Body Parts, I

These past few weeks have just flown by! I spent a number of days up in Monterey. I’ve been learning Mah Jongg (American style), playing cards, running around, taking my painting classes, and just enjoying life. I also ignore the news as much as possible.

I decided to get more serious about portraits, have done a few which I am still working on, as well as decided to go into the body parts business. It’s one thing to get all the bits and pieces to work together well in the face, but I have decided to do some studies of the eyes, nose, and mouths of different people – from photos – just to have a focus on the details of each body part.

Or, I guess, face part.

I also decided to use a new-to-me product, Arches “Huile” paper – 140# cotton rag paper treated to take direct painting of oil paints without the need to gesso its surface. The texture of the paper is not like canvas, but it is tactile in its own way, and I rather enjoyed it.

To begin . . . I decided to save the hardest part for last and begin with what I thought would be fairly straightforward. First, lips and a few teeth, then the nose, and finally the eyes.

This study is from a photo of a kid just getting his adult teeth. Snaggle-toothed and chapped lips, so it was a pretty realistic photo. As this was my first painting on the Arches “Huile” I dipped my toe – well, my brush – in a bit gingerly, getting a sense of paint on paper. My brush was really small, a flat synthetic.

This is the nose of the same child, done separately on a different part of the paper. My brushwork became a bit more loose and I played a bit more with mixing colors not just on the palette, but on the paper as well for blending.

Finally, the eyes of an adult woman. I wanted something with a bit of drama, such as catch lights and strong eyebrows and lashes against a pale skin. Doing the eyes was a a bit of a slog, but in the end it seems to have worked out. Eyes have a lot of details whereas the lips and the nose had were more about color and shadow rather than itsy bitsy parts.

When I began the painting, I toned the paper for all studies with a thin layer of burnt umber, washed onto the paper with soy solvent. Once that was dried, I began each part separately by sketching it in with a small, flat brush and darker burnt umber. Once that was in place, I worked at pre-mixing the colors I anticipated I might use to match both value and color of the part I was painting. This is not my usual routine, so it was also a challenge.

After I did the mouth, I did the nose, followed by the eyes. Each time I used the same steps of outlining each part with the darker burnt umber. As many of my colors were already mixed on the palette, I added some new ones and modified the existing ones. This was rather fun and I did a bit of guessing about modifying colors, but it worked out pretty well.

My palette was restricted to titanium white, cadmium lemon, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, magenta, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, burnt umber, and ivory black. The Arches “Huile” paper is rather nice, a bit pricey, but has a nice tooth. Other oil / acrylic papers I have used have smoother textures. Both are pleasant under the brush.

My goal is to learn to finally paint portraits with oils. It means practice and observation. I plan on continuing with this current palette and have set aside the above colors in a designated, dedicated “portrait baggy” to keep all the colors easily accessible.

Waiting for the Tide: A Boat Study

For most people, like me, who like to paint or draw but have little formal training, shapes can be challenging. I’ve taken art classes when I was in college, but the fact is, most American colleges fail terribly at providing practical knowledge to their art students. Too often the dictum is essentially “Go forth and create!” without any foundational information. In my adult school art classes, there is far more information to be had, and when I see fellow classmates from Asia and Europe with superb technical skills, I feel overwhelmed. How the heck do I get that?? But, on the other hand, they like my messy art and wonder how the heck to get that!

So, we are stuck. All of us. We all face challenges in how to do or express things with whatever medium we use. For me, shapes are most often the biggest challenge, and maybe that is because I prefer landscapes to people or buildings. I am working on meeting these challenges, and YouTube provides a lot of help in all areas confusing. My current challenge is to paint boats. I don’t have an easy way to get their correct shape.

So, enter YouTube and three methods to get a boat shape: figure 8, blocks, and a petal shape with lines and crosshairs. All work. The simplest is the figure 8 method, and that is what I applied here. I used a reference photo and then superimposed the figure 8 method to the boat. It took a bit, but below is the boat – a simple sailboat anchored at low tide.

I drew several figure 8 boats with pencil and paper, but painting one proved a bit of a challenge. It took awhile to get my mind wrapped around the image and then the figure 8. Going from figure 8 to boat with pencil and paper was easy, but looking at a real boat required more work. Still, not really displeased with the end result of the boat – she’ll float – and that is the point of this painting: a boat that looks real(ish)! As far as the rest of the painting? It’s just there for filler.

Watercolor, Bockingford 140# CP, 9×12.

Paper Skies

In a lot of ways we just take paper for granted. It’s everywhere. In the arts, though, paper can be more than important – it can be critical. Its qualities can determine how you work, what you do, and so on. In watercolor, paper sizing, texture, and fiber content all play a role. As well, how the paper is handled by the artist, meaning (in this post) how much water is used with the watercolor paints, and if the paper is dry or wet when paint is applied.

The other day, I was watching a YouTube video by an English artist whose work I enjoy: Andrew Pitt. In particular, I was watching how he handled skies with a limited palette of colors (Winsor Newton’s Light Red and Cobalt) and the paper he used. By chance, I have both of his choices – Arches Rough 140# and Bockingford CP (he has 200# and I have 140#). Arches is externally sized and Bockingford is internally sized. Arches external sizing creates a harder surface which does not absorb water as easily as does the internal sizing of Bockingford. You have to work more quickly with the Bockingford than with the Arches.

