parts
of the country He is included in Forty Water Col-
and How They Work (Watson-Guptill) and
orists
isthe author of Watercolor Lessons from Eliot
O'Hara (Watson-Guptill)

Front jacke' Details of paintings by Murray Went-

worth, Carl Schmalz, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Lormg W.
Coleman.

Back jacket: Painting by Carl Schmalz

Jacket design by Jay Anning

ISBN 0-8230-5685-6

WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS
1
 CONTENTS OF WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY
1. The "Easy" Picture 11. Color Mixing
2. Stroke and Wash 12. Color Design
3. Edges and Reserved Lights 13. Lighting
4. Paint Texture 14. Colored Light
5. Designing from the Center 15. Drawing, Pattern, and Darks
6. Using Similarity 16. Coherence Without Light
7. Exploiting Contrast 17. Subject Selection
8. Three Viewing Distances 18. Focal Distance and Space
9. Knowing Your Palette 19. Paper Size and Shape
10. Transparent and Opaque ,
20. Painting Your Way

i Free Catalog
ue for
TSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS, 1515 Broadway, New York, N.Y 10036