The Painting Process

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Here is the order in which I approach a painting.  It is by no means the only way to go about doing so, but it is the way that works for me.  As you can see, a lot of work goes into each painting before the brush touches the paper!

1.  Develop compositional ideas  and take reference photos.  The most important aspect is the intention.  What do you want the painting to communicate? Consider the elements to be used, their sizes and shapes, what will be the focal point and its placement (ex. rule of thirds and golden mean), and the hierarchy of elements, or the order in which you will draw the viewer's eye through the painting.  Other issues to decide are the direction of the lighting, the shapes and balance of negative space, and the creation of depth through object overlap, perspective, and degree of focus.  A painting also needs contrast to be interesting, but dominance and repetition to be cohesive. Consider how to achieve that through unequal measures of types of lines (straight, curved, horitzontal, vertical, thick, thin etc), values (white, light, medium, dark, darkest darks), shapes, sizes, texture (smooth, shiny, fabric etc), and color scheme/temperature (cool, warm, monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, etc).

2.  Finalize a drawing.  Simplify reality into interesting shapes.  Try to connect areas of same value when possible.

3.  Transfer the drawing to watercolor paper using faint pencil lines.

4.  Stretch the watercolor paper so it doesn't buckle during painting. This involves thoroughly wetting the paper, causing it to expand, and then firmly securing it to a board.  As it dries, it becomes taut as a drum.  

5.  Select the colors. I use a limited number in each painting to keep it cohesive, often no more than 6-8, and sometimes only 1-3. The majority of the colors chosen for  each painting are usually primaries (yellow, blues, & reds).  It is at this point that I consider where I would like to have the texture of granulating pigments (ex. cerulean, viridian, etc) versus the smoothness of non-granulating ones (ex. phthalo blue, phthalo  green, etc).  

6.  Save the white areas that will receive no paint.  This can be accomplished by brushing on liquid mask (aka frisket), covering areas with masking tape, masking an area with plain water, or carefully painting around the areas that will remain white.

7.  Paint!  I don't follow a formula here. I usually begin by deciding which areas would benefit from an underpainting (ex. first painting a warm yellow on areas that will later be green or red to create a glow, or underpainting with a cool color where there will later be shadows.)   After that, I usually paint the lightest tones over the entire painting, then build up the darker, richer shades by applying more layers over increasingly smaller areas, allowing each layer to fully dry before adding the next.  Other times I fully complete one section while leaving the rest of the paper white, and gradually make my way across the painting.  Throughout the painting step, I evaluate my values.  A finished painting should look correct as both a color photo and a black & white photo.  Tip:  Always mix up more wash (paint & water mixture) than you think you'll need!

8.  Sign it.  I like to find an inconspicuous spot within the painting for my signature. It is done with watercolor paint and a very small brush.

9.  Do a happy dance and then relax  with a good cup of tea!