Trying the masters' techniques

Last night I was reading before bed, and came across one of the Six Laws of Chinese Painting, which was: Transfer Masters' Techniques. It said: "Learn from the masters by copying and analyzing their artwork. As a result, you will learn a variety of techniques and theories with which you can develop your own."

Though my intent is to create original artwork, I felt compelled to take this advice to heart. When I was through reading, I started to prepare a greeting card which I had bought that day to mail to my son. I felt a rush of energy to try to paint the sea scene on the greeting card, which was a watercolor print. The more I thought about it, the more excited I was to try it. So I decided to get up early the next morning to get started.

I started by using a small brush and masking fluid to preserve the white of the paper for the sea gulls, the waves and the shell in the foreground. After breakfast, I used wet paint to wash on the color for the sun and the sky, then proceeded to wash on color for the beach. I added the trees, then some initial washes for the land in the background and the rocks in the foreground. When I returned to my painting later, I added the colors for the water over the masking. I took the masking off of the birds and the shell and painted the shadows on the birds and detail on the shell. Then I took the masking off of the waves and added some lighter blue hues to the preserved white areas of the water.

Doing this exercise for fun made me realize how much I have learned and also helped me to discover another way to continue to learn. I got to focus on using the techniques I have learned to recreate what I saw and didn't have to make decisions about how to render the scene or compose my painting. Seems like it freed me up to try different techniques and see what fits with my developing style. How cool is that?!