Joe Cartwright's Watercolor Blog

New Watercolor landscape painting demonstration

2012-01-23T21:18:00.000-08:00

Overcast day over green valley, from Mt Tamborine, Queensland

I have just finished posting my latest watercolor landscape demonstration on www.PaintingWithWatercolors.com.

The painting covers topics like the mixing of various greens with watercolor paint, tones and aerial perspective, as well as the use of foliage to direct the eye in a painting.

You can find the this demo at this link: Painting a watercolor landscape of a green valley scene .

I hope you find it of interest.

Happy painting,

joe

First art awards for 2012

2012-01-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

I have been fortunate enough to win a number of awards at the 2012 Art of Sydney Awards organised by the Combined Art Societies of Sydney and thought I would share the good news with you.

Here are the paintings:

Commended in Watercolor Category

Commended in 9" x 5" Category

Highly Commended in Abstract Painting Category

Finalist in Watercolor Category

Thank you for sharing my good news with me.

Happy painting,
Joe

Simple watercolor painting demonstration of boats and water

2011-12-20T01:26:00.000-08:00

Simple watercolor painting of boats and water

This is my latest demonstration for relatively new watercolor artists. It covers various watercolor painting techniques such as wet on wet and wet on dry as well as dry brush.

Subjects such as the drawing of simple boats and perspective are also covered.

The location of this scene is Pittwater a beautiful Sydney, Australia, coastal suburb and is based on a photo I took early one morning.

The painting is only about 7" x 5" but for the more experienced artists could certainly be painted larger - however for the beginner watercolorist I recommend sticking to this smaller dimension.

The demonstration can be found on my Painting With Watercolor site.

Happy painting,

Joe

Watercolor Painting Sunrise over The Three Sisters, Blue Mountains, Australia

2011-12-11T23:40:00.000-08:00

Sunrise over The Three Sisters, Blue Mountians, Australia

Here is my latest watercolour painting. I think the title tells you all about it really. I particularly like this type of scene and feel it is just made for watercolour. It is mostly a wet on wet painting with warm and cool colours flowing into one another. The dark silhouette of the three sisters helps add to the feeling of space in the painting. As soon as I saw the scene I new I had to paint it!

The Three Sisters are a rock outcrop in the Blue Mountains, just outside of Sydney, Australia.

The painting’s dimensions are 56cm x 18 cm. It was painted on Arches Cold Press, 300 g.s.m. paper.

At some point I will post it as a demonstration on my Painting With Watercolors website, but not for a while as I need to wrap up a few other projects first.

Happy painting,

Joe

Latest watercolor landscape painting demonstration of a river scene

2011-12-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

I have just finished posting my latest watercolor landscape painting demonstration. It is of the Grose river watercolor painting I posted a couple of weeks ago.

If you would like to have a look at it you can find it here: watercolor river landscape painting of the Grose river.

Happy painting,
Joe
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Grose River, Yarramundi, NSW

2011-11-21T15:04:00.000-08:00

Watercolor landscape painting of the Grose river, Yarramundi, NSW

I painted this watercolor from a photo I took of this scene earlier this year. One week after taking the photo I visited the same location to do some plein air painting and the whole area was flooded from recent rains which made for quite a different painting.

I was mainly inspired to paint this because of the way the river meandered into the distance.

This watercolor painting was done on a quarter sheet of Arches 300 gsm rough paper.

Happy painting,

Joe

www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Early Morning on Bridge Street, Melbourne

2011-10-30T03:18:00.000-07:00

Watercolor of Bridge Street, Melbourrne, Australia

This is my most recent painting. It is a urban scene of a street in Melbourne, Australia. I have painted this watercolor scene a number of times and enjoy the challenge of creating the feeling of depth and atmosphere.

Melbourne has electric trams and their power lines add and extra opportunity to play with the design of my artwork.

The painting was done on a quarter sheet of Arches 300gsm cold pressed paper.

