White-throated Sparrow on Ice

The cold winter months provide opportunity for gathering inspiration, as well as, quiet indoor time to create watercolor paintings! 

The above painting was inspired by a harsh but beautiful ice storm in east Tennessee in February 2015.  Ice coated everything so I not only spent a lot of time making sure the birds in my yard had food and water, I took many photographs.    

The limbs of an ice-coated Burning Bush were breath-taking, looking like lace.  I watched birds move in and out of its branches, some plucking berries, others perching near the feeders. Above and below, fluffy White-throated Sparrows perched among the limbs.  Birds fluff their feathers to trap air giving them an extra layer of warmth trapped under their feathers.

Painting ice in watercolor means "saving the whites".  The white of the paper is the white in your watercolor painting.  Ice presents an interesting challenge, more so than snow, because it reflects light and color from the surrounding area.  .  

Above you can see how I began this painting.  After carefully drawing the limbs and sparrow, I began negative painting with light washes of a mixture of burnt sienna and ultarmarine blue. Together these hues range from blue to blue-gray, to brown, to brown-gray to rust and subtle shades in between.  .

In this case I applied the washes in layers, with each area drying before I applied another layer over it.

While painting you can also drop paint into damp pigment to vary the color.  The key to keeping the paint underneath from moving is to avoid dabbing your brush but rather, add pigment with a stroke or two and leave the area until it dries.  

Watercolor painting takes patience because we often spend a lot of time waiting for the right moment to add the next brush stroke.  Paint will have a shiny appearance when wet and look dull when dry. Waiting for that right moment will reward you with satisfying results.  
Look for inspiration in the neutrals of winter and have a great time painting while its cold and wet outside!

Links and references:
Negative painting:  Fun with Fall Leaves and Hummingbird Inspiration
Helping wintering bluebirds

Hummingbird Inspiration!

Hummingbird migration is one of my favorite seasonal events.  In mid-July our first hummingbird nestlings fledged, more than doubling the number of hummingbirds at our yard feeders.  In a short time they were joined by migrants, increasing activity in the garden substantially. If you sit still for a while you can pick out the youngsters by watching their behavior.

Young juveniles look just like adult females with the exception of feathers that are more gray than green, a characteristic that is hard to see at a distance.  Behavior is the primary give-away to recognizing a recently fledged juvenile.

While females are all business--coming to the feeder for a drink and leaving quickly to return to nesting activities--juveniles hang-out.  They sit on limbs, hide in the foliage, watch the activities for a while and tentatively approach the feeder.  They also explore everything, especially the flowers. 

Juvenile hummingbird observations inspired my two "mini-bell" sketches above.  Both were created using negative painting to form the leaf shapes that make up the tangle of foliage so characteristic of minature petunias.  "Hummingbird and Million Bells", above, began as a wet-on-wet multi-colored wash of Quinacradone Gold, Quinacradone Rose and Cobalt Teal Blue (all Daniel Smith watercolors). 

These three primary colors--red, yellow, blue--provide the basic palette for the sketch. Variations of green were made by mixing the gold and teal together.  Only two additional pigments were added, Burnt Sienna and Lunar Black.  Lunar Black was added sparingly in the final touches for texture and as the darkest dark shapes.

With each layer of paint, the goal is to add some new leaf and stem shapes appearing behind the lighter shapes. Because these shapes are darker and the space around them, darker still, they recede into the background and give the painting depth.

Negative painting can feel intimidating at first because it's easy to get lost and forget where your layer begins and should end.  Taking your time, imagining leaf and stem shapes as you work, and working in small areas at a time will help transform a confusing effort into a relaxing experience.

The nice thing about leaf shapes is there is natural variation in their size and shapes and you don't have to worry about getting them down perfectly. Mistakes happen and disappear!

If you are new to negative painting, visit my blog post, "Fun with Fall Leaves",  for a fun exercise to get you started.

More posts about hummingbirds:  hummingbird studies and hummingbirds in flight

Visit my companion blog and enjoy the Wonder of Hummingbirds Festival

Carolina Chickadee in Snowy Holly

I have several nature-related traditions during the winter months that keep color and inspiration in my life. One of these is making home-made bird suet as a treat for my feathered winter friends. 

