The "F" word

Yes, that's right. It's the "F" word: Facebook.

I've followed the crowd into social media. Mind you, I don't have a personal Facebook page and don't intend to create one. However, I've found more and more that artists, arts advocacy groups, and galleries are spreading the word about events, shows and more through Facebook.

So, now I have Facebook logos on my website and blog that link to my Facebook page, which is at www.Facebook.com/WaitesRunStudios.

I've been on Facebook for a couple of weeks and I've noted its strengths and weaknesses. In short, it seems most effective with images and short, snappy posts.

But, as a writer, I find that format to be a little too confining. So I don't intend to give up this blog. It's the perfect place to write about painting at length - with topics such as techniques, materials, design principles, inspiration and more.

I view the Facebook page as a way to announce events. It's also useful, I think, to introduce more people to watercolor painting,  mostly by sharing images of paintings in process. And I will use Facebook to encourage "Friends" to visit this blog to learn more about the medium.

That said, I encourage you to "Like" my Facebook page to keep up with the new nuggets of information that I share there.

Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators

Anni Matsick, the newsletter editor for the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators, included a blurb about my Bill Vrscak workshop blog post in the July issue of the society's newsletter and included a photo from Morgantown Art Association member Byron Witt.

Bill Vrscak is also a member of PSI. You can read my account of his workshop at http://waitesrunstudios.blogspot.com/2013/06/bill-vrscak-workshop-in-morgantown.html

Visit http://www.pittsburghillustrators.org/ to see the entire PSI July newsletter in pdf format and to learn more about this great organization and its many talented members. Be sure to check out the website of Anni Matsick as well: http://annimatsick.com/

School Days

"School Days" - 8"x8"

I painted this one twice.

In the first version, I got too dark too quickly in the cast shadow areas, so there was no sense of warm sunshine in the painting. When I looked at it from a distance, all I could see was a hard diagonal shape that dominated the scene.

So I tried to use opaque watercolor - in this case, watercolor mixed with gouache - to paint over it and try something different.

That experiment didn't go well. There's a strange drying shift in opaque watercolors that I can't get a handle on. Traditional watercolors tend to look dark while the wash is still wet, and then lighten while drying. Over time, you get used to this drying shift.

Once you mix the watercolors with white gouache or with opaque titanium white watercolor, then the opposite happens. They dry darker. And that difference drives me crazy. I have no sense of how anything will eventually look while I'm putting it down.

Secondly, I think the appeal of oil and acrylic paintings - at least for me - is seeing all those bits of colors that peek through, particularly with the alla prima painting technique. I could not get any such effect in my experiment because the watercolor paint dries so quickly. So I ended up with masses of sharp-edged and flat shapes that were not very interesting to look at.

An application of colored pencil over the opaque watercolor finished off that piece of paper (the cold press paper is just too rough), so I transferred the drawing to a fresh piece of Arches cold press paper and started again.

The second time I learned from my mistakes.

This image is something of a composite, which is still very hard for me to do. The scene no longer looks like this -- the doors have been removed and replaced with modern, metal-framed glass doors. But I thought it would be more appealing to go back in time and reconstruct the doors as they were when the Wardensville School was still open. I couldn't find any clear images from WHS yearbooks, so I cobbled the doors together in my mind's eye. I hope I got close.

Only seven days and the mini exhibit of my Wardensville paintings will be on display at the WHS alumni dinner. The Wardensville Scholarship Fund Association benefit auction of my donated painting is that evening too!

Value studies

I am working from a really poor photo reference, so I'm essentially making this scene up. So that should make for a good painting...if I had the skill set of Bill Vrscak. But I'm certainly not there yet, so this challenge worries me.

So, I've resorted to doing some little value paintings to try to figure out how I want to develop all the foliage around the structure. Here are two of the options.

I guess it's time to scale things up to full size...

Sunlit

"Sunlit" - 8"x8"

Another completion in the Wardensville series...with many more yet to go.

I'd like to talk a little bit about why I'm working on this series. I first mentioned the idea in a blog post last year (read it here), and to recap, I am focusing on scenes that I think we all overlook.

It's completely understandable that this happens, by the way. It's simply part of living in a space, whether it's as small as your desk at work or as large as your community, and becoming so familiar with the space that you become blind to it.

It's only when there is something out of place, whether it's something that's new, something that is changed, or something that is removed, that you pause and take note.

So the space that I'm focusing on is the community in which I live. So far, the most successful parts of the series, in my estimation, have been "Red Shed" and "Shadow Play" and "Side Alley." I think these scenes are all somewhat surprising, and it may take even longtime residents a few moments of reflection to recognize the locations. And when they do, I hope they enjoy a different perspective of the scene, even if it only lasts for a few moments.