The photo I took of this scene was taken very early in the morning with the sun almost directly into the camera so all the colors where quite muted. This suits me fine as I am more interested in tones, space and atmosphere when I paint watercolors.

Happy painting,

Joe
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Painting a fog and mist filled landscape

2011-10-23T03:44:00.000-07:00

Mt Hotham in the Victorian Ski fields

I have just posted my latest watercolor demonstration of a fog and mist filled Australian alpine landscape.

You can find it at this location on my PaintingWithWatercolors website: How to paint and fog and mist filled landscape.

The photo above is the reference I used for the demonstration. I moved things around to create the type of painting I was after which was really to capture the calm atmospheric feeling of this scene.

I am quite happy with the result.

Happy painting
Joe
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Wet and Misty, Mt Hotham, Victoria

2011-10-21T01:11:00.000-07:00

Wet and Misty, Mt Hotham, Victoria

This is one of my recent paintings and will become the next demonstration I post on my Painting with Watercolors site in about one week.

Mt Hotham is a ski resort town in Victoria, Australia and the day I was visiting it it was covered in mist and light rain which inspired this watercolor painting.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

My Watercolor Painting Book

2011-10-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

I have been overseas for the past month so my posting has been non existent during that time so I figured I had better catch up.

My main news is that I have been writing a book about painting with watercolors. It is basically a manual of what I have learnt and what I teach my students with regard to watercolor painting, along with lots of images of my paintings as references. So far I have written about 30,000 words and have about another 5,000 to go. This will hopefully result in a book of about 130 pages once images are included. I will initially make it available in electronic format but I am also considering producing a printed version as well. A lot of the material will still be on my Painting With Watercolors web site but this will be a lot more concise, convenient and obviously advertisement free! Still lots to sort out, not the least of which is the actual layout, price and distribution. It has been very useful for me already in helping to clarify just what I consider important to my way of painting with watercolor and what is not. Anyway I will keep you updated on progress.

Happy painting,

Joe

Wolf Dawn by Susan Cartwright

2011-08-29T04:16:00.000-07:00

Watercolor painting for cover of Wolf Dawn

Well this is a bit of a different painting for me. My wife has recently published her first science fiction and fantasy book and guess who she got to do the cover for her!

If you like Science Fiction and Fantasy you can read a little bit about her story on her website: www.susancartwright.com

Happy painting,

Joe
www.watercolorpainting.com

Simple Beginners Painting

2011-08-20T04:19:00.000-07:00

I have just started putting together some demonstrations and articles for beginner watercolor artists. Basically it will be like a beginners guide to watercolor and will mainly cover the topics I tackle with my students in about the first 6 weeks of class.

The first demonstration uses only two colors, so the student can concentrate more on technique rather than color mixing.

It is one of the very first paintings I have my new students do. It teaches them some useful skills and hopefully gives them a little painting to take home. It is usually painted on 1/16th sheet.

Here is a picture of the finished watercolor painting:

Simple watercolor painting of a beach scene

Future articles and demonstrations will include color mixing, painting rocks, painting trees, different edges you can paint with a round watercolor brush (already done), how to use a spray bottle, how to paint with splatter, using masking and candle wax, etc

Happy Painting,

Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com
www.joecartwright.com.au

Watercolor Techniques: edges, wet on wet, dry brush, etc.

2011-08-10T04:22:00.000-07:00

I am currently producing a series of articles and demonstrations that will make up a Beginner's Guide to Watercolor Painting.

The Breakaway, Windsor, NSW

The first in this series, which will appear under the Watercolor Techniques section of my Painting With Watercolors website, covers the subject of the different types of edges we create as artists in general and watercolor artists in particular.

