Welcome to The Helpful Art Teacher, an interdisciplinary website linking visual arts to math, social studies, science and language arts.

Learning how to draw means learning to see. A good art lesson teaches us not only to create but to look at, think about and understand our world through art.

Please click on my page to see my personal artwork and artist statement: http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.com/p/the-art-of-rachel-wintembe.html

Please contact me at thehelpfulartteacher@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Watercolors part 2 Adding color to the foreground




This is part 2 of a lesson on watercolor painting.
 For the first part of this lesson click here



WHY WATERCOLORS?

From left to right: Mop brush, detail brush, large square shader, toothbrush, small square shader,
small angled shader and fan brush.

Watercolor paint is naturally transparent. That means you can see the white color of the paper through the paint.  There is no white in a watercolor set because the artist is expected to skillfully use the white of the paper.


Here is my landscape painting so far:



I have started to add color to the foreground. The only colors I have used so far are green, blue and yellow.



Since I teach middle school art, I deliberately used a set of student grade, non-toxic watercolors, which I borrowed from my classroom.

 I used cold press watercolor paper. I suggest you get an inexpensive pad of watercolor paper since ordinary drawing paper tends to pill and fall apart when it gets wet.

I mixed the watercolors with water in a mixing tray to create transparent glazes of color:


I used a range of analogous colors from blue to yellow-green. Please see my post Color theory 101 if you don't know what analogous colors are.


Here is a step by step presentation of the development of my painting so far:

You will need to click on the double arrows to advance the frames and watch the development of the painting.

I used yellow-green on the right side of the ferns and blue green on the shadow side.

 I blended the colors by painting water between them.

 I painted my colors right over the under-painting.

 Because I used transparent glazes, the shadows that I created, in the previous lesson (Watercolors:painting a landscape 101 ) are visible through the paint.


Click your mouse on the double arrows to advance the slide show and follow the development of this painting so far.


When creating a landscape, put brighter colors in the foreground and more muted, faded colors in the background, 

Use the printout below as a general guide.


When using transparent watercolors, use water to lighten your paint.


 A small amount of black mixed with water will dull your colors and make them appear to fade. Use lighter and more muted colors the farther into the background you go, by adding enough water to make the paint transparent along with small amounts of blue and small amounts of black or brown. Look below at the painting in progress, as color is added. 











The completed watercolor 
Subtle dry brushing, added to give texture to the ferns in the extreme foreground 

Here is the process from beginnig to end, step by step
Aliciasmom's watercolor landscape chiaroscuro album on Photobucket
The slide show above chronicles the entire  process I used to create this painting. It uses a flash player. If you have a mobile device  that does not have flash, please click on  this link:

Please watch the time lapse video below to see how I completed a similar picture. This time the light is coming from the upper left hand corner. The sunlight is coming from off of the edge of the page, to create chiaroscuro. 




Step 1) Gather reference photographs





The best reference pictures are those you have taken yourself. I took the photos above in 2012 at Olympic National Park in Washington. 

I took this picture walking around my neighborhood. 


Step 2) Observe the photographs, synthesize your ideas (most artists call this doodling or sketching) and create (draw) your original landscape. Include an extreme foreground, foreground, middle ground and background. Consider showing bits of sky, visible through the trees. You do not have to draw an actual horizon line but you should be aware of where the earth meets the sky, even if the line is hidden by the foliage. 

Step 3)Select a light source that is off of the paper and block in shadows (no corner suns or visible light source for this assignment. The sun must be off of the edge of the paper).


Step 4) Add brighter colors to the extreme foreground and foreground




Step 5) Add more muted, watered down colors to the background. Leave the white of the paper showing for highlights.



Save final touch ups and detail work for the next day when your picture is dry and you can look at it with fresh eyes. 

Select subject matter that fascinates you and take photographs often. Try photographing landscapes up close to capture details. Try photographing from unusual angles. Play around with the exposure, saturation and contrast on your photographs. Take pictures at various times of day and in different types of light. Do not worry if many of your paintings or photographs are similar. All great painters developed their ideas by working on a series of very similar pictures.Here is another 'work in progress' watercolor painting of mine.I am using the same collection of photographs for inspiration as I continue to develop my ideas.

Aliciasmom's watercolor process emerging from the woods album on Photobucket

Friday, November 26, 2010

Watercolors: painting a landscape 101: shadows



BLOCKING IN SHADOWS

chiaroscuro is an Italian word, literally meaning "light dark". It is used to describe the skillful balance of light and dark in a painting, with strong contrasts to create dramatic effect.

Mid-afternoon lighting, high up on the Beartooth Plateau in Montana: Light source is off the right hand edge of the paper, parallel to the trees,
creating dramatic shadows. 

