David Rankin’s2 1 s t C e n t u r y P D F Tr a i n i n g

Transparent Watercolor Skills

Working with Kautzky Values

March 14, 2008

Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com

D a v i d R a n k i n P D F Tr a i n i n g f o r 2 1 s t C e n t u r y Wa t e r c o l o r Pa i n t e r s

• Working fast & small to develop skills This whole issue of correct values must be confronted head on, working with a plan, and at least trying to work small, fast, and expediently. Just be-cause I’m pushing you to paint faster... that does not mean sloppy loose. It simply means faster & good!

Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com

• My Baseball Analogy Because of watercolor’s unique nature, artists tend to want to build it up slowly so hopefully to not make big mistakes. But all master watercolor painters tend to work quite fast, at least in those parts that require speed. And you develop better skills by pushing yourself to eliminate detail, work with bigger simpler shapes, better brushwork, and more distinct skills. Most times when watercolor paint-ers are asked to work quicker they tend to get sloppy and tight. But I used to be a pretty good baseball pitcher. And the way hitters train themselves to hit better... is not by having pitchers toss the ball in gentle like. Pitchers normally throw 50-75% full speed during batting practice. And the coaches will then have the best hitters practicing with full speed pitching. The idea is that you learn how to hit “heat” by see-ing it more & more. If a hitter has trouble hitting curve balls, the coach has them practice hitting nothing but curve balls starting at about 3/4 speed! Watercolor is a lot like baseball in that if you want your skills to get better, practice by paint-ing faster, eliminating detail, focus-

ing on major shapes, correct values, and good brushwork.

• Kautzky Kautzky had the very best watercolor values eyes ever. He was able to evaluate subjects by design & value rapidly and with near flawless precision. And the way he did it was not by painting big... but by sketching first... trying it out small... then banging out beauty after beauty!

So we can’t go wrong try-ing to use some of his basic skills.

Here we have these small test subjects he developed to show relative values and very simple de-sign structure. And the only goal is to try and create small 5x7” paintings working from these small B&W graphite studies he did.

The trick... is to “try” and create something working on the clock! In other words... create a small 5x7 painting in a 20-30 minute time limit... not counting the initial draw-ing! These studies are simplified and consist of only a Darkest Dark, some middle values, and the lightest values. See what you can do???

From Ted Kautzky’s Ways with Watercolor Book

• Simple Landscape It doesn’t get much simpler! But notice how dark the house & trees are. And take note of the dark/light relationship between the water and the ground around it. I don’t care what colors you use as long as you try and mimic the relative values he had in his studies. Remember... 20-30 minutes only!

• House Shadows In Kautzky’s study you’ll notice a pure white sky. This doesn’t mean he’d simply leave it white, rather this was his way of indicating that anything put into this far distant plane needed to be very light values. So I put in a light back-ground with subtle detail. But you’ll notice how the strongest darkest values follow his study.

David Rankin’s 21st Century Watercolor Training • Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com Phone: 216-932-2125

David Rankin’s 21st Century Watercolor Training • Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com Phone: 216-932-2125

Did the sky first using Reverse Gravity and a Glisten Blend half way down ...

• Poplars When I lived in Kashmir I fell in love with Poplar trees. And notice how sim-plistic his sketch is? And notice how he placed the darkest darks into the middle-distant plane.

You can see here how I followed Kautzky’s basic procedure of developing the darks first. However... I actually added a graded blend of dark Paynes Gray into Thalo Blue... into the hill... section by section... cut-ting out the tree shapes with broken edges.

You can then follow from stage to stage seeing how I developed it. But notice how the final visual effect follows quite closely to his study.

The procedure I’m trying to get you to upgrade is this ability to... create a value/de-sign study... from any subject... 1st! Then... can you follow that study through to the end without making huge variations?

Remember: It’s not about which colors to use! It’s about the relative value of these colors in their respective planes in the painting. If you get the color values correct... you can use virtually any color in virtually any part of the painting. Notice how strong and spicy the colors are in those distant trees on the right. The reason they work is because of the darkest darks in these foreground values.

David Rankin’s 21st Century Watercolor Training • Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com Phone: 216-932-2125

Did the sky first using Reverse Gravity and a Glisten Blend half way down ...

• Simple Stream Notice the value of the ground around d the shore of the stream. Can you see how dark he sketched it? Well paint that relationship that way.

Notice that my dark trees are not as dark as in his sketch... but they have the same relationship between them and the distant trees. And notice how dark the ground is under and around the trees in his sketch... then in my painting!

I did lighten the reflections in the stream from the values he indicated. But I could easily still go in a darken them if I wanted to. This way I’ve reserve creative choices till the end.

Also notice how I used soft edges in the water rather than his sharp edges?

David Rankin’s 21st Century Watercolor Training • Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com Phone: 216-932-2125

• Harbor Fog I transformed his sketch into a type of mid-day fog on a hot summer day. I also used soft edges in the water reflections first. Then dried them and ran darker reflections on dry paper.

Notice the basic value relationship of the ships moored at the docks. Now look at my value relationship in my painting. If you squint your eyes... the values in the sketch should match the finished painting . If they don’t... figure out why not???

Can you see the roundness of these foreground pier posts in his sketch? Now study my painting posts and you’ll see the same values an d roundness.

David Rankin’s 21st Century Watercolor Training • Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com Phone: 216-932-2125

I ran a second glaze of Neutral Tint over the sky to cut out the masts & shapes.

David Rankin’s 21st Century Watercolor Training • Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com Phone: 216-932-2125

• Fast & Slow Here are 2 paintings of the similar subject. The one on the previous page took about 45 minutes. This one below took only 15. Can you see the difference in simplicity?

David Rankin’s 21st Century Watercolor Training • Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com Phone: 216-932-2125

• Complicated Study And here is this 18 x 22” study for my Painesville Church commission. It took 10 hours, and allowed me to test out my palette, lighting, and architectural detail.

David Rankin’s 21st Century Watercolor Training • Email: ddrankin@sbcglobal.net Website: davidrankinwatercolors.com Phone: 216-932-2125