Portfolio: Expressive Painting

Tips and techniques for practical applications in watercolor, including color theory, color mixing, and understanding color relationships

Joseph Stoddard

• Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781633224681
• eBook ISBN: 9781633224674
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

Expressive Painting is the ultimate beginner’s guide to watercolor painting using dynamic, vibrant colors.

Following the same clean, contemporary, easy-to-read, and easy-to-follow layout and design of the other books in Walter Foster Publishing's popular Portfolio series, Expressive Painting gives beginning and aspiring artists the information they need to paint colorful watercolors that convey mood and emotion on canvas.
 
The book covers essential painting topics, including color theory, color mixing, selecting color schemes, and working with tools and materials, as well as watercolor painting techniques, such as painting wet-into-wet and wet-on-dry. Helpful tips are called out throughout the book for easy comprehension and reference, while step-by-step projects build on the featured techniques, allowing artists to practice making their own dynamic, colorful watercolor paintings. With Expressive Painting, beginning and aspiring artists will learn all they need to know to start creating watercolor art that’s full of color and emotion.

The Portfolio series covers essential art techniques, core concepts, and media with an approach and format that’s perfect for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate artists.

Also available from the series: Beginning Acrylic, Beginning Drawing, Beginning Watercolor, Beginning Pastel, Beginning Colored Pencil, Beginning Color Mixing, Beginning Color Mixing, Beginning Pen & Ink, and Beginning Composition..

Painting

Time of Day

One way to make a painting stand out is to vary the time of day. Most paintings and sketches are done in perfect daylight, perhaps with the sun casting a nice shadow to the left. Changing the time of day alters the lighting dramatically and creates a unique view of your scene. Here are a few examples.

DODGER STADIUM The daytime scene shows a bright green infield with a bold shadow coming across the foreground. The night scene, done from a distance, shows the stadium glowing from within, with a few scattered lights from cars and houses in the background.

UNION STATION The daytime scene is pretty typical: The afternoon sun casts palm tree shadows across the front of the building. The nighttime scene shows light coming from the inside and reflecting on the street, and the trees are lit from below.

COLORADO STREET BRIDGE SUNRISE The landscape is dark, and the sky has just started to lighten. The sun has just broken the horizon.

UNIVERSITY OF REDLANDS AT DUSK Light emanates from the building entrance during an evening event and reflects on the walkway. The sun has just gone down.

COLORADO BOULEVARD SUNSET The sun has just gone down, and the city lights have yet to come on. The sky is still bright.

Urban Subjects

Urban scenes are about texture and the intricate division of space. Pen and ink is a good medium for conveying this. You want to suggest the illusion of detail, rather than actually include it. Be bold with your pen. When you put a line down, do it with confidence. Explore positive and negative shapes.

Add cars, buses, telephone poles and wires, signs, and people—the more the better. Add an airplane in the sky to suggest a busy afternoon. Leave some white space to give the eye a rest and provide contrast to the busyness of the scene. Make colors bolder and brighter than reality, and emphasize the contrast between light and dark. The shadows should be dramatic and full of color. Here are a few examples.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES FROM THE FREEWAY I exaggerated the colors of the buildings and used pen to indicate windows and architectural details. If you look closely, you can see that all the details are mere suggestions. Little touches of white paint give the illusion of detail.

RAINY EVENING DOWNTOWN I used white paint extensively in this scene that depicts a Los Angeles freeway at night. What appear to be building windows and car headlights are just spots of white placed in a grid. Reflections in the pavement suggest rain.

UNION STATION AND SKYSCRAPERS Pen-and-ink is the predominant feature of this sketch. The buildings are painted in bright colors and compressed together in an overlapping graphic pattern. Loosely rendered cars in the foreground draw the viewer into the scene. A small composition study in the lower left adds interest.

CHINATOWN, SAN FRANCISCO The jumble of cars, signs, people, and architecture suggests a busy afternoon in the city. In the distance, sailboats, a bridge, and the shore beyond are suggested with pen and positive/negative shapes.

METRO STATION The Chinatown Metro S...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• GETTING STARTED
• PRELIMINARY WORK
• KEEPING A SKETCHBOOK
• DRAWING
• COLOR
• PAINTING
• DEMONSTRATIONS
• FINAL THOUGHTS
• INSPIRATION
• ABOUT THE ARTIST
• Copyright