The viewfinder with crosshairs scratched into the Plexiglas.

 

The selected view.

 

“Days before I head out to paint, I use acrylic gel medium to mount Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper to sheets of Masonite and I grab a few small (8” x 10”) loose sheets for sketching,” Kinney explains. “When I get to a good painting site, I lay out my supplies and set up my easel, look through a viewfinder mounted with a plexiglas overlay with quadrant lines scratched into it in order to facilitate locating potential compositions, and do a careful monochromatic sketch of the scene, observing how the light and shadows fall to freeze those moments for later reference. Success with watercolor is all about thinking about the sequential applications of colors, and the sketch helps me work out a plan for a larger, full-color painting.

 

The monochromatic value sketch.

 

“As I develop the sketch I alway hear Ed Whitney’s (1894-1987) voice in my head repeating the advice he gave in workshops until he was well into his 80s,” Kinney recalls. “He had solid recommendations about establishing a center of interest, repeating shapes and colors, and interpreting nature. He would say things like ‘designing a painting is like designing a dragon. You can do what you want because no one has seen a dragon.’ Or he would describe the goal of painting by saying ‘painting is like buying a coat. The important things are how it looks and how it feels.’

 

The painting after the first layers of transparent watercolors.

 

“If I’m satisfied I have a reasonably good plan, I put one of the prepared boards in my easel with the painting surface tilted at a 30-40% angle so the paint flows without running completely off the paper,” Kinney says. “I transfer quadrant lines from my value sketch to the watercolor board, then I quickly sketch the major shapes in the composition with a graphite pencil, keeping in mind where the points of interest are within those four quadrants. If those graphite lines are too heavy I might erase them, but most of the time I let them show through the finished paint so viewers might find evidence of how I created the watercolor.”

 

The completed painting: Nobody Home, 2010, watercolor, 11 x 14. Collection the artist.

 

From that point on, Kinney follows the traditional approach to watercolor, reserving the white of the paper for the brightest highlights and building up the layers of transparent color from the lightest to the darkest values. He uses an aquarelle brush with a wide, angled, flat edge that allows him to paint sharp lines, broad washes, or marks that widen as he turns the brush in his fingers. “I first painted with a flat oil painting brush, but Frank Webb convinced me to use a wide 2” or 3” brush and manipulate that to make all the various marks I needed,” Kinney explains. “I also have a clean palette knife I use for drawing thin lines and one round brush I use to sign my name."

“I have two plastic John Pike watercolor palettes, one I take on location and the other I leave in my studio, and both are filled with the exact same pigments in the same locations (see the box at the end of the article),” Kinney goes on to explain. “I dampen the entire surface of the paper and cover about 75% of the painting with a thin layer of transparent color (reserving the white for the highlights). That dries very quickly here in Arizona, so I can immediately follow up by painting the middle-value colors and middle sized shapes incorporating appropriate variety of edge: crisp, soft, ragged; and lost, then apply needed details on the mid-sized shapes over the well-integrated background.”

For more information, read the complete article on Raleigh Kinney in the Fall digital edition of PleinAir, or visit the artist’s website at www.kinneywatercolors.com.