Window into the Past

                        

Window into the Past

A watercolor painting by Karen A. Cooke

This is another painting that lends itself to the properties of watercolor.  I like the way the window panes are painted showing the dust and grime of the years and the open window showing the illusion of the empty room inside.    The focus of the painting is the window which has some detail, but is not” photographic.” 

Since this painting will need to be sketched in more detail than some paintings in order to get the perspective correct for the window, as well as the lines of the log walls and stone, you will need to decide where to execute your sketch.   Depending on how comfortable you feel with your sketching, you can sketch directly on the watercolor paper or prepare a sketch on the same size paper and transfer to your watercolor paper when complete.  Watercolor paper does not hold up well to too much erasing;  so if you feel as though you will need to erase multiple times to get the perspective right, then prepare a sketch on a piece of drawing paper and transfer to the watercolor paper once you are satisfied.     As always, the sketch is not main focus of the painting, but should be a guide for the placement of color.  Details will be added as the painting progresses with your brush.    Refer to my photo below.

Materials Needed:

140# Watercolor paper – I use Arches

Multiple size brushes of your choice, I used the following:

·       #12 round brush

·       Flat brush

·       Liner brush

Masking fluid

Watercolor Paint: 

·       Burnt Sienna

·       Burnt Umber

·       Medium Yellow

·       Payne’s Gray

·       Sap Green

·       Ultramarine

·       Yellow Ochre

·       Sepia

 

Let’s get started!  This painting takes time and is executed in several steps to allow the paint to dry.  Don’t rush the work and enjoy the painting!

Masking:

Masking will be needed on and around the window frame as well as some of the stems and flower area below.    

This can be a very time consuming process, but is very important to the final outcome of the painting.  A very fine brush will need to be used to make these lines or you can use a fine line masking fluid pen.    I used a masking fluid pen on this painting.  The one I like consists of a small plastic bottle that can be filled with masking fluid and has a small, hollow metal tube that allows the fluid to flow out of the tube onto the paper.  Various types can be purchased on line or in art supply stores.  A fine liner brush will also work; however, the pen allows for easier control of the size of the line and helps prevent bubbles in the fluid.   

Let’s start painting! 

Window Panes:

The window panes are painted using a flat brush and a wash made of a mix of Payne’s Gray, Yellow Ochre and Ultramarine.   Allow to dry.  

Wet the painted panes and working each one separately, use a round brush and scrub the painted surface.  Use a paper towel and lift out some of the color in various spots on each pane.  This creates the look of dirty window glass.  Vary the look on each window pane.   Allow to dry. 

 

Refer to my photo above. 

Window – Lower Open Section:

Use a wash of Payne’s Gray and a flat brush, paint in the dark open sections of the window, both above and below the window panes.  Allow to dry.  Use a wet brush and lift sections of the paint from the darkened window to indicate an inside view.  Refer to my photo.  Allow to dry.

Window Frame:

Remove the masking.  Use a light wash of Payne’s Gray and Yellow Ochre and paint the window frame, leaving some areas white.  Use the gray and yellow to paint shadows and dirt.     Allow to dry.

Wood around the window and the shutter:

Painting wood with watercolor paint is one of my favorites!    Using a wash of yellow ochre, Payne’s Gray and Sepia (not mixed on your palette), paint the wood using a wet on wet technique.  I used yellow ochre first and then dropped in Payne’s Gray and Sepia in various locations.  Refer to my photo.  Allow the wash to dry.  Using a ¼ to ½ inch flat brush with the bristles separated dry brush lines of Payne’s Gray and/or Sepia for wood grain.  Using Payne’s Gray, add knots, nail holes, etc.

Note:  Paint each wood piece separately where the edges touch.  Allow to dry.  Do not paint the entire section at the same time as you want each piece to look like a different piece of wood, not a continuous piece of the same wood. 

Logs and Chinking:

Using Payne’s’ Gray and Burnt Sienna, paint the logs and the chinking between the logs.  Since watercolor will flow where ever the surface is wet, you will need to allow the sections to dry before painting sections side by side.   I solved this problem by painting the logs first and then the chinking.  By the time I was finished painting the logs, they were dry; and, I could then paint the chinking between the logs.  These are painted using a wet on wet technique. 

Painting the logs:

Using a flat brush and various intensities of Payne’s Gray, paint the logs.  Drop in Burnt Sienna in a few locations.  Refer to the photo.  Allow to dry. 

Paint the chinking:

Using a flat brush and various intensities of Burnt Sienna, paint the chinking between the logs.  Drop in Sepia in various locations, especially on the edges where the chinking touches the logs.  Allow to dry.

