Rubin Wolf - Splash 9: watercolor secrets: the best of watercolor

Sunny Flowers Daryl Bryant

15" 15" (38cm 38cm)

Street Scene Rhoda Yanow

38" 32" (97cm 81cm)

Go Your Own Way
In this painting I was going after the beat, or rhythm, of the street. When I am looking for a subject to paintand I am always looking for something that excites me until the right momentI sometimes find a subject thats banal, but I consider it up to me, as the artist, to give it. One afternoon, I looked down the street and saw a lot of movement, men were working, children were coming home from school. I did some rapid sketching and started to do a paste-up of the composition when I got home.

I exaggerate movement by exaggerating diagonals. The wheelbarrows shape leads the eye to the dynamic worker. In another diagonal, the children coming home from a day at school, there is such rhythm in their bodies. The street, again another diagonal, keeps it from being boring. Everyone has a purpose, going in different directions.

Splash

THE BEST OF WATERCOLOR

Edited by Rachel Rubin Wolf

watercolor secrets

www.artistsnetwork.com

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Rachel Rubin Wolf is a freelance editor and artist. She edits and writes fine art books for North Light Books, including the Splash series (Best of Watercolor); The Best of Wildlife Art (editions 1 & 2); The Best of Portrait Painting; The Best of Flower Painting 2; The Acrylic Painters Book of Styles and Techniques; Painting Ships, Shores and the Sea; and Painting the Many Moods of Light. She also has acquired numerous new fine art book projects and authors for North Light Books, and is the contributing writer for Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to the editors, designers and staff at North Light Books who have made this into the beautiful final product it is, including Jamie Markle, Mark Griffin, Mona Michael, Guy Kelly and Amanda Metcalf. A special thanks to Vanessa Lyman who has been the foreman on the job, keeping it all together.

A special thanks also to the contributing artists. As I have said in my introduction, you have been great! You have been so willing to share and revise and send me more. I honestly count a number of you as friends, though the finite limits of space and time restrict the expression of that friendship. I long, as many of you do, for the fullness of the beauty we appreciate on this earth to come to fruition. For now, we can only imitate the wonder we see; one day we shall truly enter into it.

Splash 9: Watercolor Secrets The Best of Watercolor. Copyright 2006 by Rachel Rubin Wolf. Manufactured in China. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by North Light Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45236. (800) 289-0963. First Edition.

Other fine North Light Books are available from your local bookstore, art supply store or direct from the publisher.

10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1

DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY FRASER DIRECT
100 Armstrong Avenue
Georgetown, ON, Canada L7G 5S4
Tel: (905) 877-4411

DISTRIBUTED IN THE U.K. AND EUROPE BY DAVID & CHARLES
Brunel House, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 4PU, England
Tel: (+44) 1626 323200, Fax: (+44) 1626 323319
Email: mail@davidandcharles.co.uk

DISTRIBUTED IN AUSTRALIA BY CAPRICORN LINK
P.O. Box 704, S. Windsor NSW, 2756 Australia
Tel: (02) 4577-3555

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data---updated to come

Rubin Wolf, Rachel

Splash 9 watercolor scenes : the best of watercolor / Rachel Rubin Wolf.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-58180-694-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-58180-694-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 978-1-60061-577-1 (EPUB)

1. Watercolor painting--Technique. I. Title: Splash nine watercolor secrets. II. Title.

ND2420.R83 2006 2006002778

751.422--dc22

Production edited by Vanessa Lyman

Designed by Guy Kelly

Production art by Lisa Holstein

Production coordinated by Matt Wagner

The Crab Basket Betty Ganley

20" 14" (52cm 37cm)

Reflect on Reflections
When painting water, remember that you actually are painting reflections. My general rule is to start by wetting a blue sky reflection with water. Then, starting at the farthest point, I apply a graded wash of more cobalt and less cerulean that has a touch of burnt sienna to tone down the brightness. When dry, I repeatperhaps several timesto get the desired depth of color. You can enhance a solitary boat scene with reflections of unseen objects. You can place such reflections with an artists purpose, aiming to add balance to the painting. Use a long, thick reflection on one side balanced with a few short, thin reflections on the other, for example. Then use a rigger brush to design ropes and lines in an undulating fashion to act as pathways through the reflection. If the reflected object also appears in the painting, get the placement right by painting the reflections with your eye level exactly even with the object itself. It is also a great idea to add a touch of the complementary color in the center of interest; in this case the burnt orange of the crab basket helps balance all the blue and acts as a magnet for the eye.

Table of Contents

Whether traveling the world or walking to your own city's beat, there is action and beauty to be found in the streets, lanes and plazas of village and city alike.

There are no more watercolory qualities than these. They are what make watercolors sing.

Watercolor lends itself to the broad wash, but also can be the unrivaled master of fine detail.

There shouldnt be any stop signs in your studio. Have fun; its just paper!