To achieve the beautiful effects of soft yet radiant light for the piece Dawn (left), artist Robin Berry uses small scrubber brushes as well as toothbrushes to blend and blur the hard lines created by masking fluid. Berry, a potter as well as a watercolorist, refers to this softening and rounding of the edges as “sculpturing” the light, a process she likens to the act of molding clay.

For a large area, Berry first sprays it with clean water, then uses a wet toothbrush to scrub the hard edges using a delicate circular motion. For a more detailed area, she uses a small scrubbing brush loaded with clean water to gently rub the area. If she finds she needs to repeat this process, Berry allows the paper to dry thoroughly, as too much scrubbing can puncture it.

As you can see, this gentle touch is worth the effort.

You can see how Robin Berry created this piece from start to finish in Watercolor Secrets, edited by Rachel Rubin Wolf.

—Kelly Messerly
Editor, North Light Books

Watercolor Secrets contributor and Splash veteran Fealing Lin loves painting watercolors spontaneously. “Spontaneity can be merely an illusion if you don’t appreciate the nature of the medium,” says Lin. “I constantly squint my eyes to generalize the shapes, leaving the facial features and other details for last.”  Here’s a look at her process in action.


Reference Photo












1 DRAWING THE LIKENESS
I drew the image with a 3B pencil, making the pencil lines dark enough to sustain the first color wash. I added small dots of frisket for the spots of light in the ribbon and the ribbon’s shadow.












2 APPLYING THE LIGHT-VALUE WASH
I set my easel at a steep 70-degree angle. This allowed the colors to run and mingle when I applied the light-value wash over the pencil lines and the background using the wet-into-wet method.












3 CREATING THE LIGHT AND SHADOW PATTERN
I used light-medium values to shape the light and shadow patterns at this stage (both cast shadows and form shadows). Cast shadows can be rendered with hard edges, but form shadows need softened edges.












4 COMPLETING THE FACIAL FEATURES AND DETAILS
I completed the facial features and details with all the light and dark values. I erased the frisket and made necessary touch-ups. I used a craft knife to scrape thin lines into her hair.















Fealing Lin’s work will also be featured in the upcoming Splash 11: New Directions, due out in May 2010. Visit the Splash website to learn more about their current competition Splash 12: Celebrating Artistic Vision. Deadline to enter is December 15th, 2009.