This project marks the beginning of Part 3, Painting Outside. It was late summer when I started and it is almost December when I was finished. It became too cold to paint comfortably outside, so during this project I switched from painting on the spot to using photos as a source, and will most probably do so for the remainder of Part 3.
Exercise: Inside and outside
For this exercise, I chose the view from the living room onto the terrace, with the buildings of the backyard as a background. I used a watercolour block a bit larger than A3 size in 48 x 34 cm and Schmincke Watercolours.
I worked longer on each painting than instructions indicated, but I enjoyed the practice in colour mixing and layering. I stopped each painting when I felt that I became too occupied by details. This time I was comfortable with the approach of beginning with light colours, working over the entire sheet, then proceeding to more intense and darker tones. Maybe I began with details a bit too early.
I made the first painting while sitting in the living room and looking outside. My initial response when I went outside and compared the painting with the entire scene was a sense of liberation from the compositional restriction of the windows framing the view to the outside.
I also made photographs of the view and from the camera’s problems of capturing the scene I realized that the light situation was quite difficult. The camera depicted the inside elements completely dark because of the bright light in the window area. I tried using a flash but this artificial light was not very similar to my own visual perception while painting. Conclusion was that the human eye is much better at adapting to this kind of light situation. For the painting I tried to make the inside space darker but was not courageous enough to make it match how I perceived the scene.
When relocating myself outside, I was initially irritated by the much brighter light. I thought about using sunglasses but this would have compromised my perception of the colours, so I just waited a bit and my eyes accustomed.
The outside painting encouraged a generous approach of distributing light washes over the sheet. It may also have been an effect of the larger than usual paper size. I’m not quite satisfied with some of the details, but stopped painting because I felt it wouldn’t be beneficial if I overworked those areas. I think I would need to do some detail studies of the flower boxes and the fire escape, similarly of the windows in the close and further away buildings.
Guided reflections
What were the main challenges of working inside?
– Positioning myself so that the view to the outside was interesting
– Deciding on the amount of space for the outside area vs the inside area on the sheet
– Getting the difference in brightness between inside and outside correctly. The exercise about dramatic light comes to mind! In my case, the inside was dark, the outside was bright. My hesitation to paint really dark tones for the inside area led to a less dramatic effect than what might have been possible!
What were the main challenges of working outside?
– The permanently changing light conditions while clouds were passing by, which alternatingly blocked the bright sunlight, then released it. As a consequence, one moment there were strongly contrasting shadows and the next moment these were gone
– Organizing my work space with all the utensils on a small stool next to where I was sitting
– Getting the strong effects of angled receding lines in perspective correctly
How did the door or window frame help or hinder your choice of viewpoint?
The window frame had kind of a fishbowl effect in that it restricted what I was able to see from the outside scene. It helped to get size of elements correctly because it provided a reference. Selecting the elements to paint felt easier inside, but I felt less restricted when painting outside.
Which elements of your landscapes did you feel most involved with?
I tended to get very involved with details of light effects, for example on the fire escape or in the windows of the buildings outside, also on the pottery and planters. I enjoyed most painting the larger shapes in perspective.
Which aspects of your studies do you think have succeeded the most?
I think both studies have a successful composition, and I also succeeded in getting broken, but not muddy tones. Some of the tonal shadings are successful and I think I also got the perspective in architectural elements mostly correct.
Which areas do you feel that you would like to improve on?
– Mixing colours in a more controlled fashion
– More control of applying paint in even washes versus textured surfaces
– Creating three-dimensionality of objects through lighter and darker tones
– In light of feedback to the previous assignment: increase colour intensity and contrast
Over all what do you feel you have learned from this initial exercise?
It felt like a step forward in my watercolour practice. I felt that I did things the right way and the bits of instructions from earlier parts of the course seemed to fall into place. I began with light colours and gradually increased intensity and added darker tones. I had found this difficult in earlier exercises but this time it worked. I think I included too much detail, but maybe the problem is not that it’s too much, but that its not done skillfully. For example in the outside painting on the chairs and the windows/balconies of the apartment building, the textures simply don’t work.