The second is painting birds in watercolor!  As I was going through my reference photo files recently, I ran across this chickadee that I painted in January of 2009, along with photos of the progression of the painting. It contains some of my favorite elements of a sketch--looseness and and a splash of color among neutrals.

I start my paintings with a sketch, a map of sorts.  The sketch above is loose in some places and more detailed in others.  I like some suggestion and mystery, but I also enjoy the details that define the bird species.  Both of these elements bring the artist's emotion into the work.  Not only does the viewer see a rendition of the subject, they also enjoy a wholistic expression of the artist's experience--the magic of art. Invariably, as the artist focuses deeply on the subject being painted, that emotion comes to life.

Have you ever watched the behavior of Carolina Chickadees near the feeder?  They are tiny, fairly-like creatures, voicing their opinion about everything with "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" calls.  In the winter they travel in mixed flocks with Tufted Titmice and Downy Woodpeckers visiting feeders in a rotating fashion.  All that company encourages lots of vocalizations.

Painting snow presents a fun challenge in watercolor.  The snow is created with the white of the paper giving you plenty of opportunity to paint negative space or the space around the snow as you create the flow of color and light that leads the eye through the painting.

This sketch is primarily made up of neutrals with a splash of color, an arrangement I find particularly appealing for its subtlety.  I used ultramarine blue, vandyke brown and sepia to make variations of gray and brown for my neutrals, and added quinacridone gold to the blue to create the greens and Winsor Deep Red for the berries.  Use of the same base colors, the blue and brown, throughout, unifies the colors in the painting.

Bringing the subject's colors into the sketch early allows you to shape the background colors and areas of dark and light to highlight the main subject effectively.   The branches are shaped by wetting the paper and adding color in the direction of the shape of the limb.  As the paint is drying, more color is added to the shaded areas, giving it its rounded appearance.

While painting, stepping back or away from the painting from time to time helps to bring fresh eyes.  I want the colors and the lights and darks to lead my eyes to the subject and through the painting so the viewer can take in the whole affect.  In this sketch, the darks, primarily the branches, lead the eyes to the chickadee in a v-shaped fashion and beyond to the edge of the paper.  The contrasting berries point to the bird like an arrow, faintly reappearing on the opposite side of the bird (below) to lead the eye off the page.

Carolina Chickadees use an intricate network of tiny muscles to fluff out the more than 2000 feathers on their body in the winter months, creating a warm insulation of air between feathers.  They visit suet and sunflower feeders, giving our yards the lively gift of activity during winter months.

Carolina Chickadee in Snowy Holly was created in watercolor on Canson, Montval Field, All-Media Book, 90 lb Cold Press Watercolor Paper.

Links and resources:

For more on negative painting, you may enjoy:  Creating Fall Leaves and Don't throw out the kindergarden efforts.
Montval Field All Media Book at Dick Blick art supplies.
Carolina Chickadee at Cornell All About Birds.

Fun with Fall Leaves--Creating Layers

True to the nature of autumn, rain and winds have blown many leaves off our trees creating a bed of colorful leaves on the ground.  Painting layers of leaves is a fun way to practice negative painting, glazing with thin layers of color, and softening edges--three skills you will use over and over again while painting. 

Visually, lighter objects in a painting move forward.  Darker objects move backward. This is one of the ways we create depth in a painting. In negative painting we are painting the negative space around the subject. In this case, when we paint the areas around the leaves, we are also creating a darker layer. When we add a leaf to this darker area, the leaf appears to move farther away visually.  

   

To create a painting with layers of leaves, select three primary colors to use in your painting--a red, blue and yellow. You can mix additional colors from these three, such as mixing blue and red, to make purple. I selected Phthalo blue, Aureolin for my yellow, and Permanent Alizarin Crimson for my red. I also used New Gamboge, a rich shade of yellow, and Burnt Sienna to begin the first layer.     

