Category: Watercolor

Red Building on the Pier

After playing around with the Strathmore Vision watercolor paper, I used it for today’s painting. Knowing its strength lies in painting directly on it with little to no lifting or scrubbing, I had to reset my thinking for this painting.

First, I did a pencil sketch on the paper, working to get proportions and placement of the bits and pieces in fairly good proportion to each other. From there, I worked as directly as possible to get values and colors the way I wanted them. I moved around the paper, too, laying in big washes and areas of color before adding detail.

First, the foreground rocks. The wash was laid down to get the ranges of tonality and vary the colors within them. Once dried I added the darker areas to create shadows. If you look, you will know the sun is coming from the upper right, and thus shadows will be toward the left.

Next, the sky. It is a very flat sky so I did a wash of a blue mix once I had dampened the paper, carefully working around various shapes. From there, the red of the building on the pier, working around the light uprights. Then, the green of the trees in the distance, being careful about the roof. Finally, the water.

Once all this was dried, the little things began, such as sorting out the supports and boards on the pier, some rock details, and the ripples of darker blue on the water.

This painting took me quite awhile as I tend to splish-splash and be quite impatient. This time around I worked hard to consider the colors and the paint before placing them on the paper. My mind is fried! Still, even though it is not by any means a great watercolor, I do like the way it looks – there is a bit more freshness to it than some of my other ones. I ordered some Sakura Gelly pens in white for better details for more delicate areas – I couldn’t find mine at all.

More watercolors to come, but I am going to use my 100% cotton Arches and try this same approach – more direct and thoughtful. I am curious as to how I will feel about Arches absorbency vs. the Vision. The Vision paper works rather well in this area – a good balance of absorbency without drying out. Surprisingly, even with a fair amount of water, Vision does not buckle as much as Canson XL does, and it seems quite capable of handling water when applied over the entire sheet without a problem.

Both Canson and Vision have problems with lifting color or scrubbing, and in many ways I think continuing the usage of Vision will force me to retrain my painting techniques a bit by requiring patience and forethought.

Playing with Paper and Watercolors

I have had a tablet of Strathmore’s Vision watercolor paper, 140# CP, lying around for some time but did not try it out until today. There are some things I liked about and some I didn’t like. Strathmore watercolor papers and I do not get along at all for watercolor painting, yet I really like them for acrylic and gouache. The papers’ textures never agree with me and with the Vision sizing seemed questionable. Canson XL is another watercolor paper I don’t like for watercolor painting but really enjoy for a lot of other things.

This is the first study I did – simple, free-flowing watercolor. The purpose was to lay down color with a bit of density, not overworking either paper or painting. I found it handled direct painting without any lifting or scrubbing quite well. I could paint over dried paint easily – such as where the darker blue wave shapes are – and add gouache to create a bit of sea spray or foam. Blending colors into each other as I moved the brush along in a wash worked well, too. Off to a good start!

This was the second painting. As with the first one, I did direct painting for the most part – specifically the middle and foreground – and used many of the same techniques I used in the first one. However, on this one, I did the sky differently to see how a specific technique could work with this paper.

Clouds are white, right? Well, yes and no. Upper clouds can be quite bright and the paper is usually left untouched in watercolor to show it. To paint a sky with clouds you can use a lot of techniques, but here I chose to wet the paper around the cloud shapes and drop in the blues for the sky and then move the paint around a bit. Once dried, I dropped fresh water into the cloud shapes, at the lower ends, and then added greyish blues to represent the shadow on the underside of the cloud. I have not really worked with this technique, but I have been meaning to check it out, so this seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

I think Vision paper might be able to handle this technique for painting clouds, and I want to practice this technique more before deciding it will or won’t work with this paper. I know that scrubbing the paper will mess it up and as a result I have to be prepared to work very directly. This keeps a watercolor fresh and clean rather than overworked and ugly.

Here, I tormented the paper! I laid down a wash on the upper portion of the painting and then scrubbed out the paint for clouds. Then I came in a few more times and did the same. Some of the paper peeled a bit with the harsh treatment. This is good to know – how much damage can I do??

From there, I did the middle and foreground. The middle ground was pretty directly painted in one go, meaning one layer of color for the most part. I like the way this paper allows heavy paint to merge and blend as it makes for more interesting color areas. The foreground water and reflections is a series of washes, one laid atop the other once the underlying one is dry. I think in some areas I did up to 5 layers of glazing. Other areas I did a bit of wet-in-wet without a lot of scrubbing – just a gentle swipe of the brush.

Now here comes a complaint. In the lower right area of the painting you can see what looks like a thumb print. This is not – it is an area where the paper sizing is not good. You can also see problems with sizing around the upper and right edges of the paper. Poor sizing can ruin many a painting, and this is why professional watercolorists and amateurs alike go toward 100% cotton rag papers from reputable manufacturers.

