Dear Blog Readers

The posts that follow are notes intended for the students taking Ron Pratt's Watercolor painting class given at Rossmoor's Art Studios on Tuesday's from 9-12. It's meant as a recap of what we did step by step in each phase of painting. I hope you enjoy these posts and find them useful as you review what we did in a certain class. If I missed something, please let me know and I'll update the post.

If you're not a student of Ron's today, these step-by-step notes are offered with Ron's generous permission.  This is just a small sampling of the many projects I've worked on with Ron Pratt over some 3 years of study.  He is, in my opinion, the best watercolor teacher you could ask for - he's both a skilled painter and a skilled teacher.  These written notes do not, however, take the place of hands on teaching. If you are an aspiring painter, I strongly advise that you see for yourself and try one of Ron's classes!

Watch the Rossmoor News for dates of Ron's upcoming classes here. Also, if you are feeling adventurous and wish to venture out of Walnut Creek, Ron teaches 3 additional classes each week in Castro Valley. These are offered through the Hayward Area Park and Recreation Art Department. The Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning sessions there are focused on mastery of technique (similar to the class offered at Rossmoor). The  Wednesday afternoon class is geared toward advanced painters and the work focuses primarily on composition. If you are interested in these other options, follow this link to the Hayward Area Park and Recreation web site at: http://www.haywardrec.org/

Ron also offers private instruction. Contact Ron Pratt directly at (510) 366-7740.

Lake Tahoe with Ron Pratt May 2012

"Painting Lake Tahoe" as taught by Ron Pratt in his watercolor class at Rossmoor May 22 and 29, 2012.

Access Ron's website  www.ronaldpratt.com


Start with a good pencil sketch
First, sketch out your scene with pencil. Remember, don't be a slave to the photograph. Add, move, change as your artist's eye sees fit. When you've got the scene drawn in to your satisfaction, mask out the areas of rocks in the foreground and any prominent tree trunks you want to save to paint for later.

Prepare your color palette. 
We'll start with the sky so mix up some Thalo blue, Cerulean blue, and a nice mix of magenta and Ultramarine (or other colors you wish to paint your sky - these are just suggestions for a Tahoe blue summer day) on your palette.


Paint the cloudy summer sky
Wet the area of the sky with clear water. It's okay to get some blue onto your mountains but not too much or too dark and don't get into the Lake Tahoe water area yet. Drop in 2 strokes of your darkest blue at the top of the paper, and follow up with a stroke or two of the light blue beneath that. (Remember, skies are darkest on the top and get lighter toward the horizon.)

Quickly, while the paint is still wet, begin to blot out cloud patterns with Kleenex. As you blot, keep twisting the Kleenex to a new spot. If you blot with Kleenex that has paint on it, you'll stamp blue patterns into your clouds and that's not what you want. Work fast, use a lot of Kleenex. The cloud shapes will blot less cleanly as the pigment dries. Once you have a good selection of cloud shapes, STOP.


Dry the paper. Then come in with a very weak solution of magenta/ultramarine and lightly paint some shadow areas on the bottoms of your clouds.  Try not to have hard edges on these shadows but if you do get some, you can follow up with a damp Q-tip to blot out those hard edges when the paint is dry.



Block in the mountains and snow
Our objective is to create a mountain backdrop with a little snow remaining on top. To do that, we're not going to rely on masking, we'll just leave some white holes randomly shaped and randomly placed on the mountainside. The brush to use here would be a 1/2" flat and we'll use the same the blueish purple and blue colors we used for the sky but watered down and with less intensity than the Thalo blue in the darkest part of the sky.

We will use a technique called "chasing a wet edge." If you're right-handed, it's best to start in the far left of the mountain and work toward the right so you don't have to drag your hand across wet paint. Create variety in the colors and the shapes as you go. Don't worry at all about copying the photograph, just try to keep the snow patches up toward the top.

"Prioritize your paintings. How important is each major element? In the case of our painting here, we have the sky, the mountain, the water, and the foreground rocks and trees. I would say that the mountain and the sky are low priority. If it's low priority, don't fuss over it. Just paint it and leave it."

