Watercolor Made Easy

WATERCOLOR made easy

Time of Day

Sarah Nikolai

L

ight and shadow play vital roles in suggesting the time of day in paintings. In order to illustrate this, I painted the same scene, the Guthrie Bell Tower at Western Kentucky University, during different times of the day. Ironically, I pass this tower every day and often count on it to let me know what time it is through both its clock and its loud, often off-key bells that ring every hour on the hour.

Day

Shadows can make or break a painting. They are essential, because they give the viewer a sense of the time of day.

When used incorrectly, however, shadows can overpower objects in the painting or simply confuse the viewer.

For more dramatic shadows, paint a scene during the morning or afternoon rather than during mid-day.

Make sure that all of the shadows match up in your watercolor. You can check this by pinpointing the sun or the source of light in your painting.

Challenge yourslef by never using black or grey for shadows. Shadows are full of color. Use cool compliments for shadows when painting a warm object. For the painting on the right, I used green in the shadows of red objects and blue in the shadows of orange objects.

When painting shadows, make sure to use a clear reference--whether it’s a photo or the actual objects--in which shadows are distinct. Simplify shadows and objects if they distract from the focal point of your painting.

When painting en plein air, make sure to sketch the scene first and mark where the shadows lie, because they will move while you paint. *courtesy of Jim’s Watercolor Gallery

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OPP Gut duri pain

n t s h

N igh t

When painting night scenes, the play of warm and cool colors are key. Focus warm colors such as yellow and red around lighting and gradually fade them into cooler colors such as purple and finally blue.

Use purple and dark blue, in that order, to paint the sky; use black only for shadows. Keep detail to a minimum. The human eye can only see so much detail at night anyway, so less detail actually looks more realistic.

In order to portray lighting, use masking fluid to protect and preserve the white of the page in those areas.

I used masking fluid to preserve the whiteness of the page for the street lamps and the tower in the painting on the left, then went back and added yellow.

OPPOSITE PAGE | A portion of my painting of the Guthrie Bell Tower at Western Kentucky University during the afternoon. ABOVE | A portion of my painting of the Guthrie Bell Tower at night.

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Su nrises and Su nsets

The key to painting successful sunrises and sets with watercolor is perfecting the blended, colorful wash that makes up the sky.

In order to create a colorful, well-blended wash, first cover the area with water using your brush. You can either keep the wash strictly limited to the sky or have it bleed into your landscape.

Once you have wetted the paper, add color, beginning with white paper at the source (the sun) and proceeding across the page.

Continue with yellow, followed by orange, then red, then purple, then blue.

Shadows are longest during these times of day. Make sure to take advantage of them by adding rich, cool colors to them rather than black for added color.

Sunsets are normally more warm, radiant, and intensely colorful than sunrises. Think of it as the sun slowly waking up when it rises and then going out with a bang, exploding with color as it sets.

TOP | My painting of the Guthrie Bell Tower during a sunrise. ABOVE | My painting of the Guthrie Bell Tower during a sunset.

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