paint, pastel, paper
My last pond was apparently lacking in a certain level of correct flatness – people said they felt like they were falling into it. Brrr! Not something I would want to happen! Given that, I did try to make this pond look flat as well as give a sense of a cold, wintry afternoon at sunset.
Watercolor, 9×12.
I was never any good at skating, but I did try it out a lot when I was a kid. We moved from a really cold place in the midwest to a warmer climate on the east coast, leaving rural farmland with ponds and lakes for a bit of suburbia in New Jersey. Every year the neighbors would get together and scrape the snow off the nearby lake, test the ice, and create a skating pond. We were never allowed to go by ourselves because of the chance of falling through the ice, but it seems there was always a dad or mom to supervise a dozen kids in snow suits, wipe away our tears, keep us generally under control.
Watercolor, 9×12, 140# CP ArtBeek paper.
I am taking an online watercolor class, and I am sort of this way, that way about it. There is feedback and some great videos, but I find that I like to have a more personal contact than such. Another online class I am taking has weekly Zoom meetings and even though we aren’t all yacking with the instructor, it is more personal.
Anyway, despite what I would like to see different, there is a lot of value in pursuing online learning. To a degree, you have to motivate yourself. You have to have the discipline to do it. One thing that I do find especially hard in all my classes is the making of value studies – oh, how I hate them! I don’t have them as part of my routine when it comes to painting, and the discipline of doing them is what I hate. I expect that doing them will pay off in the future – but it may be a bit down the road as I force myself to do them without appreciating what I know they are supposed to provide.
Above, a study from a photo in my watercolor class. Below is the first value study showing the midtones
All the white area is supposed to be sky and the lightest areas of the picture. The grey is the middle value. These are used to help shape the painting before refinement with darks and details. Below is my dark-added value study.
I actually really think this idea of doing middle values for the first step of a value study is a good idea. Do these values first, paint your lights and mid values in color, and then move on to the darker ones in the value study and the final painting. Doing this is very nice, really, because the dark values and details get distracting.
Like I said, this is a thing I am not enjoying doing but know it is probably going to reap bigger rewards than I can imagine at present. Values and edges are what I am trying to see in anything I do.
I used St. Cuthbert’s Millford paper. What a difference from Arches! The colors lie on the surface longer it seems – a totally different painting experience. First time trying out this paper and I really like it! Can you believe it came all the way from England!?
Anyway, this whole week has been a wash – just craziness and little odd details, appointments, and so on. My head is spinning. Finally, having time to paint, I made myself sit down and do it, without thinking ahead. I just needed to get the brush and colors and paper going again.
Another lesson in wet-in-wet technique with Peter Sheeler. This one really worked well for me! I like the results below. My weeds in the foreground on the left were not as dry-brush as they should have been to get the crispy qualities – the right side was more successful. I’ll be doing another of Peter’s exercises later today!
Journey by Paper 