Obviously, not every person seeing these paintings will know where they come from. After all, Wardensville is a very small town. So I still have to entertain those people as well, and for them I must develop compositions that are pleasing and balanced.

I really am enjoying this notion of finding the extraordinary in the everyday. I hope you may also wish to reassess the spaces around you...and find something valuable in the process.

Old Glory

"Old Glory" - 8"x8"

I'm still working on the paintings for the Wardensville series, and trying to get enough of them done that I can do a little display at the Wardensville Alumni Dinner in September, to complement the benefit auction of my "Warriors Win" painting.

I've run into all sorts of problems with the three most recent paintings in the series. Often it seems I spend more time scrubbing pigment off the paper than putting pigment down. I hope it's just a phase and I can snap back into some more efficient painting soon. Right now, I feel really tentative with what I'm doing.

Benefit auction for Wardensville Scholarship Fund Association

The painting I did for the Wardensville Scholarship Fund Association benefit is now on display in the lobby of Capon Valley Bank, along with information about making a bid on the painting, which will be sold at auction on Sept. 14 during the Wardensville High School Alumni Dinner. All proceeds from the auction will go to WSFA.

"Warriors Win" - 12"x12"

As usual, I have stressed mightily over this painting, particularly since it's being used for this public fundraising event. So far reactions have been positive. I hope that trend continues, and I hope the painting auction raises funds for WFSA.

One of the most complicated parts of this painting was the original drawing, particularly of the basketball net. Initially, I tried to draw each strand...and ended up getting really confused. So I started over, and instead concentrated on drawing the spaces between the strands -- essentially breaking it down into a bunch of abstract shapes. That approach worked. I suppose it's the same as when you draw upside down, or in reverse, to trick your brain into focusing on raw shapes, rather than what the brain thinks it is seeing.

The other difficult part was in the development of the painting itself, as I kept battling the balance between the foreground and background elements. I used contrast and edge sharpness/softness as my main design tools in this battle. I'm still not sure how successful I have been, but in time I'll have a better sense of it. It's difficult to assess a painting when it's still under your nails and in your dreams.

Copyright and trademark: A guide for artists

I'm been very conscious of legal issues in relation to art since the beginning. I had a high school teacher who told us that the safest thing we could do regarding reference materials for paintings was to stick to images we photographed, rather than using others' photographs.

I've followed that advice every since.

I once did a painting, also while in high school, that was based on a photograph I had taken of a bunch of vintage items stored in a cousin's barn. Among the items was an old Pepsi sign. I really liked the painting, but I always wondered if I should have included the Pepsi sign.

In recent years, I've read about controversies at large national and regional watercolor shows concerning entries that utilized stock photographs as sources. I've also read about the plagiarism controversy and lawsuit regarding the Associated Press and artist Shepard Fairey, who designed the famous HOPE poster from the 2008 presidential campaign, based on an AP photograph of Barack Obama. You can read about the settlement between Fairey and the AP here and about the related criminal proceeding against Fairey here.

So I took note when I read on artist Carrie Waller's blog that she recently had a painting rejected from a show because the show organizers were concerned that her inclusion of iconic canning jars infringed on the manufacturer's trademark rights. Read about her account of the painting's rejection on her blog: http://carriewaller.blogspot.com/2013/06/blue-skies-show-acceptance-and-there-is.html

"Anticipation" by Carrie Waller
Image used with the artist's permission.
http://carriewallerfineart.com/
http://carriewaller.blogspot.com/

In a follow-up to that post, Carrie made contact with another artist, Kim Minichiello (www.kimminichiello.com  and http://blog.kimminichiello.com), who is familiar with such legal issues because of her experience with art licensing. Kim subsequently wrote two guest blog posts on Carrie's site that explain copyright and trademark issues as they pertain to artists.

I heartily suggest that all artists should educate themselves on these important issues, and the posts on Carrie Waller's blog by Kim Minichiello are a great place to start!

To learn more, click through the links below:

To learn about trademarks.

To read about copyrights.

I also encourage everyone to look at Carrie and Kim's respective websites. They are both fine watercolorists! I also thank Carrie and Kim for allowing me to share their information on my blog.

Wade in the Water(color)!

Class participants Pammy (from left) Rachel, Shirelene,
Suenette and Michelle stand behind their completed iris paintings

Well, I am still recovering from the whirlwind workshop held this weekend as part of the Grant County Summer Arts Program. I taught a beginner watercolor workshop to five energetic and talented ladies (and one very talented 9-year-old boy as well) and we packed a bunch of information and projects into a day and half.

