WATERCOLOR ON PLATE BRISTOL 3: insights
This is #3 in a series of blogs demonstrating how to do watercolor on plate bristol. Please start with #1 to get full benefit of this instruction.
This is the technique made popular by Burt Silverman in his out-of-print book Breaking The Rules Of Watercolor. I've attempted to show some of the finer aspects regarding methods and materials that you don't get from Burt's videos or books, and to show how someone else approaches the technique...
Below is the finished piece that was my demo in WATERCOLOR ON
PLATE BRISTOL 2: method blog. I will continue to look at it while I
work on the client's second commission, and decide if there's anything
I want to change or make better. I like what I've done--I feel I've realized
my vision for the piece. I'm still uncertain on many things, but I will get
a few people to look at it and compare it with my own concerns.
Because this is not exactly a "fine art" painting--it has some illustrative
elements to it--I went ahead and added some highlights with the white
gouache as if the image were destined for print (you will find more on
this issue farther below). I put some on the tip of the man's nose, the woman's
earring, and some highlighting around the woman's body to accentuate
the fire/burst effect. For a fine art painting I might not do this since it will
be displayed directly to the human eye and not need any extra highlighting.
the finished piece...
some close-ups...notice how the frugal addition of gouache was
used to model certain areas of the forms...
...and it still has all the "accidents" and spontaneity associated
with watercolor!
Watercolor on plate bristol INSIGHTS:
To peel up a finished painting, carefully lift the tape up and peel slowly. Make sure you're not taking any bristol paper plys with you. If you don't want to bother with the tape you can just cut it and the bristol away and you'll have an image without the white borders.
To flatten the paper if it stays curled after painting, carefully wet the back of a dry painting with water and place the wet side down on a sheet of blotter paper. Cover the top of the painting with clean glass or board, maybe put a sheet of tracing paper or glassine between the glass and the painting, and put some books on top to keep the painting flat. Let dry overnight or longer. Repeat this if needed.
The more paper you buy in one purchase the less expensive the price comes down to per sheet. I buy 4 to 6 packs of 25 sheets each order, and it saves me about $2.00 a sheet! Get on the seller's email list (like Jerry's Artarama, Utrecht, ASW, etc.) and watch for sales. Often you will get a promotion for 20% off your entire order from one of these, which will save you a lot of money.
Some traditional watercolorists don't like it when they hear you use gouache for this technique, they want to be "pure" in their watercolors. If they were to investigate their colors more closely they would fine that many manufacturers have colors containing Titanium White-- like Naples Yellow, Davy's Gray, Turquoise, some blue-grays, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue (Hue), and more. Wouldn't it be better to become the best artist you can be, able to handle anything, instead of labeling yourself and limiting your range? Myself, I always think, "What will work best to help me fulfill the vision I have for this particular picture?"
Below, a quick and very loosely done watercolor sketch on plate bristol...
Notice the slightly opaque areas in various (and often unconventional)
spots in this detail below...and to me it looks interesting and intriguing.
The lightest areas are where the paint was scrubbed out and now the
white of the paper shows through.
The more white gouache you add into a watercolor paint the closer you get to a tint, which is not the aim of this technique. Don't use the gouache to cover up bad technique. The purpose of using the gouache for doing watercolors on plate bristol is to:
- create an ever so slightly granulated, opaque veneer for pigmented color to "float" upon so that the pigment will not get embedded into the paper fibers. Paint can therefore more easily be "wiped out."
- to add atmospheric passages of very subtle luminous haze.
- to further the capability of modeling the planes and surfaces of the forms in the painting.
Again, it's important not to get hung up on the "wiping out" aspect of this technique. You still must paint the picture, and it takes time and patience. Focus your thoughts on applying paint with the most finesse and skill possible, and leave the wiping out for the moments when it's obvious that it must be done to carry the picture forward.
Making shadows somewhat mildly opaque and having exquisitely executed (wiped out) light areas lends many a work (especially the human figure) a fascinating intrigue.
Below is a detail from a piece called "A Reservation Sunday." Notice the areas of
opacity, especially with the figure's face, hair, and even the background. Adding
white gouache sparingly to certain areas furthers the level at which you can render
forms, and still call it a "watercolor."
