Horizontal Swamp Watercolor

I wanted to make a long format watercolor of a swamp scene. I had done a smaller version and liked the color palette.

An invitation to an exhibit

Swamps and Other Wetlands
A Painting Series
By Ray M. Hershberger

Arts of the Albemarle
516 East Main Street
Elizabeth City, NC 27909
252.338.6455
www.artsaoa.com

February 2013
First Friday Opening:
February 1, 5:30 - 7:00 pm

Whether you are just going to work or traveling across the country, there is a good chance that you've seen these wetlands. Swamps, marshes, streams and drainage ditches are wonderful discoveries waiting at the bottom of almost every hill. Often, these magical spaces are doppelgänger worlds of reflections, packed with both life and decay. Among the dappled light and shifting shadows are amazing, complex color arrangements. These are the worlds that I am trying to capture in paint.

Please visit my website:
http://www.rmhershberger.com

Close to being done

I've spent my painting time in the studio trying to make this more exciting and inviting. I did add some more trees and branches and I tried to pick the color up in the foreground.

Quick WC Swamp -- almost completed

I have almost finished this piece. Time to go home but no reflective time. I think a tree or two might be needed and although no one else will notice, I want to add some variety of color to the tree trunks. I had used a few different colors, but they have dried rather flat. Now, I need to use some dark tone gouache and staining colors.

An Easy Correction

After a nights sleep I came back and looked at the last project. When I looked at the highlights on the tree trunks, they felt a little stiff and applied. With a small flat brush, I gently scrubbed the right side of the highlights. Next I applied a very light wash over them. Finally, I put a small highlight line over the older muted one. Is it really finished? I hope, but I will stay open to change; however, I hope I remember to honor the intent of its beginning -- quick painting.

Swamp Exhibit heading to Elizabeth City, NC

SWAMPS AND OTHER WETLANDS will be at The Arts of the Albemarle Gallery in Elizabeth City, NC during the month of February. The opening reception will be from 5:30 to 7:00 on Friday, February 1, 2013. I hope you can make it. I would love to see you.

Quick Watercolor Swamps

After drawing in the major elements, waterline and some of the major foreground trees, I added  a light blue wash (cobalt and cerulean). Next I deepened that solution with some ultramarine and added the darker water shapes. While the paper was damp, I dropped in the purples, ochers, and  orange/rust tones. With a brush damped with more paste-like green colors, I added the foreground. At this stage I was careful to make sure the paper was damp.  The next thing was to speckle with some random thrown paint.

 The trees were then added, back to front. Lighter and more delicate strokes to the back and darker and wider trees coming forward.  As I brushed the trunk, I had another bush loaded with another color, ready to drop that into the wet strokes. This gave the trunks some subtle variety. Finally with a light shade of gouache. I cast the light on the left side of the trees.

This is another swamp, but painted in almost the same way.

Quick Watercolor of Swamp

Here is the drawing and some of the first thoughts. I started with a light wash across the sky and a darker wash over the land (water). Instead of starting with the lights on the trees, I thought I would block in the shadows. I like the dance of shapes and marks that I have created.

Worked a little more on the trees and then went to the ground, breaking up the shapes with shadows and tonal variations.

Once I started to put the green washes onto the trees, I realized the painting was losing much of playful character of the underpainting, so I reinforced the shadows with much darker shades. I tried to drop warmer tones into the dark shadows to add variety. Using darker tones, I also tried to separate the layers of the trees. Something was still needed, so I added some lights in gouache. 

Watercolor Demonstration: Using Arbitrary Color and Layers

This demonstration was done for the Peninsula Watermedia Society (Charles Taylor Arts Center, Hampton, VA). I think this is a great instructional demonstration about the strength of value (light, medium and dark) compositions and the possibilities of using layers to create values -- including the halftones for the major values.

I had a photo of this young calf, the drawing of the calf is fairly accurate -- the background is made up, because I didn't like what was in the photo.

Step 1: I put a wash across the whole page. If I had wanted to leave any white space, this would have be the time to do that. I made the wash with three colors; aureolin, rose madder, and cobalt blue -- all three weak, non-staining transparent colors. Notice that the paint is applied without regard to the drawing.

Step 2: Using the same colors (and the same concentration of color) I start defining the shadows in the light section of the cow.

Step 3: I apply another coat (layer) of the same paint-solution to the shadows. Notice that by layering another layer, the section gets darker. Transparent watercolor paints will darken as you layer them, until they reach the saturated body-color.

Step 4: I mix a richer, darker version of the same paints and randomly apply it to the background. Notice how the cow shape is now light by comparison.

Step 5: Making even richer colors, I try to break the horizontal and vertical elements apart. Notice the the path is lighter that the weeds.

Step 6: Although I am not satisfied with background, I paint in the some of the darks of the animal. This is done because of the time restraints of the demonstration. I use my staining colors: thalo green, thalo blue and alizarin crimson. They are strong, dark, transparent colors.

Step 7: A session at home and with a different focus. For some reason (to darken the background) I put a wash across the entire background. This makes it a little muddy. I darken some of the shapes on the cow, also.

Step 8: I finish of the spots on the cow. Break out the gouache and make some corrections. Notably the ridge on the cow's back and texture marks on the ground and weeds. The opaque marks make the muddy colors look more transparent. Not my favorite painting, but I do think we have located a shape in space, made the illusion of form and . . .