Waterfall at 51th street
One day during lunchtime I went to the Synagogue Garden on 51th Street. It is a nice place to sit and people are allowed to have their lunch packets, sitting at little tables under the trees. Then there is an artificial waterfall with large stone blocks, and the water makes enormous noise. I peeked a bit ahead in the course materials and there will be a project on “moving water” later on. I became aware of the many fountains in the city… The one in the Synagogue is the largest I saw until now during my walks at lunchtime. There’s another water play at 1st Avenue and 48th street which is also public, but it’s smaller.
So that day I took a sketchbook with me and decided on a ball pen to make a first sketch at the Synagogue waterfall. Taking pictures is prohibited, but if I find a picture on the web, I’ll include it later on. The waterfall is constructed in several layers and there is much water coming down. The water walks down the steps created through stone cubes of different sizes. There is a top level and three intermediate terraces which break up the water flow. I’m not overly satisfied with my drawing, but it’s a first attempt with a difficult motif. Not sure whether I’ll be able to paint this in watercolour. Maybe I can use a resist technique to capture the reflected lights on the moving water surface.
There is an elemental force to the water. It almost violently crashes down the stone terraces. It is very different from a peaceful little brook through a meadow in the countryside.
Exercise: Sketches from different viewpoints
I had waited until the weekend, with the plan to go to Central Park if the weather was like it, for an extended painting session. I was there and painted three sketches, but then I left the place because it was simply too crowded and I felt very uncomfortable. I was also very dissatisfied with my attempts at sketching a landscape with watercolour and on my way back I felt very miserable in this big city, like an alien from a different world who does not have a place here. Probably I was homesick for Berlin, missing the quiet places I frequented there.
The first painting was started with light colours to sketch the broad areas, then I tried to work out the darker areas of the trees and add some stems. I didn’t find the result recognizable enough and added line with charcoal, but that looked even more awful. I took a paper towel to soften the charcoal. Then stopped painting because I realized I wasn’t going to save the painting by working more on it. Looking and reflecting on the drawing, I became aware that the painting felt “all made”, I hadn’t given room to let the watercolours themselves do some of the work. I took a picture of the view with my digital camera and when seeing the scene at a much smaller scale on the screen, I was better able to identify “broad areas of colour” – looking at the real scene, I was involved with details of leaves, stems, earth, grass, branches etc rather than seeing the colours more generously.
For the next painting, I wanted to do less myself and give more room to the medium. I started with just wetting the paper with a broad brush, then applied broad layers in blue for the sky, yellowish green for the tree shapes to the right and blueish green for those to the left. I tried to work wet-in-wet which in some areas worked ok. The result isn’t beautiful but it maybe somewhat improved over the first.
I had another go with a third sketch, from a slightly changed position. I just moved half a meter to the left, to remain seated in the shade of a tree. I wanted to increase colour intensity and continue to develop the wet-in-wet idea for the painting. I like that flowing together of yellow and green tones, but the painting isn’t very similar to the scene I had in front of me.
Then I went home because I was too frustrated by my unsuccessful attempts, and annoyed by all the crowds around me. I thought I’d rather work on my private terrace or make a trip outside of the city for painting outside.
Second attempt: View from my terrasse
I made a series of four views, with one or more sketches for each view to try out some variations. I kept changing paper size and paper orientation throughout the series.
View 1 (three sketches)
I tend to like larger paper sizes because they permit to work more generously. But at the same time, the ample space is seductive to include much detail. So after having painted the first sketch quite large, I thought it might be goood to try a small sheet, with two aims: Firstly, I hoped that the smaller size would help me to let go of details and just paint the larger areas of colour, as instructions suggested. And secondly, I thought that the quality of my washes might improve when the area to cover was smaller. Second and third try of the first view reflect what I was attempting to do.
I also chose quite naturally the landscape format, because the open view suggested this.
View 2 (one sketch)
Then with the second view, I think the approach of not including detail did not work very well, because the buildings in the background are hardly recognizable. I thought that either more detail or better analysis of visual elements were necessary. I did not particularly like that view and therefore decided to move on to the third view.
View 3 (two sketches)
Now I chose the larger size again and a portrait format, which seemed to work well with the high walls of my study to the right and the tall buildings in the background to the left. I’m not sure about this painting. It may be just a bit too faint in colours, otherwise it works quite well. It was also a step forward in how I analysed the details of the distant apartment buildings. I did a second version of this view in landscape format and a smaller sheet. This format seemed to work nicely. I created a really intense colour for the wall, which isn’t true to reality, but looks nice. The walls are actually in the faint rose tone of the first sketch
View 4 (one sketch)
Then for the fourth view, I switched to portrait format again because this corresponded well to how I looked at the tall building and the high walls of terrace and adjacent building.