Paint in the water
Get your color palette ready for the water. Use some of the same colors we used in the sky, but you may want to add some of the turquoise hues that Lake Tahoe is famous for. Like the sky, wet the entire area of the water first. Stay off the edge of the mountain shore a little bit to keep the planes separated.

"When you paint water, or any level plane that recedes into the distance for that matter, you must vary the value from light to dark. It doesn't matter if the dark is in front or back, just that there is a shift. This is what makes a plane appear to flatten out and recede. The biggest mistake I've seen in reviewing 1000s of paintings is that the painter fails to do this and the water ends up looking like it is standing straight up."

Similar to the way we painted the sky, drop a couple of brush strokes of your lightest OR darkest value color into the back of the water. As you come forward, change the colors in order of value. In my case, I have a Thalo/Ultramarine mix in the back, moving to Turquoise blue, then to Cerulean. In the lower left, I dropped a medium dark value into the corner to add variety but it's not as dark as the water in the far distance. When you have the water colors painted in, take a thirsty brush and pull out a few strokes of paint to streak it and add variety and lift a bit of color. In addition, mix a little of the darkest value and some magenta and put a few shadows underneath your foreground rocks and also suggest a few submerged rocks in the foreground water itself. (If you get fuzzies on these shadows, simply take a thirsty brush and clean them up until they no longer bleed.)

Rocks and Foliage
Wet each rock shape individually with clean water first. Then, drop in color. Use a small round brush. Don't wet to the very edge - leave a small dry strip so that your colours don't bleed into the next rock. Vary the color with a light tone at the top and let it bleed into a darker tone on the bottom. Not too garish though!


As you go, move around to different rocks so that your wet rock shapes are dry before you work next to them again. Sprinkle a little salt on some rocks to get an interesting pattern, if you wish.

Work intermittently on the ground foliage as well. To create foliage, use the chasing a wet edge technique. Simply place the lightest green at the top, then move to a mid-tone green in the middle, and paint in the darkest green at the base of the greenery. The most important things here are the top edge of the greenery - make it interesting! - and the bottom edge. What's in between can just be a random pattern of interesting coloured shapes that mix and blend.

"Remember, more detail doesn't make a better painting!"

Continue in this way until your rocks and ground foliage are completed.


Trees and shadows
Start with your tree trunks. A flat brush may give you more control on creating straight lines but a round will work too. Paint in your dark side, then paint in your light side of the trunk in a greenish brown and let the color bleed together in the middle. Skip a little bit here and there - you don't want a solid tree trunk from base to tip because it won't look natural. In the empty spaces you'll put in greenery and branches that represent the part of the tree that's thickly green and obscuring the view of the solid trunk.

Trunks

Keep Going

Start Foliage

Next add foliage to the trees. Use a varied palette to achieve shape: lt. green, mid-tone green, dark green, and brown. Create interesting shapes with your greens and browns. Don't worry about making it exactly like the photo.

Finish the trees

"The minute you stop copying you become an artist!"

You can even place your greenery strategically to hide things you're not happy with in the painting behind the tree - such as a funny cloud shape or crooked horizon line. Finally, add in a few dead branches to give your tree more personality.

Finally, paint in some darker shadows on the rocks. You can use Payne's Gray, Burnt Sienna, and Ultramarine blue - the main idea is to use dark values. Use the shadows to create more shape in the rock and to bring the eye down to the brighter focal point of your painting.


Then, you're complete!

Ron's Finished Painting. Beautiful!

Dear Ron Pratt

I am sitting here with my morning coffee reflecting on teachers and the qualities that set some teachers apart from others.

Ron and his talented student, Bob Viator

The best, in my experience, are fun. They inspire. They engage their students. They are curious.  They are themselves students with incredible skills. They understand how to succinctly make a point and connect with the learner. They are undeterred by the frustration of a struggling student; rather, they rise to the challenge and tease out every drop of ability. Moreover, a great teacher is unthreatened by the gifts and talents of his students. The truly great teachers rejoice in them.

And on top of all of this, great teachers are generous. They share their knowledge, time, and talent without reservation.

I've had a lot of teachers in my day, Ron. Some awful, some good, some so-so, and I've been lucky to have had a few of the great ones too.

You, Ron Pratt, embody everything spoken of here.  You're truly one of the best ones.