Details on the logs:

Use the same technique used on the wood surrounding the window.  Dry brush a wood grain on the logs using Payne’s Gray and/or Sepia.    Add knots, etc. as desired.

Details on the chinking:

When you paint the chinking it is interesting to know what use used for chinking log cabins in the past in the United States.  Sticks or rocks were used between the logs and then mud was dabbed over the top of this material to fill in the gap and make the structure solid to prevent gaps for air, insects or small animals to get inside. 

Using a flat brush and/or a liner brush, add some detail in the chinking to indict the texture in the chinking. 

Greenery:

As you are painting the logs and chinking in the lower section of the cabin, leave spaces for the greenery.  Drop in various intensities of Sap Green.  This will be only the background color and details will be added later.  Allow to dry. 

Stone Fireplace:

Painting stone is time consuming as you must paint each stone separately.  This is the only way to make each stone look like one independent stone rather than one huge mass. 

Use the following colors:

·       Payne’s Gray

·       Ultramarine

·       Sepia

·       Sap Green

 Wet a stone and drop in the above colors varying the colors and the intensity on each stone.  The darkest colors will be where the rocks touch.  If you skip around when painting the stones, you can work quickly as the paint will dry on one stone while you are working on another one.  Drop in a little Sap Green in various locations on the rocks for moss.  Allow to dry.

Round logs - upper chimney area and chinking:

The round logs and chinking in this area are painted like the cabin logs.  The only different in this case is the shape.  Refer to the previous instructions and refer to the photo. 

Flowers, Leaves and Stems:

Flowers:

Using Medium Yellow and Yellow Ochre, paint the petals of the followers.  Refer to the photos and use the darker colors where the petal meets the center.  Paint the center of the flower with Burnt Sienna and Sepia.  Allow to dry.

Leaves and Stems:

Using Sap Green and a round brush, paint the stems.  Vary the intensity from light to dark on the stem to show reflected light and shadows. 

Leaves:

Using your round brush, paint the leaves – “drawing” them with the paintbrush as you go.  If you don’t feel comfortable “drawing” with the paintbrush, lightly pencil in the shapes of the leaves and then go back and paint.  Vary the color and intensity by adding a little yellow to the green to lighten and add yellow highlights.   Deepen the intensity and color by adding Ultramarine to the Sap Green for darker areas and shadows. 

Finishing touches:

Leaves and flowers may need small lines to add details.  Check the remainder of your painting and see if any additional details need to be added to the windows, wall or fireplace. 

Great job – sign your name!

Happy Painting!
Karen

Summer in France

"Summer in France"

 

Summer in France

A watercolor painting by Karen A. Cooke

 

This painting lends itself to the properties of watercolor.  I like the way the bricks of the cottage can be painted with the illusion of detail as well as the surrounding greenery.    The focus of the painting is the door and the bike, both of which have slightly more detail, but are not “photographic.”

 Since this painting will need to be sketched in more detail than some paintings in order to get the perspective correct for the door, step, bike and sidewalk, as well as the lines of the bricks, you will need to decide where to do your sketch.   Depending on how comfortable you feel with your sketching, you can sketch directly on the watercolor paper or prepare a sketch on the same size paper and transfer to your watercolor paper when complete.  Watercolor paper does not hold up well to too much erasing;  so if you feel as though you will need to erase multiple times to get the perspective right, then prepare a sketch on a piece of drawing paper and transfer to the watercolor paper once you are satisfied.     As always, the sketch is not main focus of the painting, but should be a guide for the placement of color.  Details will be added as the painting processes with your brush. 

 Materials Needed:

140# Watercolor paper – I use Arches
Multiple size brushes of your choice, I used the following:

·       #12 round brush

·       Flat brush

·       Liner brush

Masking fluid

 Watercolor Paint: 

Below are the colors I used; however, feel free to use the colors you would like.  For example, a different color door could be substituted for the red I used.

·       Grumbacher Red

·       Burnt Sienna

·       Medium Yellow

·       Windsor Blue

·       Payne’s Gray

·       Sap Green

·       Ultramarine

·       Yellow Ochre

·       Van Dyke Brown

Let’s get started!  This painting takes time and is executed in several steps to allow the paint to dry.  Don’t rush the work and enjoy the painting!

Masking:

Masking will play a big part in this painting.  In order to maintain areas for white or lighter colors in the dark brick, greenery and the bike, masking is an important step.