Original view again (final sketch)
For the final sketch, repeating the original view, I stayed with the medium paper size (34 x 24 cm) and painted in landscape orientation. Although I think these choices were the right ones, I’m not very satisfied with the painting. It is somewhat dull and lacking interest, and the brush strokes in the sky disturb the visual impression. Positive is the higher colour intensity and slightly more interesting colour mixing in layers. Maybe the painting lacks the inclusion of soft tones, as here everything seems to be in an intense colour. This is less interesting, compared to the second sketch of the third view (my favourite), where very soft and very intense colours are included.
Some thoughts and reflections
Sense of unity between paintings and place: When looking at all my watercolours for this exercise, I do have a sense of unity between them and the place I painted. I’m glad that I changed place and felt much better painting at home and undisturbed. I painted quite a lot of details which make the paintings resemble the actual view, but I think the colours alone might have sufficed to create that link.
Which are the most effective studies and why. It is difficult to say, because all of the sketches have some things that work well and others that are less successful. But looking at them all together, I’d say the second sketch of view III works best. This was the one with the dark red wall colour.
– The details of the apartment buildings at a distance support the perspective of the planes
– There’s some white paper left, which works effectively to represent those walls in full sun
– The charcoal for the fence fits well with the rest
– Colour intensity is not as faint as in most of the other sketches, which I think is a step forward for me, even if it’s not true to reality for that particular wall.
I also like the second sketch of the first view, which has practically no details, because the colours are very evenly applied and the flow of green tones for the tree works well. The third one I like is the fourth view. The colour contrast between the soft rose of the wall on my terrace against the darker red-brown of the adjacent building with the white of the window frame is nice. I also like how I sketched the bricks of the chimney. Also, the choice of a portrait format works well to include the tall apartment building in the background. Sky colour intensity is also good, although the wash should have been more evenly applied.
As for the washes, I seem to have problems with my brushes. I don’t remember to have bought inadequate or cheap brushes, but nevertheless I’m quite dissatisfied with their handling while I paint. I never seem to get the amount of water and pigment right for what I want to do at that moment. In particular, the brushes don’t seem to be able to hold enough water to obtain even washes in intense colours. Maybe I’ll have to review my choices and buy new brushes. Problems with brushes were also pointed out by my tutor in her latest assignment feedback, which made me aware that it may less be a problem of my technique, but maybe one of materials employed.
Guided reflections
What attracted you to the first viewpoint and why?
My first choice of viewpoint was in Central Park. I was attracted by the view into green trees, which is not abundant when living in a city like New York. I chose this particular place because I could sit there on the height of a little hill, looking downwards onto a group of trees which offered some perspective in the scenery. There were some different trees (coniferes) to the left, and there were also some distant skyscrapers. I liked this diversity and also the effect of choosing a setting amidst a park, surrounded by trees, where the busy city was kept at a distance.
Unfortunately this didn’t last for long. More and more people arrived at the location and sat down to chat and laugh, which made me feel uncomfortable. I felt disturbed and frustrated because I found I wasn’t able paint the different trees and green tones. All in all, I am very unsure about these paintings. They seem to be the successor to my earlier unsuccessful drawing attempts of the same place which I made for the other course. I think at that point it was a good decision to leave the place and try something else. But I also think that I should devote some time to the topic of trees. I’d like to find my way how to depict what I think is characteristic of groups of trees.
Answering the question for the second choice, view from my terrace, I chose this view because I liked its openness and the colour variations on the bricks of the buildings. Looking in that direction is not restricted to the left and the right by tall apartment buildings. Instead it opens up and permits to look into a far distant sky.
Which aspects of the landscape did you feel were most important?
Considering the first terrace view, I tried to analyse this right at the start and then paint those elements which I found most important: The blue sky, some clouds behind the tree in the center, the tree itself, the apartment buildings in the middle and further distant to the left and right. I also found the half-height terrace wall quite important because it created the primary distinction between close and distant.
What special qualities does your chosen landscape possess?
