Concave & Convex, Ruffles & folds

[dianecty]

Hi Susan!  I am a new member and have always loved your work.  I have all your dvds.  In one of your dvds,  you mention that in order to have form, you must change the color temperature.  What does this mean?

If my local color is warm, then my shadows should be cool and vice versa?  How would you use this idea when doing folds and ruffles, portraying concave & convex items?  Where do you place your strokes (in folds and ruffles) and how do you stroke - is it supposed to be all the same value or a graduated value?  In what direction should the stroke be?

I am so confused and have been experimenting all to no avail.

Thanks a lot for your patience in teaching us!!!

[Susan Harrison-Tustain]

Hi Diane

Welcome to the forum. I am sure you will enjoy the great community we have here.
Lots of questions in your post!

You ask what I mean by: "in order to have form, you must change the color temperature.  What does this mean?"

What I mean is that you can describe form by using colour temperature. This is a cylinder. You can make it look like a flat plain if you paint it with one colour temperature. But by making one side warm and one side cool  - you will create the appearance of a rounded cylinder.

The same goes for a ball, a peach, a face, and arm - everything that is not flat.


Question:
If my local color is warm, then my shadows should be cool and vice versa? 

Answer:
This is not always the case. A typical outside light would be cool and the shadows warm. Inside (when not affected by natural light through a window) - a typical lighting would be warm and the shadows cool.

There are exceptions - but this is generally how it is

Question:
How would you use this idea when doing folds and ruffles, portraying concave & convex items? 

Answer:
You simply place warm against cool and cool next to warm.
Look at my painting below. Can you see the ruffles in the edges of the rhododendron? You can see I have used line,  tone and I have also used warm against cool to describe the ruffle.

Question:
Where do you place your strokes (in folds and ruffles) and how do you stroke - is it supposed to be all the same value or a graduated value?  In what direction should the stroke be?

Answer:
I always stroke in the direction of the fold in the fabric
You will have seen my priming method in my dvd. This is what you do. You lay in your colours into the primed paper. Ensure you prime outside the areas you wish to paint though - as well as where you want the paint to be. This way you will get a soft graduated edge rather than a hard edge. Hard edges are used to describe sharp edges - not rolls of fabric

It is the same when you want to paint a petal that has undulations as below. Check out the images in the gallery of my new website
http://www.susanart.com
You will see how I have painted many dresses and skirts using this method.

You will also see many of these things in the flowers etc on my dvds.

Hope that helps
Susan

[dianecty]

Hi Susan!  I am so honored to be "talking" to you!  Thank you for taking the time to answer all my questions.  I am obviously a newbie and am trying to learn all I can.

The lily that I am painting now is red or a very dark orange.  I will try to use Naphthol red as my warm and Alizarin Crimson as my cool & main color.  Let's see what happens.    The last try I  used Naphthol red as my main color (warm) and Schmincke Deep Red - cool as my shadow color.  I don't think it worked so I am trying the opposite.

Thanks Susan!

Hi Diane

Welcome to the forum. I am sure you will enjoy the great community we have here.
Lots of questions in your post!

You ask what I mean by: "in order to have form, you must change the color temperature.  What does this mean?"

What I mean is that you can describe form by using colour temperature. This is a cylinder. You can make it look like a flat plain if you paint it with one colour temperature. But by making one side warm and one side cool  - you will create the appearance of a rounded cylinder.

The same goes for a ball, a peach, a face, and arm - everything that is not flat.


Question:
If my local color is warm, then my shadows should be cool and vice versa? 

Answer:
This is not always the case. A typical outside light would be cool and the shadows warm. Inside (when not affected by natural light through a window) - a typical lighting would be warm and the shadows cool.

There are exceptions - but this is generally how it is

Question:
How would you use this idea when doing folds and ruffles, portraying concave & convex items? 

Answer:
You simply place warm against cool and cool next to warm.
Look at my painting below. Can you see the ruffles in the edges of the rhododendron? You can see I have used line,  tone and I have also used warm against cool to describe the ruffle.