My reason for creating this section is because I often have the challenge of taking on new students and integrating them with my more experienced ones. This sometimes has me running around doing multiple demonstrations (all be is some are very basic) for the students at different levels. My idea is that in the future I can sit a student down in front of a computer screen and they can catch up as need by following the techniques on my site. I will also have some very basic videos done of the types of exercises and paintings my beginner watercolor artists do.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Benefits of having an artist's online portfolio website

2011-07-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

I have just posted an article on the benefits of an artist having an online portfolio website. I also discuss some options for creating such a website from the use of free software such as Blogger for creating a blog, through to how to make a website with free or low cost software like WordPress which has your own unique web name or url.

If you would like to read it you can find it at : Websites for Artists

Happy Painting

Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com
www.joecartwright.com.au

His and Hers

2011-07-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

His and Hers

This is my most recent watercolor painting. It was painted on Arches Cold Press watercolor paper, 300 g.s.m.weight. Its painted size is 27cm x 37cm.

The painting was done as a commission for a lady to give to her husband for their anniversary. They met many years ago when they parked their boats next to one another. His is the one on the left..

Because of the message to the painting, I left out all other boats and buildings and am very happy with the final result.

I will be publishing this painting as a demonstration on my watercolor painting site in the future.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright

www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Victoria Bridge Penrith Australia

2011-07-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

This is a watercolor painting of a river scene I finished on the weekend.
It is painted on a quarter sheet of Arches Cold Press, 300 gsm paper.
The painting is primarily of the reflections, the bridge itself is not that inspiring by the reflections were great.
As it was a misty morning with the mist just rising, there was not a lot of color around, so this is basically a tonal painting, which is a subject I naturally gravitate towards.
The small row boat allowed me to add a little color to the scene and also set the location of the painting, as there is a rowing club near this bridge.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Free Reference Photos for Artists

2011-07-10T04:36:00.000-07:00

I have recently found a site which provides copyright free photos for artists to use as references for their painting. In fact they encourage their use and the photographers like to see the artists results.

If you are interested in having a look the web address is : Paint My Photo

The site has been created by watercolor artist Roy Simmons.

I hope you find it useful.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Reflections and Shadows when Painting with Watercolors

2011-07-02T04:03:00.000-07:00

Figure 1: Reflections of buildings and boats, Mevagissey, Cornwall, UK

I have just posted an article on my Painting With Watercolors web site covering the topic of shadows and reflections with watercolor.

It is not meant to be an exhaustive article but more one that covers some point I have found students often have difficulty with their watercolor painting of these subjects.

I have just recently returned from a five week overseas trip during which I collected some very useful photographs on the subject of reflections and shadows which I have included in the article.

The article can be found here: Painting reflections and shadows

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright

www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Watercolour Exhibition at the Tate Britain Gallery

2011-05-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

I am currently visiting the UK and Ireland on a holiday and have just been to see the Watercolour Exhibition at the Tate Britain Gallery in London

What a wonderful exhibition. It covers the history of watercolor in Great Britain and treats such topics as:

History of watercolor paints and pigments including Gum Arabic and other binders
History of watercolor paper and its manufacture
Watercolor brushes and other tools and materials
Developments of watercolor techniques flat wash, scraping, dry brush, etc
Use in botanical art
Use in recording biological subjects e.g. birds and animals
Art of representational landscapes
Watercolor during the war
Watercolor through the ages and how its use has developed from a tool to render quick sketches and topographical studies to a fully fledged artistic medium
Development of Exhibition watercolors
Watercolor landscape paintings
Modern and abstract art with watercolor

The above topics are all supported with wonderful watercolor paintings through the ages including some great work by J.M.W.Turner, Alfred William Hunt, John Fredrick Lewis, John Sell Cotman through to more contemporary artists.

If you get to London I highly recommend you visit this exhibition!

Happy painting

Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Venice Watercolor Painting Demonstration

2011-05-08T04:38:00.000-07:00

I have just finished my latest watercolor painting demonstration.

The painting is of a Venetian Canal and is based on a photo I took when I visited Venice for a couple of weeks last year. I never get tired about painting Venice, it is so full of history, atmosphere and texture that it is like a watercolor artist's paradise!