What is the difference between a special quality and the most important aspects? I’m not sure what might be the difference between the current and the previous question… Special qualities are of course the open view. But what I also found interesting was the orientation of planes (building surfaces) in space. There was a learning process throughout the series of sketches in which my attention began to focus on that aspect of the buildings.
How effective was your first study compared to the last one of the same view?
I’m not sure. I think they are both not very good. I improved on colour intensity, but I wouldn’t say that the overall impression is necessarily better because of just that. I think they both have the same shortcoming with the details of the apartment building. The orientation of planes in space is not really recognizable.
How did you deal with changing light?
It was less of a problem because I split up the first and second session on two days. So when I came to repaint the first view, it was roughly the same time of day, and fortunately the weather was similar on the second day’s afternoon.
When I noticed changing light while painting, I tried to accommodate it and overpainted earlier tones, but took care not to destroy something. I also tried to decide whether I wanted to paint the view in sunlight or under clouds, and waited a moment before continuing when the sun disappeared behind a cloud.
Describe the problems and any unforeseen advantages in moving on to the viewpoints that you didn’t choose.
I saw a problem in the arbitrariness of the remaining views, but I managed relatively well to adapt and find something interesting in the other viewing positions. I perceived it as an advantage that I could stay in one place which was convenient for me, yet produce entirely different pictures. It was also fun to discover and simply paint what was there, instead of deliberately searching and arranging a view. I did change position a bit to make the view work. For example, the fourth view wouldn’t have worked from the original position because I was too close to the wall on the left side. I moved a bit backwards to make it work.
Was it harder to work on these scenes? If so, say why.
No, I did not find it harder. Maybe this was because there was nothing particularly attractive in the first view anyway. The first one was somehow an arbitrary view as well.
Look at all of your watercolour paintings and assess which have worked best and why.
To summarize my earlier thoughts about this question: I think the second painting of the third view (the dark red studio walls) works best, because the building details support the orientation of planes in space. Its colour intensity is higher than my usual faint tones and I also like how I painted the sky.
What aspects of your work do you need to develop most at this stage?
I’d like to improve on the ability to paint evenly, when I want it – for example for a deep blue sky without clouds. Currently my washes are stripy. It may have to do with the brushes I use. I’ll follow that up.
The sequence of looking – analysing – painting should be executed more consciously. I seem to always be in a hurry, where I look just briefly, skip the analysis and rush to painting something. Then I’m dissatisfied because of the lack of resemblance to the original.
I think this is a very central problem for me at this stage, not only for watercolour practice, but also in drawing. The instruction to make “quick sketches” seems to cause a feeling of stress and hurry which results in me not taking the time to really look and analyse what I see. Maybe this is why I constantly feel overwhelmed by the exercises and wish to study smaller things or sections in isolation. This gives more opportunity to focus on a single problem. Currently I’m having many simultaneous problems: Analysing tonality, analizing colour, perspective orientation, depicting details. I think it would be important for me to make detail study and actually learn representational task. Once learned, I think I will be able to speed up and do quick sketches which actually resemble what I want to depict.
What have you learned about what to include and what to leave out?
I’m not sure whether I have actually learned something about it, but I have definitely become aware of the decisions involved. In the studies, I tried out different degrees of detail, in particular with the buildings. At this stage, it was more of a try-out process of making a decision and then see whether it works. For example, In the final study of the original view, I decided to leave out the wood table and the white folding chairs before the terrace wall. This was because I tend to dislike detail work at the edges of a painting. I think the decision was a good one because it resulted in the opportunity of making a very even wash to depict the terrace wall. On the other hand, the foreground of the painting lacked a bit of interest. So I’d say I’m rightly amidst the process of learning what works and what doesn’t.
How could this exercise help you to locate a place to paint in future?
Next to the motif, the most important criterium for me seems to be whether I feel comfortable at a place… while I like the Central Park, I didn’t feel at ease when there were so many people around me. I did not feel observed or self-conscious, but disturbed by the giggling, talking and constant movement of people around me. So in the future, I may try a different park close by. I know one at roughly the same distance as the central park. Haven’t been there yet but might be worth a try. The other idea is to do some research for nice places outside of New York City. I hope I’ll find the time for this, as currently it’s difficult because my work load is high and I have not much leisure time.
