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About the author
Gary Tucker is a watercolor artist/ instructor living in the Boston area. He offers online workshops , in person workshops, and an extensive catalogue of Free watercolor videos on technique and design on
Youtube at https://www.Youtube.com/garytuckerartist
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PDFhttps://userfiles.faso.us/98794/24565.pdf
Description
Most of the time when I am using figures in a painting I am using darker figures against
a light background but there are some occasions when a lighter figure against a light figure
against a dark background works as well. I wanted to use the busy scene at Woodmans to
challenge on using lighter figures against a darker background
In thinking about todays scene of a busy North shore clam stand I began by looking for
photos that inspired me.
I am including 2 photos below. I wanted to show the busy pick up counter which
presented challenges because of the similarity of the tone.
For example the dark shirts in a dark background, with dark signs all around.
Impossible to see. So I decided to make the figures light - wearing white shirts and suddenly
the scene became visible
The next step was to create a scene of lighter figures in the dark kitchen and I used a
single color study to get me started. In this case I used nuetral tint or black
The first step was reference material - and normally I would venture to the location and
take shots or even better make sketches of the views I liked. Below you see a couple of images
I used in creating the pick up window at woodmans.
Woodman’s Order Up = Working with light figures on a dark Background
Description
Most of the time when I am using figures in a painting I am using darker figures against a light background but there are some occasions when a lighter figure against a dark background work as well.
It should be noted that the former is easier
Some things that help to create the lighter figures
- Try to avoid making small figures a few good size is easier and looks better
- Paint the light figures first and follow by surrounding them with a mid tone
- Connect the lights in the figure to other adjacent lights
- Reserve the strongest contrast for your main figures - even if the background appears very dark
Simplify
We are painting the pick-up window at Woodmans - a very popular restaurant on the Northshore in MA - our focus is the busy interior with several cooks in the background , plates, and boxes on the counter, signage - a lot of new things so one of the main parts of this lesson is on how to simplify the scene.
Some of the corrections I make to the photo
I zoom in
I make the figures a little larger
I give the figures white shirts or aprons
I plan to add most of the complicated stuff into the painting in the later stages - after I have created the figures and the light to my liking. Then I add these things into the painting bit by bit
Chapters
01:31:10 The Drawing
17:53:06 Figures
37:38:13 Darks
46:28:09 Signage
1:15:37:22 Finishing Touches