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Watercolor artist Thomas Schaller achieves convincing and dynamic effects in his skies
(Salisbury Cathedral, watercolor painting). |
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I know it is a bias, but sometimes I can't help thinking
that painting skies belongs to a particular realm of
watercolor painting. The
medium just seems best suited to give the jaw-dropping visual effects that
often appear in the sky.
Take a crystal clear blue sky on a sunny day. The delicacy
and uniformity of that color--with very little variation in tone or value--seems
much easier to convey in a bold wash of watercolor than in the brushstrokes of
an oil painting. While I love brushstrokes, and think there is a time and place
for them, sometimes they can be visually disruptive if handled in too busy a
manner, or if the effect you want is a little more seamless.
Or what about the extreme colors of the aurora borealis?
These atmospheric effects are so vaporous and fine that blotting a series of
colors on watercolor paper seems the way to go to achieve that transparent
gleam.
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Barcelona, Spain VII by Keiko Tanabe,
watercolor painting, 11 1/2 x 8 1/4. |
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If there are storm clouds rolling in with several gradations
of color in the sky, then this could be an excellent opportunity to really put
the blending properties of watercolor painting through
its paces. Painting wet into wet, you can usually build subtle layers of color
while getting a lot of organic forms in the area you are painting--both of which
would be ideal for a cloudy, stormy sky.
By no means am I saying that watercolor artists
are superior or that watercolor art is heads above the rest, but watercolor
painting may be the way to go if you are drawn to many of the most powerful
aspects of art--color, texture, line, and organic forms. A subscription to Watercolor magazine can really open up
your eyes to all of the inherent possibilities in this medium, or it can help
you sharpen your watercolor painting techniques if you are a practicing
watercolorist. Either way, enjoy your subscription!
