Negative Painting With Kathleen Lanzoni

“Morning Conversation was inspired by a strong feeling of contentment, a moment in time with a friend,” says Kathleen Lanzoni. “She and I were enjoying breakfast and solving all the world’s problems, sitting at her kitchen table. The light was streaming through the window and gave her such a beautiful strong glow, matched only by her energy and wisdom. It was a moment that I knew I wanted to capture in a painting.”

Kathleen’s Watercolor Painting Process:

“Creating Morning Conversation was about using watercolor paint at its most fluid, allowing the light, and the hard and soft edges to describe the story,” she says. “What is not painted is just as important as what is painted, keeping key details and eliminating unnecessary ones.

“An especially important technique I used was negative painting. Negative painting means painting an area around a shape to create the specific shape. The thought process is that you are painting two areas at the same time. I make a plan of where to save the whites and lights, then begin.

“I kept about a quarter of the paper dry so that paint would not go into dry locations, and this saved the white clean original paper. I began the painting with a wet-into-wet technique, covering large areas and allowing colors to mix themselves in the wet spaces. Let the watercolor magic happen!

“I then built up the image with many layers of transparent paint, allowing the paper to dry between applications. The process was about painting light to dark, soft edges to hard edges, and adding more details as the painting progressed, making sure my friend’s eyes were telling the story.”

Kathleen Lanzoni will be demonstrating her techniques and answering questions live during the optional Essential Techniques Day of Watercolor Live!