Examine the photo above and you will see that the following will need to be masked:

·       Brick – some, but not all lines for the bricks in the cottage

·       Roof – highlights on the shingles

·       Highlights on the wood on the porch

·       Greenery – some lighter stems

·       Flowers – both in the pots and growing on the bricks

·       Window panes

·       Bike

·       Highlights in the sidewalk cracks

This can be a very time consuming process, but is very important to the final outcome of the painting.  A very fine brush will need to be used to make these lines or you can use a fine line masking fluid pen.    I used a masking fluid pen on this painting.  The one I like consists of a small plastic bottle that can be filled with masking fluid and has a small, hollow metal tube that allows the fluid to flow out of the tube onto the paper.  Various types can be purchased on line or in art supply stores.  A fine liner brush will also work; however, the pen allows for easier control of the size of the line and helps prevent bubbles in the fluid.    

Let’s start painting!  The greenery, bricks and sidewalk will be painted using a wet on wet wash.   

 Greenery:

Prepare a wash of various shades of green from light to dark.  Prepare the paper by brushing on clean water in the areas for the greenery.  Paint the green to the left of and above the door first using deeper colors of green beside the door and allowing the colors to lighten as the greenery grows up and to the left.  Drop in Ultramarine blue in the greenery near the sidewalk.  Work around the yellow flowers above the door and paint the flowers in after the greenery has been painted.   Allow to dry.  

Paint the greenery on the right side, painting around the red flowers.

 Bricks:

Prepare a wash of Burnt Sienna, Paynes Gray and Yellow Ochre.  We will be painting wet on wet; so using clean water, wet the brick area working around and up to the edges of the greenery.   Using the photo above as an example, drop in the paint allowing the colors to merge moving from lighter yellow on the left side and deepening the colors by adding sienna and gray as you paint across the page.   Allow to dry. 

 Porch Roof and Sides:

Paint the wooden sides of the porch with a light Van Dyke Brown varying the color to indicate highlights.  Drop in Paynes Gray in several places as indicated on the photo above.  Allow to dry.

 Paint the porch roof using a wash of Van Dyke Brown mixed with Burnt Sienna varying the intensity in several locations on the roof.  Allow to dry. 

 Door:

Paint the door wet on wet using a deep intensity of paint working carefully around the mail slot and the porch light.  Add in a little Van Dyke Brown to vary the color on the door deepening the color at the door edges and to create shadows on the door.  Allow to dry. 

 Sidewalk and Steps on Porch:

Using Paynes Gray mixed with Ultramarine, paint the steps and the side walk letting the color become lighter as it flows out toward the street.  Drop in Burnt Sienna on the step behind the bike and on the right front side of the porch bricks.  Add Van Dyke Brown to the gray mixture as you paint down the sidewalk towards the street. 

 Street:

Add some Ultramarine to the sidewalk mix, dilute with clean water and paint the street.  Drop in deeper colors of this mixture with Van Dyke brown in the cobbles of the street.  Do not overdo this section.  Let the paint fade to almost clean as you paint to the far left corner of the street. 

 Flower Pots and Flowers:

Pots: 

Using Van Dyke Brown, paint the wooden areas of the pots and drop in Paynes Gray for shadows in various locations on the wood.  Allow to dry.   Paint the metal stays of the pots with Paynes Gray leaving some sections lighter than others.    Note that the pot on the left is darker than the one on the right as it sits in the shadow of the porch and greenery. 

 Leaves and Flowers:

Using various shades of Sap Green from light to dark, paint the leaves of flowers in the pots working around the blooms.    Allow to dry.    Drop in the colors of the flowers varying the intensity of the color.    Allow to dry.

 Bicycle:

Remove the masking that protected the shape of the bike while you painted the all the surrounding areas. 

 Using a light mix of Paynes Gray and Ultramarine, paint the bike tires.  Allow to dry.  Using a pale wash of Paynes Gray and Van Dyke Brown, paint the frame of the bike using the same color used for the tires as shadows on the frame.  Refer to the photo for placement.  Allow to dry. 

 Window:

Paint the window frame with a light wash of Ultramarine, Windsor Blue and Paynes Gray.  Allow to dry.  Paint the windows with the same color increasing the amount of Paynes Gray to deepen the color.  Drop in a pale wash of Burnt Umber in various locations to indicate reflections.  Allow to dry. 

 Finishing touches:

Remove the remainder of the masking from all areas.  Using a light wash of Yellow Ochre mixed with Burnt Sienna, brush over the top of the brick lines where the masking was removed.   Use this same paint on the lines on the porch where the masking was removed. 