Question:
Where do you place your strokes (in folds and ruffles) and how do you stroke - is it supposed to be all the same value or a graduated value?  In what direction should the stroke be?

Answer:
I always stroke in the direction of the fold in the fabric
You will have seen my priming method in my dvd. This is what you do. You lay in your colours into the primed paper. Ensure you prime outside the areas you wish to paint though - as well as where you want the paint to be. This way you will get a soft graduated edge rather than a hard edge. Hard edges are used to describe sharp edges - not rolls of fabric

It is the same when you want to paint a petal that has undulations as below. Check out the images in the gallery of my new website
http://www.susanart.com
You will see how I have painted many dresses and skirts using this method.

You will also see many of these things in the flowers etc on my dvds.

Hope that helps
Susan

[Renee]

Diane, welcome! It is nice to have another newbie on here with us.
Renee

[dianecty]

Hi Renee! Thanks for your warm welcome.  It is nice to be here in the company of watercolor and Susan enthusiasts!  I have so many questions and have a lot to learn.

Diane

Diane, welcome! It is nice to have another newbie on here with us.
Renee

[poppycat]

Hello dianecty, Hello and welcome, I would love to see your lily painting when it is completed, the colours sound so warm and colourful, I hope that it is a success for you, please let us know how you get on.  Kindest regards, Patricia.

[Renee]

This is the perfect place to be for those who want to learn. You will love it here. If you are like me, you are like a sponge. LOL!

Hi Renee! Thanks for your warm welcome.  It is nice to be here in the company of watercolor and Susan enthusiasts!  I have so many questions and have a lot to learn.

Diane

Diane, welcome! It is nice to have another newbie on here with us.
Renee

[marylka]

Welcome Diane,
You can ask away ,we will be happy to help.
Marylka

[dianecty]

Hi guys!  Thanks for the very warm welcome.  Here is my finished lily.  I did put warm against cool and vice versa but still no effect.  Have any of you used this technique? Any tips?

Diane

[marylka]

Hi guys!  Thanks for the very warm welcome.  Here is my finished lily.  I did put warm against cool and vice versa but still no effect.  Have any of you used this technique? Any tips?

Diane

Hi Diane,
The color of you lily is different to the ref pic do you want it to be the same ?what colors have you used, for the deep area where the stamens join is very dark you may need to use alizarin crimson with a touch of phthalo blue with your local color.Have you viewed your colors through the punched hole or my bigger viewer to see where the color shifts happens. We do use warm against cool as that gives the subject form it's not necessarily one side of a petal, it's where part of the petal is facing the light or is in shadow then we use cool facing light, warm facing shadow area.
marylka

[Renee]

I love lily's! What kind of lily is yours Diane? It looks sort of like a tiger lily, but the ones that grow around here are orange. There are so many kids of lily's. One of my favorite flowers. Yours is a beautiful deep red color. I love both the red and orange ones! Here are 2 tiger lily photos of the orange ones.
It does not matter of you chose it the same color as the reference. It can be any lily color you want, as long as you have the correct depth of color and shadow.
If you intend for your lily to be orange, I would put a little touch of Alizarin into a bit of warm sap green and put into the deepest crevice of your lily for depth. It will be a deep dark warmth inside the dark crevice above within where the stamens grow out. Even if those stamens in the reference the are the same shade as the petals, it will be better to darken the head of the stamens so they stand out a little more. A little shadow or deeper color behind the stamen stocks, will help them show up as well and for that I would use Alizarin Crimson.
Your painting is lovely Diane. Just needs a touch more depth. In a Video Susan made of her painting a lily, she warned to be careful about using blue on the orange colors because it will deaden the flower and it will lose its luster. "Since it is already very orange, I would avoid blue and use alizarin in those areas instead. Use just a little sap green with the darkest local color where you want shadow. I would put No blue in the shadows of this lily. But I could be wrong.