paint, pastel, paper
The summer months bring rain to the American Southwest. Skies become dark, light bright and fleeting; a sudden downpour, and then it vanishes. The clouds clear and once more the intense light returns. Everything becomes more vivid and alive during these brief showers and scudding clouds with lightning often adding to the drama. To me, this is the desert at its best – a harsh beauty in a harsh land.
This time a sky and land study from a Pixabay image. I did this on the reverse side of another painting, so the paper, 140# Arches cold press, was warped. I thought about ironing it, but decided to just tape it to the board, and use the warps to my advantage with the sky. Overall, it worked pretty well, but where there were dribbles, I snagged them with a tissue. It was rather fun.
Altogether, I like the way this painting turned out. I was rather stumped about the foreground, so I just made some leafy, grassy strokes. The water along the roadway came out fairly good, as did the road itself. Perspective on a flat land is a challenge but it seems to have worked out, too.
Some days a painting works, and you are in the moment with paint, brush, and paper. A lot of the painting was like that. Then, at the end, I stepped back and thought about contrast, and added a bit here and there as blobs or lines or dots. And finally it was done.
In a number of circles, there is an “urban sketch” style done with ink and watercolor. Drawing and painting are combined. Some people are masters of it, in my opinion, having a good balance of ink and clear watercolor, with one or the other predominating, and the other not overwhelming its partner. (I hope that made sense!)
I am trying to find that balance. I’d say I am okay with ink, but heavy-handed with color.
Today I decided to try two things. The first is above – a simple “country” scene with trees (and green! remember yesterday?), a fence, and a building. The idea was for the sun – the light source – to be coming from the left, behind the barn. I’m not so sure what that big blue thing is to the right of the (obvious) three shadows of the trees, but it’s too late to do anything about that!
This one is an urban scene, one obviously not in downtown Los Angeles, but in some older part of the world. Here, the light is coming from the right, perhaps, but the alleys and buildings create their own logic. Shadows are broken up with bright spots. One can only imagine that to find the light, looking up will reveal a world much different than the one on the ground. I think this one was fairly successful; there are parts which seem to work, and others that make no sense at all – like, what is that thing? Scribble more ink on it and let the viewer guess!
Journey by Paper 