Painting – Page 3 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

A Tale of Three Paintings

Over the last week I have been painting the same image three times, each time in a different media. I began with gouache, moved to pastels, and did the final painting in watercolor. Doing such an exercise was really educational as well as pleasurable.

As you can see in the gouache, the perspective is totally off! I didn’t do much of an underdrawing, just a few quick lines, but I didn’t really check this point against that, as well as compare it to the photo. The result was an uphill beach, and a total lack of realistic perspective. I suppose it would look like htat if my head were on its side, lying in the sand or something! Anyway, it was a good lesson as I realized most of my perspective issues are simply the result of poor drawing techniques.

This next one is my favorite. Maybe it’s because I am just learning pastels and totally in love with them. Here, the perspective problem is solved. The cliffs look quite sandy in the picture, and in reality, they are. Along the coast where I live in California, cliffs tend to be friable, made of highly compacted but still fragile sand. They easily collapse, and it is really foolish to sit under them on the beach or to walk along there edges. After rains it can be especially dangerous, and one year a major landslide occurred and several people died. It was not good. So, I think these cliffs are pretty accurate representations of what our cliffs look like here.

Finally, watercolor. Perspective issues remain resolved, but a sense of distance prevails along the strand of beach on the opposite shore. Rather than overwork it, I left it as it was, still pondering how I could make a sense of distance as the beach veered off to the left and background. More blue? Less detail? I’m still befuddled on that one.

Altogether, using three different mediums to paint the same image was rewarding. Problems occurred in all paintings, many of which could be applied to others. Perspective is always an issue for me, so I really need to focus on it probably more than anything in landscapes. I know the rules, but need to find methods to implement them. Gouache and pastels are more forgiving as you can paint over what is underneath to a reasonable degree; watercolors are pretty much a one-shot deal. I think I will continue the 3 painting studies in the future as I learned far more than if I had only done one study in a single medium.

WWM 2019: Days 27-31

What a wonderful, fun-filled month World Watercolor Month 2019 has been! It’s been work, learning, improvement, crazy, fun, creative. I think it has been a worthwhile endeavor altogether. Those prompts were provocative and simple at the same time – literal, figurative.

Let’s begin!

27: Fruits

Both of these are in gouache. I painted the figs first and then the grapes and apricots. I worked hard on trying to create a sense of depth with the second painting in particular – looking for light and dark, shadow and colors.

28: Metallic

Metallic items, reflective surfaces – in others words, shiny things – can be very challenging to paint. In many ways, the mind rebels. It’s shiny! I can’t paint that! But, in reality, metallic and shiny objects are simply shades of colors, sometimes similar, sometimes varied. Once you think about it like that, it becomes much easier. I chose an old enameled metal kettle, a spoon, and a key. Each one has different colors, with the spoon simply being varying shades of the same color, Payne’s Grey. The kettle was difficult because of its shape (it’s rather mangled) and the key because of the varying shades of brown, golds, reds, and oranges of the brass.

29: Glorious Greens

Pretty amateur, I think, but it was fun to do. I saw a photo of a single tree silhouetted against a stormy sky, and the greens of the field were electric. Colors under a stormy sky always seem more intense (while it’s not raining), and greens especially so.

30: Wild Things

As we were finishing up patching, painting, and refurnishing the studio, I was in a foul mood. Crabby to be specific. Guess what motivated this subject?!

31: Favorite Colors

I had thought of making color swatches of all my gouache paints, but once more, life got in the way. Some thought and I chose magenta, turquoise, and green. Bougainvillea is the perfect subject for all these colors.

Some Thoughts

As I said, #worldwatercolormonth2019 has been a wonderful experience. I learned something each day, even if I couldn’t tell you what. Improvements are visible in color handling and brushwork in both watercolor and gouache. Daily painting is work – and love! It’s a challenge and play. Today (8/1) I haven’t done a bit of painting, but like everything, we need to walk away from something to get a new perspective, to refresh, to let the subsconcious work its magic.

WWM 2019: Days 20-26

#WorldWatercolorMonth2019 is flying by! It has been a lot of fun, in the doing, pondering interpreting the prompts, and in the progress made from just daily painting. I have some really awful paintings, and some of which I am rather proud. So, with no further ado, the prompts and the paintings!

WWM #20: Buildings

Here, some old buildings in Paris at sunset. I am rather pleased about this watercolor for a few reasons. Perspective works, with decreasing detail, lines, and atmosphere. The sky is pretty killer, too!

WWM #21: Patterns

I was pondering this one – I thought of all sorts of patterny things, but in reality, nothing grabbed me. As my studio – particularly the sewing area – is in total disarray, sewing patterns suddenly seemed perfectly obvious.

WWM #22: Rain Forest

I always imagine a rain forest as the French primitive painter Henri Rousseau showed it. The above is a rather poor homage to his great imaginings.

Here, from some photos and memories of our trip to the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington State. Paths wander beneath ancient cedar trees covered with moss, a green canopy, and little if any sky visible.

