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01. The Theme - In the past few years watercolor has assumed the importance in the art world it rightly deserves. Watercolor with its freshness and vitality has an appeal distinctly its own. Today the old style of watercolor painting, which was largely thin washes over pencil, has been so developed that in its place we now find paintings of a depth and permanency that previously could have been achieved only in other mediums.

02. Materials - My attitude toward materials may be summed up by paraphrasing the old adage that just as you can't be a good carpenter without good tools, so you can't be a good watercolorist without good materials.

Even the beginner, who must spoil and throw away a lot of paper, should not start off with too cheap a grade of paper. Adequate machine-made rag-content papers are available for practice.

03. Palette - The organized planning of the palette is a great aid to competent painting. Too often the beginner fails to realize the necessity of instinctively knowing where a particular color lies on his palette. Just as a typist automatically reaches for his keys, so a painter should automatically reach for his colors.

Shown on the facing page is my palette (not necessarily the only arrangement) starting with the warm colors — yellow ochre,

04. Composition - The structure of a painting should attract the eye to its central theme, which is called its center of interest. If it does this, the painting begins, at least, to be a good composition. But the center of interest must be supported by other elements in the painting. In the case of the drawings on the facing page, the preliminary sketch, named Gaspe, has as its center of interest the little group of houses in the lower foreground.

05. Figure - The figure is included in this book for the benefit of those readers who have studied in life classes and who have had some basic training in figure drawing and anatomy. Figure painting is not for the beginner. However, those who lack the required experience may find in this section of the book enough stimulation to arouse an interest in drawing the figure.

06. Color - Unlike some teachers of watercolor, I advise students to start painting as soon as a satisfactory drawing is completed. So let's start right in with a simple explanation of value and color. Value, according to Webster, is "the relation of one part or detail in a picture to another with respect to lightness and darkness." You will see value sketches in black and white throughout this book.

07. Special Effects - Smoke and smoke effects in watercolor are actually deleted rather than painted. The area surrounding the smoke plays a more important role than the smoke itself. This area should be painted in a cool note—lean toward blue and the cooler colors to accentuate the smokiness of the sponged area.

In starting the picture on the opposite page, I painted the entire background mountain to assure myself of the proper values in their entirety.

08. Trees - Opposite is a step-by-step demonstration of how to paint thickly wooded areas. After the pencil drawing is completed, paint in the light general tone of the entire area facing you (in this case it happens to be dense areas of browns) before attempting any of the trunks or structures. The white birch in the foreground will have Maskoid over it to protect the whites while other color washes are being applied.

09. Landscapes - There are times when one is struck, by a breath-taking scene that may never be encountered again. The color picture I did which is shown on page 75 resulted from just such an experience. Should you lack a camera in a similar situation, put your pencil to use and do a quick sketch of the scene with detailed pencil notes about the actual color.

10. Windows - One of the most frequent queries I've had during my years of teaching is "How do you paint a window?" It is essential to learn this if you are to paint buildings successfully. A window, of course, is transparent, but often it also is a reflecting agent.           
 
At the bottom of the page are three stages in painting a window. First, apply a wash of Payne's gray and yellow ochre.

11. Texture - On the opposite page are two very commonplace subjects in Connecticut—an old barn and a stone wall. The silvery quality and rotten, weather-beaten wood, complete with knot holes and rusty hinges, make the barn an intriguing subject for professional and amateur artist alike. This also applies to the picturesque New England stone wall. Both subjects are a challenge to any artist because of the subtleties of textures involved.

12. Edges - When you get the feeling that an object has that "pasted in" look, you can be sure that there is something wrong with your edges. Notice in the top painting on the facing page, "Acoma, New Mexico," the outlined or hard edge throughout the picture. I call this a railroad track. Nothing is left to the imagination and all textures suffer. When looking at nature, half-close your eyes and see how few really hard edges there are.

13. Interiors - In choosing an interior to paint, pick something that is of special interest. "Allen's Clam House," on the facing page, is an example of an unusual subject.

In the top picture of the three thumbnail sketches shown at right, I planned to show a complete interior of this Westport clam house. On second thought, I felt that the picture would be more interesting if it showed a bit of both interior and exterior (center sketch).

14. Street Scene - The street scene shown on the opposite page and the one shown in the frontispiece are interesting vignettes of the seamier aspects of city life.

Before painting either of these pictures, I took a number of photographs, finally choosing, in "Third Avenue," the period of day when the lighting conditions were most interesting—around 4 p.m. I did not paint either of these pictures on the spot but used knowledge acquired on location for a more detailed and interesting studio rendition.

15. Use of Forms - I cannot stress enough the use of abstract shapes in composing a picture. In landscape painting there are large forms such as hills, roads, trees, buildings. Look for these forms before starting the composition. You can see the basic form more readily with eyes that are half-closed. After studying the subject, arrange the large shapes where they are most helpful to your composition.

16. Seascapes - On the facing page are two contrasting beach scenes. One, with breaking surf, the other with the receding tide and calm. In the upper picture, I first painted the sky and background—the background, of course, meaning the sea itself where the water breaks against the rocks. Here, Maskoid would be very useful to cover the whitecap area of the waves and the mat knife can be used for the bits of spray (see page 97).

17. Planning + Selection - In choosing the scene you are to photograph, be sure not only that it serves your purpose but that it stimulates and excites you. You cannot do a commendable piece of work unless you are deeply interested in the        subject matter. In this case, you can refer to the final watercolor on pages 104 and 105 to see the kind of inspiration I got from this particular snapshot.   

18. Acknowledgment - In conclusion, the author wishes to express his appreciation to Gregory Dickson for his valuable assistance during the preparation of this book; for permission to use "3rd Avenue," from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rolf Klep and for permission to use "No Skating" from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Prosnit.

THE END