When I left Venice after my last trip I briefly had a thought that I may have finally done Venice, but within a few weeks I was already looking forward to my next painting holiday there.

Here is an image of the finished painting:

You can find the full demonstration on my Painting With Watercolors site at this address:
Narrow Venice Canal.

I hope you find it useful.

Happy Painting,

Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Recent Awards

2011-04-30T03:29:00.000-07:00

I have received two Highly Commended awards this week.
One was at the Sydney Royal Easter Show for the Venice watercolor painting below, and the other was for a watercolor street scene titled "Victoria Road, Gladesville" at the Artfest 2011 Art Show in the Blue Mountains, NSW (this painting is also shown below, though I have posted it in the past). My Venice painting sold, which always puts a smile on an artist's face :-)
Just thought I would share the good news.

Happy painting,
Joe
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Pink Magnolias

2011-04-12T02:08:00.000-07:00

I have just finished doing this painting in my class. It was painted over a couple of sessions and with more detail than I normally put in landscape paintings, but it is just the way I feel I have to paint these flowers.

I selected this subject so my students could learn how to do more detailed work as well as how to use masking liquid with their watercolor painting.

The painting was done on Arches 300 g.s.m. cold press paper, size is a quarter sheet (37cm x 27cm).

I will be putting this up on my painting with watercolor web site as a demonstration in a little while.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

How to Paint Eucalyptus Trees in Watercolor

2011-03-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,

I have just finished my demonstration on how to paint gum trees with watercolor. In Australia you can't paint landscapes without knowing how to paint eucalyptus trees. We have many different types but I have settled on a light barked tree as they can be very impressive when done well.

My demo isn't meant to be a full painting. I just wanted to put down all the steps, that I normally run through with my students, with enough detail that they can easily follow along with their own work.

Step by Step how to paint gum tree demonstration

You can find the full demonstration on my Painting with Watercolor site here: How to Paint Gum Trees

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright

Painting Watercolor Landscape Paintings

2011-03-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

I have recently posted a new demonstration on my Painting With Watercolor site. The painting is of a Australian rural landscape with gum trees.

Here is a picture of the finished painting.

Watercolor Landscape, near Rylstone, New South Wales

You can view the full step by step demonstration here: Painting a Landscape with Watercolor

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright

Watercolor Painting, Plein Air Tips and Advice

2011-03-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

Plein air painting of Crookhaven Heads, New South Wales

My latest post on my Painting With Watercolor site covers the subject of plein air painting with watercolors.

When I first started painting plein air I found it a tremendous challenge and nearly gave up on it. It was only after some intensive research did I realise that just about everything I was doing was wrong. The article I posted covers what I did that didn't work along with what I did to correct it so that my success rate with painting outdoors improved dramatically.

You can find it at this location: Watercolor Painting: Plein Air.

I hope it is of some use or interest to you.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright

www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

How to get the best out of a watercolor workshop

2011-02-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

I recently posted an article on my painting with watercolors web site about how to get the best out of a watercolor workshop. The article applies to any kind of art based workshop, oil painting, pastels and acrylic painting but focuses on watercolor.

It has some useful tips for first time attendees as well as for others who feel the have not been getting as much out of the watercolor workshops they have been attending.

If you would like to read it the link is here: How to get the best out of a watercolor workshop.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright

Plein Air Painting with Watercolor Darook Park

2011-02-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

I went out painting with a group of friends from the Oatley 101 Society recently and thought I would post some of the photos and one of the paintings I did that morning.

The location was Darook Park in Cronulla, a beautiful coastal suburb of Sydney.

Here is the first location we visited, I got there at about 7am as I like to paint early morning light. I also like to get at least one painting done before it gets too hot and painting becomes even more of a challenge!

Location of my first painting

There was a nice atmospheric haze in the distance that attracted me to this scene.

