Using Glazing to Accentuate Distance and Height!

I'm progressing slowly with the background of the long house but I'm learning so much as I paint.

My hypothesis that a glazing technique can be used to help push things into the background or give depth or height to a scene is working well. Basically the further away something is the more glazes you put on after the detail. The closer an object is the more glazes you do before the detail with maybe only a wash or two after.  Glazing over detail helps to soften the edges and blur which helps our minds to read this as further away. Using colour helps too. I have used warm yellows and browns close to us and blues further away. Using these techniques this is how far I have reached as of this evening.

I thought you would like to see how effective this glazing technique is so I took an 'in progress' photo earlier today when I had finished the detailing on the whole of the ceiling section I have been working on but had only painted the 5 or so layers of glazing on half of the section.

Can you see how on the unglazed section the beams appear far further forward than on the glazed section? Also compare the two photos and see how the whole area recedes into the background and develops much more of a feeling of height once the layer of glazing is complete. It also helps to evoke a misty/smoky feel.

I have the really smoky/sunlit section to do next. This is such fun.


Ona

Using Glazing for Effect!

Many people have asked how I paint skin so smooth and silky while using multiple colours to create form, depth, light and shade.

The trick?

 I use multiple wet on damp glazes. As you build up each successive glaze the features underneath, or the underpinning as it is technically called, softens creating the smooth skin. I use the technique too for soft clothing and to soften clothing edges on the darker side. After the skin tone glazes are finished I can then add detail on top in the areas I want the focus to be. 

  In my last painting of Grandpa I wanted to find out if I could use this technique on the front of the engine to help merge it a little into the background. Once I had finished painting it I wet the whole area, engine, background and table and added a glaze of sepia. Once it was dry I repeated with a glaze of perylene green and finally a very light glaze of indigo sepia mix. The resulting effect was just what I had hoped for, the front of the engine seemingly merging into the background. Its features could still be seen but the overall effect was much softer thus drawing our attention back to Grandpa and the area of the engine that he was working on.

 I now want to see how far I can take this technique and what different effects I can create. Can I create a misty, smoky effect? Can I use it to accentuate the feeling of height and distance? Can it really be used as a tool for atmospheric effect whilst helping to draw our attention to our centre of interest? I think it will work and this is why I feel as if I am standing in that doorway to an even more excitingly expressive watercolour world. 

 I spent about 6 hours masking a lot of the detail in the painting before I added about 4 glazes for the background  using Indian Red, Winsor Blue (red shade) and Cerulean Blue to help establish the lights and darks in the painting. Now I’ve just taken all the masking fluid off! This is the painting as it is now with the first few washes laid down and the masking fluid removed.

Now I can begin my exploration of layering washes to create different effects. I’ll explain more about the layering process and my discoveries as I work through the various stages of this painting. 

Ona

Grandpa WIP 4

I tried so hard to get a more accurate colour balance in the photo for you this evening but the camera really doesn't like this painting :(  Does anyone else have this colour balance problem when they take a photo of a painting in which they have used mutliple glazes in watercolour?Try to imagine the background a more dark greeny yellow as in my last photo. I just couldnt get it looking the same as the painting this time without turning Grandpa a very strange colour and I thought it was better to have him looking ok.

Today I painted Grandpa's trousers. It took 10 glazes in all to get the depth of shadow effect that I wanted so that his back leg merged into the background at the bottom. I've also painted in the back half of his oil can. This looks a little dark at the moment. Its hard to get correct values against the bright white of the paper. I might need to lighten it a little but I do want this area to have the highest contrast so that it draws our eye from his face down to his hands and the engine so I will leave it as it is for now and adjust if necessary later.

 Tomorrow I will begin the engine.

Ona