I can't say enough about the willingness of the group to work hard and stick with me because I probably tried to do too much given the limited time period.

A congratulatory group hug with some of the ladies.

When I teach a beginner-level class, I go through the basics of materials, as well as discuss some of the essential "tools" of the trade -- flat washes, graded washes, wet-into-wet, dry brush,  masking, textural effects, etc.

I believe that success in painting is more a result of determination and effort rather than a reward for "talent," and I want students to have some basic skills when they walk out of my class. My hope is that they will be interested enough in the painting experience that they want to work on developing those skills and adding to their repertoire of "tools."

As part of that step-by-step progression, the group worked its way through some introductory exercises to become familiar with the feel of the brushes and the paint.

I had several projects prepared for the class, which allowed them to sample a couple of different watercolor papers (a "student-grade" paper from Canson, as well as 140# cold press Arches).  I predraw the basic outlines of the projects on the papers ahead of time. I do this for two reason: first, as a simple time-saving element, and second, because I am teaching a painting class, not a drawing class.

For nearly every participant, this is the first time they have attempted watercolor (aside from playing with the cheap children's kits), so they have enough to worry about in just getting the pigment off their brushes and onto the paper. I don't want to place undue stress on them by making them draw. Instead, I want them to concentrate on how the paper and pigment react.

Once we had the warm-ups finished, we turned to a rural landscape depicted with a single pigment. It's essentially a value study, and the goal is to apply the warm-up skills to a painting, to see how a graded wash adds realism to a cast shadow, how charging pigment into a wet area can create soft foliage, and how a painting can come to life through patient problem solving.

We followed that painting with a couple of color exercises - one a star-spangled decorative item that illustrated the magic that water and pigment can make when left to their own devices, and the other a simple yet dramatic sunset over a mountain range. And that was only the first day!!!

The second session started in the afternoon, with a small floral as the capstone project for the workshop. I did a small amount of demonstrating with this subject, mostly to give everyone ideas on how to approach the initial washes, and to impress upon the group that soft glazes are often key to building realism -- and confidence. I tend to "sneak up" on most paintings, using multiple washes and glazes. After watching me, the group proceeded to work on their own irises, and I went around to each as they painted.

That final session ran long (we were supposed to conclude at 4 p.m. but it was well after 5 when we did finish), but ultimately everyone came out with a really nice iris painting. And, more importantly, the group all seemed happy with what they had learned, were pleased with at least some, if not all their results, and were amenable to further explorations in the medium. And that's what I truly hope for -- that they might consider picking up a brush again in the future.

I want to thank the organizers for the Summer Arts Program in Grant County for inviting me to participate in their program and I also want to thank the Grant County Press (www.grantcountypress.com) and the Grant County Arts Council for helping to publicize the class.

Bill Vrscak workshop in Morgantown

Photo by D. Byron Witt and used with permission.

Bill Vrscak (left) talks to participants at the
Morgantown Art Association's spring workshop in April 2013.
Photo sourced from Morgantown Art Association's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Morgantown-Art-Association/304517989577522

I'm going to try to encapsulate my experience at the Bill Vrscak workshop in early April, hosted by the Morgantown Art Association (www.morgantownartassociation.com). Bill is a painter and graphic artist from the Pittsburgh area, and I've known about his watercolors for quite some time. (You can see examples at his website http://www.billvrscak.com/) So it was with great excitement that I learned that MAA was organizing a four-day watercolor workshop with him.

Bill demonstrated each morning, and then we turned to our own boards and attempted to nail his ideas and techniques down with brush and paper. At times I would vaguely feel that I was "getting it" and at other times I flat out didn't, but I never felt extremely frustrated. I could see such value in his ideas and suggestions that I wanted to absorb everything to the fullest extent possible.

I would like to share a detailed record of the workshop, but there is so much that I learned over the course of the four days that I don't know if I can really do justice to the full experience. But I will try.

I'll synthesize Vrscak's philosophy, as I understood it, into one short sentence: The best watercolors do more with less.

That one statement applies to nearly every stage of an individual painting's development. I will try to explain that central idea in a step-by-step way.

Here is one of Bill Vrscak's sketches as he begins to develop a painting.

SKETCHING: For Vrscak, the best compositions are developed via sketching and simplification -- to him a painting should not be an exact copy of a scene or subject because that's what photography is for. Instead, painters must remember that what is on the surface of the paper is far more important than what the painter is seeing.

