As with metal, glass poses special problems for painters in watercolour. Clear glass has no colour, and is influenced by its surroundings. In this simple still life, I've chosen a jug and glass containing orange juice.
I set up this still life with a no-seam background and fluorescent lighting to give the clear glass some sparkle. I also used aluminum foil on a board to add some reflective light from the left. I did this in the middle of a Canadian winter, but this might look better in mid-summer with natural daylight on a picnic table somewhere.
I'm using modern computer technology by printing out an 8" X 10" print which was taped to the 300lb Arches paper, with graphite paper underneath to trace off my image. I used a 4" X 6" print for my reference and kept the jug and glass close by until my image was completed.
I kept the image on the computer monitor to assist me in the final re-drawing of the image, gently erasing the 4H pencil I used to make sure the image wasn't overpowering the eventual colour. At this point it's best to sit quietly and decide exactly how you will paint this picture. I usually make specific notes in point form as a guide to myself. What areas needed masking to allow white to show through? Where will I begin and with what colour? If you paint ahead of your brain, you may run into problems.
I began with the use of Misket to allow the white paper to show through. I use Incredible White Mask liquid misket, and Currey's Series 2600 Round brushes or HJ Series White Taklon brushes. These are relatively inexpensive and disposable. You can use soap and water as a cleaner but I prefer liquid mask cleaner. I used to use old brushes, but the slightly stiffer disposable brushes are better I think. My first wash was a very pale cool grey made from Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna. This is how I saw my basic glass "colour". I decided not to use any background colour in this demonstration, so I have nothing to set the glass apart from the background.
My first orange wash was Aureolin Yellow and Cadmium Red. The basic lemon colour was pure Aureolin Yellow. I used my computer monitor image to make sure I had the trace amounts of colour in the jug rim, handle and glass
To make sure I have consistency in my orange washes, I mixed up several pools of colour from the basic full strength through various graduations. Here I'm using the wet-in-wet technique to drop in some stronger colour to emphasize the embossed areas of the jug.
Using the same wet-in-wet technique the embossed areas of the glass jug begin to come to life. Go in with a stiff wet brush and lift out some highlights to give more sparkle.
To give the graduated look to the glass of orange juice I turned the painting upside down to allow my wet-in-wet technique to work.
The basic colour in the sliced oranges is now in place, and the misket removed. I went slightly over the edge of the glass on both sides and this had to be corrected as I filled in the darker part of the place mat at a later stage. I was reluctant to mask these edges and remove the colour at this stage as it may have damaged the paper and allowed colour runs at the place mat stage. By using 300 lb Arches paper I allow myself some leeway in case of such accidents.
I used New Gamboge as the basic lemon essence colour, a few grey shadow streaks and removed the misket. Next I masked off the glass with masking tape and used more misket around the base of the jug, the lemons and the oranges. Now I can work on the place mat without worrying about running over the edges. I can also clean up those edges of the glass.
After I removed the misket and masked off areas I started on the place mat. I didn't want to get too involved with the place mat texture, so I faked the woven material by starting out with a plain wash background. I used a slightly darker tone to indicate cloth weave, and a modified wet-in-wet technique to make it less mechanical. I did the same with the blue bands and the edges. I realized I was still left with faulty edges to the glass.
I cleaned up the glass edges by masking along the straight edge on the mat side. Using a stiff wet oil brush and facial tissue I gently scrubbed along both sides until it was tidied up. This gave me an added bonus as allowed some reflected light to appear along both edges. Using a small hair-dryer I carefully lifted off the masking tape. Finally I added the shadows to pull the items together.
All done. Although this is hardly something you'd put on the living room wall, I matted the picture to show how most watercolours benefit from a suitable mat. The next time you set up a still life with glass as the main theme, I hope you find this demo helps you get the effect you want.
Brian Palmer, of Whitby, Ontario, writes to say he loved the site and makes some very good suggestions with regard to using computer technology in helping painters in watercolour. With his consent here is the letter in full:
Hi,
I Love your site. As a computer geek as well as an amateur artist, it pleases me greatly to see the ways you have integrated modern technology into the painting process. While some purists might not like the idea of using the computer as an aid to drawing, I think it enables people to focus on creativity.
Your suggestion about using the computer monitor to view photos from which to paint is a good one. Having recently purchased a digital camera (5 megapixels) with a 12x zoom, I am int he process of accumulating reference material. The rate at which I acquire digital images requires a good organizational system. For this I am using PhotoShop Elements. I use tags that are assigned to photos so I can find them easily. Most images have more than one tag so I can quickly and easily find just the image I want. For example, suppose I want a winter picture of a bridge over a stream. No problem! I just click on my the tags for Streams, winter, and bridges and then view the best match category. If I wanted a railway bridge I would also select the railway tag. etc.
Back to the monitor for viewing. The room for the computer is small dark and crowded. It is not a a very good place for painting. However, the solarium has excellent daylight and a view of the TV so I copy the required images to a CD and use the DVD player to put the images on the TV. While TV does not have nearly the resolution of a monitor, it is more than adequate for my landscape work.
Another idea that might be useful for beginners who are having trouble with value would be to use the computer to convert the image to a gray scale and reduce the number of gray scale values to 8 or even 4. I have not yet tried this but I think it could be a valuable tool.
