CHAPTER XXII.
HOW TO PAINT IN WATER-COLORS.
THERE is a certain charm in water-color painting—a charm distinctly its own—which lies, as Penley says, “in the beauty and truthfulness of its aerial tones.” Without this quality a water-color, as a water-color, is a failure.
This transparency of effect does not depend alone upon the manner of painting or the colors employed, but much rests with the paper we use. In the days when our mothers and grandmothers were taught painting at school, the finest, smoothest cardboard was thought necessary; but we have since learned that the flat, smooth paper tends decidedly toward producing a flat, smooth effect in the picture painted upon it, while the rough, uneven surface of the paper now in use helps to produce depth and atmosphere. Therefore it is always best to have rough paper to paint upon. We give below the
Materials for Water-Color Painting.
1. A block of rough drawing or water-color paper.
It is better to buy it in blocks than by the sheet, as it is much more easily handled, and is always ready for use.
2. Brushes. The best brushes are made of sable, and although costing more to begin with, it is really more economical to purchase them than to choose the less expensive camel’s-hair; for the sable are by far the most satisfactory, and will last much longer. Three or four brushes are sufficient. As Devoe & Co. number them, they should range between No. 3, which is small enough for ordinary painting, and No. 19, for clouds, backgrounds, etc.
3. Colors. A tin sketching-box of moist colors, which also contains a palette, is very useful, but the colors can be bought separately in tubes or pans.
Water-color painting seems by its qualities to be especially adapted to flowers and landscapes, and as this is to be a chapter, not a book, on water-colors, we will confine ourselves to the principal points to be observed in these two departments, and will commence with the
Flowers.
Few oil-paintings, however well executed, give the delicate, exquisite texture of a flower as nearly as water-colors. The semitransparency of a rose-petal, the juicy, translucent green of the young leaf, it is difficult to truthfully represent in other than these colors, whose essential quality is transparency. To preserve this transparency of color, everything about the painting must be kept exceedingly neat. The brushes must be thoroughly washed before using them for a different tint from that already upon them, and plenty of water, changed frequently, is necessary.
Having arranged your materials conveniently upon a table, place your paper so that it will lie at an angle slanting toward you, not perfectly flat upon the table; this can be done by putting books under the edge farthest from you, thus raising it up. Stand the flowers you wish to copy in such a position that the light will fall upon them only from one direction and produce decided shadows; the effect will then be much better than when the light is more diffused.
Always arrange your model exactly as you want to paint it, and leave nothing to your idea of how it ought to look. If you do not intend to have any background other than the white paper, place something white behind your flowers. If you want a colored background, arrange the color you have chosen behind the flowers, and paint it as you see it. Commence your work by sketching lightly, as correctly and rapidly as you can, the outline of your flower. Try something simple at first; say a bunch of heart’s-ease or pansies, and when drawing them try to get the character of both flower and leaf. Observe how the stem curves where it is attached to the flower, and at what angles the stems of the flowers and the leaves join the main stalk. Given character, an outline drawing painted in flat tints will closely resemble nature; without it, the most beautifully finished painting will not look like the flower it is intended to represent.
When your outline is drawn in, dip your largest brush in clear water, and go over the whole surface of your paper, then place a piece of blotting-paper over the paper to soak up the water, leaving it simply damp, not wet.
If you are using tube colors, have ready on a porcelain palette, or ordinary dinner-plate, these colors: crimson lake, cobalt blue, indigo, Prussian blue, and gamboge. Put in your lightest tints first, leaving the white paper for the highest light; then paint in your darker tints and shadows, and get the effect.
If your flower is what we call the johnny-jump-up, the lowest petal will be yellow. Paint this in with a light wash of gamboge, leaving, as we have said, the white paper for touches of high light. The two upper petals will probably be a deep claret-color; this is made by mixing crimson lake and cobalt blue, the crimson lake predominating. The two central petals may be a bluish lavender, and this color is made by mixing a little crimson lake with cobalt blue. Use plenty of water; but do not let it run, and keep the colors of the petals distinct.
Paint the stems and leaves, where they are a rich green, with a mixture of gamboge and Prussian blue, and where they appear gray as the light touches them, a pale wash of indigo will give the desired effect.
Keep your shadows broad and distinct, and your tints as flat as you can. Leave out details altogether in your first paintings, and add them afterward only when you can do so without spoiling the effect.
When a tinted background is desired, put it in quickly in a flat tint, before commencing the flowers. It is best not to bring the tint quite up to the outline, as a narrow edge of white left around the flower gives a pleasant, sketchy look to the painting.
Landscapes.
In your first studies from nature keep to simple subjects, and treat them simply, without any attempt at elaboration. Choose, for instance, a picturesque corner of an old fence, with perhaps a bit of field and sky for the background. Sketch in the principal features in the foreground in outline, and indicate the horizon, if it comes in the picture.
Penley says, in his “System of Water-Color Painting,” “White paper is too opaque to paint upon without some wash of color being first passed over it,” and he recommends a thin wash of yellow ochre and brown madder, which should be put all over the surface of the paper except on the high lights in the foreground, which are best left crisp and white.
Notwithstanding what Penley says in this matter, it must be borne in mind that some artists do not believe in successive washes, but claim that the color desired should be put upon the white paper at once.
