paint, pastel, paper
From a photo of a nearby creek in a local park. Not a great watercolor but perhaps a bit more solid than the ones I have done earlier this week. The fact is, once you don’t make painting a daily practice and let it slide by, you really need to get warmed up to do it yet again! I’ve been far too busy with other things, and it shows . . .
I was playing around yesterday – rocks, water, reflections of rocks in water. Glazes and lines became trees on the rocks and then some. I was rather pleased with it since I wasn’t aiming for anything . . . .
Nothing great . . . 6×9 on Strathmore Vision 140# paper.
What is the purpose of this sketch? First, trying to lead the eye to the two trees on the opposite river bank. Second, trying to reflect warm and cool light on the snow and ice of the river.
Problems? Paper is not great, but good for these kind of studies. Also using different paints – Schmincke pan paints, which are more saturated than the travel paints I used the past two days. And, as always, my sense of perspective is off. I am not quite sure why and it really bugs me!! Oh, well, perhaps one day I will find the answer to that problem.
Thinking about the atmospheric perspective, it seemed I needed softer edges in the distance. So, I wet the paper, blurred it a bit, and smeared a light mess of a blue-grey to give some distance. Then I took the painting into LR and decided to adjust the vertical perspective a bit, tilting the picture back a bit, and then doing a “smart fill” in the areas left white by that adjustment.
Don’t know if it improved the picture, but I think it might have as I often feel as if I am falling into my painting from above – sort of like a bad dream.
I’ve always loved pen and watercolor drawings, long before urban sketching became connected with it. The ink here is some of my homemade iron gall ink, waterproof and dark once dried. On top of that, opaque pan watercolors I picked up at a little store in Decorah, Iowa, this summer. The paper is 100% cotton Bee paper – nothing great, not expensive, but fun to use and responsive to both ink and color. Illustrations like this are fun because they aren’t “serious” – I get to play, practice, explore. Not a bad way to spend some time before lunch.
Lake Lundy is a lovely area in the Eastern Sierras of California. Colors, water, and stunning mountains make for a wonderful place to visit!
Summer is not yet officially here, but the warmth, sun, birds, and wind all make me long for a quiet spot to sit and relax. No nothing except the sounds of the natural world. Here, all the things I love.
Yesterday was a watercolor day! I warmed up with a copy of Wesson’s painting, and then moved on to more water. I am not intimidated by water in the form of lakes or streams, but do need to learn how to do oceans and waves and white caps. I am trying to get a grip on reflections and how water and reflections interact. I think reflections appear longer when the sun is behind you rather than in front of you, like shadows.
Here, a mountain and a lake, with some very deep shadows. The distant mountain is quite bland to my eyes and would like to liven it up with deeper greens and richer browns. I didn’t. I tried to keep it more simple than the actual photo. I did to a point.
I think most painters will always find faults as they know, as they paint, what challenged them while they painted and what their vision was, versus what they put down. My life.
Today is a calm, slightly muggy day. Where I live, no open water running through a flat land, few clouds. Instead, there are mountains and the little bit of green we get with spring rains is giving way to brown. Much as I love where I live, and find its austerity beautiful, I also crave wet, hot days. This will have to do.
This one I struggled with a bit along the shoreline. Only when I added more dark coloration along the shore, at the edge of the water, did it get a bit of the pop I think it needed. Of late, I am working on skies and depth. That’s all for now. It just feels good to have a brush in hand again!
A bit out of proportion – obviously put together by a madman or seriously abused in its lifetime – this green, enamel-over-metal teapot was my first flirtation with “metallic” for #WorldWatercolorMonth2019. I think it is okay, but really more of a warm up study. The ones that follow are a bit better. As I was doing them, I became more confident in the brushwork.
This is rather obviously a teaspoon – but the handle is really too short! Thus, it is now a sugar bowl spoon.
I need to practice drawing more, and working on relationships of size and such. While my painting is improving, I can’t say my drawing is.
Nonetheless, I am pleased with this. I used only Payne’s Grey and used it in varying strengths to create a (gasp!) monochromatic watercolor study.
Nest is an old brass skeleton key. I used Burnt Umber, Quin Gold, Organic Vermilion, and Payne’s Grey. I figured since I had done something with underlying metal and silver, a gold color was necessary.
Working my way through these paintings did not take a lot of time, but they did focus my attention. The elements of contrast I am learning in gouache is really becoming apparent in my watercolors.
Bolder brushwork, too. In gouache, I have been doing a lot of scumbling; here, I am working by holding the brush at its end, away from the ferrule, and holding it more loosely. It works as far as freeing me from a sense of “I have to do this perfectly” – don’t know why, but it is interesting to see how a physical stance changes the mental, and perhaps the final artistic result.
Journey by Paper 