Monday, March 31, 2014

Cliff Painting in Gouache - Short Video


Cliff Painting in Gouache from Erik Tiemens on Vimeo.



 Pacific Cliffs - 11" x 13" - gouache and watercolor on blue-gray toned watercolor paper. This was traditionally stretched with gummed paper on gator board.

More Demo Videos on my website

Be sure to visit my website, www.watersketch.com to see more demos and workshop sign up info and available works for purchase.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Reductive lights and mixing Gouache with your Watercolors


Landscape with Fishing Barges at Low Tide
5" x 7" Watercolor and gouache on hot pressed paper 


I'm experimenting here with reductive sponging and lifting out techniques to reveal highlights in the initial gouache wash background. This works to introduce atmospheric texture and depth, especially in the lower cloud sections above the distant water. I like this approach, similar to a solvent/medium wash on canvas with oils; then later pulling lighter spots with a rag. After this I go over the blocked out areas with progressive layers of watercolor washes and gouache delineation. 

The roughly indicated foreground figures are in the spirit of 1600's staffage. Figures of different genres (workers, soldiers, farmers, etc.) that often decoratively populated Dutch Golden Age landscape paintings. These were typically done by other artists, collaborating with the landscape painter.  The specialist staffage artists you could say added the right amount of scale and interest to scenes that would otherwise be empty. Adriaen van der Velde is one of my favorite ones and a great painter and draftsman in his own right. He was especially gifted with subtle transitions of tone on animals and artisan/farmers that would seem to step into the 'theatrical spotlight'.

On the workshop front, folks are signing up. Please reserve your spot soon so you can be part of my Intro to Watercolor and Goauche Painting - Workshop. May 3-4, 2014, San Francisco, CA

In sharing more insights on this exciting combination of water based paints, I hope to bring dramatic improvements in your painting and technical knowledge on the matter!

Saturday, March 08, 2014

Spring Workshop 2014





Intro to Watercolor and Gouache Painting - Workshop coming up May 3 - 4, 2014 
San Francisco, CA

You are invited to join in this upcoming workshop, perfect for covering the basics. I'll use a solid approach through multiple workshop exercises and show you clear examples via demos. We will focus on creating flat washes, gradated washes, wet into wet washes, brush control and mastering a better understanding of your materials to know what you can achieve.

Color and tone will also be an important area of study. Intermediate painters are also encouraged to attend and the environment will strongly encourage personal experimentation with teacher feedback. Paper, brushes and pigments will be covered too. Know the possible ranges of your tools and media to better achieve artistic excellence in your work. Gouache has a notorious reputation as being a 'tricky' medium. I will show you easy steps to conquer those challenges and embrace the wonderful variation found in mixing watercolor and gouache together, as so many great artists from the past did. Turner, Winslow Homer, Sargent and Zorn come to mind. 


I look forward to teaching new and returning students.

Sign Up Here! 


Tiburon Marsh - watercolor & gouache - 9" x 12" - hot pressed paper