Project 3:
Landscape Watercolor
Title: Autumn Landscape
Size: 11 in x 15 in (38.1 cm x 27.94 cm) Medium: Watercolor on watercolor paper Completion: October 2018 Autumn Landscape is a watercolor painting of a cornfield during the season of autumn. It consists of naturals objects like plants that were not originally created by people but have been manipulated by people to fit our needs. The path that cuts down the cornfield symbolizes safe travel and easier mobility through the plants. This painting was inspired by the techniques and style of impressionists and also the artist, Winslow Homer, a mostly self-taught artist who created watercolor paintings on trips to tropical areas.
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Critical Investigation Research:
Sloop, Nassau, 14.8 in x 21.3 in, Watercolor and graphite on wove paper, 1899.
Flower Garden and Bungalow, 35.4 cm x 53.2 cm, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper 1899. Homer, Winslow. "Sloop, Nassau." WikiMedia Commons. MediaWiki, April 7, 2015. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winslow_Homer_-_Sloop,_Nassau_(1899).jpg The Met. "Flower Garden and Bungalow, Bermuda." The Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2018. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/10.228.10/. |
The focus on style and technique of this piece was primarily manipulating the watercolors to create strokes that either symbolically portray or accurately portray what is being painted. I sought technical inspiration from the artist, Winslow Homer for my painting.
Winslow Homer (1836 - 1910) an American, mostly self-taught artist who would travel to places, primarily close to the Atlantic Ocean, and create artworks of the people and places he would see on his trips. Most of his artworks consist of the lives and tasks of fishermen and people handling boats against the sea. Like in Homer's paintings, I also drew with a pencil or graphite for the outlines or the foundation of my painting before applying any watercolor. In his artwork, Sloop, Nassau, Winslow uses a variety of brushstrokes and opacity of color to create the ocean's waves.. Underneath the boat, is a mix between white and dark blue blended in smooth gradation to resemble water. Contrasting these colors are the brushstrokes he painted over them which consist of a simple swatch of a single color, dark blue, blue and grey. I was inspired to paint in a similar way; having full control over the paint strokes I made and anticipating what type of strokes would come from it. |
Inspiration:
Wheatfield with Crows, 50.3 cm x 103 cm, Oil on canvas, July 1890
Vincent Van Gogh Van Gogh Museum. "Wheatfield with Crows." Van Gogh Museum, BankGiroLoterij, Van Lanschot, https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0149V1962?v=1 |
I drew inspiration from the imagery of landscapes by artists during the impressionist and post-impressionist era, such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent Van Gogh. I imagined one painting in particular when planning my piece which was Van Gogh's, "Wheatfield with Crows". This painting is very similar in composition to the way I planned out the cornfield in my painting, "Autumn Landscape".
Before painting my final product, I looked to see where the horizon line and perspective was of the piece to analyze the amount of emphasis there was on the landscape to the emphasis on the sky. Before beginning my project, I also found a video tutorial on how to paint a "Morning Field" in watercolors. I used this video to help me paint the clouds and trees in my painting and also to help me get a sense of where to start with my outline. |
WATERCOLOR UNIVERSITY. "MORNING FIELD." Wactercolor Painting, Watercolor Painting, 1999-2018, https://watercolorpainting.com/watercolor-painting-tutorials/how-to-paint-morning-field/
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From this tutorial, I learned how other artists process their artwork; which colors are looked at and mixed in with others to create the perfect shade and the order of appliance of these colors onto the paper in correlation to the light and environment the image takes place in. This artist also isolated colors one at a time and swatched them on a separate sheet of paper after mixing to see if the result was the color she needed to create the landscape. It was interesting to see the way this artist picked certain colors to mix for the green of the grass like different shades of green along with yellows and blues.
I analyzed the direction of the brush strokes and the type of line they created on the paper and the shape of the brush she was using as I watched the video. |
Planning:
- My second idea that would correlate with my first watercolor painting was to have a natural landscape but with qualities suggesting people have altered it somehow. I thought of a corn, which is a natural plant, but in a giant field mass produced by people and parted in spots to make mobility and harvest easier. So although it includes natural plants on a landscape, there are still some human qualities to it.
- My planning for my surrealist project was the same for my landscape planning when it came to testing the different ways to create texture using the brush and the value transition of colors into other colors from light to dark.
- The first sketch I drew was a plain, either long grass field or a corn field with three paths and a few trees. The paths in the sketch represent the way people have altered their environment to have a sense of security when passing through the unknown.
- I practiced drawing the "Fibonacci Sequence" as another sketch which is a mathematical equation that takes the sum of the two numbers before that number: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21... It's a curve that is seen in almost every aspect of nature, the way our fingers curve, the way hurricanes travel and patterns in flowers.
- I drew two more sketches and painted them to get an idea of what colors I wanted to use and how I was going to blend them into the piece.
Hom, Elaine J. "What is the Fibonacci Sequence?" Live Science. Purch, June 14, 2013. https://www.livescience.com/37470-fibonacci-sequence.html
Process:
I started off with a 11 in x 15 in piece of watercolor paper and two colors: sky blue or light blue to resemble a sky and watered down brown or beige for the expanse of ground. I attempted to use few paint strokes using a flat paintbrush to create the clouds, dragging the brush in a slanted upward motion toward the upper right corner of the painting.
