CHAPTER 3
QUIET
The word “quiet” can conjure images of a natural landscape, absent of the hum of the city. It can bring up colors that feel peaceful and hushed. Quiet can refer to the way it feels to observe a work of art or the state of mind of an artist. It can be your choice of a certain palette that feels still or even silent. We can easily link the words “quiet” and “calm.” The projects in this section live in a quiet space, with moments of stillness and softness throughout.
Birch Tree, William Turner (Turner of Oxford), (1789–1862). Gouache on paper, nineteenth century. Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford, UK/Bridgeman Images.
PROJECT 1
GLOWING NIGHTSCAPE
This Norman Garstin painting captures a quiet moment of awe under a night sky full of radiant light. With the absence of people or animals, it creates a sense of peace and space.
I love using chalk and pastels when I play with creating atmospheric effects or glowing light. They draw beautifully on dark or toned paper, as here, for the feel of light in a night sky. They also blend, one into the next, easily with a fingertip or blending stick to create the fiery effects of the sunlight or stars.
Aurora on the Prairie, Norman Garstin, Irish (1847–1926). Oil on panel, 1886. Private Collection/Bridgeman Images.
YOU WILL NEED:
• 8" × 10" (20.5 × 25.5 cm) or 9" × 12" (23 × 30.5 cm) blue construction paper
• black colored pencil
• pastels or chalks
• white colored pencil
• blending stick or chamois
1 Place the paper on your work surface horizontally. Imagine it divided into thirds. The horizon line will be one third of the way up from the bottom of your page. This leaves the top two-thirds for the sky. Start by using your black pencil to draw the horizon line. If you like, define the horizon with treetops, hills, or the top of a house. Color the foreground to anchor the sense of place. (See A.)
2 The blue of the paper provides the base blue of the sky. (If you weren’t able to find blue paper, create your sky with pastels.) Blend several blues and pearly grays to develop the sky. Use your finger, a chamois, or a blending stick to blend the blue tones. (See B.)
3 Add tiny white stars to the sky. (See C.)
4 Now create the glow. Sketch the arch of the aurora. Using the side of a white pastel, start at the lowest point of the arch and draw the pastel out to the edge of the page. Vary your pressure with each stroke so that there are lighter and darker areas. Let some of the blue paper and stars show through your veil of white. Add touches of gray or yellow to enhance the glow. (See D.)
5 Return to the stars and enhance them with another touch of white.
When you’re done, try a similar drawing using the early morning sky as inspiration. Use yellow paper to start and blend the pink and orange colors of the sun.
PROJECT 2
LITTLE HOUSES
A horizon and sky, a lack of clutter, and clean, straight lines can create a sense of calm—there’s no noise in this view. In Landscape with Five Houses, Kazimir Malevich has created a clean and quiet scene that we can use as a guide in creating a painted collage. Take a look at the foreground space, where the horizon line is, and how much sky you can see in his painting. Changing the depth of the foreground and distance to the houses can make the view feel cozier or cooler. We’re going to play with the ratios of foreground and background, as well as collaging five houses onto the horizon line.
Landscape with Five Houses, Kazimir Severinovich Malevich, Russian (1878–1935). Oil on canvas, c. 1932. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg/Bridgeman Images.
YOU WILL NEED:
• 9" × 12" (23 × 30.5 cm) stretched canvas, canvas board, or primed wood panel
• pencil
• acrylic paints
• paintbrushes, in a variety of sizes
• watercolor paper or Bristol (Scraps are fine.)
• scissors or craft knife
• white glue or matte medium
• colored pencils
• white gesso
• black Micron pens, in a variety of widths
1 Place the canvas vertically on your work surface. Imagine your composition. Do you want the emphasis in the foreground? Do you want the sky to guide your finished work? Decide which area will take up the most space in your composition.
Draw the horizon line with a pencil. If you want the houses to be the heroes of your composition, your horizon line will be low so that the height of the buildings will dominate. If you want the sky to be the focus, also set your horizon low. You might want only two small houses in your composition so that your sky will have plenty of breathing room. If you decide to have more play in the foreground, make the horizon line high, leaving just enough space for a few little houses and small amount of sky. (See A.)