As with traditional watercolor, you can use the drips and rings (the dried pigment rings that appear after the paint dries) to great advantage. It adds texture and delicate definition to the right spot, but usually they are not controlled to be that way, they just appear during the drying process of liquid painting. Let these "accidents" appear where they may, don't fall into the trap of using these blobs and drips for their own sake. If you really want to have a painting with virtually nothing but drips and puddles, go buy the Yupo polypropylene "paper." The plate bristol technique is best for painting pictures, and not for controlled exercises in technique. Good paintings done with this technique exhibit a high level of elegance and refinement that rival oil paintings.
Other artists that I know of who use this technique, or have a similar technique approach (just do a search on the internet using their name):
Burt Silverman (hard to find his watercolors)
David Levine
Irwin Greenberg
George Pratt (primarily painted sequential comics art)
Kent Williams (primarily painted sequential comics art)
Scott Hampton (primarily painted sequential comics art)
Malcolm "Skip" Liepke
Milt Kobayashi
and me, Felipe Echevarria, see my watercolors section on www.Felipe.tv:
Felipe's watercolors
click below to go to my painted sequential (comics) art category, then see "Death Gallery", "graphic novel in progress", and the "painted" categories:
http://www.felipe.tv/sequential.html
Treat the painting as a whole, and work on it as a whole, bringing the entire painting up at the same time. Your brush will be darting around from one area of the painting to another. You can be working on one section while another is drying. You will also find that when you wipe out a section your brush will hold some of that color, and instead of rinsing the brush out you can apply the paint to another area. This is economy of motion and it keeps your painting moving. These little tips will lend your painting a cohesive quality and a more finished appearance.
If you're trying to get brilliant consistent washes or areas of broad dark color without streaking you're up for a real battle. Due to the nature of the smooth paper, and the watercolors drying differently than when first applied wet, you will usually end up seeing the brush strokes in these areas. Consistency can be done, but it's easier--and often with improved aesthetic results--to let the inconsistency show itself.
You will find there's a certain point in every painting where the paper will start to respond to scrubbing and painting in a very pleasant way. It seems that the paper surface needs a little "breaking in" period. It's not that it doesn't respond at the very beginning, it's just that when the paint and water start to get pushed around it makes the paper fibers more receptive to what you're doing. Carried too far, as in excessive scrubbing and wiping, the paper will abrade and grab the pigment and will no longer be so easy to wipe out. This is why I recommend to focus on the painting and not the wiping.
The scrubbing and wiping out that you will be doing will eventually destroy your brushes. Use your nice, expensive sable brushes for painting the picture and your cheaper synthetic brushes for the wiping out process. I even use a few small size oil painting bristle brushes for wiping out sometimes.
There is a point where the painting can get too tight, too cleanly done, where it can start to transcend the spontaneous watercolor look and seem more like a tight illustration. If this is what you're after, that's fine. For me this method shines at its best when it retains spontaneity and exhibits a flowing watercolor flair, yet has a level of completeness that draws you further into the grace of the piece.
When doing hair, treat the hair as a larger mass, and avoid picking out and highlighting too many strands. This is actually just good drawing. Less is more.
For some reason (probably the overall slight haze of the gouache), it works best to not do the pupils in the eyes too dark. Otherwise they may look unreal, dominate more than they should, and/or explain the model's pose too quickly. When I asked Burt Silverman why he paints a person's eyes so light in his plate bristol paintings, he told me, "It draws you in."
Below is a scan of an original art page used for my comics adaptation of "Psycho",
the film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was done on the plate bristol. For works
designed to be printed in less than ideal printing format/quality, I will go back in
and add stronger highlights with the white gouache. You can probably see those
areas--the light bulb, highlights on the knife, highlights on the rim lighting for heads
and hair, splattering the gouache with a toothbrush to create a dusty effect, and
the AAAAAAAA- scream. If I did not punch up these areas with bright gouache
the page when printed would look kinda flat and lifeless. So, this how not to do
the technique the "fine art" way, this is how to do it for the printing process.
By the way, the "gutters" (the space between each panel was created with liquid
frisket applied and then peeled off after the painting was done. So that's actually
the white of the paper you're seeing.
'Tis better to be bold, ruin a couple hours worth of work, and learn a good lesson than to stay comfortable and turn out a competent but uneventful painting, especially when you're climbing the learning curve with this technique.
Do not be afraid to wipe out a passage if it doesn't suit the outcome of the entire picture. Many times I've painted something that looked so good--but it didn't fit into the rest of the painting, or it was developed too early in the painting process, and it therefore had to be wiped out or changed. The focus of quality must be on the overall picture, and not just on one area.
