A roundup of full-of-life paintings by artists who use watercolor’s natural properties to their advantage.
These artists harness the natural properties of watercolor to depict people and animals on the move. Read about their tips and tricks for trying to control the drips, runs, and spatters, along with their attempts to harness the joy and freedom of the medium’s tendency toward entropy. Both have their place in this roundup of paintings full of life, motion, and movement.
Stephen Zhang’s Haircut
In Stephen Zhang’s Haircut, figures abound, although it’s not immediately apparent. The mother and daughter in the foreground dominate the scene, with the girl’s stillness emphasized by the mother’s working contrapposto. Upon closer inspection, the background vibrates with a movement of its own.
Two Kinds of Movement
“There are two kinds of movements in Haircut,” the artist says. “First is the literal movement, mainly represented by the mother who is cutting the hair. Her posture—the lines of her arm and jacket— create a visible tension in this otherwise stable composition.
The second movement is deliberately implied. On the back wall, the color blocks, value variations, and choppy brushstrokes create a dynamic and nonlinear patchwork; the horizontal and vertical lines function as stabilizing elements. “Overall, I intended for a flow to cascade from the top down to the bottom, like a waterfall, leading to the main character—the child,” Zhang says.
Colorful Restraint
The purples, pinks, and oranges on the child’s barber cape, reflected on her face, are all tied into the background, rooting her in the scene. Although the color is quite saturated, it looks realistic from the careful placement and restraint, just as Zhang witnessed the scene. “I believe you can capture movement in both plein air and the studio,” he says. “I paint mostly in the studio; however, for me, it’s important to experience movement on location with observation and sketches and to document it with photography.”
Of course, not everything in Haircut was planned, and like most watercolorists, Zhang knows that’s a given going in. “The movement of the water and color isn’t entirely controllable,” he says. “One should be open to the spontaneous happenings and respond to the result accordingly. This also affects the movement of the painting.”
A Crazy Idea
Rouse has received a lot of questions about this painting in particular. “I wish I could say it was genius,” he says. “I had the setting I liked, so all I had to do was find some interesting characters to populate the foreground.” He had planned to paint it in gritty color, as he had other New York scenes. “But this crazy idea sprang into my head that it would be even grittier in black and white with the primary subjects in color, as well as two different styles or techniques.”
Adding to the impact is the waiter, dressed in period style, inviting interest in the restaurant behind him. “A little old, a little new. A challenge, but great fun,” says Rouse.
The Background
Rouse maintains that the backgrounds of paintings are important in creating overall flow. Paint handling can make them an integral part of the mission to enhance a sense of movement around the paper. “Blur the background in varying degrees of soft- ness or fuzziness,” he says. “Watercolor, as well as acrylic, gouache and tempera, also can be drybrushed onto the surface with much more control than using transparent washes, creating a smoke-like haze to soften the color beneath the brushstrokes.”
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