If the yellow tint is used, let it become quite dry and then wash it over with a large brush and clean water; then, as in the flower painting, soak up the water with blotting-paper; the blotting-paper must also be quite clean. While the paper is damp, not wet, begin with a blue tint—a light wash of cobalt will give it—and put in the sky in a flat tint; bring the same color down all over your sketch except in the high lights. The blue tint gives atmosphere and distance. Let your paper again become quite dry, and then wash it over as before, in clear water.
The process of laying on color and lightly washing over it afterward should be repeated several times, “and the result will be a transparent aerial tone.”
Keep your extreme distance bluish, your middle distance warmer in tone, but not too strong, and the principal objects in your foreground strong.
Leave out small objects, and with light and shade seek to obtain the effect.
Keep your colors pure or your sketch will be dull.
Contrast has much to do in producing strength and character. Phillips says that, “in aiming at opposition of color, we must select that which gives force to the foreground, and consequently communicates the appearance of air in the distance. Thus, if the general tone of the light be warm and yellow, we should have blues and purples in the foreground; if the lights be cool, reds and yellows in the foreground give atmosphere to distance, as neither of these colors in a positive state is found in the middle or remote distance.”
The three principal contrasts are blue opposed to orange, red to green, and yellow to purple; and “a good first lesson in sketching in color will be to put in your shadows with color opposite to the object in light; and by carrying out this principle of opposition throughout the scale you will obtain an endless variety of contrasts.” It is the general rule in most painting to have cool shadows to warm lights, and warm shadows to cool lights. We all know that a green picture is very disagreeable, and although a green field is green, it must not be made intensely so. An untrained eye will not see how nature tones down the vivid color with shadows, and softens it with the atmosphere; but when the eye has learned to look at nature in the right way this difficulty will be overcome. Howard says, “green must be sparingly used, even in landscapes, whose greatest charm consists of vegetation.”
Foliage in some form will present itself in almost every landscape, and it is therefore necessary to have a few general principles to guide you in this important feature. In sketching trees be sure to get the character of their trunks, limbs, branches, and general form; also the texture of the bark, rough or smooth. You will see that the foliage appears in layers, one above another. Sketch in the outlines of the principal layers, where they are tipped with light; then go over the whole tree with a local color, and afterward separate the light from shadow. Each mass is edged with light, while its base is in shadow, as a rule. Omit details, and keep to your masses of light and shade. If your tree is in the foreground, leave the white paper for crisp touches of high light. The tone of your fence will probably be gray, but do not take it for granted that it is all gray; look for other colors, and you will find brown, blue, green, and sometimes red. Put these in as you see them, letting the edges melt into each other, as they will do when the paper is damp; but have each color pure, and do not try to mix them.
Painting from Notes
is not as difficult as one might imagine. With a little practice it is easily learned. The following directions will tell how to paint a sunset on the meadows, from notes made at sunset on the meadows on Long Island.
Take a piece of Whatman’s rough drawing-paper, or a kind that is termed egg-shell cartoon, the size decided upon for your picture. Have ready a large dish of clean water, brushes, and paints. Draw a pencil-line along the centre of your paper for your horizon, Fig. 151; then directly on the line paint a streak of vermilion. Put the color on quite damp, and make it about half an inch broad, extending one-fourth of an inch on either side of the horizon-line, Fig. 152. Next, quickly paint a yellow streak above and below the red one, making each streak of the same size and parallel, and leaving a little white paper between the different colors, Fig. 153. With a clean brush dipped in clean water carefully moisten the paper between the streaks, and allow the edges of the colors to mingle, Fig. 154. Before this has time to dry, paint a blue streak above and below, about half an inch from the yellow, Fig. 155; then with the clean brush dampen the white paper between, being careful not to get it too wet; there should be just enough moisture to enable the colors to flow and mingle at the edges, Fig. 156. This may be aided by holding the paper first one side up and then the other, until the edges are evenly blended. Now, before the horizon is quite dry, while it is still damp enough to cause the paint to spread, fill a brush with Payne’s gray, which should be rather dark and not too wet, touch the point of your brush here and there along the horizon, now a little above and now a little below, and you will find that the paint will spread and make excellent trees for the distance, Fig. 157.
When your work is dry enough to paint over without spreading the color, mix some green and black, and green and brown; paint in the meadow, using the color made of green and black for the extreme and middle distance, the color made of green and brown for the foreground, leaving spaces for streams and ponds, and your sunset upon the meadow is finished. A pretty little sketch it is, too, Fig. 158.
A different composition can be made by proceeding as directed as far as Fig. 156 and then, instead of putting in trees on the horizon, hills running to points in the water can be painted in a flat tint with the Payne’s gray, and a vessel with masts painted in the foreground, as in Fig. 159. This also makes a pretty and effective little sketch.
Fig. 160 shows sunset notes taken while aboard a ferryboat in the winter of 1886-87. From these you can see just how the notes are made; but you must make your own notes, because what is perfectly intelligible to the writer of the sunset memoranda is an enigma to another person. For example, in Fig. 160, “Rose-tinted sky” may mean almost any shade of red, or blue and red mixed, but “Rose-tinted sky” no doubt brings before the mind’s eye of the writer of the notes the exact color of the sky at the time the notes were made.