5 Takeaways from Watercolorist Steve Griggs [and How to Put Them to Practice]
Each artist interview comes jam packed with so much good information. Here are five of my main takeaways from my upcoming interview with watercolorist Steve Griggs (Ep.59). The conversation goes live Tuesday September 13th. (Podcast Art Club- You’re early access is coming soon.)
Takeaway #1: Follow Your Teachers… and then Don’t
Watercolorist Steve Griggs’ work is anything but traditional.
But traditional painting is where Griggs started. He learned the foundational (read: traditional) approach to watercolor. Washes. Wet into wet. Glazing. Working light to dark. All the standard ways to build a painting.
He learned it from his teachers and he did his best to replicate their approach to subjects.
And although at some point, Griggs deviated from that path, he still believes this is a perfect place to start. It’s how he encourages his students to start. To find a teacher they love (him or otherwise) and to replicate that teacher as much as they can.
Replicating your teachers can be a fast way to build your skills. It gives you a clear direction to work towards. So much of learning to paint is showing up to paint and learning from what you’ve done. Having a really clear direction can help you there.
But Griggs also deeply believes in the importance of moving beyond replication. That to be an artist is to respond to the beauty of the world around you with your paintings. He knows the world is a more interesting place when students learn the fundamentals and how to replicate and then keep moving down their own path to create their own unique work.
Put it to Practice:
Don’t feel bad about copying your teachers. (Don’t sell it as your own work but from a learning standpoint, it’s totally fine.) Pay attention to how they plan and how they build up their subject matter. Then try it yourself. If it doesn’t turn out like theirs, you now have a whole host of new and great questions to ask.
Takeaway #2: Limit that Palette
Steve Griggs has hundreds of paint tubes and dozens of paint boxes, but when it comes to which paints he uses, it rounds out to about 6-8.
He limited his palette when he realized that he could mix all the secondaries and terciaries with just those limited colors. This freed him up to trust that his painting would seem cohesive.
But even with 6-8 colors, he still sometimes will only grab a few. Generally he’ll work with a split complementary meaning he has primaries in a warm and a cool version. Then he’ll have shaders and a white.
Sometimes his paintings will use all 8 tubes. Sometimes he’ll decide to explore just one or two colors.
Put it to Practice:
If you are feeling that your paintings don’t feel cohesive or you are struggling with color mixing, 99% of guests on the show suggest limiting your palette. By working with just three to six primaries, you are almost guaranteeing a cohesive looking painting. And learning to mix color, while at first a bit frustrating, will free you up in the long run much quicker than having to choose between 100 tubes of paint each time you’re sitting down to paint.
Takeaway #3: Find Consistency in Your Tools Through Your Entire Process
Sketchbooks are important for Steve Griggs’ process because they let him experiment… but as part of that, he’s trying to find which watercolor techniques he’ll bring to the main painting. In order to do that, it’s important that he keeps all the materials he’s using in his sketchbook motif work, as similar as possible to his fuller paintings.
After all, the way a wet-into-wet wash goes down on inexpensive student grade 90lb watercolor paper will be very very different from professional grade arches 140 pound rough.
Put it to Practice:
If you find yourself asking, “why isn’t this working like it did in my study?” it may be worth double checking that the materials you’re using in the studies just aren’t too different from the materials you’re using in your final painting. And if they are very different, choosing materials that are closer.
For example, if you're moving from inexpensive hot press watercolor paper and then do the painting on cold press rough those are VERY different surfaces. Try and find a paper for your studies that is closer to what you'll be using in your final, larger work.
Takeaway #4: Find Tools and Techniques that Match Your Goals
One of Steve Griggs’ goals for his paintings is for them to have a sense of texture. He looks for tools and techniques that will help him with his goal.
For example, his palette consists of a few granulating pigments so he gets textures directly from his pigments.
He uses 140 pound rough paper which has a bumpy surface. This means if and when he wants to, he can use techniques that accentuate the paper's texture.
Finally, he uses an abundance of different techniques from dappling to overspraying to thick washes where colors intermingle.
All of these lead to more visual texture for the viewer to experience.
Put it to Practice:
Your materials can work with you or against you. Griggs is a great example of an artist using his materials to work with him. Griggs knows he likes texture so instead of only being able to access it through painting techniques like spattering, he sets up his materials to accentuate the texturized options in watercolor.
If you’re an artist who DOESN’T want texture, that’s great too. Make sure you’re using papers, pigments and techniques that don’t accentuate texture. You’ll have an easier time getting the look and feel you want in your work.
Takeaway #5: Develop a Process that Allows Exploration & Play
Sketchbooks are a fundamental piece of watercolorist Steve Griggs’ art process. They offer a space where he can really explore ideas before deciding which ones to bring into a larger painting.
He works in Arteza spiral bound sketchbooks. He will start a painting by looking at a scene and painting it with the local color he sees directly.
Then he begins asking “what if?” What if instead of the grass being green, it was purple? What if he tried an analogous color scheme? What if he worked in a long portrait format… or what about a long horizontal format. What if what if what if?
He works through ideas page after page after page. He calls these his motifs. He follows ideas wherever they take him. And then when he’s finished trying different colors and formats and techniques, he will find the ones that spoke to him most and begin working on a larger painting or paintings with those in mind.
Put it to Practice:
Your first idea isn't necessarily the one you'll love most. Griggs works through motifs in a sketchbook. That way he's not precious about it and he just tries idea after idea. In your own practice, is there anywhere where you can truly try ideas on without feeling precious or like you're using materials. It might be worth creating a space for that as part of your process
I can’t wait to hear YOUR takeaways when the conversation goes live next week.
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