WWM #23: Beach Fun

Pales, buckets, and surfing at sunset – all great fun at the beach!

WWM #24: Treats

Cookies! I really love cookies (but like pie better, I admit), and for elegance and color and delightful flavor, macarons! Here, lemon, mocha, pistachio, orange, and raspberry.

WWM #25: Shades of Pink

I have to say, I like these raspberry macarons a lot!

WWM #26: Natural Wonders

The White Sands National Monument in New Mexico is an amazing place – white sand dunes in the middle of a desert, scant plant life, dramatic skies and mountains all around. It was also incredibly difficult to paint the whiteness of the sand . . . nothing particular awesome about my paintings.

On the other hand, the Arches National Monument has some amazing things to offer – arches being one. The sandstone, eroded by wind and rain, has left some amazing geological remnants behind. This watercolor really pleased me . . . again, perspective and distance issues, as well as my usual problems with conveying depth. To do so, I simplified the background hills with a few lines of color. I put more detail into the middle ground, which was the arch and the red sandstone behind the arch, and in front of it. Plants on the lower corners and border became the foreground. To aid more in the depth, I did a light blue-grey glaze over the mountains, and applied a warmer glaze a couple of times in different areas of the arch and sandstone.

To be continued!

WWM 2019: Days 13-19

During Days 13 – 19 of #WorldWatercolorMonth2019, I got really busy! So with no further ado, paintings.

13. Glassy

I wanted to catch the reflections of the clouds in the smooth water of the lake. Not sure if it worked – the photo showed perfect sky-clouds in the foreground.

14. Furry Things

When I was a kid, furry caterpillars were our friends. Cats, too. Furry enough for all.

This kitten is from a YouTube study / practice by Maria Raczynska that I followed. It was a lot of fun!

15. Monochromatic

In the heat of summer, it seemed a monochromatic scene had to be a cold winter’s day in the mountains.

16. Relaxing

I thought a lot about this prompt. Many things came to mind that I enjoy, but I realized that the beach, in all forms of weather, is one of my favorite places to relax. Not being especially good at blending sand colors, I referred to a book by Geoff Kersey called Watercolour Seascapes. His book is a series of studies that demonstrate specific watercolor techniques and employ a limited palette. The first painting is from the study I did from his book and the rest are varied places. The last painting is one I did from a photo I took several years ago of a beach here on the Central Coast of California, either Refugio or El Capitan beach. Smooth sand and sunny days or a rocky shore and a cold, rainy day – both great ways to relax along the seaside.

17. Music

Balalaika and Blue Tit.

18. Clouds

California is an endless blue sky at times. Other times, the high clouds of the rainy season and the sun are blocked by low-lying coastal fog. When the two compete, the sky is endlessly changing and fascinating.

19. Splashes of Color

As we move through #WorldWatercolorMonth2019, I am alternating watercolor with gouache. Both need different techniques. Gouache, being opaque, opens a new world as layers of paint can be built up and one color can be covered by another whether it is light or dark. Mistakes can be hidden! Watercolor requires more forethought and has more happy – and unhappy! – accidents. Here, the opacity of gouache allows for splashes of color and a more impasto and impressionistic use of paint.

World Watercolor Month 2019 is proving to be very rewarding. I am focused on painting, which is one of my retirement goals. Learning and developing my skills and knowledge of water media is expanding, and though I produce a lot of dreck, I see improvement in many ways. To me, the biggest one is that I am beginning to anticipate my approaches to varied areas of a painting, thinking ahead as to how I can accomplish what I want to see. That’s good news. I know what I want to produce – that is, the kind of paintings I like, and which I think are expressive of my thoughts – and while I am a long way from it, I can also see myself moving forward to accomplishing my “artistic vision” as it were.

A Few Paintings

No joking when I said my “new job” was watercolor painting and drawing! I’ve been getting daily life stuff done, but somewhen in between, I manage an hour or two a day with paper, pen, and paint. It’s paying off (that’s what jobs are supposed to do, right?) I think. Still a lot of goofs, but some progress, too. Mud is now something I decide to paint more often than not. Below is a gallery of the work I’ve done in the past few weeks – not all of it, just some of it. Click on one picture to begin scrolling through them.

I have been using two different types of paper for the watercolors. One that is inexpensive, 100% cotton is Bee Paper, in 6×9 inch format. The other is Fabriano, in block format. 11×15 inch Artistico; this is a higher quality 100% cotton that is still affordable. Both papers are really good for heavier washes. The Artistico has more tooth than the Bee paper, but the smoother surface of the Bee really lends itself well to ink-and-watercolor drawings.

So many plans with impending retirement, and I am finding I certainly will not be able to do everything I want to do – just not enough time! I used to give myself 30 minutes to paint – now I can give myself whatever time I want. Thus, first loves take over other loves, but the sewing and the photography and knitting and, and, and will get in there. Time will be dedicated!

So, on this rainy Saturday morning, the studio will get cleaned up again, and the fun continue.