A quick sketch for making a watercolour.
It is always good to make these kind of sketches just to find out if the future watercolour will work out the way you see it in your mind. I made a short movie from the process. I hope you like it.
regards Edo
The landscape I make a photo from many years ago.
You have to go in wintertime to see this because its now all green, no farm in sight from this point of view.
The Sketch with Indian Ink and grey watercolour
with my Kremer pigment set.
This one is on Cartridge paper that can take some water too.
The watercolour
I decided to make the land flatter so the fence did overlap the houses so I got more unity.
This is a Frisian landscape.
I painted this before, and it thought it would be nice to make a movie from it.
Hope you all like it, have fun watching.
If you like it please give me the Thumbs up,
its a new thing for Google for ranking video’s on you tube.
The movie is on You Tube in HD video
Thanks in advance!
by Edo Hannema
On our dinner table stands a Hydrangea, it is a nice plant, and it is also a bit of a neat version.
You could say they all make the perfect Hydrangea’s at the plant grower.
And when you paint it like this it will be a watercolour, but not a exciting watercolour.
Like a modern building is boring we painters like a bit of old style, a old shed or fence that brake down a bit. We like that.
So I opened this photo in a photo application and tried to make it more the way I like it!
I added some flowers with the clone stamp, I blurred the image a bit and gave it a lighter look.
Okay now it is out of focus and looking more creative then the photo.
But will it work?
My next thing is to make a sketch from this blurry picture, and keep the shadows in mind!
Saving the whites and building up the flowers.
The sketch was done with a BIG wide graphite pencil.
Also I used this pencil to avoid details.
I sketch’t in the shapes of the flowers and the shadow sides. I decided to loose the light green pot and make it glass to have a bit of interest here too!
In real there were no flower stalks because it is a plant with compost!
But we are free to make what we want don’t we?
So I chose my colours and hoped for the best!
I didn’t look at the original photo anymore, but just used the sketch as a guide.
There was a moment I thought I could not do this, because I seldom make flowers.
But I went on and just what Joseph Zbukvic mentioned in his last dvd, forget the subject just paint what the watercolour is needing helps a lot!
Loose the light were you don’t want it, and bring in the darks where they are needed!
In this stage I really cannot explain a lot how I make these watercolours, because it comes from intuition a lot. Maybe when I do more flowers I could make a movie about it.
This is the end result, some of you have already seen it on Facebook or Twitter, but this is the small story behind it.
Paper: Saunder Waterford rough 140 lb qrt sheet
Pigments: Rembrandt
Thank you
Edo Hannema
Hello my friends and subscribers,
I am very honored you all subscribed to my website, I am just a hobby painter with a big heart for watercolour and everything got to do with watercolours.
I am very busy at the moment to make videos on you tube. Its not a easy task to make a video that is from reasonable quality. But I did get help from my friend Arie Jekel, he is a fellow painter and know a lot from making videos in high standard and also a excellent photographer! check out his work on his website www.ariejekelart.nl
If you like his work check out his workshop soon in The Netherlands!
Further I have painted a lot of landscapes, I am searching for a new method of painting, One layered paintings. It must be flawless without mistakes. So I begin with easy pictures and gradually build up the difficulties. so far so good.
Here a watercolour I made from a photo from Hennie Kroezen, so nice to have friends with great sources you may barrow! She did visit the Isle of Schiermonnikoog and it was for me very inspiring to make!
The source from my watercolour below
Also a few new videos on my You Tube Channel, if you are not subscribed to my channel please do, because I am not always post about it here.
The address is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuulNUJt3BrrMKbbj2zijOA
The newest video I did in Dutch, I thought when I narrate the video in English it is still okay. well maybe it is nice to watch, but all the background sound of brushes waterpots, the crackling of the paper is gone. So next time I just make one in English, or do two paintings in both languages.
This is the English narrated one.
And the Dutch
My painting from the Biesbosch is also a new painting.
A little bit more difficult, but still in my one layer style
Well thats all
Best regards and Happy Painting
Edo Hannema
all paintings are made on St Cuthberts Mill paper Saunders Waterford 140 Lb not
You wake up with a idea.
Low tide and dark poles in the water.
Keep it simple and enjoy.
The idea as sketch
The First Wash
Painting the poles
The finished watercolour.
When you inspired by this little watercolour and make one yourself.
Please give me or my website some credit!
Thank you
Painted on:
square Saunders Waterford CP (not) paper 140 Lb 28X28 cm
I received many questions about painting greens.
When you paint a landscape, apart from painting a desert, you always have to paint that green. a lot of us have problems painting greens. and in their watercolors it is often out of balance.
A small lesson in what we see, we see color cause it is reflecting in our eyes, when it is dark less colour is reflecting so you see less.
When there is light we see a lot of color, the best colour we see when it is a bit cloudy, the light is been filtered.
That filter is also effecting the colour, think on a sunset, or when it is raining it becomes grey.
So when we paint we have to think about this too.