So, Vrscak  pares down the subject matter and looks for what he finds vital. And one area in the composition should be of greatest importance -- this is the point of entry for a viewer  and everything else is secondary. Sketching helps a painter develop that entry point and then simplify the rest of the scene. As you can see in the photograph of one of his sketches (shown above), there's nothing elaborate about the sketch. It's a road map of sorts -- the relative shapes of the masses have been worked out, there's a hierarchy of dark and light values, and the overall composition within the frame has been established.

A painting in progress, reflected in the overhead mirror.
Here you can see Vrscak's limited palette.

THE PALETTE: Next, Vrscak only uses six colors on his palette - a split primary palette composed of a warm and cool version of Yellow, Red and Blue. The colors he used in our workshop, listing the cool version in each pair first followed by the warm version, were Aureolin and Cad Yellow, Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Cad Red, and Winsor Blue (Green Shade), and Ultramarine Blue.

He said he will mix those up from time to time, substituting Cobalt Blue for Ultramarine, for instance, and maybe he will add some specific color to the palette, such as a earth color, for a particular subject. But for the most part, his large, white palette had mostly empty wells. He said he went to this limited palette some time ago because he wanted to simplify his color mixes and concentrate more on values. The limited palette also makes it easier for him to replicate color mixes, and after years of using it, he knows exactly what ratios of which colors will produce what he needs at a given time with minimal fuss.

Photo by D. Byron Witt and used with permission.
Bill Vrscak
Photo sourced from Morgantown Art Association's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Morgantown-Art-Association/304517989577522

THE BRUSHES: Vrscak says he likes flats, and he specifically likes flats with extra long bristles. Often marketed as "one stroke" brushes, I found these brushes to be a revelation. I've always liked the look of paintings that obviously were created using flats -- but when I have tried to use flat wash brushes, they have always felt too stiff and seemed to pull off as much pigment as I was trying to put down. I have a massive collection of flat brushes that I have purchased and then set aside because I did not like how they felt.

However, these "one stroke" versions have a much softer feel, more like a nice pointed round. Vrscak said he likes them because of the amount of pigment they can hold. The fewer times he has to go back into his palette to pick up pigment, the better. They also have nice spring and flexibility and can make great "marks." He uses the edges in smaller areas and tries to use as big a brush as he can for as long as he can. He warns that relying on only small brushes leads to excessive concern for the detailed areas, and a loss of vision of the painting as a whole.

In this demo painting by Bill Vrscak, broad washes went down first, followed by a limited number of detailed marks. An obvious entry point, nice value contrasts, interesting contours, and just the right amount of texture make this a wonderful example of a watercolor painting. I am very proud to say that I am now the owner of this painting!!!

THE PAINTING: As for the painting itself -- Vrscak works to establish the big areas first with broad washes applied with big brushes, and he gets most of the white of the paper covered quickly, because it helps him to make more accurate value judgements He also establishes a dark early in a painting's development for the same reason.

He slants his paper as a way of controlling washes and eliminating back runs, and he aways makes subtle changes in the color mixes of the large washes. A good example of this is in the photo above with the distant mountain to the right. A slighter pinker color grades into a greyish green to the right, with a touch of a greyish purple at the base. It's simple, yet so effective. Many more slight color shifts can be seen in the large foreground area. These touches help keep large washes from becoming boring and flat, yet they are subtle and don't distract from the focal point. The overall effect is a feast for the eyes.

Vrscak's goal with the really large areas is to get something down on the first application, make it look interesting, and not go back into it. And that's the secret of "fresh" watercolors. Don't mess with it!

As the painting moves along, smaller brushes are used to develop the important bits of the painting, but only those most important parts get special treatment and more work. Vrscak reiterates that getting too concerned with all the details all over a painting means that you have lost the focus of the painting.

Here is another demo painting by Bill Vrscak from the Morgantown workshop. This painting still has more development in store, but you can see just how much can be accomplished with the skillful application of large value masses.

FINALLY: More good advice from Vrscak: Make interesting washes, interesting shapes and interesting contours. Accept that a watercolor is a simply a collection of flat shapes and marks and that they must relate to one another for a painting to be successful. So arrange the marks in a pleasing way and keep it simple!

This really was a wonderful workshop for me, and it came at the right time in my development as an artist. I'm beginning to get a sense of what I'm good at doing, and I really enjoy playing with and controlling compositional elements now, so much of what Bill Vrscak offered us in the way of advice and ideas was exceptionally helpful to me. I absolutely would attend another of his workshops and would encourage any watercolorist at any level to take from him as well. He is a great teacher as well as being a great painter, and that is a combination that I really admire.