Watercolor and More - YUPO paper demo

A Painting Demo:

Applying watercolor paints

with a palette knife on YUPO synthetic paper

Water Under the Bridge

by Janice Tingum

Watercolor on YUPO synthetic paper

Materials:

One 9" x 12" sheet of 74 lb. YUPO synthetic paper to paint on One sheet of YUPO paper to use as a palette HB Portfolio Aqua Sketch pencil #4 palette knife #3 white nylon round brush #2 while nylon round brush #2 script brush
Winsor & Newton Artists' Watercolor paints: Permanent Rose Viridian Cadmium Orange Burnt Umber Aurora Yellow Cadmium Lemon
Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolor paints: Hooker's Green Dark Intense Blue (Phthalo Blue) Rose Madder Hue Chinese White

Inspiration:

This old brick bridge stands guard over a stream in Duluth, MN. The fall trees were steadily dropping their colorful leaves. I decided to experiment on this scene by painting with a palette knife in a manner similar to that used with oil paints, but using watercolor paints straight out of the tube.

Notes: This method of painting uses very little water. In the most intense areas of color, no water was added to the paint. Thus, the paint dries quickly, both on the painting and on the palette. Therefore, don't squeeze out too much paint at one time. It's better to add fresh paint from the tube as you go along. Although the paint dried quickly in this painting, I noticed that some colors, especially the tree leaves, remained tacky to the touch even a day later.

Process:

I drew the image on the YUPO paper with an Aqua Sketch pencil.

On the other sheet of YUPO paper (the palette), I squeezed out portions of Permanent Rose, Hooker's Green Dark and Intense Blue (Phthalo Blue). The amount I squeezed out of each tube to begin with was about the size of an eraser on the end of a pencil. As I painted, I added to the paint portions as necessary.

Using a palette knife, I mixed these three colors to create a dark color. I did not use any water at this stage. Treating the paint like oil or acrylic paints, I used the bottom side of the palette knife to pick up some of the mixed paint and spread it like butter onto my painting. I carefully filled in the darkest areas under the bridge this way.

Painting the dark area under the bridge and the darkest part of the water:

When I reached the area where the water is more transparent, I dipped the palette knife in water and slightly diluted the paint with it. This caused the paint to spread more thinly on the paper, exposing the blends of blue, green and red.

A close-up shows the textural marks created by the palette knife:

Next, using the #3 paintbrush, I painted the tree trunks using long strokes of burnt umber, varied with touches of yellow, orange and blue. The first layer seemed too light, so after that dried I applied darker strokes of paint to add texture and depth to the trunks. I used the script brush to paint the smaller tree branches. I also used a diluted mixture of the blue to sketch in a few distant tree branches above the bridge.

For the first tree leaves, I dipped the bottom side of the palette knife tip into the Aurora Yellow paint and dabbed the paint onto the painting. I repeated this process with the Cadmium Yellow and the Cadmium Orange. For the light green color, I mixed up a small amount of the Hooker's Green Dark with Aurora Yellow on the palette.

Close-up of the tree trunks and leaves:

The white cement areas of the bridge were subtly toned with diluted blue and diluted red paint. The bricks on the bridge were painted in part with a brush and in part with the palette knife, varying the colors from brick to brick. I used the Permanent Rose, Cadmium Orange, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Yellow, Aurora Yellow, as well as leftovers of the dark water paint mixture, to build the bricks. I painted the bricks in light values first, and then darkened the bricks as I proceeded until it reached a value that matched the tree trunks. The shadow lines between bricks and the outlining around the cement portions of the bridge were painted with the script brush using the dark water color (blue plus green plus perm. rose).

Because of the thickness of the undiluted tube paints, I could dab on yellow and orange leaves directly over the brick colors.

Close-up of bridge:

The foreground leaves on the left were painted with a palette knife similar to the leaves in the trees. I applied strokes of Burnt Umber for the earth color. The pinkish leaves were created by mixing Chinese White with Rose Madder Hue. Because the white paint was not smooth and soft like the colored paints, I needed to add a little water to this mixture to bring it to a spreading texture.

I diluted the blue paint with a little water to create a more transparent color for the right foreground. I applied the paint loosely with the #3 brush, intentionally leaving white areas to suggest action in the water.

The rocks were painted with diluted purples (blue and red mix) and burnt umber. I lightly blotted the wet paint on the rocks with a tissue to provide textural effects. After that had dried, I re-evaluated the rocks and used a damp #2 brush to lift paint from brightest sun-lit areas of the rocks. I also lifted off paint in the water where it hit the front of the rocks. The nice thing about YUPO paper is the ability to wipe off paint, even thick dry paint, to get back to the original white of the paper.

Close-up of rocks:

I made a few touch-ups, dropping leaves into the water, adding the scenery on the other side of the bridge as seen through the arch, and signed the painting.

The leftover paint on my palette dried fast. Once dried, it would no longer be usable for the thick palette knife painting technique, but could still be sprayed with water and used for brushwork in other watercolor painting projects.

Click on image above to purchase

YUPO synthetic paper from Dick Blick.

Watercolor & More is a Dick Blick Affiliate.

Creating Texture

With Watercolor

YUPO Synthetic Paper

an ebook by Janice Tingum

Price: $19.95

This is an e-book. It will be delivered as a .pdf attachment to the e-mail address by which you make your purchase within 24 hours of receipt of payment.

Packed with 20 demonstrations and over 60 illustrations, this ebook provides instruction for painting with watercolors on YUPO synthetic paper.

Discover the techniques to create paintings filled with exciting texture.

Create texture with plastic wrap
Special effects with two pieces of paper
Lifting and applying paint
Texture & color with cheesecloth
Using various resists on synthetic paper
Blotting, sanding and negative shapes
Dropping in texture

Comments about Creating Texture with Watercolor & YUPO Synthetic Paper:

Hello Janice:

I'm new at working with Yupo, so I need all the help I can get. I found your e-book to be just what I needed.

There is a lot of information there. You have layed it out so well, with easy to follow steps that anyone would appreciate.

I particularly enjoyed the section of "wet-on-wet". This is the area where I've been experimenting with amazing results.

I would certainly recommend your e-book to anyone wanting to explore the wonderful world of Yupo.

Once again, thank you for your work in putting together this great e-book. I'm sure it will be well received.

Cheers, Barb

A sampling of illustrations from CreatingTexture with Watercolor & YUPO Synthetic Paper:

(all artwork by Janice Tingum)

Frosty Morning