Begin by taping your paper to a backboard on all sides. A one-fourth sheet of watercolor paper (11 x 15") will give you plenty of room to build your leaf layers. The demonstration is on a 9 x 12 inch sheet. I'm using Arches 140# cold press paper. 

Wet your paper with a spray bottle or by brushing clear water across the paper. Pour off excess water by holding your paper vertically and wiping away the drips that collect at the edge of the tape.  When the paper has had time to absorb the water, create a juicy multi-colored wash on the paper with the lightest shades of the colors you've selected.  I chose to use shades of yellow and burnt sienna. Let this first layer dry completely.

Draw or trace a leaf on the dry wash, as above. Create a background for that leaf by painting a thin layer of color around its edges and brushing that color out until the edge disappears (known as soft edges or losing edges).  

To soften the edges, rinse your brush with clear water and brush the damp brush across the edges of the glaze. When this glaze is completely dry, draw another leaf and create a glaze around that leaf, letting it dry completely before adding the next. As you add leaves, draw the leaves so they are partially hidden under the leaf before it. As you work, notice how the water and pigment interact and make adjustments to how much water you use if needed.    

Above, you see a bloom (upper right) created by too much water in relation to pigment. The water moved the pigment beyond the softened edge.  You may find that you get the mix of water and pigment just right sometimes and other times, not. Sometimes you may forget to let the glaze dry. Notice what happens.  Explore and play.

The smoothness of my layers improved with practice.  Below, you can see the progression of the layers and how the painting begins to change with each additional glaze.  

As I worked, I noticed that I liked the way the greens began to cool down the yellows. I also liked seeing the pigment under the glaze shining through.   

Could you see the leaves moving backward as you glazed?  What did you notice about color? I enjoyed watching the greens on the right side of my painting (below) turn to that beautiful shade of blue. Purple mixed from the same blue created a lovely accent.

Below is another one of my explorations on an 11 x 15 inch quarter sheet of Arches 140# cold press paper. 

And here's another one below, created some time ago, with iris blossoms and leaves. 

Links and resources:

Fun with Fall Leaves series

My galleries at Vickie Henderson Art

Why leaves change colors

Winsor Newton watercolors

Winsor Newton watercolor color chart

Arches watercolor paper

Purple Martin with Prey--The Finish

Purple martins are secondary cavity nesters, birds that rely on other birds to make the cavity for their nests.  But in the course of history, both natural nesting cavities diminished and humans began furnishing nesting cavities.  Just how long ago humans began providing cavities is not certain, but some believe that Native Americans began this tradition.  People loved the birds, and the birds learned that fewer predators were found around humans.  Martins in the eastern United States now rely exclusively on human furnished cavities for nesting.    

These clusters of white gourd-shaped cavities that dot our rural landscapes, are now as much a part of the purple martin ecology, as the flying insects they capture on the wing.

In the above image, you see both the under-painting of rose and gold that I've initially applied to the martin and the additional colors I'm adding as I apply glazes.  The martin's color will change with each application of thin veils of color.  My eyes see blackish wings with a bluer sheen on the body feathers.  To create this distinction in color, I add burnt sienna to French ultramarine, giving the wings a more neutral and darker hue than the body.  While applying additional glazes to one area of the bird at a time, I let my eye lead me.  My goal is a darker martin with color showing through giving the impression of light reflecting off the feathers.

In order to make the background trees recede, I darken them with several more glazes of French ultramarine.  Below, I have added sketched detail to the martin gourds and the background trees.

These are the marks that guide my negative painting, the painting of  the space between and under the trees, giving more shadow and depth.   

Leaving the painting for a while to allow the paint to dry, I returned to discover that my tree trunks looked rather puny.  They are behind the martin housing pole, but they should not appear so slender as they are depicted in the above image.  It's one of those moments when you say, "good grief".  But, these corrections happen all the time.  When you are painting, you are close to the work and proportions have a different appearance.  Stepping back and stepping away are both a very important part of checking the overall appearance of what's happening on the paper. Perspective changes when you are taking in a larger, more distant view.  Below, I begin to correct these shapes by lightly lifting color with my scrub brush, expanding and varying the trunk shapes.  

