The reason you should paint your background first is simple. The natural tendency in watercolor is to make the initial washes in a painting too light because you are comparing your values to the white of the paper. If you establish your background first, you can compare the values in the foreground to the already established value in the background. Reworking a background value later in the painting is generally not as noticeable as reworking the foreground.

In the following example, I worked on the background for days before I dealt with the foreground. Once the background was complete, I painted with figures in the foreground very quickly at the very end of the process.

Background Painted First

For average caucasian skin, I use Winsor & Newton Raw Sienna or Yellow Ochre (they’re quite similar), M. Graham Cadmium Red Light, and a blue, violet, or (rarely) green, The blue depends on the subject, the lighting, and the pigments I am using in the rest of the painting. Cerulean blue is probably the easiest to work with and works best for light-skinned subjects. Sometimes I use Winsor & Newton Cobalt Blue and sometimes I use Holbein Mineral Violet.

When working with fair complexions, I move toward a cooler yellow such as Winsor & Newton Cadmium Yellow Pale. As complexions get darker, I move to darker yellows and earth tones, stepping down from Raw Sienna to a brown ochre to raw umber and finally to burnt umber. An example of how to paint darker skin tones is available.

Reds get warmer as complexions get ruddier. For a young, fair-skinned model I might go with a permanent rose. I will choose a warmer red, such as cadmium red light, for skin that is darker or has been exposed to the sun. For really dark skin, I will choose anything from cadmium red light to even a cadmium orange in some circumstances.

The cool color, used mostly for shadows, is the most difficult to categorize because so much depends on the light source. For shadows I use the same yellow and red that I used in the light, and I add a cool color that neutralizes the yellow and red. The most important thing is to not use too much blue in the shadows. You basically want a darker and more neutral version of what you have in the light.

early morning
photo

late morning
photo

Here is an example of what I encountered. I took the first photo at the beginning of the painting session, around 9:00 a.m. I took the second photo about two hours later. The switch from the lighting conditions of the first photo to the lighting of the second photo happened very suddenly a little after 10 a.m.

When I got home, I found a utility at the U. S. Naval Observatory that will calculate the altitude and azimuth of the sun at specified intervals for any location on any day. This is a very handy tool for learning how to predict shifts in outdoor lighting. Later in the day, I returned to the cemetery with compass and an azimuth table in hand and realized that the tables confirmed what I had observed while painting.

Working outdoors in the summer, there are 4 ways an object can be lighted. Assuming that a building is on a north/south axis*, the lighting changes when the azimuth of sun reaches 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees. In the winter and early spring, the sun crosses the 90 and 270 degree thresholds before sunrise or after sunset. Here are a few illustrations of these phases of light:

Sunrise to 90 degrees

The north and east sides of a building are in sunlight. In early July in Atlanta, this stage lasts from sunrise to 10:20 a.m.

90 degrees to 180 degrees

The east and south sides of a building are in sunlight. This stage lasts from 10:20 a.m. to 1:40 p.m.

180 degrees to 270 degrees

The south and west sides are in sunlight. This stage lasts from 1:40 p.m. to 5:10 p.m.

270 degrees until sunset

The west and north sides are in sunlight. This stage lasts from 5:10 p.m. until sunset.

* – Note: If the building is not on a north/south axis, it is still easy to calculate when the light will change. Simply figure out how many degrees the building is oriented from north, and then add or subtract that interval to the light shift intervals. For example, the north side of my house is actually about 26 degrees west of north. To figure out when there will be a major light shift, I subtract 26 from 90, 180, and 270 respectively, and then read the azimuth table. (return to text)

Value does all the work; color takes all the credit.

I saw this quote on a bulletin board a while back, and it has become one of my favorites. There are so many times people have looked at my work and said: “Oh, the colors are so great.” The truth is that I pay very little attention to color, but I pay a lot of attention to value. If the value structure is strong, you can do pretty much whatever you want with color.

Handprint has an striking example of why value is so important at http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color11.html.

He displays two modifications of a watercolor by Winslow Homer. On the first copy, he leaves the values intact but makes the colors the same — essentially a black and white picture. On the other copy, he retains the original colors and makes all the values the same. The second copy — with everything set to the same value — is virtually unrecognizable.

Here’s another example of a Sargent watercolor. There’s no way the shadow under that umbrella was bright viridian. No reflected light from the grass is going to bounce that much green into a shadow, and yet it’s a very convincing image.

Now, look at it in black and white. The color is wild, but the values are right on the mark.

Hopefully, these examples will convince you of the importance of strong values. So, now the question becomes how to think in terms of value. Ultimately, you will have to resolve this question for yourself. Books and other folks can share pointers and advice, but no two people will do it exactly the same way. It’s an ongoing journey. However, here are a few things that have helped me:

• Try to arrange your painting into no more than 12 shapes of 3 or 4 values. The fewer shapes and values the better. I usually try to think of 3 values: light, middle, and dark.

  We recently had a Andrew Wyeth exhibit here, and I was astounded at how simple the compositions were. Even with all the details and the drybrush technique, he only used a handful of shapes.

  As a rule, a scene will have a lot more than 12 shapes. And sometimes you won’t be able to get it down to 12 shapes. All the same, it’s always good to think about how you are going to join and minimize your shapes.

• The eye is going to be attracted to the area of greatest contrast, so I try to put my lightest light and my darkest dark near the center of interest.
• I try to establish a very definite value — sometimes a middle value and sometimes a dark value — at the start of my painting. (And I usully try to establish this area in some place that I can adjust later if necessary. In otherwords, I rarely start off with a complex shadow shape that will look overworked if I have to go in for a second pass at the value.) Establishing a strong value up front breaks the white of the page and gives me something against which to judge all my subsequent values. You tend to see values relative to other values, and if the only value you have to compare to is white, then it’s easy to misjudge a value. You’ll think something is a nice, middle value, and then you realize later in the painting that it is actually very light.