The sky was a bit overcast at the time which I did not mind as it gave the scene a quite calm. Here is the painting I did:

Early Morning Darook Park

One of my friends kindly took a painting of me while painting so here it is with my plein air painting kit:

Me and my plein air painting kit

All my gear fits in a backpack except for the tripod. I use a modified wooden case to store brushes, palette, paper, backing board, paints etc. Will post the details of it some time in the future. I have an even more compact kit that I take overseas and in that everything including tripod and folding stool all fit in the backpack.

After I finished this painting we moved off to another location but I spent so much time taking photos of the area and chatting that I did not get to finish the second painting. Here are a couple more photos of the area and group I was with.

Fisheries Station at Darook Park. The sun was out by this time.

Members of the Oatley 101 group

Me again

It is always fun to get out of the studio and paint while outdoors for a while and this was a particularly good day with nice weather, beautiful location and great people.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright

www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Free Watercolor Video Demonstration - Boats,Reflections,Water and Sunsets

2011-02-01T21:53:00.000-08:00

The above painting is of Shoal Bay at Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia.

I have just uploaded a free video watercolor demonstration of this watercolor painting onto my Painting With Watercolors demonstration site.

It can be viewed here: Painting Boats, Sunsets, Reflections and Water

I hope you like looking at the video which has been split into 6 parts.

I am considering offering the full DVD (better viewing than on computer) for sale at a future date.

Happy Painting,
Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Watercolor Demonstrations

2011-01-22T02:45:00.000-08:00

I have just posted a new watercolor demonstration on my Painting with Watercolors site.
The demonstration is of sand dunes.
Please have a look if you are interested.
Here is the finished painting:

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwight

Painting with Watercolor

2011-01-17T02:58:00.000-08:00

The thought of painting with watercolors often sparks fear in the eye of new artists.
Too often they have been told by others, who probably have not been well taught themselves, that painting with watercolor is extremely difficult and should not be tackled by an inexperienced artist. This just is not the case, anyone who really wants to know how to paint with watercolor can do so if they follow some simple guidelines. Obviously, just learning watercolor painting techniques will not necessarily mean you will create watercolor masterpieces, but it should at least give you to the tools to move in that direction.
Usually the biggest source of tension when one paints with watercolors is the feeling of the painting drying too fast and the feeling of not knowing what to do next.
To help alleviate some of this fear of painting with watercolor and to help move my students along with their work I give them the following advice which can be summarized into the following: PLAN ->MIX->PAINT-> SPRAY. So what does this mean?

Planning your watercolor painting

Painting with watercolor is more subject to the influence of time than most other painting mediums. The reason for this is that once you start painting, the medium begins to dry very quickly, especially in warm or air conditioned environments.
For this reason, you do not have much time or the ability, once your painting is started to change its overall design. Consequently the more you can plan before you start painting the better. I can usually see all the steps I have to take with a painting before I even touch the paper. This is a skill that developed over time as I practiced planning my painting before I actually started.
This planning can include, mentally stepping through each step you will take towards the finished watercolor painting. It can also involve doing thumbnail sketches and color swatches to help clarify items of design. Sometimes, if I am really stuck or uncertain about how to create a particular effect I will practice it on a separate sheet of watercolor paper till I am happy I can recreate the effect with ease.

Mixing watercolor paints

Once you have your plan laid out and taped you watercolor paper to your board, the next step is to mix sufficient colors from your pigments to easily cover the areas you want to paint in your first wash. A common problem is students having to mix additional paint after they have started a watercolor wash, this almost invariably leads to the creation of mud.
If I am painting a tree, I will almost always mix three different tones and colors of green before I start painting. I will still vary these as I paint and keep changing their consistency, but these small changes to not take so much time so do and consequently don't add a lot of stress to your painting.

Paint

Once you have mixed sufficient paint you can start your watercolor painting.

The general steps of painting in watercolor are covered in another post titled Watercolor Painting Progression Chart so I will not repeat them here.