2 Loosely plan your color palette. Find a range of warm tones for the foreground and a cooler color for the sky or background. (See B.)
3 Choose the colors that you want for your houses and roofs. Use the acrylics to paint watercolor paper with those colors. Make sure you have enough painted paper for five houses and five roofs. Add additional details or textures to the painted surfaces, or leave them as blocks of color. Allow the paint to dry completely. (See C.)
4 Cut the houses and roofs from the painted paper. Think about whether you’d like a line of similarly sized houses or if you’d like more variety. Play with the different sizes and shapes. (See D and E.)
5 Paint the foreground of your canvas a warm color. Use a flat color that you’ve mixed or varied tones of a single color. Your horizon can be a straight line or run diagonally, like a hill. (See F.)
6 Paint the sky a cool color. Clean up the horizon line if needed. While the paint dries, look at your composition and think about where you’ll place the houses. (See G.)
7 Lay out the house bases and roofs on the canvas. Arrange them loosely until you find a configuration you like. You can stick to the original plan of five houses or find another number. Do you want to change the colors? Maybe there should be one pink house in a row of white ones. (See H.)
8 Glue the houses into place. Are they on the horizon or below it? Equidistant from each other or more randomly spaced? Perfectly perpendicular or tilting slightly? It’s your landscape, you decide.
9 Finally, step back to see how your composition has come together. Does it need additional collaged paper pieces? Does it need black or white painted details to unify the composition? Perhaps you’ll want to detail the houses with colored pencil or a Micron pen. (See I.)
When you’re done, try another collage painting. You could use houses of different shapes or a more varied color palette. You could orient your canvas horizontally to see how that changes your approach. Play with the different variables, enjoy the materials, and relax into the process.
PROJECT 3
SILENT BEACH
A beach offers a still point where we can let go of our busy schedules, clear our minds, and tune into nature. This Degas drawing has a wonderfully peaceful feel to it. What I love about it is that Degas created such a deep vista of sand, sea, and sky simply with horizontal bands of color. I’ve played with this idea, using torn strips of paper colored with watercolor and gouache, but you could try it with pastel. Allow for some ambiguity, as getting specific or busy can change the feel of the work entirely. Let your colors remain flowing and soft.
Marine Sunset, Edgar Degas, French (1834–1917). Pastel on paper, c. 1869. Private Collection/Bridgeman Images.
YOU WILL NEED:
• 8" × 10" (20.5 × 25.5 cm) or 9" × 12" (23 × 30.5 cm) Bristol board or watercolor paper
• three pieces of watercolor paper, 8" × 10" (20.5 × 25.5 cm)
• watercolors and gouache
• paintbrushes, in a variety of sizes
• water
• matte medium
1 Imagine a seascape, using the Degas painting as a reference. Paint the Bristol board with a sand color. It can be an off-white or light brown, or lighter in some areas and darker in others. Allow the paint to dry completely. (See A.)
2 Paint the three pieces of watercolor paper, one in varying shades of blues, another with whites, and the third with soft yellow tones. Orient each of these horizontally on your workspace. (See B.)
3 Tear the painted sheets from step 2 into irregular horizontal strips. The paper can still be a little wet. There may be rough spots and crooked lines, which is okay. Enjoy the imperfections. (See C.)
4 Imagine a band of deep water at the bottom of the page, a brighter horizon line toward the middle, and a vast sky above. Overlap the pieces of torn paper on the background, brushing water over them to hold them together. Notice how you can add piece after piece to construct the three areas of color. The brightest band is in the center of the page. (See D.)
5 Attach the strips to the surface with matte medium. Starting at the bottom, attach the darkest section. Move up to the brightest area and then to the sky. Don’t worry if the colors aren’t coming together the way you want them quite yet. Let the matte medium dry. (See E.)
6 How do the bands of collaged color look? Do you have beautiful torn edges that are adding to the depth of the landscape? Add a few more torn pieces of painted paper, if you like.
7 Now focus on how the color is lying on the page. Do you need to add anything? Does it feel hazy and beautiful, or do you want richer color? You can go back in with paint now and work on any areas that need a little something more. Start with a watery paint and let the subtle colors and torn paper textures remain important elements on the page. Enjoy the subtlety of the sea, sky, and the beautiful textures you’ve created.