Art Lesson: Watercolors - Painting a Blue Canning Jar.

Hello!

This week I will be sharing,

dare I admit this,

one of the my few attempts with watercolors.

Please know that I am certainly not trying to come across as proficiently skilled with these fun paints called watercolors.

Yes, I know: how can I teach an art lesson on something I am not well experienced at?

Well, let's just say that I am on this learning journey, too,

and am sharing my trials and errors hoping they will help somebody else out.

Of course, I have created countless "watercolors" using the kid sets of brightly colored chips of pigment that my children seem to turn to mud within a five minute painting session.

Although children watercolors are inferior to the beauty of good watercolors,

I think the general feel/techniques of them helps to prepare for the better quality ones.

So, if you are inexperienced with them, just put on your childhood smock and bring up that happy memory of painting with those muddy palettes.

I watched several Youtube videos to get some ideas, tips, and general procedures before I decided to open up the new set of Winsor and Newton set of 14 watercolors I recently picked up on a good sale.

I put a plastic placemat under the watercolor paper on which I had lightly transferred the image from my original sketch.  I then taped the paper and the placemat down around most of the edges using masking tape.  I found the paper wanted to buckle too much when it wasn't securely taped down as one of the artists had mentioned on Youtube.

I watered down the white and put a wash of this over the top half of my painting.

I then created a light brown with the red and green and watered it down very much so it was a wash under the canning jar and rose.

One thing I saw on one of the videos was how paper towels can be a good friend when it comes to water coloring

Once I had the wash over the page, I began to play with the colors on the back of the lid of the paint set.

 I started with a watered down green, knowing the leaves in the distance and the stems in the jar would not need to be detailed so this would allow a slight margin of error for my lack of experience.

I then mixed up a watered down blue/green trying to achieve the color of the glass jar

and began applying it wherever I felt most comfortable starting.

I created a very watered down gray and used it on some of the lettering where it appeared to be in the photo.

After I had worked on the blue for a while,

I decided to stop and add the very light yellowish/peach color of the light reflections on the glass.

I mixed yellow and a bit of red and white.

I am not sure what created this color on the glass.

Could the rose have influenced this? 

 Whatever the reason, I wasn't going to argue with the photo and just tried to paint what I felt I saw.

The stems of the roses in the canning jar were resting behind the "B" of the Ball written on the glass,

so this altered the colors in it.

 As I worked, I continued to add streaks and color wherever I saw I had neglected it.

I worked as I felt comfortable and that it was an enjoyable progress.  I quit work when it felt like it was becoming frustrating.

I stopped at around this point.

I will share the work on the rose and completion of this painting next week.

Have you worked with watercolors?  

I found them very rewarding and can see I will want to pick it up and try another painting soon.

To see the next step of this painting click on:
Art Lesson: Watercolor Rose
Art Lesson: Shadows with Watercolor

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