 Using a mixture of Paynes Gray and Van Dyke Brown, paint the address sign.  Using Paynes Gray and Yellow Ochre, paint the lamp on the porch.  Allow to dry. 

 Using a liner brush, add some accent lines in the sidewalk and the street.  Check for any other areas that may need to be highlighted.

 Great job – sign your name!

 Happy Painting!
Karen

 

Printer Blocks and Watercolors

                        

Printer Blocks and Watercolors

Handmade Cards

 

The photo above shows cards made from watercolor paint and antique hand carved printer blocks.  My son and daughter in law gave me these printer blocks in the photo above for Christmas.

 Before I start with instructions on how to use printer blocks and watercolor paints to make cards, I wanted to provide a little background on the process.

 Just a little history of woodblock/woodcut printing:

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns on either cloth or paper.  This technique was used widely through East Asia and originated in China.  The earliest examples of woodblock printing on cloth are from China and date back to before 220 AD.   Woodblock printing remained the most common method of printing books and other texts in East Asian until the 19^th century. 

 Woodcut is the term applied to the relief printing technique in Europe.  An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood, typically with gouges, leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts.  Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print.  The block is cut along the grain of the wood.  The surface is covered with ink or paint and then applied to the paper or cloth.  

 There are two basic methods of using woodblock/woodcuts for printing:

·       Stamping:  This method is used for many fabrics and most European woodcuts (between 1400 – 1440).  In this method the design is printed by putting the paper or fabric on a table or flat surface with the block on top and pressing or hammering the back of the block. 

·       Rubbing:  This was apparently the most common method for Far Eastern printing on paper at all times.  It was also used for European woodcuts and block printing later in the 15^th century and used widely for cloth.  This method is also used for many Western woodcuts from about 1910 to the present day.  The block goes face up on a table, with the paper or fabric on top.  The back is rubbed with a hard pad, a flat piece of wood, or a burnisher to transfer the print to the cloth or paper.  

 I used the stamping method in printing my cards.

 Now, for the reason for my blog…..painting instructions!

 Materials Needed:

140# Watercolor paper – I use Arches brand paper

Envelops for the finished cards

Large Flat brush

Round brush

Liner brush

Paint:

Watercolors:  Colors of your choice - I used primary colors and varied the intensity.

Acrylic paint – black  

Card Size and Setup:

It will be necessary to determine the size of the finished cards at this time in order to set up the paper efficiently.    This will be determined by preference along with the size of the envelops you have for the cards. 

I wanted a deckled edge on the front of the card.    A deckled edge is a rough cut edge rather than a smooth one.  Refer to the edges of the cards in the photo above.

How to deckled the edge of watercolor paper:

It is simple to deckle the edge of heavy weight watercolor paper.  The paper is simply torn by hand while moving the hand slightly to the left and right to make the edge uneven.  One can also purchase a yardstick with a deckled edge to assist when deckling large pieces of paper. 

 The watercolor paper is taped to the painting board on all four edges.  Measure and using a pencil draw lines on the paper the shape/size of the cards. 

 Tape as follows:

·       Tape a line to divide the back section of the card which will not be painted.

·       Tape along the front edge of the card allowing the deckled edge to remain white. 

·       Tape the sides of the paper to hold in place.  This edge will be one side of two of the cards and the white section will be cut off when complete.  Be certain to take this in to account when determining the width of each card. 

Instructions - How to Paint the Cards:

Card Background

Prepare a wash of the paints you plan to use.  We will be painting wet on wet.  Wet the paper with clean water and paint with the colors you selected.  I used yellow for my background and dropped in various colors.  Refer to the photo above.  Allow to dry.  

Block Printing:

Apply black acrylic paint to the designed side of the woodblocks.  Press the blocks on the painted paper in an arrangement to your liking.   Allow to dry. 

Tip: 

Practice first on scrape pieces of paper to determine the amount of paint to apply and the pressure needed.  This will help prevent disappointment on the painted paper. 

Finishing touches:

I painted a few springs of grass with a liner brush and black paint around the designs. 

 Preparing the cards:

After all the paint has dried, remove the tape from around the edges.  Following the pencil line you drew during setup, use a yardstick and a utility knife to cut the cards apart.  Fold the cards in half along the center edge.  The center edge will be easy to determine, thanks to the clean edge made by the masking tape during setup.  I used a metal ruler to press down the edges of the cards on the fold. 

 Feel free to sign the front of the cards or the back and enjoy sending personalized greeting cards for birthdays, get well wishes, etc.!

 Happy Painting!
Karen