Overall, I like this paper. I think it is really good for direct painting. Pleasingly, the paper does not buckle and ripple with fairly wet paint, but I have yet to lay down a traditional wash that covers a large area of the paper. That will be another experiment for a future posting. The sizing issue bugs me, but that is okay as this tablet of paper was not expensive. I prefer Vision to the Canson student watercolor paper for a lot of reasons, but in particular the way it handles pigment on its surface. I can see using this paper for practice, for studies, for preliminary work on a “serious” painting. Would I recommend it? Yes – but with some caveats.

Today has been a lot of fun. Being immobile is making me quite dull and uninterested in doing anything, but at least the boot is making life a lot less painful. Yesterday morning I met up with a friend, hobbling a short distance and then basking in the beautiful outdoors for several hours with a good bit of chit chat, croissants, and delicious coffee. Socializing and watercolors always make my day . . .

Watercolor, Strathmore Vision student paper, 140# CP, 9×12.

Lands End, SF

I think every country has some form of a “land’s end” – at least if it borders on water, like an ocean. Lands End in San Francisco, CA, is a park overlooking the Pacific Ocean and part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. It’s a beautiful, wild, windy place – and it has a ridge of Monterey Cypress as well.

Note: Click on the image to enlarge.

I did a quick sketch in pencil, just to get the general shapes of the trees and the land. I put in the tree trunks first as I wanted to be sure I knew their placement along the land. I used a mixture of blacks and greys, pale to dark, but initially light to indicate placement. From there, the foliage and the land. Once established, detail began, with dry brush strokes for vegetation and later for the leaves on the cypress. More than anything, I wanted a loose, windswept look with a sense of direction and sky.

Planning a loose painting takes a bit of forethought. I put in the tree trunks first, then some foliage and land. The sky was done after all these with a large, soft flat watercolor brush. Final touches came after all was dry. I made this into a panorama, spanning 2 pages of my sketchbook, to give a sense of expanse. In the end, I was rather pleased with this.

Koi pan watercolors, watercolor, about 8×18.

California Coastal Cypress

Stuck at home for the most part because of my ankle, I need to find things to do. It turns out that my ankle, while a mess of historical injuries, has no tears in the soft tissues. That is good. However, my heel bone has “microfractures” from the hard landing dodging the car last month. This is a bone bruise, and it is painful! I finally got into see the orthopedist, got a walking boot, and return in a month. The boot makes a big difference though it does take some getting used to wearing and using. I have to be careful not to pitch forward or backward. And you can hear me coming a mile away – squish, squeak, squish, squeak.

Of course, painting is the first choice! I am still tired intermittently from Covid, but I don’t have brain fog (at least I don’t think so), and look for things to enjoy but not be a source of frustration. Thus, ink and watercolor.

The Monterey Cypress is a tree that is common along the northern central coast of California. It is shaped by the environment as it moves with the wind and seems to grow away from the prevailing winds. To me, this quality is what makes it so beautiful and eye-catching. The coast is also subject to foggy days, damp and dreary, even in the height of summer.

Carbon ink, watercolor, Koi pan paints, about 8×10.

Flower Farm

Since my return from Oregon, a lot has happened, much of which just threw life into chaos. I still have a messed up ankle which limits my ability to walk a lot – couch surfing became a major part of my life because Josh and I got covid. I don’t recall being so sick but luckily I got Paxlovid and that seemed to make a major turnaround in how I was feeling. Josh didn’t, but he recovered although he is still coughing. With covid and a bad ankle, TV was my friend, as was endless sleep. Before we got covid, though, we had to put our lovely dog Smudge to sleep – but that is a story for another time perhaps. We just miss her.

My energy levels have been really inconsistent, some days I sleep a lot, others I feel like my old self. The biggest issue has been getting back into our lives – doing what we like to do and completing them. Josh has been insulating the garage, and I have been thinking about things to do. Finally I had the energy to clean up the house a bit, and the studio, and finally to just get it together enough to fill a pen with ink and find some paper and paint.

I did a pencil sketch first, and then inked in the above using Carbon Ink by Platinum. Very nice stuff! You can put it into a pen and draw without too much worry about clogging up your pen. I think it is a pigmented ink, but I may be wrong. It is different from writing ink because of its intensity and being waterproof, which most inks are not. After inking in the drawing and letting the ink dry, I erased my pencil sketch and scanned the image.

From here, just find the right pan paint set. This is one by Koi, and as it got a good review, I thought I would try it. It is inexpensive, but the colors are really nice and have a clarity and beauty that many cheap watercolor sets lack. Very pleased with the results – good transparency combined with richness of color.

It always feels good to get back to what you like, doesn’t it? Slow steps. I am so bored with not feeling good and hobbling around! Hopefully the visit to the orthopedist – delayed because of covid – will not indicate surgery for messed up tendons and sloppy joints. Ah, well.

Carbon ink, 100% cotton paper, Koi watercolor pan paints; about 8×10.