I should have done a value study here, but not in the mood, and not having a lot of time, I just decided to paint, hoping I “saw” the shadows enough. Pretty tulips turned into a rather ugly mess! Still, it is a learning experience, and the doing is often more important than the final results. I am quite sure my paintings will be gone and not found in a museum.
We had a leak in the house, and the result was scurrying around doing everything else but find time to even think or go to work. Finally, the leak was contained yesterday. Towels and such could be put away. Now we wait for insurance and contractors!
And finally, I can get back to drawing and painting. This morning, more tulips, done with iron gall ink, prior to applying some paint. Here ya go!
Done with daffodils, and moving on to other spring bulbs! While we don’t have the snow to enjoy melt as the flowers emerge, we still enjoy their seasonal appearance.
Tulips were always my winter favorites, along with hyacinths. We never had daffs or narcissus. So, homage to a childhood favorite, the first tulips of the season.
I tried to make an orange using Quinacridone Gold and Alizarin Crimson. Not sure how well it worked. The ink is iron gall in a Hand Book.
The other day, I came into possession of a copy of Marc Taro Holmes’ newest book, Direct Watercolor. In spirit, I am much of the same philosophy – little prep, direct painting, thinking ahead, seizing the moment, using colors directly, relying on imagination and happenstance and experience to create a painting. All this requires is just doing it! The “doing it” is the training – you do it, you think, you do again. Like anything, practicing it enhances your skills and brings the mind-muscle memory together in ways that, if you were to consciously thing about, you could never achieve.
Marc mentioned some things I found particularly useful. One is to create a silhouette of what you are working on – create the outer edges and then move inward. Decide if edges are going to meet so that colors can bleed into one another. Keep your edges dry if you don’t want things to bleed from one thing into another. Let the painting dry, but don’t go over it extensively. Other points he made is to work light to dark, large to small, but if you are working on something, do it directly – don’t dance all over the paper.
The silhouette appealed to me immensely, as well as the brushwork. Here are some examples of brushwork and silhouette working together. Once the edges of whatever I was painting were done, I then came in with varied colors to shade or define. The colors really please me in many of these little sketches – the blending, the bleeding, the hard edge against the paper’s white.
Flowers make sense for the silhouette and then move in to blend colors. Above, wet-on-dry. Also, working directly while everything is still wet – as in the tulip on the far right.
Below, some examples of trees to create the illusion of a building (left) and another silhouette then molded to create a shape with shadow (top right). Marc also mentions brushwork to show direction – and the importance to suggest. The grassy strokes on the top left. Finally, a bigger silhouette – here, Morro Rock – created and worked on first (bottom right) before moving into other areas, specifically the dunes and plants in the foreground.
Quick sketches with valuable lessons. While Marc’s book is not a “how to” book, it is a valuable resource for specific techniques. The fact he is such a talented painter makes it look easy, but the truth is, he went from precise lines, to lines and colors, to direct watercolor with a great deal of effort and an entire change of mindset.
Today I have a lot to do, so I thought the best way to start the day would be to do another watercolor pencil drawing. As I have little to no experience using them, the only way to learn is to use them. I am making a pencil sketch in a sketch book, and then filling in layers of color before beginning to wet the colors laid down. The idea is to replicate glazing to a degree. When I reach a point I like, then I wet a brush, and move from light to dark, maybe moving the brush in a given direction, or not. Then, more colors, more wetting, and so on. Below is the final result.
I am not sure that by themselves watercolor pencils are capable of strong contrast. It seems lines – ink lines – may be helpful. Or, the pencils themselves can be used in conjunction with other water media, such as watercolors or acrylics or gouache.
Here is the series I scanned in as I moved along. Click on the pencil drawing to start the series, beginning to end.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 