Spray

I find a spray bottle with a fine, soft mist is indispensable for my style of painting and I have found it to be of similar service to many other watercolor artists.
If while you are painting you feel you are about to run out of time i.e. the wash you are working on is likely to dry before you can complete it, then give it a light spray to keep the shine of your painting. The word shine is critical here because the time to spray your painting, so you can continue to work on it, is while the shine is still there. If the water on your paper has evaporated to the point that the shine has gone it is most likely too late to spray - unless you want to create a mottled texture on you painting. I will talk more about how to use a spray bottle in a future article.
Obviously there is a lot more to watercolor painting but I am sure the above will be of benefit to many beginner watercolor artists, and those who have been having some trouble.

Happy painting,
Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Workshops Paintings

2011-01-15T12:46:00.000-08:00

Have just finished running my first week long watercolor workshop of 2011.

I took a photo of the collection of paintings that were done during the week. It was a lot of fun with 10 (max attendees) students attending.

In addition to the paintings the students did a number of painting exercises but I have not listed them here.

Happy painting,
Joe Cartwright
www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Latest update on my activities

2011-01-12T01:35:00.000-08:00

This is just an update on what I am up to at the moment.

My annual workshops are currently underway, spent the previous two weeks getting reference material prepared and printed out for the course. Long days but enjoying it. I like teaching.

I am writing a book on watercolor painting - I am currently working on chapter 5, target is to have it finished by the end of this year if not sooner. My idea is to publish it as an e-book and in print.

After the workshops are over in a couple of weeks I hope to post some more demonstrations and even a video of how to paint sailing boats, the video has been shot but the editing will have to wait till after the workshops.

Happy painting,

Joe

Watercolor Painting Progression Chart

2010-12-25T14:48:00.000-08:00

Watercolor Painting Progression Chart

A watercolour painting usually progresses in the following manner:

Large shapes to small shapes

Wet on wet to wet on dry (could also be read as from soft edges to hard edges)

Light tones to dark tones

Cool colours (distance) to warm colours (closer to the viewer)

All four groups move along at a similar pace at about the same time.

The above is meant as a general guide only not as a rule.

Joe Cartwright

www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

Watercolor Tip #9

2010-11-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

The Importance of your Under Wash

If the under wash, which is usually the first wash you put on your painting surface, is not correct tonally, your landscape painting will not work as well as it should.

I usually paint my sky and ground in my first wash. At this point my painting should already look like a landscape and it will be relatively easy to put all of the remaining objects in my painting and have them feel like they belong there.

When you paint the land component of your under wash it should be lighter in tone, have softer edges and be cooler (color’s lean towards blue) in the distance and stronger in tone, sharper and warmer (colors lean towards red and yellow) in the foreground. This is what is called atmospheric perspective and is caused by the air (water vapour, pollution, dust, other molecules, etc) that you look through to see distant objects.

Once the under wash is totally bone dry then you can go back and place the objects within it eg, hills, trees, buildings, animals etc. Obviously the same rules of atmospheric perspective apply to these objects placed on your landscape. However, as they will primarily be vertical shapes (hills, trees, buildings, people, they will usually be of a stronger tone than the horizontal ground on which they are placed.

Happy Painting
Joe
www.watercolordemos.com

Painting a watercolor flat wash

2010-11-05T03:06:00.000-07:00

Well I have just uploaded my first video demonstration. It was a lot of fun, though I am sure I will do better in the future as I get more experienced at talking with a camera running.

Anyway it's topic is "How to paint a flat wash in watercolor" and will hopefully be of use to anyone that is interested. While it is something that seems very simple it still gives beginners a lot of trouble.

It can be seen on my watercolourdemos.com web site here or on YouTube below.

My next video will be on doing a graded wash, and then a multi color wash after that.

Happy painting.

Joe Cartwright

My latest demonstration on www.watercolordemos.com

2010-10-28T03:52:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I have just posted my latest watercolor demonstration on watercolordemos.com.

Here is the painting.