So, on behalf of every striving, struggling, hopeful, discouraged, talented or frustrated watercolor painter in your classes, may I say a huge THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

Tulips with Ron Pratt May 8 and May 15 2012

"How to Paint a Floral with Masking" as taught by Ron Pratt in his watercolor class at Rossmoor. 

Access Ron's website  www.ronaldpratt.com


Start with a good pencil sketch
First, create a very loose sketch on scratch paper to work out your composition. Once you have that determined, lightly but clearly sketch in your main flower shapes. If drawing is not your forte', it's okay to create some poor-man's transfer paper (by putting a heavy layer of graphite on the back of a printed out flower you like) and tracing it on. Like Ron says, "Hey, we are in painting class, not drawing class. Let's get to painting!


Apply Masking (also called Frisket)

Apply masking around the outside edges of your flower shape with an OLD brush and put a little bit of dish soap on first. (Remember, never use a good brush for this, the masking never completely washes out.)  Once all the flower shape edges are complete, pull the mask down the stems. After that, fill in the center of your flower shapes with a generous amount of mask. At this stage, you can revert to using a Q-tip so you can apply more masking to a larger area and get the job done more quickly. When finished, tip your page into the light and check for areas you may have missed with the masking. Fill in those holes. 

Thoughts on masking... Whenever we use masking, we create a tighter style in our painting. There are many ways to paint; think about the style you want before you start painting. Tip 1: Be careful how you hold your brush when masking. If you want straight, solid and clean lines, hold your brush perpendicular to the paper. If you want a jagged edge, hold the brush on its side. Tip 2: When masking very large areas with generous amounts of masking fluid, it's best to let it dry overnight but you can speed up the process with a hairdryer if you are in a hurry. Tip 3: Blot your wet paint off the dried mask to avoid streaking your painting when you remove mask.

Color Mixing Time
Establish your color palette for the painting. Ron uses a variety of greens, blues, yellows and a red for his (see exact hues in session notes at the bottom of the page.)

Mix up generous, thicker puddles of color to be used for the background and also for the flowers. Liquidize your paint with just enough water to thin it out. Squeeze excess paint from the brush when you are done to save pigment.

Colorful Background Wash
Wet the entire paper. Check for uniform coverage and that there are no water puddles before you lay down paint.

Drop in your background paints. Work from light to dark, starting with yellow. Add in some various tones of green. Create variations and contrast - light to dark, hue to hue - to develop interest. Drop in a few blues and some very dark greens as well. When all the paint is dropped in, tilt your paper to get a nicely blended effect for the background. Tilting the board creates a nice airbrushed effect for the background; like a soft focused photographic background.

Don't overwork your background! 99.9% of the time the fix is worse than the original. Leave it until you are done and if in the end you still want to make changes, you can.



Then!...stroke in a few impressionistic green leaves around the flower stems. Use different hues of green and varying values as before.

Then!...take a thirsty brush and PULL paint in leaf shapes as well. You are trying to create visual interest and variation does that.

Then!...sprinkle a little salt in the background to create more interesting effects. Use it quite sparingly. And remember, it only works if the paint is still just slightly wet.

Removing the Mask

Remove your masking with the remover tool. Remember to wipe any dry excess paint from the masking before you pull it off or you may drag and smear paint into your clean flower shapes.

Painting in the Flower Shapes

Next we paint in the flower petals one at a time with a wet-in-wet method. Wet a petal shape with clean water NEAR the edge but not completely up to it. By leaving the edge dry, you wil be able to bring pigment up to the edge of the background without reactivating the colors in the background and dragging them into the flower shape.

My most important tool is my towel! When putting in those red highlights, use a slightly drier brush.

Pick up a very light yellow and paint the top of the petal shape. Next, pick up a darker shade of yellow and drop it under the light yellow. Once you've got the yellows in, pick up the red. If your brush is too wet, the red will spread too far. Put in those red highlights. When finished, move on to another petal (but not one next to where you are working now.) As you do flower petals that are further in shadow or work on petals that are inside the shape, adjust your dark shades to even darker yellows, including the darkest of yellow ochre. This will give the illusion of depth and add more shape to the flower forms.