With this in mind, I decided it was time to tackle skies. I do them all the time, but it was fun to focus a bit more solidly on the subject of the sky itself as well as how wet-on-dry and wet-in-wet worked with the different papers. Watching Pitt’s video a did one thing in particular which he suggested: I kept my brush on the paper when I painted as long as I needed to create a specific area – the sky or a cloud.

In the above painting, as with Pitt’s sky, I used only Cobalt and Light Red. Here, I used Arches Rough and used a wet brush on a dry surface. First I did the sky in blue. Rinsing the brush a bit, I mixed Cobalt and Light Red together, varying the amount of color and pigments. The lighter greys have more water, the darker greys have more pigment. The white is clean paper without any paint.

For some reason, Edward Seago wandered through my head as I was painting the first picture. I really like his paintings of the damp skies of the English coast. I figured a master(ish) copy of one of his paintings wouldn’t hurt. This is my copy of his “Farm Near Somerton – Norfolk” – not as simple as his, but the sky was the focus. Here, Arches rough paper, dampened, and then painted with dilute watercolors. As with the wet-on-dry painting, the Arches allowed more control than I have found on other papers, such as Bockingford.

Moving from Arches rough paper to Bockingford 140# CP paper is a different experience than with the Arches rough. The above painting is wet-on-dry, meaning the paper is dry. The Bockingford absorbed the water more quickly than the Arches, and this meant I had to work more quickly, moving the brush and colors more rapidly across the sky. It required a bit more forethought as to where I wanted to place colors. I could pause and think with the Arches. Not so here – I had to plot! Again, cobalt and light red in varying combinations, but a strong mixture to get the dark clouds.

And finally, wet-in-wet on dampened Bockingford. I dampened the paper and let it sit a bit to absorb the water. As this was going on, I mixed very thin washes, mostly water and a bit of pigment. The initial wash was in the lower sky using raw sienna. The upper sky was cobalt or ultramarine, very thin as well. From there, everything else was painted with very thin paint onto damp paper. The dilute paint made for high key picture, so for a bit of contrast I added darker lines in Hooker’s green and Payne’s grey to paper in different degrees of dampness.

Overall, this exercise in paper and paint was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about the paper and its characteristics. Knowing your paper, just as you know your paints and brushes, makes the work of painting less work, if that makes any sense.

In conclusion, Arches rough allows more time to think and application of a lot more water than the Bockingford. Both are excellent papers with different qualities.

Now, go paint!

Into the Desert

The southeastern corner of California is primarily desert. The land varies. There are hot springs, mountains, little rainfall, sparse vegetation. Days can be hot, nights can be cold. Within it are contained major parks and areas, which include Mojave National Preserve, Joshua Tree National Park, Death Valley and the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Farming here is supported by irrigation from the Colorado River, but as times go by, the Colorado is not able to support farming as it once did. Despite its rather hostile environment – at least to people in some ways – this part of California is stunning. Its austere beauty is something perhaps not appreciated initially, but with time and observation, it becomes a magical landscape. There are towns, too, where you can stay to visit and learn a bit about the desert and its land and people.

This afternoon was a sort of what-do-I-want-to-do day. I really didn’t know. The winds are up right now, and anything done outdoors would require hanging onto everything. So, an indoor watercolor rather than an outdoor oil painting was my choice. And as far as any planning – well, let’s just say I did this on the proverbial wing and a prayer.

Overall, I blocked in the major color areas, using lighter colors. First came the sky, then the mountains of blue and orange brown. The road was limned in, along with the greens of the vegetation. Once dried, details were added. I used the hair dryer a lot! Finally, white gouache here and there, splatters of reddish and bluish paint, and here we are.

I am quite surprised that it turned out as well as it did – at least in my opinion!

Watercolor, Bockingford 140# CP, 12×16.

Spring Afternoon

We have had some amazing amounts of rain for our dry patch in Southern California. Local dams are spilling and water rationing, at least for the present, is not a big deal. Now, the weather is warmer and drier, and Mother Nature is happily letting us see her beauty. This time of year is a favorite of mine – flowers and fragrances and birds and butterflies.

A couple of days ago I went to our local botanical garden, and took photos – a lot of them. I had forgotten I had set up Nikon Z6ii up to do 5 bracketed images at a time, so that is what I got. I used Photomatix 7.xx to process them and LR and On1 to complete the process. I have a lot more to edit, keep, or discard, but for now, these will have to do.

Conejo Botanical Garden on 3-2-2026 (5 of 6)
Conejo Botanical Garden on 3-2-2026 (4 of 6)
Conejo Botanical Garden on 3-2-2026 (3 of 6)
Conejo Botanical Garden on 3-2-2026 (2 of 6)
Conejo Botanical Garden on 3-2-2026 (1 of 6)
Conejo Botanical Garden on 3-2-2026 (6 of 6)