But when we look in our colourbox with 25 wells of pigment we forget this sort of knowledge and we go for green, and when the grass is a bit yellow we put yellow to it. which one of the four yellows we have?? dunno lets go! 😉
I shall approach it more technical, you painted the sky with Ultramarine Blue (UB) with a touch of Burnt sienna, not to make a grey, but just to grey it down a bit.
When you talk about harmony the next step is to paint the trees and the field.
Normally you would go for your favorite green.
But think about the filtered light and how it effects our colour, if we want more harmony in our watercolour the usual step would be to make a green from our (UB).
Since (UB) is a transparent colour we seek on our palette for a yellow that have this same quality. For Instance New Gamboge or Aureolin.
So you have bright warm green, cause (UB) and yellow makes a warm green.
Add a touch of Transparent Raw sienna (RS) in that mix and it gets a bit darker.
A bit more blue a bit more yellow or a bit more (RS) find a balance and alter along the way your mix to make your field look more interesting, or your tree of course.
I use Aureolin or New Gamboge yellow.
When you have Cobalt Blue sky it is exactly the same approach.
You have a less warm green, because Cobalt is a bit cooler, you can add even Burnt Sienna now in the mix because their is less red in the cobalt.
Mixing greens with cool Blue’s like Winsor Blue or Prussian is much easier.
But the variation to paint a sky is harder.
When you paint a (UB) sky you easily add raw sienna or Burnt Sienna in that sky, do this the same with a cool blue you instantly have a green sky.
Cool Blue’s with yellow gives you a strong very light green. In The Netherlands you can’t find this green. Maybe it is here? But we have different light then lets say in India.
I see a lot of painters from India using this type of green. It looks unnatural here in Europe, but I am sure they paint what they see!
A sky from Paynes grey, a lot of artist use this, Wesson, Seago or John Hoar.
Its a cool grey, so you can say it is a cool blue.
A mix with yellow gives you a delightful green, add some raw sienna and it is warmer.
Watch out Paynes grey dries 40% lighter!
So when you want to stay in harmony mix the same Blue what you used in your sky for your greens!
And if you mix cool and warm Blue’s in your sky, you are already a clever painter and don’t need help with greens!
This is just the way I see it.
Other painters could have a other viewpoint or style.
Edo Hannema
Recently I painted a watercolour from some trees and farms in the neighborhood from Burgerbrug (North Holland).
It was and still is beautiful weather when I write this , the grass was vibrantly green, so I decided not to paint in my usual greens, but in a lighter version.
I added a shadow in the foreground, not to dark, otherwise I was afraid to spoil the fresh green.
I posted my painting on Twitter Facebook and Flickr, and on the last one I received a critique from a good friend Rosalind, that makes beautiful work herself. We are connected on Flickr for years, so I took it seriously.
The friendly critique were: The grass is all a bit uniform. Perhaps a bit more shadow on the grass to the right of the middle falling diagonally away from the horizon towards the bottom right-hand corner ?
This in my mind I looked at the photo and the watercolour, and indeed the photo shows a bit to uniform green lawn. The watercolour itself have a gradation, and I don’t see this on the photo!
But I always think, if they are right, will it improve my watercolour? In time you develop enough imagination you can actually make colours appear on your paper still in your mind. When you not have developed this, there is a trick, not invented by me, but by Tony van Hasselt, a very good watercolour artist from origin Dutch, but he lives in the USA for a long time and painting for at last 50 years or more! I understand he did followed lessons by the great teacher Edgar Whitney, and this teacher is responsable for a lot of good artist we all know today! Look Whitney up, it is well worth it!
Back to the trick, in Tony’s book The Watercolor FIX-IT Book are tons of advise, a Building Blocks poster and a small sheet of acetate.
The trick is you can lay the acetate over your watercolour, tape it on the sides and add all sorts of shadows and colour, without ruining the underneath original watercolour. Tony used this method in his workshops to help students with their work. He shows what is missing in their watercolour with help of the acetate, and when he removes it, the student can add in her own style and colours make the improvements.
A great solution I may say!
So there we go, I tape the acetate and mix up a few colours, I tried three mixes.The first two I wiped out again, so this is also a advantage, you have more times to see what you do!
The final shadow was a dark green grey, and it seems it destroys the sunny look a bit.So I think I leave it, with in my mind that the watercolour was better in green gradation then the photo! It also became a bit to heavy on the right side.
What do you think?
Best regards Edo
and thanks Tony and Rosalind.
website Tony van Hasselt
I try to tell why it is you get mud sometimes when you mix watercolour pigments.
After awhile you have a palette with colours on it that works for you, and you know which paint you dont have to try to mix with others, and better can use on his own.
And other pigment you simply cannot go wrong with!
Images telling more then words, so a movie tells even more!
Maybe some of you have seen the movies all ready on my Facebook or You Tube channel.
The first one is a short movie about mixing your own (more fresher) browns.
The second one about making grays with three transparent colours!
The watercolour-sketch I made in the second movie.
