Category: Chatter

The Inn at Brandywine – Another Study

This has been a busy weekend!  A lot of painting – certainly beats housework, I tell ya.

Here is another study from Rick Surowicz’s YouTube channel.  This is the “Inn at Brandywine” study.  Again, use of masking fluid, glazes, warm and cool greens.  If you like to paint and want to get better, you cannot go wrong with his videos.  They are detailed and informative – info on brushes, colors, techniques, thoughts on what he is doing.  All very helpful and insightful.

Using the masking fluid is becoming easier, as is thinking ahead.  Like painting in negative space, planning ahead is a different way of looking at a painting for me.  It’s hard to explain.  The thing is, while kind of frustrating to do, it is becoming more of a part of painting, if that makes any sense.

Below, Rick’s excellent video.

Creek’s Edge – Another Study

Once more, Rick Surowicz has produced a video for study, and I did it.  This time it was more successful than the one on negative painting, probably because I used better paper and was not too fussed about things.  I had been to a workshop earlier in the day, and though I didn’t produce anything noteworthy in the workshop, I was warmed up and ready to go!

I watched it three times!  First to just see it, second to take notes, third time to follow along.  The biggest point to it, for me, was the cool greens used in the beginning were nicely complemented by the warm green glazes at the end.  I used a 300# paper, which is the first time I have ever used a paper that weight.  I was pleased with the end result.

The color differences are notable.  Surowicz used colors I don’t have, such as royal blue and peacock blue.  I’m not sure what the colors in my palette were as my color reference wheel is packed up some place.  I do know that I used cobalt teal in place of turquoise and a lot of Hooker’s Green, while he stuck with sap green, which is more yellow, and a lovely color.  I also mixed some greens differently, such as using cobalt teal and quinacridone gold.  The colors, while important, were not the main focus – the focus was to follow the steps and get an idea what to do!  The photo Surowicz used is for compositional suggestions only – the execution is very individual.

Pens & Crumpled Paper

Boy, I do need to clean up my desk!  Pens, crumpled paper, all pushed up to the side so that I can drink coffee and read the news.  As a morning sketch or painting seems to be emerging as part of the daily routine, I looked around.  There they were . . . and here they are.

I’m not always a slob, but from Monday to Thursday, working 10-hour days, who has time to do much cleaning?

Cell Phone Reflections

Direct watercolor, paint what’s in front of me, no lines.  Those were my morning thoughts.  What is always in front of me in the morning is my messy desk, full of different debris, depending on the day and whether or not I’ve done any tidying.  As I pondered, oh so profoundly, I looked at the cell phone on my desk and really liked the reflections from my monitors . . . and here is today’s subject.

I worked to think more consciously and conscientiously about what I was doing.  First, the outline of the phone, on my rather ochre-colored desk, then the darks of the phone itself, followed by reflections and shadows.  I tried to be selective of where to touch different colors for bleeds.  Finally, I went back in and did some shadows and contrasts to make a bit stronger image.  In between, I worked carefully to avoid blooms and hard edges from backwash.