My booth at an Outdoor Art Show

My booth at an Outdoor Art Show
The best part of an outdoor show is meeting you. If you read my blog, be sure to say Hi to me.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Watercolor Lesson # 2

In my first lesson, I suggested getting a sketch book and taking time to draw. Now you want to take one of your sketches and use that to do a watercolor painting. What do you look for in selecting a drawing or one of your own photographs?
I suggest you need to look for several key features.
First, you need a good focal point that will draw in the viewers eyes so it attracts their attention. Maybe it is an open window or a rocking chair on the porch or an antique sitting in your living room. So make a selection and decide where the focal point will fit in your picture.

Next, you will need to use what artist call the Golden Triangle. You divide the paper on one of your sketch book pages into thirds crossing the paper with light pencil lines. At the four locations where the lines from the side intersect the lines form the top and bottom, you will find your key points where the focus of your painting may be located. Select one of those points and determine how your drawing will fit on the page considering the focal point you selected.
Now sketch the drawing on the paper.

There is another way to identify the focal point and it is called the law of the Uneven Sides. For this you select a focal point that is unevenly located from the four sides of the paper. So it might be 4" from the top and 3" from the one side and 10" from the other side and 8" from the bottom.
The second step is to consider your lights and darks. Tradition holds you should either have 20 % of your drawing being very dark or the opposite with 80 % being very dark. Value is very important to make a painting eye catching. You need to look at the drawing that you sketched to see if you did that.

Now take up your Number 2 pencil or I like an H4 or H5 pencil and draw maybe one or two examples to try out to see if you like the focal point and the value. Is it dramatic enough to draw in someone's attention?

next lesson----- gathering your supplies