The scene Evansen is painting in this demonstration
The artist’s Joe Miller Watercolor Easel with a Payne’s gray value study being painted with the colors taken from the John Pike palette to the right
The completed Payne’s gray value study (7” x 10”)
“I trained as a medical illustrator and spend much of my time creating tight, detailed illustrations, so I have to make a conscious effort to break from that to paint the kinds of loose, expressive watercolors I admire by painters like John Singer Sargent, Trevor Chamberlain, Alvaro Castagnet, and Eric Wiegardt,” say Andy Evansen. “It really helps to make small preliminary value studies of a subject so I can then be freer with my response to the scene. I use the studies to evaluate potential compositions and define three basic values — the bright white of the reserved paper, a large medium value shape, and the dark calligraphic lines that define the focal point.
After completing the value study, Evansen draws the outlines of the shapes on another sheet of 300-pound Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper
With his paper clipped to the easel, the artist applies broad washes of transparent local colors throughout the landscape
“I don’t always make value sketches, but when I do they help me focus on the essential elements of a picture and eliminate extraneous details,” Evansen explains. “Going through the exercise of making the sketch prepares me to paint larger watercolors with confidence and direction because I’ve made all the key decisions about mixing the right values and applying them in a deliberate, sequential manner. OIl painters may be able to keep reworking a painting until they get it resolved, but when a watercolorist does that it’s likely the colors will become dense and muddy, and the picture will be confusing. One stroke of watercolor paint that has the right hue and intensity is better than ten hesitant marks because it has the kind of brilliance and freshness that is the hallmark of a great watercolor painting.
He then paints the medium-valued colors with a large round brush and fluid washes of watercolor paint, using his value study as a reminder
“Students have a tendency to paint isolated objects instead of seeing the possibilities of using connected shapes,” Evansen goes on to explain. “They can overload a watercolor painting with too much information because they’ve worked almost exclusively from photographs. That’s a recipe for a disconnected plein air painting. The students would be more successful making one broad statement about their observations rather than painting isolated details. It takes discipline to learn to see this way.”
Using thicker mixtures of paint and more calligraphic strokes of the round brush, Evansen marks the case shadows on the barn and across the land
The complete painting: ‘The Schaffer Farm’, 2011, watercolor, 10” x 14”. Collection Charles and Mary Schaffer
Evansen explains that value studies can be completed in five minutes or less before an artist commits to painting a larger, full-color watercolor. He recommends creating studies on 7” x 10” blocks of Arches watercolor paper. “I use a Joe Miller Signature Field Easel, which holds my John Pike plastic palette on the extension attached to the right side,” he explains. “Working in a standing position, I quickly draw the outlines of the main shapes in graphite. I then use a round Silver Black Velvet brush and Winsor & Newton Payne’s gray to paint big areas with a medium value wash, allowing the white of the paper to indicate the light value shapes in the composition. Finally, I load the brush with a darker mixture of gray and use the tip to paint linear outlines, cast shadows, and large dark masses.”