Image list
– Central park, only the first view in three attempts. Size 40×30. First with charcoal
– My terrace, complete series
- View I
- 40×30 cm
- 24 x 17 cm
- 24x 17 cm
- View II: 24 x 17 cm
- View III:
- 30 x 40 portrait
- 34 x 24 landscape
- View IV: 24 x 34 cm
- Original view again: 34 x 24 cm landscape
Exercise: Subject choices
Some preliminary thoughts
I’m taking up work for the project again and realize that 6 weeks have passed! This was an unintended break owed to other commitments. I meant to continue with watercolours much earlier, but I wasn’t able to. Full time work hours and an exhausting shift schedule take their toll. I’ll just try to keep up working for both courses, sometimes in parallel, sometimes alternating. So a pause with watercolours doesn’t mean I was off artwork, instead I was working intensely on my drawing skills. I hope this will be mutually beneficial for both courses. Following course regulations, I will not include work for the other course here, but I’ll give a brief mention if I can spot any particular influence spilling over from the other course
Then there’s winter approaching… not the preferred time for part 3, Painting Outside. Autumn in New York has been rather mild until about end of October. Going outside for a walk and taking pictures is fine, but it’s too cold for painting outdoors. I don’t have a car and I know of no inside place where I could paint the outside view. The situation may change when I get to know the city better, but currently I think the best I can do for now is make excursions, take pictures, and later work from these at home. Another idea was to connect the laptop to the TV screen, to permit using the photographs as sources at a much larger scale than on the laptop.
The task
I’m on vacation until end of November and finally can go outside during daytime. So I took a walk this afternoon, because it was sunny and a relatively mild day, heading towards the Carl-Schurtz-Park which is close to the East River around 86th Avenue. It’s a nice park where people walk their dogs, there’s a playground and many old trees. The atmosphere was special, so friendly and relatively calm (for New York), and I enjoyed taking my time looking at all the plants and trees, and walking with a view over the East River.
I was very attracted by the autumn appearance of plants and took many pictures, including some birds in a tree full of berries, and some huge trees. On my way back, just at one of the exits of the park, I walked straight towards an old brickstone building. In front of it was a mid-height tree in yellow autumn leaves glowing in sunlight, and a school bus in a similar yellow tone. The colours were extremely nice and the entire view full of contrast. I took two pictures and hope I can use them well for the first painting of this exercise.
The second painting will probably depict the huge old tree in the center of the park, and for a third I might take one of the bird snapshots or one of the interesting autumn plant photographs. I’ll start with the yellow tree and school bus.
Finding a title
What immediately attracted me was the glowing yellow of the tree and the school bus matching the exact colour.
– Glowing yellow siblings: to emphasize the dominance of the yellow and the double occurrence
– Autumn in New York: A more overarching theme which refers to the reason for the yellow tree leaves, and directs attention to the New York setting with the school bus and the red brick building in the background. The traffic light, the street sign and the turned down traffic cone. The setting may be very familiar to New Yorkers, but it’s somewhat exotic for a European viewer.
My image idea centers around the two yellow elements, and I realize how the two titles result in different attentional focusing.
First painting: Yellow tree and school bus
Initially I was very undecided between my two picture sources. The first one showed the broader scene, putting the yellow tree and the school bus in the New York Context through the street sign and the traffic cone. The second focused on what had primarily attracted me: the yellow couple.
After some testing with enlarging the photos and trying out which section to use for my watercolour, I finally chose the second, more focused photo. I wanted to concentrate on the yellow and orange tones in front of the purplish colour of the brick stone building. I began with a loose outline sketch and with yellow for the tree wet-in-wet, then wet-on-dry for the bus. The yellow began bleeding and I realized that combining those two techniques into a single watercolour was difficult. I tried to follow the rule of working from light to dark colours, but constantly felt that I needed more definition in the painting through darker elements and details. Then I got carried away… I painted around 10 hours on this painting in two sessions. I experimented with different brush techniques to achieve texture for the tree and the brick building.
I managed to paint a real intense blueish red for the bricks, but then found the colour too intense and “wrong” in the sense that it did not convey the colour contrast between yellow and purple the way I wanted it, because the bricks were too red. I made a pause and started the second session by dissolving this false colour with brush and water and taking it off with a paper cloth. I reworked the area with an intense, but darker reddish violet. I think this was a good decision. It was a risk to overwork the painting, but I find the final colour of the brick much better and it works nicely as a background for the yellow tones of the tree.
