- Inspiration: Georgia O’Keeffe’s Watercolors
- Hills & Dunes in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Landscapes
- Georgia O’Keeffe’s Landscapes Showing Atmospheric Perspective
- Atmospheric Perspective in Landscape
- Watercolor Edges
- Mixing complementary colors for neutrals and darks
- Reference Photos for In-Class Project
Inspiration: Georgia O’Keeffe’s Watercolors
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Watercolors from the O’Keeffe Museums’s collection online
An excellent essay with images on O’Keeffe’s watercolors
Georgia O’Keeffe’s use of wet-in-wet and glazing techniques:
About “Red and Green II” Georgia O’Keeffe, 1916 Watercolor on paper.
Hills & Dunes in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Landscapes
One of the locations in New Mexico that inspired many of her paintings from the 1940s is a “badland” area a little more than 100 miles to the west of Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu in the middle of Navajo country. She called the area the Black Place. With the roads not being what they are today, her trips to the Black Place were serious expeditions that included several days of camping out with one of her friends at her chosen painting location.
– Georgia O’Keeffe’s Black Place
Above: Georgia O’Keeffe, Lavender Hill with Green, 1952, Oil on canvas, 12″ x 27″
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Landscapes Showing Atmospheric Perspective
If we look for landscapes painted in the western world in the 20th century, we notice that some of Georgia O’Keeffe’s landscapes often provide us wonderful inspirations for understanding some of these principles of graduated layering to study and learn from.
Atmospheric Perspective in Landscape
One of the most effective ways to show spatial depth in 2D art is to use the design principle of gradation. Based on the elements and principles of art, we can investigate further the principles of gradation and focus (emphasis) — as they offer very important and effective ways to show a sense of depth or illusion of space.
Visual Principle of Gradation
Gradation is achieved through gradual and incremental changes in certain elements of design such as: shape, size, color value and texture/pattern. Integrating certain elements based on the principle of graduation to create gradation in tones, texture, values, pattern, placement, and definition (sharp vs soft edge) can be used for manipulating focus and creating distance.
- Diminishing size
- Change in values
- Vertical placement
- Definition (change in focus and details)
- Overlap
The result can be seen as Atmospheric Perspective (compilation of images on a Pinterest board).
Atmospheric perspective is most commonly used in landscape painting and historically-speaking, the concept was developed and utilized extensively in Far-eastern Asian art, specifically in the classical art of China, Korea, and Japan.
Role of Gradation in Atmospheric or Areal Perspective
Gradation of color and tone, from warm to cool and dark to light produce aerial perspective. As tone becomes lighter and colors become cooler, apparent distance increases.
Atmospheric Perspective in Nature:
Atmospheric Perspective in Classical Far Eastern Asian Art
While we see the use of atmospheric perspective utilized in traditional paintings from Far-East Asia the most — some of these classical examples also create spatial ambiguity as an aesthetic style while using some of the incremental changes in values but no necessarily size and vertical placement:
Revisiting The Basic Visual Concepts
The two images below placed side by side show how repeating a motif without changing anything makes the image look flat (left) but repeating (right) the same motif by following the principle of gradation or incremental changes in various elements creates a sense of depth, resulting in a composition with atmospheric perspective.
The Order May Be Reversed On A Darker Background
What happens if it’s night-scene and when the background is dark?
The same rules or principles of gradation (incremental increase or decrease) apply in reverse order if the background is dark instead of light. This is also applicable in a darker toned interior scene or a still life with a dark background.
Step-by-Step Lesson For a Focused Exercise on Graduated Layering
Through a focused exercise of layering watercolor washes, we can explore the concept of atmospheric perspective achieved through graduated layering to paint a landscape.
Atmospheric Landscapes by Sudeshna Sengupta
Watercolor Edges
https://drawpaintacademy.com/edges/Links to an external site.
https://debiriley.com/2016/02/17/the-3-edges-of-watercolor/Links to an external site.
Pinterest Board with examples of the use of lost and found edges in watercolor
Timing is crucial in maintaining the moisture content in the paper and the resultant paint blending ability in the wet areas in a watercolor painting. While it can be affected by the weather, temperature, humidity, or tools such as hair dryer or water spray, it will still go through different stage of wetness. Based on what kind of edge you want to create in an area — you plan and estimate the amount of moisture and time while the paper is still wet or even slightly damp. Described below, are some of the steps to follow in order to develop the ability to predict the edges. Ultimately, this comes from experience gained through focused practice.
- Look for the shine – If the paper is still wet, you will see some wet shine on it, and that’s the time to put in soft edges and it will blend right in!
- Feel it with your hand – Don’t be afraid to touch your painting, as long as you do it very softly, it won’t affect the paint much. If you see me paint you often see me feel my paper with the back of my finger. I do that AFTER the shine of the wetness is gone. Because the shine can fade away but the paper is still moist. At that stage, it’s usually the best for you not to introduce more paint on it and let it resolve itself unless you want to achieve the look of back-run and a mix of lost and found edges on purpose, which can be exciting if integrated and utilized well.
- Do a small test – The above two step can almost guarantee you to know the wetness. But you can always do a small test. Mix the paint you are going to use and before laying down a big wash. Paint a tiny spot and see how the paint react. If it reacts as expected, you’re good to go! If not, then wait a bit more and don’t worry, a tiny spot won’t ruin the whole painting.
- When you wait for the first layer to dry completely before you introduce a second layer — you get a sharp edge that’s useful for defining shapes or planer shifts. This is called is glazing.
It is important to know what type of edge to use when you paint, and how to predict and achieve the desired look.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-DaHGJXtk98
Color Mixing
When mixing colors, especially for a wide range of neutral colors to describe nature and land formations, always think of the color wheel and the relationship between the colors you are mixing to predict the result. Sets of complementary colors such as, Cerulean Blue+Pthalo Blue and Pyrolle Orange, Ultramarine Blue and burnt Sienna, Viridian (Pthalo) Green and Madder Lake Deep can produce some of the most colorful grays and the richest darks.
Mixing complementary colors for neutrals and darks
From Jim Ames’ Color Theory Made Easy:
| | |
| | |
White Sands
Reference Photos for In-Class Project
Sandhills & Dunes of at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico
Pinterest Board with images featuring sand dunes.
Images above are from istockphoto
Image above: from 500experiences.com
Above photo from Boarding Pass Traveler blog. Photos are copyrighted.
Copyrighted photos of sand dunes at the White Sands National Park in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Watercolors:
Above: Watercolor of White Sands by artist Pat Beatty of Alamogordo, NM, shared as an example of a beautiful depiction of lost and found edges in watercolor to describe sand dunes in NM.
More images: White Sands photos by Jess Lee (copyrighted)
Enjoy!
Instructor contact information: SudeshnasArt@gmail.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/santafe_online_art_studio
Notes & Doodles 