Below is a mixed media piece done on the plate bristol. This is of a popular comic
book character. You may be able to see how I used gouache in full force around
the figure. I also used ink for the dark areas, and scumbled gouache around and
on top of the ink. There are even obvious pencil marks left on the piece. Even after
all this I do some wiping out and even use straight gouache for highlights and for
general painting. Not even the plate bristol will let me scrub out the ink, but in this
case I had no plan to, I use the gouache to cover up mistakes or cover anything I
don't want to show. The benefit with mixed media on the plate bristol is that you
can do a standard water-based media opaque painting, but still model some areas
with the wiping out.
It's unlike any painting technique you've ever done. It will take some time to understand the bristol paper's characteristics, what you can do with it and what you can't. It will take quite some time to figure out the best way to lay down your paint. Sometimes it dries darker or lighter than you'd expect, or too opaque or transparent, or too much chroma or not enough, or too streaky or just too much coverage. Just be patient, stay in the moment, and enjoy the process of learning. If you stay with it, the rewards are great, because only a handful of people on this planet can do this method well.
Because of the skill required to do this method well, your drawing skills must be excellent so that you won't have to deal with drawing problems all the time, and you can focus instead on the level of intensity required to do paintings with this method.
Try this technique, but try it many times to get a feel for it. Having Burt Silverman's book is extremely helpful, as it has pictures of the process. His other older title, Painting People also has the process documented. If you're totally perplexed, send me a jpeg (to felipe@felipe.tv) of what you're doing or tell me what you're having trouble with, and I'll try to offer help. Good luck!
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TO SEE MY FINE ART ONLY site please visit:
http://www.FelipeEchevarria.com
TO SEE MY EVERYTHING ART site:
http://www.felipe.tv
This is a great blog. I got introduced to this technique a year ago and am still struggling. You have answered some major questions for me on paint application and pacing. Now I can't wait to get home and pull out the bristol paper again. In the struggle between the technique, paper and my sanity...I was feeling pretty beaten up...
So I'm very grateful...
can't say it enough
thanks.
p.s. wow you studied with Burt Silverman...one of my heroes.
Excellent tip about the eyes...
Thanks for the enthusiastic comments. Since I do a lot of teaching I like to offer my blog readers help on painting or drawing, and especially with this technique. Feel free to send me a jpeg image of a piece you may be struggling with and I can lend some pointers. Send to felipe@felipe.tv
-Felipe E.
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thanks for the offer of help Felipe, I might take you up on it at some point in time. I did have a question for you though I have B.Silverman's books, (ebay is great though addicting) and at one point he used gesso'ed watercolor paper, and Don Getz apparently uses the technique of watercolor on gesso'ed paper exclusively. Ever tried that particular surface? Your recent blog on life expectancy of work answered what was to be my first question to you. How do you frame/mount your work, I believe you answered under archival glass and with space between the work and glass, am I correct? One thing I'll ask also, do you spray your watercolors with fixative at all? I don't think Silverman does, but I believe Getz does.
Thanks and this blog is great, I've actually re-read your whole section on watercolor on bristol several times, I find something new with each reading...muchas gracias.
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Ismael, thanks again for your comments. I have used gessoed paper and gessoed wood boards for watercolor, but I don't like it because the gesso leaves brush strokes, which shows through the watercolor too much. I could sand it down, but I don't want to spend time doing that, and if I sand down the gessoed paper it wrecks the paper a little. Ampersand makes wood panels, called Aquabord and Claybord, which work fairly well for watercolor on a gessoed surface, without all the work involved with sanding. I find the Strathmore paper I use to be the best surface so far for this technique (for me anyway).
I frame my watercolors under regular or archival glass with a mat which separates the painting surface from the glass, and use an acid-free foam board on back to keep it all sandwiched flat.
I usually don't spray watercolors, it makes them deeper in color and/or changes the fresh delicate appearance too much for my taste. Silverman does not spray his watercolors. Fixative is primarily to lightly seal a surface so that the next layer of work will not smudge or ruin the lower layer. Dry watercolors don't smear, so I never use it. It seem pointless to me, unless you want to change the watercolor into a more gloss finish. If so, get a gloss fixative, not a matte one...
-Felipe
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Reply to this
Felipe, a quick question, have you ever thought of sharing some of your demo tips on youtube? or even having one of your demos recorded on DVD and making it available for purchase? I for one would be interested in seeing your process.
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Thanks Ismael, for the comment. I have thought about it, and I hope to do so one day. I feel that my different background (a blend of comic art, illustration, and fine art) all have taught me something that I could share that may be valuable. If it does, I'll let you know.
Felipe
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