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After recreating the clouds, I expanded them a little by watering down my brush and repeatedly stroking along the outlines of the clouds to expand the exposure of the white watercolor paper below and make the clouds bigger. Then, I started on the ground.
Technique: I attempted to use the technique I saw in Homer's paintings and in the Watercolor University videos for "Morning Field" which was using dark, vibrant paints with few strokes and few layers. |
Experimenting: Usually, when I paint, I use a lot of layers and do not pay close attention to the shape of the line design I create with my brush. In this project, I attempted to become conscious of the way my brush moves and the way I could use the material I was using to create texture for the ground.
I mixed dark brown with lighter and paler browns and began to drag my paintbrush from the top-left of the horizon line down towards the right. I tried not to paint over lines of brown I already applied.
After that was complete, I finished the look of the clouds by giving them a shadow underneath to give the shape a form. I created the shadow by using grey with a lot of water and lightly dabbing the cloud in certain spots to give it the illusion of wispy and cotton texture. I used what I had learned from experimenting with the watercolors and applying plenty of water to an area and lightly dabbing it with color.
From then, I focused on the scenery in the distance on the horizon line. I imagined trees lining the way but only a few to emphasize the large expanse of corn there is in this field.
Technique: I used the same method as before with the trees: adding water to the area and dabbing it lightly with colors for it to fan out and create a feathery texture to resemble branches and leaves.
I mixed dark brown with lighter and paler browns and began to drag my paintbrush from the top-left of the horizon line down towards the right. I tried not to paint over lines of brown I already applied.
After that was complete, I finished the look of the clouds by giving them a shadow underneath to give the shape a form. I created the shadow by using grey with a lot of water and lightly dabbing the cloud in certain spots to give it the illusion of wispy and cotton texture. I used what I had learned from experimenting with the watercolors and applying plenty of water to an area and lightly dabbing it with color.
From then, I focused on the scenery in the distance on the horizon line. I imagined trees lining the way but only a few to emphasize the large expanse of corn there is in this field.
Technique: I used the same method as before with the trees: adding water to the area and dabbing it lightly with colors for it to fan out and create a feathery texture to resemble branches and leaves.
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Technique: The next objects I painted were closer to the foreground: the yellow tree and the pathway that would cut between the corn. I was constantly thinking of how large a person would be compared to the path and the corn stalks. In hindsight, I should have spent more time analyzing the perspective and positioning of the objects. I painted the path by making thick oval-shaped dabs onto the image getting gradually smaller and fewer in size as I moved towards the left of the horizon line just as I did with the line design for the ground.
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The tree I started without using a real-life reference, but after I started, I realized my tree looked more suggestively realistic rather than realistic. I looked at trees close to my house to study the direction of the branches and the shapes they form into and also the value of the leaves as they move down the branches. I held my brush loosely to create different kinds of branches, and on top of that, I dabbed cadmium yellow in the shape of a realistic tree and dabbed a darker cadmium yellow in a few places to give the leaves value.
At this point of the process, I experimented with the way I could paint the corn.
Experimenting: I made a mistake with the way I painted the corn with a yellow-brown hue which covered the ground I had painted originally. The way I painted the ground beforehand was a semi-realistic representation of crop soil field, but I completely covered this when I attempted to paint the
Experimenting: I made a mistake with the way I painted the corn with a yellow-brown hue which covered the ground I had painted originally. The way I painted the ground beforehand was a semi-realistic representation of crop soil field, but I completely covered this when I attempted to paint the
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I kept on painting corn plants and leaves, holding the paintbrush in different ways to hopefully get a different shade or direction for the leaves to sprout in (holding it loosely, tightly, close to the bristles for control, away from the bristles for more variety on line and less control). I started from the background and made the corn increasingly bigger as it neared the path.
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After painting all of the corn, I went back and added a slightly darker shade of gold, cadmium yellow and a pale brown to the left sides of most of the stalks to give them more form, value and realistic qualities. But as the shaded color dried, it was almost the same color as the stalk, so it became hard to differentiate the stalks from one another which I found to be both a good and a bad thing. I found it good since it contributes to the idea that the corn is mass produced and stretches over the horizon, also a bad idea since the corn looks sloppy and unfinished.
Reflection:
Although this painting took a lot of patience and control to complete, it was very fun and absorbing.
Elements of the project I could improve on are:
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ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
My inspiration, Homer, uses clear brushstrokes to create forms which is seen in "Autumn Landscape" with the brushstrokes made to form corn stalks and leaves.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my inspiration was informative and gave a step by step process on how to create an "En Plein Air" watercolor painting.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
During the late 1800's, painting "En Plein Air" became very popular for artists during the time in the United States and also painting people doing their regular day-to-day routines.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme was based around people and the way they live and interact with their world everyday.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred how artists analyze the different ways people live which fascinate them and motivate and inspire them to create art.
My inspiration, Homer, uses clear brushstrokes to create forms which is seen in "Autumn Landscape" with the brushstrokes made to form corn stalks and leaves.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my inspiration was informative and gave a step by step process on how to create an "En Plein Air" watercolor painting.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
During the late 1800's, painting "En Plein Air" became very popular for artists during the time in the United States and also painting people doing their regular day-to-day routines.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme was based around people and the way they live and interact with their world everyday.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred how artists analyze the different ways people live which fascinate them and motivate and inspire them to create art.