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Authors: Tom Hoffmann
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CATALDO, UNTITLED STILL LIFE, 2009
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER 22 × 30 (56 × 76 CM)
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The highlights have been reserved, the darks are dark enough, and the value range is appropriately wide. Attention has been paid to accuracy of value, leaving the way clear to be relaxed about drawing. The result is lighthearted, yet perfectly solid.
Of all the variables we employ as painters, value is the hardest worker. We can be very loose and casual with our drawing; we can allow the edges of separate shapes to blur and merge; we can be personally expressive, or even downright psychedelic, with color. As long as the relativevalues are reasonably true, we can still produce a believable sense of light, space, and substance. This is why, at the beginning of the process, it is important to ask: What role does value play in this picture?
Understanding the role value plays in the scene is always a good place for an artist to start. I’d go further, and say that it is an essential first step for most watercolor paintings. In some pictures, value plays a less obvious part in describing the narrative content. This does not necessarily mean that the relative darks and lights do not need to be represented carefully. On the contrary, paying attention to values may be more important in a subtle scene than one with a bold pattern of dark and light.
The transparency of watercolor creates the need for us to make decisions about value at the very beginning of the painting process. Once we commit to a value for a given shape, it is awkward, if not impossible, to make it lighter. To help sort out the relative darkness of each major shape in the scene, there are a number of questions to keep in mind. We will visit these in turn on the pages that follow. As usual, the answers to the questions are often quite obvious. The tricky part is remembering to ask them.
TOM HOFFMANN, MONOCHROME STUDY FOR ON THE GREEN , 2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
11 × 15 INCHES (28 × 38 CM)
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As long as the values are correct …
TOM HOFFMANN, ON THE GREEN, 2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
11 × 15 INCHES (28 × 38 CM)
----
… color can be exaggerated. I wanted to transmit the feeling of powerful energy in Canyonlands National Park by pushing the color to an extreme. Holding on to fairly accurate values allowed me to do so without losing the illusion of light and space.
LARS LERIN, NOVEMBER, 1996
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
27½ × 39⅜ INCHES (70 × 100 CM)
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In this painting, on the other hand, the choices that will support the illusion of white ice and snow exist in a much narrower range. There is very little pure white paper left on the page, but the artist’s subtle hand and eye create the feeling that everything on the ground is white.
LARS LERIN, POLAR TOURISTS, 2007
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
41⅜ × 59⅞ INCHES (105 × 152 CM)
----
In this painting Lars Lerin established the widest possible range of values by making the sky and dark parts of the building as dark as possible and leaving the doorway pure white. The spotlit section of the wall had to fall somewhere in between. It could have been a little darker or a little lighter, and the painting would still have great power.
I DENTIFYING THE L IGHTEST P ART OF THE P ICTURE
My classroom, in Seattle, is lit by overhead fluorescent tubes and a bank of windows along the north side. The walls and ceiling of the room are painted white. If you were making a painting of the room, it would be easy to assume that the walls should be left the white of the paper. White walls/white paper, no problem. But the windows, which often have a cool, bluish cast, are much brighter than the walls, and the warm, yellow fluorescent lights are even lighter than the windows. If you left the walls white, how would you get the windows and lamps to appear lighter? This conundrum is why it is especially important to ask yourself, right from the beginning: What is the lightest part of the picture?
The problem in this
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER 22 × 30 (56 × 76 CM)
----
The highlights have been reserved, the darks are dark enough, and the value range is appropriately wide. Attention has been paid to accuracy of value, leaving the way clear to be relaxed about drawing. The result is lighthearted, yet perfectly solid.
Of all the variables we employ as painters, value is the hardest worker. We can be very loose and casual with our drawing; we can allow the edges of separate shapes to blur and merge; we can be personally expressive, or even downright psychedelic, with color. As long as the relativevalues are reasonably true, we can still produce a believable sense of light, space, and substance. This is why, at the beginning of the process, it is important to ask: What role does value play in this picture?
Understanding the role value plays in the scene is always a good place for an artist to start. I’d go further, and say that it is an essential first step for most watercolor paintings. In some pictures, value plays a less obvious part in describing the narrative content. This does not necessarily mean that the relative darks and lights do not need to be represented carefully. On the contrary, paying attention to values may be more important in a subtle scene than one with a bold pattern of dark and light.
The transparency of watercolor creates the need for us to make decisions about value at the very beginning of the painting process. Once we commit to a value for a given shape, it is awkward, if not impossible, to make it lighter. To help sort out the relative darkness of each major shape in the scene, there are a number of questions to keep in mind. We will visit these in turn on the pages that follow. As usual, the answers to the questions are often quite obvious. The tricky part is remembering to ask them.
TOM HOFFMANN, MONOCHROME STUDY FOR ON THE GREEN , 2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
11 × 15 INCHES (28 × 38 CM)
----
As long as the values are correct …
TOM HOFFMANN, ON THE GREEN, 2010
WATERCOLOR ON ARCHES HOT PRESS PAPER
11 × 15 INCHES (28 × 38 CM)
----
… color can be exaggerated. I wanted to transmit the feeling of powerful energy in Canyonlands National Park by pushing the color to an extreme. Holding on to fairly accurate values allowed me to do so without losing the illusion of light and space.
LARS LERIN, NOVEMBER, 1996
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
27½ × 39⅜ INCHES (70 × 100 CM)
----
In this painting, on the other hand, the choices that will support the illusion of white ice and snow exist in a much narrower range. There is very little pure white paper left on the page, but the artist’s subtle hand and eye create the feeling that everything on the ground is white.
LARS LERIN, POLAR TOURISTS, 2007
WATERCOLOR ON PAPER
41⅜ × 59⅞ INCHES (105 × 152 CM)
----
In this painting Lars Lerin established the widest possible range of values by making the sky and dark parts of the building as dark as possible and leaving the doorway pure white. The spotlit section of the wall had to fall somewhere in between. It could have been a little darker or a little lighter, and the painting would still have great power.
I DENTIFYING THE L IGHTEST P ART OF THE P ICTURE
My classroom, in Seattle, is lit by overhead fluorescent tubes and a bank of windows along the north side. The walls and ceiling of the room are painted white. If you were making a painting of the room, it would be easy to assume that the walls should be left the white of the paper. White walls/white paper, no problem. But the windows, which often have a cool, bluish cast, are much brighter than the walls, and the warm, yellow fluorescent lights are even lighter than the windows. If you left the walls white, how would you get the windows and lamps to appear lighter? This conundrum is why it is especially important to ask yourself, right from the beginning: What is the lightest part of the picture?
The problem in this
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