Below you see how the trunks appear after adding some color and shading.  I have added depth and variation to the tree tops in the same way.  Additionally, separate glazes of rose and gold, give the impression of the sun's glow on the horizon.  I've added a hint of these colors to the white gourds and the wing tip, as well.      

Below, I begin to play with the dragonfly.  I love color and adding the orange (burnt sienna and quinacrodone gold) was a special moment of fun.  Orange and blue are opposites on the color wheel, and you can see how the two colors sparkle when placed next to each other.  I don't leave the colors this bright, both for realistic reasons and because I don't want the dragonfly to compete with the martin.  It is included as a dynamic part of the subject, giving the viewer information about the bird and its behavior.   

The finishing work included the addition of more glazes and color to darken the martin and add shadow.   For this you get to use your imagination!  I got so focused on the painting toward the end, that I forgot to take images!  Below, you see the finished work.   

I am excited that "Purple Martin with Prey" will be on display at the Purple Martin Association's convention in Erie, PA, August 11, 12 and 13th, and will be available for purchase at the fund-raising auction!  A special thank you to Graig Kern, for this opportunity.

11 x 14 inch watercolor on Arches 140# cold press paper.  Palette:  WN Ultramarine Blue, WN Burnt Sienna, WN Quinacridone Gold, WN  New Gamboge, WN Permanent Rose, a touch of WN Cerulean.

Links and Resources:

To see all my posts on this purple martin painting project, visit: purple martins.  

Click the links to learn more about negative painting and scrubbing.  

Don't Throw Out the Kindergarten Efforts

Kindergarten steps.  That's how it feels when you're trying something new.  But every time we step out of our comfort zone while sketching and painting, we learn. 

I tried sketching this red day lily I found in the yard using watercolor, without drawing it first.  I had in mind creating something loose and impressionistic.  The problem was the breeze.  A light wind is wonderful to keep insects away and for cooling comfort on a hot day.  But, the down side, it dries the palette rapidly.  

Always, always, I forget something when I sketch outside.  And this time it was the spray bottle.  Dropping water from the brush was too slow.  It was drying faster than I could drop it.  Trickling water from the water cup ended in a flood that had to be poured off--a comedy of errors good for exercising the sense of humor.

Add to that, too much water on the page, not enough water in my brush, and on and on it went.  Then the breeze died down.  Helpful?  Not on your life!  Something mean started biting.  I never looked up to see what it was, so intent by that time, to get this day lily on the page!  

  

When I looked at the sketch I completed while out doors (image above), I felt an "ugh" sensation in my stomach.  Primitive, tight.  I'd lost the lily petal shapes.  But then I remembered some helpful guidance I received over years of working with watercolor instructor, Ann Lindsay. Whenever we showed our work in class, she would coach, "show us something you enjoyed, that you particularly like about your work, and if there's something you don't like and want to see happen differently next time, tell us about that, too."

 

So I scanned my sketch again.  My eyes went to the bud, its shape and color, and it's loose leaves.  Not bad, really, for no drawing in advance.  I already knew my chief dislike, the shape of the petals.  So I pulled out my pencil and outlined the petal shapes and edges.  This came easily with a pencil.  Once I had done that, the whole sketch began to feel different to me. 

When I came inside, I lifted off paint, re-shaping the petals.  And drew in the long, droopy day lily leaves on the left page's blob of color, defining them with negative painting.  As I used my pencil to guide these changes and additions, I once again remembered how much I love to draw.  Ah, I thought.  Next time I'll sketch with my pencil first, and enjoy drawing even more!

This is a wise exercise--asking yourself to be specific about what you like and don't like about your painting or sketch.  It helps keep you from throwing out the whole effort and walking away unnecessarily discouraged. New experiences are worth the effort, even when the results feel like kindergarten.  It's not the finished results that matter the most, but what new information you add to your painting library--information about who you are, what you like, and what makes sketching and painting fun for you.

A postscript note to self:  Reorganize outdoor sketch bag with its own spray bottle and insect repellent!