Capturing the Castle

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I just returned to Denver from my workshop in Southern France sponsored by the Art Students League of Denver and this is the demonstration I did on the first day. We talked about vignettes and how the colors bleed out before they reach the borders of the watercolor paper. The idea is to make an interesting composition with the edges of the paint and the negative shapes. I painted on my 6 x 9 inch Hahnemuhle sketchbook with toned paper. I like the toned paper because it has a way of tying everything together.

This was my first look at the castle where we stayed and, to keep it simple, I decided to only paint one of the towers and some of the trees around it. The morning sky was gorgeous and I used cerulean blue brushstrokes to lead the eye into the tower. Orange was used for the trim on top of the tower because it complimented the blue sky. There was a little orange there and I pushed it beyond what I saw. For the tower, I took advantage of the toned paper and added a few brush strokes of yellow ochre mixed with burnt sienna, For the openings I mixed burnt sienna with French ultramarine blue and only suggested them with the tip of my brush. The trees were interesting and like nothing I had ever seen before. They were created with lemon yellow, olive green, French ultramarine blue, and perylene green.

When painting a vignette, I like to leave openings of unpainted paper so that the eye can find its way in and around the painting and you can see that here on both sides and the bottom of the painting. Also, notice how the brushstrokes fade out as they move toward the borders. In the workshop we also talked about spattering and dry brush and you can see both of those watercolor techniques in different areas.

Each day of the workshop was different and there were always new things to paint. By the end of the workshop we were all friends and it was difficult saying goodby so I will do my best to keep us all in touch. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton