Watercolor Demonstration

The following painting is part of a series featuring onions. Be sure and read the inspiration for this series in the box to the right on this page.

"He Who Began a Good Work in You"

Step One - The Preliminary Work


 

You can see in these sketches how I've laid out a couple different compositions, and I've also worked out some of the value schemes. These thumbnail sketches are very helpful and don't take a lot of time or be real detailed. As I sketch I'm looking to get a feel for the overall design and giving myself some options to choose from. From these sketches I decided to go with the bottom sketch, although I changed the value scheme as the painting progressed.

Step Two - The Frisket Pour

I don’t spend a lot of time drawing the picture in the beginning, because I will lose most of the pencil lines after the frisket is removed. So at this point I just lay out the basic shapes of the objects, thinking mostly about my overall composition. After pouring the liquid frisket on the piece to enhance the movement of the piece and protect some whites, I add some pours of color.

I am working on a piece of Arches 300# cold press paper, and my color palette consists of Quinacridone Red, Indigo, Quinacridone Gold, Permanent Magenta, Winsor Yellow and Iridescent Gold. I have also mixed Permanent White gouache with the colors in some of the pours.

Step Three - Enhancing the Color

I usually come back with some of the same colors at this point to increase the impact in important areas. In this painting that means pouring more of the local red color on the onions as well as brightening up the top left of the rectangle with the yellow colors. All of these colors are mixed with white gouache to create what is called “body color” and poured on the wet paper. I also began to introduce a gray color in the bottom right.

Step Four - Adding Brushwork

Now I continue with pours of different colors, and add pigment to the vibrant areas by brushing on pure color directly out of the mixed-up containers of color. This can be seen especially in the red onion near the center of the rectangle - notice the bright gold color that I added by brush. Applying color directly out of the containers is a great way to keep the colors fresh and bright.

Step Five - Deciding on the Value Scheme

At this point I need to start working on my value scheme, and I’ve decided to darken in the left side so that the white onion at the right side will come forward. I’ve mixed up a transparent batch of the complementary mix of Permanent Magenta and Quinacridone Turquoise, and then poured on several glazes of this on both sides
of the painting. I let the paper dry thoroughly between each pour. I also add some of the colors that I started out with to these gray pours as the paint mix is drying. One way I keep the colors clean is to primarily pour colors in the area they were used before.

Step Six - Brushwork

I continue to pour on the dark mixes, and also brush on colors out of the pouring containers. At this point I am ready to go to the brush and stop pouring, because I can only get so dark with the diluted poured mix. As I brush on colors I am adding quite a bit of white gouache to the mix. This allows me to add lighter areas (such as the light spot over the middle red onion) and even cover up some of the red that was poured into the background. The area around the white onion to the right was painted with a mixture of Quinacridone Red, Quinacridone Gold, Permanent Magenta and Iridescent Gold.

Step Seven - The Details

Before I remove the frisket I finish off with brushwork any areas that touch the onions or other spots that have frisket. It is nice to have the frisket on the painting while I’m working these areas, as it gives me freedom to use a bigger brush than I might if the frisket was removed. I try to finish most of these areas, and then it’s time to remove the frisket. I did remove the frisket before this step from the onion at the far left of the rectangle, because I decided in this dark area of the painting to get that shape to recede even farther. So now I’ve brushed some of the dark background over it.

Step Eight - Painting the Onions

At this point I have removed the frisket completely from the painting. Now I need to decide how to finish the painting, especially the onions. I’ve decided to keep the white onion at the right very simple, in keeping with the theme of my painting. I brush on both transparent and opaque mixes of color to bring out the onions, paying close attention to hard and soft edges. I brush some of the dark washes over the background, also, to soften some edges. I really laid in bright colors in the background to the right, and came into that area with a transparent mix to add the vertical line. The finishing touches included some lifting of hard edges with a scrubber brush and the addition of white gouache on the onions for highlights.

The Finished Painting

"He Who Began A Good Work In You"

16"x35"

watercolor and gouache