Early morning light: Light source is below these trees and to the left. Note that the sun is somewhere off the edge of the paper, not included in the picture.






Step 1) Gather your source materials. You  can use your own photographs or images gathered from the Internet. Here is my photo album of Mysterious Tree Images. You may print out photos from this collection to inspire your paintings.
Aliciasmom's Mysterious tree images by Rachel Wintemberg album on Photobucket


If you don't have photographs of your own that you would like to paint, try using Google advanced image search  and  typing key words like 'landscape', 'trees' or 'mountains'.

Here are the two vacation photos that I used for this exercise:



2) Now it is time to draw your landscape. Remember to work in layers and to include an extreme foreground, foreground, middle ground and background.

Since I am creating a watercolor painting, I drew my picture on cold press watercolor paper. You do not need expensive watercolor paper for this lesson.

Here is my drawing:



3) Next, choose a light source that is off the edge of the paper coming from above and to the right. It will make it easier for you to follow the lesson if our light sources are the same.

Please do not draw the sun in your picture. If you have already drawn the sun, erase it or get a new piece of paper and start over. This is very important

Why is it so important?

A landscape where the sun is visible has a  'backlight'. Therefore everything in the picture will be a silhouette. Take a look at this picture and you will see what I mean:


Even though it is a very pretty picture it is a BAD picture for this project because the light source is visible in the picture and the objects are in silhouette.
If you want to paint a picture like this, please save it for another project.







Now it's time to block in your shadows. Beginners usually find it easier to start with a pencil. Simply outline the left hand side and the bottom of each object in the picture with a 6B pencil.

 If you accidentally trace the right side of any object you will need to erase it, so be careful.


4) Now it is time to paint your shadows.

Here are the names of some brushes that I regularly use when painting with watercolors:
From left to right: Mop brush, detail brush, Large square shader, tooth brush, small square shader, angled shader and fan brush.


To block in shadows, I used the detail brush and the shader brushes. I mixed some instant coffee with water to create a sepia tone wash and began to paint, starting at the shadow side of the picture. I painted thin lines of coffee with the detail brush and then painted water next to the lines with the shader brush to soften the edge of the shadow.




I photographed the painting every few minutes to document the process step by step:


The artist Caravaggio was famous for his use of dramatic lighting, or Chiaroscuro.

Here are some oil paintings by Caravaggio
Lute Player
Metropolitan Museum of Art

John the Baptist
Cathedral Museum Toledo Spain

Calling of St. Matthew
Contarelli Chapel

PRINTABLE ART HISTORY WORKSHEETS FROM THE HELPFUL ART TEACHER
 photo photo-86.jpg
Medusa



 photo photo-87.jpg
Saint Jerome in Meditation

IMPORTANT LESSONS ON DRAMATIC LIGHTING (CHIAROSCURO) FROM CARAVAGGIO

1)Caravaggio used a single light source in each picture.

2)The light in each of these pictures is coming from off the edge of the picture frame.

3)Caravaggio never includes the sun in these pictures.

4)The light is always coming from the side and slightly above the subjects. Caravaggio did this on purpose. Why?

Lighting a subject from the side and slightly above maximizes the drama of the picture and emphasizes three dimensional form.


Your under painting is now finished. In the next lesson we will be adding color, using transparent glazes of watercolor. We will be using some Renaissance techniques to make the colors of our landscapes look more realistic.

Please set this painting aside until you have time to do the next lesson. If your painting is dry and you are ready for the next lesson click here.
SNEAK PEEK: 
Here is the almost finished painting:

The shadows I created with coffee are clearly visible through the watercolors because I diluted the paint with water to create transparent clear glazes.

The completed watercolor 
Subtle dry brushing is added to give texture to the ferns in the extreme foreground 


Below is a slide show chronicling the entire process:
Aliciasmom's watercolor landscape chiaroscuro album on Photobucket

The slide show uses a flash player. 
If you have a mobile device  that does not have flash, please click on  this link: 
To learn the exact process I used to finish this painting, step by step, click here.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Face shading the 3/4 turned head step by step

Draw and shade a face: highlights, mid-tones and shadows from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.




My students found it much easier to draw and shade a  partially turned head when this slide show was playing on a loop in the classroom.




Notice how I corrected my mistakes during the drawing process.

 I stepped back, made corrections, stepped back again, looked at it and made more corrections.

 Like a piece of writing, a drawing may go through numerous revisions and edits before it is 'finished'.


3/4 turned head printable handout



For more information about drawing faces please refer to my posts:

More on drawing faces

and

LEARNING HOW TO SHADE A FACE










FOR ANOTHER ARTIST'S USEFUL FACE DRAWING AND SHADING TUTORIAL, CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW: