My recent focus on painting portraits has proven successful in eliminating most of my apprehensions, so I’m off and running. One thing I’ve learned is how much fun I have painting white-bearded males! Capturing white hairs is a challenge when painting in traditional techniques of watercolor on paper, where the white of unpainted paper is preserved vs. using any white paint – but a good challenge can help develop artistic skills. Recently I decided it was time to do a portrait of the quintessential and internationally famous white-bearded man, Santa Claus. I decided to use watercolor on white scratchboard rather than on white watercolor paper for this new painting, a first for my portrait work but an option which presents many advantages for such a subject.
Did you know that the real Santa lives in my little town in Tennessee (when he is not in residence at the North Pole, that is)? He lives on Santa’s Berry Farm, where I met him years ago when I visited for his pick-your-own blueberries. Last year I coordinated with Santa (aka Charles) at a December picture-taking event, arriving before any children so I could take photos of him for future reference. A few months ago I decided it was time to create Santa’s portrait to use for my Christmas cards and my 2020 fine art calendar, and went through my reference photos to decide the best approach. I selected my favorite, but decided to change the background to a Christmas tree with old-fashioned lights and ornaments. I also needed to enhance the color in Santa’s face which looked pale in my photos; this would make his signature handlebar mustache, white beard, and white fur on his hat and collar really pop in contrast.
I knew from the start that my painting title would be “The Real Santa.” I recall as a child being taken to visit “the real Santa,” waiting in a long long line at a big department store in Boston named Jordan Marsh… much like the little girl played by young Natalie Wood in the classic holiday movie The Miracle on 34th Street.
For my media I chose a 9″ x 12″ white Ampersand Art Aquabord™ scratchboard and Golden QoR® watercolors with a palette of warm and cool primary colors. As I tell my scratchboard class participants, Ampersand suggests: “For best results, it’s a good idea to first ‘flush out’ the surface of the panel with water using a large flat watercolor brush to release trapped air. Once the surface is slightly damp, it is ready to use.” This is because the clay layer holds air pockets produced during manufacturing, and flushing the surface will allow the paints to be absorbed more smoothly. After completing this step, I let the surface dry and then transferred Santa’s image to the board by tracing a black and white printout with graphite transfer paper between it and the board. I sketched in the background elements in pencil. As you can see in my step-by-step photos, I don’t include much detail in my sketching outside of the facial parts – mostly just guidelines for the major shapes.
I began my painting with Santa’s face, blending my chosen colors into various flesh tones. On the white fur and his white hair I painted warm and cool blue shadows which define and give dimension to white textures. Then I painted the rich reds of his clothing, with the lovely folds in his jacket, before beginning the background. Santa looks a bit strange in my Step 4 photo, with floating ornaments, light bulbs and splotches of bright colors surrounding him, but I had thought out my plan of attack carefully before this painting even began – as I usually do!
I’ve learned to resist doing any scratching until most of the painted areas completed. I also cover areas where whites will eventually be revealed with more paint than I would use otherwise in those places, since portions of that paint will be removed.
On white Aquabord the watercolor paints are absorbed only slightly into the textured white clay layer – enough to adhere but not so much that the entire thickness of clay gets colored. Surprisingly, the white clay layer is very thin – I’d guess less than 1/16″. It coats the front surface of a 1/8″ acid-free hardboard panel. Watercolor paint sits nicely on the clay surface and dries with intense vibrancy. Dried paint tends to lift easily when re-wet, compared with using cold press watercolor paper, and this requires some adjusting to, even for an experienced watercolor artist. Glazes over already laid-in colors and big wet washes are not so easy as on paper; paint applied with a dry brush and short strokes is more controllable. These qualities are not drawbacks to me, they just necessitate some different approaches to creating a watercolor painting on Aquabord than on watercolor paper. I consider the ease of lifting paint to be a major scratchboard advantage over using watercolor paper. In addition, the numerous methods and tools for removing the paint to reveal whites or lighter values in the layer of white clay below the thin coating of paint make it a truly unique painting surface. Aquabord is incredibly forgiving once you master its properties.
With about 95% of the paint applied, I was itching to scratch by Step 6 (sorry, I couldn’t resist). For the soft fur trim I created the white highlights and fluffiness with fiberglass scratching brushes stroked over the painted areas. These are not really brushes, they are fine sticks which fit into a mechanical pencil type of holder (A & B) or a tube which you twist to lengthen the fiber (C). Strokes with these tools create a soft edge as they scrape away the paint to the white clay layer below. (See the end of this post for sources for these tools.) For finer details on the fur, as well as for the highlights on his eyeglasses and on his white hairs, I used a #11 Xacto knife blade, my go-to scratching tool. Compare the areas of his mustache and the hair in front of his ear on Step 6 with those sections in the final painting for a close look at this scratching. (Note: On my blog page itself, if you click on any image it will enlarge).
On the background, I used a dampened Q-tip to re-wet and blot the paint away in places where I wanted to soften edges and to create the appearance of more distant and out-of-focus tree lights and decorations. The background shouldn’t compete with Santa himself, my focal point. I used a similar technique to create highlights on the lights and ornaments, helping change the appearance of a gray bulb into a silvery bulb. The shiny gold button on Santa’s jacket lent itself perfectly to the scratchboard, which allowed me to reveal the highlights by scratching off little spots of paint. Often times I paint over areas where I have scratched or removed the paint, to create light colors and/or values, as with blue paint on the hat fur on its left edge and on the mustache to create the shadow cast from his nose.
Naturally, the first person I showed this painting to (besides my husband Rick) was Santa. He said “I think it is awesome” so I was very pleased. When he saw my printed calendars with his image on December, he placed a big order to give them as gifts. I asked him whether, as a supplier to Santa, I could call myself an Elf? He said his Elves make lots of gifts, not just one type, but I could officially consider myself to be a Santa’s Helper!
Merry Christmas to all, and Happy 2020.
