conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a description for a book titled Paint Watercolors That Dance with Light about California, Pennsylvania, Washington with the genre: Arts & Photography, Painting?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: the author has taught classes and workshops in California, Pennsylvania and Washington State and has won a number of major awards. She lives in Soquel, California.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first five paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Paint Watercolors That Dance with Light
  Convenience colors are worth trying. There is a broad range of browns or earth colors that you can buy, but you can also mix all of them from red, yellow and blue. The particular brown you mix will depend on the proportions of each primary color you use. Using tube greens can also be efficient. Note that some tube greens stain, so you should use them with caution, i.e., mix them with more water, both by pre-wetting the area and on your palette, so that the color can be built up gradually.
  Getting to know your tubes of paint is very important. When you test and experiment with the colors you have, you gain knowledge about your colors. Color mistakes often happen because the artist can't predict the consequence of combining paints. Begin by making a complete chart of your paints, then try them out in a variety of experiments. This will teach you what will happen when you layer one particular paint over another, and what a difference more or less water can make.
  Learn to create a variety of other colors using only red, yellow and blue. Experiment with a warm and cool version of each primary, and see the difference that they can make. Vary the relative strengths of the three colors. Mix a variety of warm and cool grays. Try to make a completely balanced gray and black!
  Make your paintings come alive with light. When you make light the subject of your paintings, you capture the ephemeral moment. The dance of light and shadow creates magic.
  Light reveals the world. Without light, there is no world. Even at night, you see your surroundings by the traces of light still present. When you paint, you are really painting light, creating the illusion of light. When I seek images to paint, I look for powerful evidence of light—something that will uplift the viewer of my painting in the same way I am uplifted by the object or scene I see. A strong statement about light gives my paintings life. I urge you to seek light, pay attention to it.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Paint Watercolors That Dance with Light
  Convenience colors are worth trying. There is a broad range of browns or earth colors that you can buy, but you can also mix all of them from red, yellow and blue. The particular brown you mix will depend on the proportions of each primary color you use. Using tube greens can also be efficient. Note that some tube greens stain, so you should use them with caution, i.e., mix them with more water, both by pre-wetting the area and on your palette, so that the color can be built up gradually.
  Getting to know your tubes of paint is very important. When you test and experiment with the colors you have, you gain knowledge about your colors. Color mistakes often happen because the artist can't predict the consequence of combining paints. Begin by making a complete chart of your paints, then try them out in a variety of experiments. This will teach you what will happen when you layer one particular paint over another, and what a difference more or less water can make.
  Learn to create a variety of other colors using only red, yellow and blue. Experiment with a warm and cool version of each primary, and see the difference that they can make. Vary the relative strengths of the three colors. Mix a variety of warm and cool grays. Try to make a completely balanced gray and black!
  Make your paintings come alive with light. When you make light the subject of your paintings, you capture the ephemeral moment. The dance of light and shadow creates magic.
  Light reveals the world. Without light, there is no world. Even at night, you see your surroundings by the traces of light still present. When you paint, you are really painting light, creating the illusion of light. When I seek images to paint, I look for powerful evidence of light—something that will uplift the viewer of my painting in the same way I am uplifted by the object or scene I see. A strong statement about light gives my paintings life.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know another paragraph?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Watercolor is a dynamic medium and you can increase the action by painting on a sloping surface. Different stages of the process will require the help of gravity, so being able to turn and tilt the painting is essential. After painting each wash, use a tissue to wipe up any excess liquid from around the edges. Allow everything to dry completely (a "juicy wash" may take up to three hours to dry).
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Sometimes a painting loses its focus by having an overall middle value, with very few darks and lights, either accidentally or as the result of waffling. I protect myself from this mishap by using several masking techniques, as detailed in chapter four. Lights are very important because they give a painting its sparkle; darks are essential because they can give a painting weight and substance. Both help focus the viewer's attention. Massing, or grouping, darks and lights together is a powerful compositional tool. But if you have lost the darks and lights, all is not lost! Decide where the lights should be and lift paint. Decide where the darks should be and glaze. Often, areas end up too light because it's difficult to determine the ultimate dry value of pigment when it is still wet. The remedy is to keep glazing as many times as necessary, even until your darkest darks are close to black. Don't assume an area is finished just because it's covered with paint.
  The worst mistake you can make in a painting that has value problems is to give up and declare the thing a failure. You can always lift paint, and you can always add paint. I tell my students, "Keep your solutions large and your actions light." This means to float the glazes on using the largest possible brush and a light non-scrubbing action. When you need to lift color, do so gently and only increase force if a gentle touch didn't work. If you used a scrubber brush and it didn't lift off enough color, let the area dry and then try lifting again. Don't give up until the area is the value you need it to be. If you lift all the color, basically taking an area back to the original white paper, you might need to glaze it with a new color so the area will work in your painting. You can glaze on top of a scrubbed area, but only with a light touch and not too many times. Scrubbing lifts off sizing and some of the paper, leaving the area damaged. This means the scrubbed paper will now act like a blotter and the next washes you add will soak deeper into the paper.
