Free Watercolor Lessons & Techniques
"No Damage Highlights"
By Vera Dennen
There are several things that can happen during the process of painting, such as adding too many darks to maintain an interesting contrast and losing your light; the exact problem I had with the following painting. Never underestimate the value of retaining your whites. Here the striking contrast between white and dark was needed to distinguish between several layers. Very simply, this involved wiping out color in order to recapture depth in this especially confusing piece.
The baby blanket in this painting had been hand crocheted by my Mother, totally without my knowledge. The blanket was found hidden at the very back of her closet after her death, meant for my only daughter’s first child.
Section of “Crocheted Love” by Vera Dennen.
I felt the importance of doing justice to this painting, but I had already spent hours and hours on the blanket and was getting truly discouraged . . . I could not seem to find the feeling of depth that I sought. With layers and folds, and large crocheted holes going all of the way through, certain areas needed additional attention; painting in deeper shades to build contrast had not worked at all. Then it dawned on me that I could lift some of the darks and recapture my whites . . . it certainly was worth a try.
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“Yellow Iris” 8”x10” |
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“Crocheted Love” 20”x33” |
Both by Vera Dennen
While Yellow Iris was painted strictly as a demonstration, Crocheted Love is a large painting requiring great care. Whether you are lifting out color, scrubbing with the aid of a guard, rescuing whites, or adding new highlights, it can all be accomplished without excessive , or worst of all, making a much dreaded hole. It is worth remembering that all except the gentlest rubbing will disturb your papers surface, causing a different saturation in paint. This means that rough scrubbing is not to be taken lightly or employed on many unfinished paintings, but rather used as a painting aid where required.
By Vera Dennen
Visit Vera’s website: www.veradennenstudio.com Vera specializes in watercolors of pets, children, wildlife, and floral motif with an available variety of moderately priced Prints and Posters along with original paintings.