Painting the Stems and Bulbs

After you've got all the flower shapes painted in, move on to the buds and stems. To paint a bud, wet the shape as we've done before and drop in the light yellow on the tip. Then, instead of more yellow, pick up a light green and blend that in. Then, choose a very deep dark green for the base of the bud, paint that in and pull that color down the dark side of your stem. Try to do this pull in one long stroke to keep it fresh and clean. Repeat for all the buds in your composition.

For stems, continue as you did before with the buds. Choose one side that will be the light side and the other will be the side in shadow. Wet the stem with clean water. Then pick up a light green and pull that color down the light side of the stem. Next, pick up the dark green and pull that down the opposite side. Finally, take a clean brush and pull it down the center of the two colors to blend them together. Remember to put the very darkest green underneath the head of the flower so that these are in shadow.

#1 confession of professional watercolorists, "Oh Lord! I wish I hadn't gone back into it."

But if you really need to, you can adjust areas with a little extra paint mixed in with white if you need coverage. Straighten your stems with this mix on the light side. On the dark side, just put a bit more of the dark value green on the brush and pull it down the stem.

Ron's finished painting

My finished painting (to come) -

SESSION NOTES
Colors Ron used: Bright Green #1, Bright Green #2, Hookers Green (used straight & also mixed with ultramarine.) Deep Ultramarine, Permanent Yellow Deep, Lemon Yellow, Permanent Red. Cerulean
Brushes and tools: 140# Arches watercolor paper, Flat and round brushes, salt, Haki brush

Tropical Sunset with Ron Pratt April 2012

This Post provides detailed instruction on "How to Paint a Tropical Scene" as taught by Ron Pratt in his watercolor class at Rossmoor. 


To access Ron's website, go to www.ronaldpratt.com


Start with the Sky and the Water
Begin by wetting whole sheet
When sheen starts to fade from paper....
Drop in the sky with thalo and cerulean blue
Then...drop in reflected colors in the ocean water at the bottom of the sheet
Dry sheet and rewet paper
Continue work on the sky by dropping in yellow and pinks
And...again drop in reflected sky colors in the ocean water at the bottom of sheet
Use a spray bottle of water to allow the sky colors to move and rotate paper to get the effects you like.
Using a towel or paper, dap out some cloud shapes
Rewet one last time and drop a few dark cloud shapes in magenta. Soften the edges of the clouds.

Paint in the Island
The island should be faded and bluish to gain atmospheric effects. Mix up a purple/blue and block in the island shape making sure your color isn't too intense. A rule of thumb is that when your color dries it will be 1/2 as intense as it was when wet.

Foreground rocks
Mix up puddles of color for the island rocks and trees: yellow ochre, browns, blues, and some of the colors used in the sky will tie the foreground and background together.
Drop in colors for the rocks. Keep in mind that the sunlight will mean your lights go where the sun hits them and darks go underneath so, in general, drop appropriate color in those places. Then, while still wet, use a credit card to scrape out the shapes of your rocks.
Add a few grasses in interesting places to break up the rocks and create more interest.
Add some shadow areas beneath rocks.
Add some stippling - - little dots of color around and atop rocks to create more interest

Palm trees
Position the trees to your best advantage. If you have a cloud you don't like, you can put a tree over it and, voila!, the area is now fixed.
Tree tops are created with a fan brush or a large flat brush, like a Haki. Remember to use multiple shades of color to create the most interesting effects.
Consider your design. Use a sheet of acetate to see if adding more trees improves your design before you actually go ahead and paint more trees.

Boats and Birds
Draw in some boats.
Mix up a dark color. I used Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna.
Paint in the boats with a small flat brush and a rigger brush for detail. While the boats are still damp, wet a small area beneath the boats and pull reflections down with a flat brush. When the reflections are nearly dry, use a flat synthetic brush to pull some ripples out beneath the boats and signify water effects.
Add a few strategically placed seagulls in the sky.

You're DONE!

Ron's finished painting -

My finished painting -

SESSION NOTES
Colors used: Opera, Cadmium Yellow, Red, Orange, Cerulean and Thalo blue, burnt Umber
Brushes and tools: 140# Arches watercolor block, Flat and round brushes, Fan brush, Credit card, Haki brush, Spray bottle