  Drawing problems are a frequent hurdle to successfully completing a painting. This problem was created in the initial drawing or by brushstrokes obliterating correctly drawn lines along the way Sometimes a drawing will seem fine when it is just lines, and mistakes are revealed only when the lines become form. Masking fluid's tendency to spread out after application or the artist's failure to completely fill in shapes with the liquid mask can also cause problems: Fine lines can become fat, objects can grow unwanted lumps or chunks can be cut out of edges. First, determine the right shape, redrawing in pencil if necessary This done, the solution is once again to add or subtract, probably on a very small scale. Use a small brush to paint patches of color to match the background next to any shape that needs to be shaved. Next, lift color where needed.
  Sometimes you get lost along the way in a painting, so the result doesn't match your original vision. This doesn't necessarily mean the result's bad. Perhaps it has just taken a new path and is something equally fine. It may even be better than your original idea.
  As an analogy, consider the story of the woman who goes for a hike in the mountains and gets lost. Because the hiker loses her way, she meets the love of her life. You might say that it was a terrible experience to get lost, but look at what she found! You may be clinging to your original idea too much, so you are blind to the value of what you have. Try to see your painting with the fresh eyes of a stranger, someone who doesn't know what you planned when you began. The painting may still need some fine-tuning, but if you never recognize what you have, you are apt to trash it with heavy-handed "repairs." Your vision needs to be flexible.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Swap the first and the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: " Your vision needs to be flexible. I protect myself from this mishap by using several masking techniques, as detailed in chapter four. Lights are very important because they give a painting its sparkle; darks are essential because they can give a painting weight and substance. Both help focus the viewer's attention. Massing, or grouping, darks and lights together is a powerful compositional tool. But if you have lost the darks and lights, all is not lost! Decide where the lights should be and lift paint. Decide where the darks should be and glaze. Often, areas end up too light because it's difficult to determine the ultimate dry value of pigment when it is still wet. The remedy is to keep glazing as many times as necessary, even until your darkest darks are close to black. Don't assume an area is finished just because it's covered with paint.
  The worst mistake you can make in a painting that has value problems is to give up and declare the thing a failure. You can always lift paint, and you can always add paint. I tell my students, "Keep your solutions large and your actions light." This means to float the glazes on using the largest possible brush and a light non-scrubbing action. When you need to lift color, do so gently and only increase force if a gentle touch didn't work. If you used a scrubber brush and it didn't lift off enough color, let the area dry and then try lifting again. Don't give up until the area is the value you need it to be. If you lift all the color, basically taking an area back to the original white paper, you might need to glaze it with a new color so the area will work in your painting. You can glaze on top of a scrubbed area, but only with a light touch and not too many times. Scrubbing lifts off sizing and some of the paper, leaving the area damaged. This means the scrubbed paper will now act like a blotter and the next washes you add will soak deeper into the paper.
  Drawing problems are a frequent hurdle to successfully completing a painting. This problem was created in the initial drawing or by brushstrokes obliterating correctly drawn lines along the way Sometimes a drawing will seem fine when it is just lines, and mistakes are revealed only when the lines become form. Masking fluid's tendency to spread out after application or the artist's failure to completely fill in shapes with the liquid mask can also cause problems: Fine lines can become fat, objects can grow unwanted lumps or chunks can be cut out of edges. First, determine the right shape, redrawing in pencil if necessary This done, the solution is once again to add or subtract, probably on a very small scale. Use a small brush to paint patches of color to match the background next to any shape that needs to be shaved. Next, lift color where needed.
  Sometimes you get lost along the way in a painting, so the result doesn't match your original vision. This doesn't necessarily mean the result's bad. Perhaps it has just taken a new path and is something equally fine. It may even be better than your original idea.
  As an analogy, consider the story of the woman who goes for a hike in the mountains and gets lost. Because the hiker loses her way, she meets the love of her life. You might say that it was a terrible experience to get lost, but look at what she found! You may be clinging to your original idea too much, so you are blind to the value of what you have. Try to see your painting with the fresh eyes of a stranger, someone who doesn't know what you planned when you began. The painting may still need some fine-tuning, but if you never recognize what you have, you are apt to trash it with heavy-handed "repairs.Sometimes a painting loses its focus by having an overall middle value, with very few darks and lights, either accidentally or as the result of waffling.