64 Watercolor artist | DECEMBER 2019
Watercolor Essentials
Th is is a contrast of location, and it
could be the same kind of element
that fi lls the rest of the painting but
because it’s isolated, we look at it fi rst.
I tend to use contrasting value and
will isolate a bright window on a dark
street or a small dark shadow on a
sunlit wall. Th e eye immediately goes
to this section, and it’s probably the
reason I chose this view.AN EMPHASIS
BY PLACEMENT
Th e use of line, or a line of objects,
can direct the eye. In my urban
landscapes, the natural one-pointperspective of a cityscape powerfully
leads the eye down the street. I can use
telephone wires, the curb, painted traf-
fi c lines or the top cornices of buildings
as directional lines. Th ese can all point
to my particular focal point. All of
these lines can be referred to as radial
design or radial balance, like the
spokes of a bicycle wheel, all pointing
to a center focal point. In my urban
paintings, I use all of these street
objects and their diagonal energy for
convergence to the focal point.
What’s also powerful is the use
of an implied, or psychic, line. An
implied line is a series of points thatABOVE
The use of Emphasis by Contrast is most
important in 16 Pell Street (watercolor on
paper, 40x26). The focal point would fi rst
be the brilliant sunlight hitting the side of
the truck, using Emphasis by Contrast; in
this case, it’s the stark white trapezoidal shape
surrounded by dark shadows. Beyond this
truck, the viewer is led down the street by
the lines created via curbs, cornices, building
bases and the truck roof leading to the building
at the end (radial design). An implied line is
created by the tops of the windows. Through
the use of atmospheric perspective, the faint
building at the end of the street contrasts with
all of the hard edges in the foreground.