Surf Beach, Bateman's Bay, NSW

The full demo can be viewed here: http://www.watercolordemos.com/surf-beach-batemans-bay-nsw-demo-step-1/

I hope you find it useful!

Happy painting,
Joe

Simple Desktop Watercolor Easel

2010-09-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

Simple Desktop Watercolor Easel

I have just posted, on my watercolor demonstrations site, a new page giving the design of a simple desktop watercolor easel I made for use in the classes.

I hope it is of some use to you.

You can find the details of it here.

Joe

Watercolor Tip #8

2010-09-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Printable Clear Plastic

Sometimes when you have just about finished a painting you may find yourself wondering if you should put in an extra tree or other object but you are not quite sure.

In this case you can use a piece of printable clear plastic, which your local art supply store should stock. Place the plastic over your painting and paint in, with watercolor, the object you are considering, onto the plastic. If this looks good then go ahead and paint it on the original - otherwise try something else or just leave it as it is.

This gives you a lot of freedom to try various things without damaging your painting.

Happy painting,

Joe Cartwright

Watercolor Tip #7

2010-08-27T03:53:00.000-07:00

Eye level vs Horizon line

Early Morning, Pittwater, NSW

When thinking of perspective one can think of eye level as the same as horizon line.

As you probably already know when you are at the beach objects "appear" to diminish in size as they approach the horizon. The same if you look down a long straight road, objects get smaller and converge at the horizon, e.g power poles, cars , fences, walls all appear smaller and smaller as the approach the distant horizon. These objects appear to vanish at a distant point - called the Vanishing Point. The horizon however, is also at the eye level of the viewer. This is important to know because when you are painting a street scene or indoor scene your cannot see the horizon. So in this case rather than horizon, think of eye level and do your perspective drawing on that basis.

For this reason I tell my students to think more of eye level rather than vanishing point as it is always there!

Happy painting.

Joe Cartwright

New watercolor demonstration Street Scenes

2010-08-27T03:40:00.000-07:00

Watercolor Demonstration of Bridge Street, Melbourne

I have just posted a new watercolor demonstration on www.watercolordemos.com.
The demonstration is of Bridge Street, Melbourne set in the late afternoon, please have a look here if you are interested.
Joe

Watercolor Demonstrations Site

2010-08-16T00:11:00.000-07:00

I have created a sister site to this blog which will focus on watercolor demonstrations and techniques.
It has been running for a few days and so far has two demonstrations loaded. I hope you find it useful!
The site url is www.watercolordemos.com

Joe

Watercolor Tip #6

2010-08-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

Venetian Sunset

Reflections

When doing reflections remember to make the reflections of light colored objects darker and reflections of dark objects lighter.

You can observe this yourself next time you are at a marina. Look at the reflections of the white boats and you will see that they are be darker than the white of the boats. If there are any black boats you will see that their reflection is lighter than the black of the boat.

The reason for this is because the color of the reflection merges with the color of the water, a kind of averaging effect.

Obviously this applies to all reflections not just those of boats e.g. the sky, buildings, trees, etc.

Victoria Road, Gladesville, NSW

2010-08-09T03:47:00.000-07:00

Victoria Road, Gladesville, NSW

This painting was awarded a Highly Commended Award at the Oatley 101 Annual Exhibition last weekend (7th August 2010).

Watercolor Tip #5

2010-08-06T04:30:00.000-07:00

Off to Work, George Street Sydney

If the under wash of your painting is not totally dry before you try to paint the next layer you will most likely create a muddy looking painting.

The under wash has to be bone dry and the paint you put on top of it must be applied quickly and then left alone. If you keep fiddling you will create mud (disturbed looking paint instead of a nice clean looking painting).

Watercolor Tip #4

2010-07-29T03:14:00.000-07:00

Design is more important than technique!

Another way to look at this is to say that no matter how good your technique is if the design is not right you will not produce a good painting.