Originally I had not intended to work as long as that on a single watercolour and thought that I’d make a second one in a more loose style afterwards. But after having worked for such a long time on the same motif, I decided that I’d rather continue with a different one.
I had in fact used the TV monitor to enlarge the picture, which made working easier than from the small laptop screen.
Second watercolour: Selecting the theme
I went again through my photos from the walk to Carl Schurtz park. I thought some autumn plants would be nice for a change and permit to focus on form and colour, helping me to get away from too much detail. But then, I found the photo of a woman walking with her dog on one of the stairways in the park. I liked the picture for the lovely autumn atmosphere and for the combination of linear elements of the stairs and irregular, organic shapes of trees and bushes.
Since English is not my first language and I wasn’t sure about the correct term, I did a Google image search for garden stairs/stairways to test which word better captured the idea of a generous outside sequence of steps. I realized that stairs are a nice motif that seem to have inspired painters. There’s something romantic to it… and probably this was why I chose this photo for my second themed watercolour.
Thinking about a title, several came to mind:
– The stairs: This seems to emphasise the idea of getting somewhere, maybe suggesting a focus on architectural details of the stair, the stones and their surface qualities, the effects of weather on the stone. Maybe also suggesting to be more pronounced about the apartment building that can be seen in the background, behind the lantern
– Walking the dog: This title would put a focus on the woman and her dog. She’s in dark clothes and the dog can only be seen half, and she’s only small in the composition of the photo. So this title would suggest to use only a section of the entire building to make her appear larger, with only a section of the stairs rather than their entire layout.
– New York autumn: This is a very broad title which seems like an overarching theme for the entire series of photos. It suggests a focus on the autumn colours, maybe emphasizing the colourful combination of light and darker greens, brown, and red tones contrasted by the variety of greys in the stairs and earth tones. The figure is less important, but might also be a prop to something very New Yorkish, because you see people walking their dog everywhere.
– Autumn colours: This title might lead towards a more abstract interpretation of the photo – an emphasis on colour contrasts, but leaving out the defining details of individual steps in the stairway, stems and branches, or the bushwork. It might be a an interesting approach, because this title might help me to let go of details
– Autumn in Carl Schurtz Park: This title seems to emphasize the particular location as well as the season, but I think this view is not capable to distinguish this park from any other. I remember other views in the park that might be better suited for this title. I might visit the park again to take pictures for this title!
– Autumn afternoon: This title places an emphasis on the time of day, but actually there is not much in the photograph to correspond to that title. It could as well be a morning scene or a noon scene. So I think this title isn’t very much suited. A more suitable view might include some golden light strains. There is a particular light to late summer afternoons. Would be another interesting motif. Luckily the park isn’t far away from my home so I might go there regularly. Leading to the idea of “Carl Schurtz Park in Winter”, once the snow and really icy temperatures are here!
Now these reflections leave me somewhat confused as to which title will be appropriate. I know that I want to emphasize the stairs with their architectural detail and the play of light and shade, and I also want to work out the shapes of bushes, trees and foliage. Then I’d like to bring out the colour contrasts between the vivid colours of autumn greenery from green to orange and dark red. I only want to suggest the apartment building and the figure with the dog. This would actually fit with my reflections on the title “New York Autumn”.
It’s true that this photo could have been taken anywhere, it’s only slightly New York bound. And I’d prefer to have the word stairs in the title because I want to emphasize this element. Autumn is another central aspect reflected in the colour choice. But it begins to feel like reflection overkill, the title developing into something like “A sunny autumn day in Carl Schurtz Park at an arbitrary stairway” which sounds ridiculous as a title.
Something simpler like “Autumn stairs in Carl Schurtz Park” might work better, even if I could imagine views that would be more typical for this title.
The stairs in Carl Schurtz Park
I started with the intention of trying a lighter style than with the previous watercolour, but it developed again into a rather detailed and worked out painting. Again I painted around 10 hours in two sessions, and found this quite exhausting. On the other hand, I found the experience worthwhile because I was experimenting with colour mixing, different types of marks, and beginnings of painting wet in wet rather than pre-mixing all tones.
