Thursday, October 31, 2019

How to Start a Watercolor

How should you start a watercolor? There are many ways, but this time I start loose, knowing I can use gouache to make corrections and paint my white accents.


After a colored pencil lay-in, I lightly establish the local color, then the background tones, and finally I use white gouache to sharpen edges and paint the lighter values.



(Link to Video on YouTube) Here are the watercolor pigments I'm using:
Raw sienna
Lemon yellow
Cadmium red 
Transparent red oxide
Alizarin crimson
Anthraquinone blue
Titanium white (gouache)

Other ways to start a watercolor (YouTube links):
Detailed, transparent only
Urban streetscape with fountain pen
Watercolor and colored pencils
at

15 comments:

  1. BevanOctober 31, 2019 at 6:05 PM

    I am curious, Windsor Kinkade, any relation to your friend Tom?

    Such a pretty place and you choose to paint a folding chair... it was the railing and shadows that caught my eye. My first thought was why the chair? Yet your chair ends up such a beautiful piece that I can't help but feel bad for my first thought.

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  2. James GurneyOctober 31, 2019 at 6:23 PM

    Yes, Winsor is his daughter. Painting a folding chair was funny because the house was so full of antiques, but I liked the way the light shined on it.

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  3. BevanOctober 31, 2019 at 10:55 PM

    My only other wish I'd that we could have seen the other three paintings too.

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  4. Vladimir VenkovNovember 1, 2019 at 4:49 AM

    Beautiful painting. Thank you for the tutorial.

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  5. RichNovember 1, 2019 at 6:33 AM

    Van Gogh and Gauguin also painted a chair in warm and cool tones - yours reminded me.
    They were no folding examples, though.

    How the light shines through your texture.

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  6. bernickyNovember 1, 2019 at 8:24 AM

    What Stephen and Nyree said.

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  7. James GurneyNovember 1, 2019 at 8:26 AM

    Stephen and Bernicky, I agree, it would have been nice to see what everyone else painted, but I didn't want to obligate everyone to be part of my video.

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  8. BellsNovember 1, 2019 at 8:29 AM

    Fantastic, I love to follow your blog... TY :)

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  9. Steve GilzowNovember 1, 2019 at 8:34 AM

    When you went back in and repainted the chair leg that had been covered by gouache, was the paint again a mixture of gouache and watercolor?

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  10. James GurneyNovember 1, 2019 at 8:39 AM

    Steve, yes, I went back in with watercolor. Gouache made its way into the mixtures more and more as the painting went along.

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  11. Mitch M.November 6, 2019 at 11:19 PM

    What is the difference in drying time between gouache and gouache/watercolor mix or is that dependent on the amount of water and ambient temperature?

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  12. Mitch M.November 6, 2019 at 11:20 PM

    sorry ,unknown is Mitch.

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  13. mellowsmootheNovember 11, 2019 at 3:38 PM

    Hi James, I was wondering what specific products (and any links you have) you are using for the light diffusers that scatter the light over your sketchbooks. Thanks!

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  14. James GurneyNovember 11, 2019 at 4:07 PM

    Mellowsmoothe, please check out this blog post and video: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2018/05/improved-diffuser.html

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  15. mellowsmootheNovember 11, 2019 at 4:19 PM

    Great thanks! Oh my... I gotta build it. :P

    ReplyDelete

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