As someone (say a judge) walks towards your painting the first thing they will observe is the overall design of your work. Only when they get closer will they observe the quality of your watercolor washes, brush strokes, etc. I am often surprised when I look at a new students work from the side of my eye and I see a nice piece of work, only to notice areas of potential improvement in technique as I get closer.

So the first impression someone has of your work is based on its design and it will stay with them.

Give yourself some time to plan through your design as once you start painting it may be too late to correct any faults in this area.

Hope this is of some help.

Joe

Society of Artists, Newcastle Workshop

2010-07-26T16:41:00.000-07:00

Nepean River, Penrith

Surf Beach, Bateman's Bay

I just finished running a one day workshop for the Society of Artists in Newcastle. Here are the two paintings that were done. Seventeen people attended the workshop in their beautiful premises (an ex-bowling club) and a lot of fun was had by all.

Joe

Watercolor Tip #3

2010-07-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

The sky is usually the lightest part of your painting - better too light than too dark.
If you paint your sky to strong a tone then you will have to paint other parts of your painting even stronger which will reduce the transparency of your painting i.e. if it your paint has to go on too thick to retain its correct tonal relationship amongst its various parts.

Upcoming Exhibition

2010-06-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

I will be exhibiting along with three other artists are the Grenfell Art Gallery between 7th September to 16th October.http://www.grenfell.org.au/artgallery/

Watercolor Tip #2

2010-06-28T04:28:00.000-07:00

What colors make up your pigments?

Pigments are almost always made up of more than one primary color.

For the purposes of this article please understand that all my color observations refer to Winsor & Newton artists quality paint. This is important as even though many manufacturers give their pigments the same name, they often have different compositions. Now having made this stipulation let me talk more about what I meant in my first paragraph.

Well, for example, French Ultramarine, if you have a close look at it, has a very slight tinge of red to it in addition to its predominant blue color. Alizarin Crimson on the other hand, has a slight bluish tint, in addition to its predominant color of red. For this reason, when you mix these two colors you end up with a nice bright purple color.

However, if you mix French Ultramarine with Cadmium Red (which has a slight yellowish look) then the result is a more dull looking purple color. The reason for this is because in the first example only two primary colors were involved in the mix (Blue and Red) while in this second example all three primary colors were involved – Blue, Red and a little bit of Yellow.

Whenever you mix the three primary colors together you end up with a color leaning towards a grey or even black.

So, you should be able to see from the above that no only should you know which primary colors create which color but also which primary colors make up each pigment!

Happy Painting

Watercolor Tip #1

2010-06-27T03:51:00.000-07:00

Watercolor's most important ingredient is - WATER!
It is very important to know its characteristics or you will not be able to properly handle this medium.
Many of the wonderful effects achieved in a great watercolor painting are directly attributable to the amount of water on the paper, in your pallet mixes and on your brush. By keeping an eye on just how wet or otherwise all of the above are you can create magical wet on wet washes, dramatic dry brush edges or sharp wet on dry lines and surfaces - as well as an infinite range between each of these states.

Upcoming Watercolor Workshops

2010-06-26T00:49:00.000-07:00

5 Day Watercolour Workshop 2011

Date: 1st Workshop: Mon 10th to Fri 14th Jan11

2nd Workshop: Mon 17th to Fri 21st Jan11

Time: 9.30am—4.30pm daily

Cost: $295

Location: Nepean Art Society at 3 North Street, Penrith

Limited seating participants allocated on first come basis

My First blog

2010-06-25T02:51:00.000-07:00

My name is Joe Cartwright and I am a professional watercolor (watercolour) artist living in Australia.

I also run several art classes and regularly conduct week long watercolor workshops. From time to time I do demonstrations at various art societies.

I have started to blog, firstly to see how it may develop, but also to give me an additional communication medium with my patrons and students. I will be trying to keep it up to date with regular posts. I hope you enjoy it. It will no doubt develop over time. I have a companion web site where you can see my artwork and some of my other articles on watercolor at http://www.joecartwright.com.au/.