I think the painting is overworked and it lacks transparency and freshness, also spontaneity. But what works well is how the light falls on the stairs, and the colour intensity. There are very lively colour contrasts between red and green tones, and between the yellow and almost purple earth tones. I also like how I painted the lantern.
I made a second version of the motif because I wanted to try to work faster and less detailed, and retain some watercolour style transparency in the layers. But I got again caught by details and painted much too long, for around 5 hours or so. I think the light is less well depicted on the stairs, but the colours have retained a bit more transparency and colour intensity, and contrast still work nicely. The second painting was again important as an exercise in colour mixing and mark making, and I experimented quite a bit.
What I would like to develop further is how to use tone and colour intensity to create three-dimensional bushes and trees. I tried hard, but the result is not really what I wanted. This would be a topic for close-up study and much more practice, then maybe one day it will become easier to maintain light and transparency with watercolours.
The pattern of light and shade on the stairs was quite complicated. In the first watercolour, I used a rough pencil outline and tried to work out their shapes correctly in perspective using colours. I made lots of errors and corrections. For the second watercolour I attempted a technical outline at the beginning to have the shapes clearly defined because I thought this would make painting easier, but the pencil lines got so dense and confusing that I erased them completely and just outlined the broad contours. Then I lacked orientation how to connect the lighter and darker shapes when working with the colours.
I think the perspective used with the stairs is more impressive in the first painting because of the larger angles used. This is evident in the angle of the lowest step against the lower horizontal border of the paper, which is around 30° in the first but only 20° in the second painting. The second perspective is more like a zoom, compared to a wide-angle of the first. The photo source is close to the 30° angle, but thinking again, I’m not able to say one or the other is better.
Thinking again about the title, I’d like to simplify: Autumn walk. But my perception of the painting is different from the cosy and relaxed feeling I’d normally associate with this title. Somehow the trees and bushes look much wilder and expressive in the painting than on the photo. With its intense colours, the park looks more like a tropical jungle and I had the association of “A solitary walk through the New York urban jungle”.
All in all, I found this exercise very valuable. Firstly, I wouldn’t have imagined such a complex relationship between a painting’s title and the painting itself. Secondly, although I’m not satisfied with my handling of watercolours so far, it was a step forward in colour mixing and experimenting with mark making. I need to overcome a tendency of overworking and my tutor suggested some exercises that should help me to become more generous with colour and shape.
Guided reflections
I think I covered most of the questions in my reflections, so I’ll keep it brief here.
What titles did you choose to work on and why?
For the first painting, I stayed with “Yellow tree and school bus”, because it makes the painting distinctive to me. It belongs to the overarching theme of “Autumn in New York” which I found too broad for a title, although this would be closer to the Idea I wanted to convey.
For the second painting, I’d like to stay with “Autumn walk”, because it’s so simple and there’s an intriguing contrast between the simplistic theme and the jungleness of the park scene, which I feel is my personal note to the motif.
Which of your titled paintings worked out most successfully and why?
I think both paintings work equally well with respect to colour intensity and experimentation with mark making. The problem with both was that I wasn’t able to take a bold and fast approach, instead made a detailed study. I like the paintings for what they are but I think they don’t make use of the special properties of watercolour as a painting media. They are more like gouache paintings – basically non-transparent.
Which titles gave you the most difficulty and why?
It wasn’t any particular title I found difficult, rather the feeling of confusion arising from many different ideas for a title and the implications this would have for the painting. Maybe it’s because English is not my first language. I felt sure what I wanted to emphasize, but not so sure about the title that would convey exactly this.
How did the titles help you to focus?
Honestly, the title did not help me to focus, rather the opposite because the many choices confused me. But It made me aware of the options I had for the focus of the painting and maybe this was what made me actually concentrate on what I found essential, even if I wasn’t able to determine the title in advance.
Comment on the value or otherwise of the experience.
Highly valuable for me personally as a learning experience, both conceptionally and technically. Conceptionally because I became aware of the relationship between the title and interpretation of a motif, and technically because I started real experimentation with colour mixing and mark making. This is a step forward compared to my earlier watercolours where I tended to apply colours in low intensity and uniformly. There’s still some progress to make to do it the watercolour way, rather than the opaque way.