Category: Watercolor

Another Day in Late Spring

As I mentioned yesterday, I finished up Shari Blaukopf’s short course on painting spring flowers in watercolor. From crocus, we moved onto hyacinths, and today we have a field – or certainly a large patch – of tulips.

Shari’s tulips are more rounded at the tops, as are your standard tulip. Me, in my messiness and lack of attention to shapes, created ones which have more ragged tops, more open in bloom, and any other excuse you can think of for not adhering to recognizably-shaped tulips!

With that out of the way, this painting was a conclusion to all three studies. Out of all of them, for me the crocus was the biggest challenge simply as I am not familiar with them in reality – only pictures. The hyacinth was difficult because the flowers are small, 6-pointed, and blur into one another. Working with them as color masses, light to dark, with an occasional recognizable flower made for success in painting a complex subject. These tulips, while not especially tulippy, were my favorite to paint.

If you enjoy watercolor, I recommend Shari’s short courses – as I have before. They are reasonably priced, some are better than others, but in each one there is a clear subject and a clear goal. She has put together some “series” of online classes, too, which cover related topics. Many classes have a section for the student to upload their studies, and Shari is very good about getting back, even if it may be a few weeks later because she is away teaching in-person workshops.

Watercolor, 10×12, CP paper.

Yes, It Is Still Spring . . . .

The solstice is not yet here, so it is still technically Spring! I thought this was an important fact since I am showing off the hyacinth study from Shari Blaukopf’s online course of flowers in the spring. I already did the crocus – the flower I have never seen – and today I present you with the second study, hyacinths.

Whether or not these really look like hyacinths may be up to you. Shari is not a botanical watercolorist, and neither am I. I really like the intensity of her colors and the way she handles paint and subject matter. Add to that, she is a really good teacher and I have enjoyed all her online courses.

Overall, I am pleased with this study, but I will say the bottom, in the pot and the dirt, I need to fix that, but will later. Time to have a snack and kick back after this. I was focused and now I need to unfocus.

Watercolor, about 9×12.

Crocus – A Flower I Have Never Seen

I am not inclined to enjoy painting classes online unless they are done in chunks of short amounts of time. Shari Blaukopf’s most recent class, Sketching Spring Flowers, is one such class. In fact, all her classes are very much like this. Her style of teaching and painting are very fresh and direct, and up front, I think she is one of the most talented and unique watercolorists of our time.

So, taking the first section of the class, we are doing a small batch of purple crocuses blooming in her garden, bright colors after a long, cold Montreal winter. Well, I have lived in cold places, have seen tulips and hyacinths emerge from the snow, but never have I seen a crocus. One day! Anyway, this is the first of her flower studies. I can only hope someone else can tell what it is supposed to be.

My own painting is a bit muddy-looking as far as I am concerned. My paints were not as fresh as hers, but that is not the point. It is more about learning technique. It is hard to paint something from a photograph, and hard, too, to paint something completely alien. However, technique and color mixing are the point. For instance, thick wet paint. Let water do the work in the lighter areas. The experience is the point – but my problem is I am hasty. This painting took me about an hour, watching the videos and thinking about things. I wonder if ever anything sinks in! Despite that, exercises like this are always valuable …

Shari Blaukopf class; crocus; watercolor on Arches CP 140#. About 8×8.

Lone Cherry Trees Along Figueroa Mountain Road

These two trees have long since vanished. I photographed them in 2012 in Santa Barbara County along Figueroa Mountain Road in the early spring. I thought they were a beautiful spot of color against the greens of the California hills, which in themselves, during a superbloom, can be covered in shades of lavender, orange, and gold.

I mixed together gouache paints – whites (zinc and titanium) and some ivory black with my watercolors. This allows for layers to be built and bits painted over, as in gouache, but allows for a bit of transparent and opaque. I’ve done this before and always find it is a lot of fun. Gouache, when thickish, is best with small paintings, but mixing whites with watercolor gets an effect like gouache but at a much lower price point.

The photo – linked from Flickr – is not an especially good photo, but I do feel it catches the beauty of these two trees. When I went back looking for them a few years ago I could not find them, so I am glad I have captured them!

Lone Cherry 3

Watercolor paint mixed with white and / or black artist’s gouache. 11×14 on Canson watercolor paper.

Daisies, Daffodils, and Basil

With a break in the cold and rain, a relapse of my cold, and sheer need to get out into the afternoon sunshine (74F! – 23.3 C!), I sat down and listened to Lord Peter Wimsey on Audible, pulled out a pan of paints, and looked around me. There are a lot of daffodils in various pots, a bunch of daisies, and a basil plant I just bought. The rains have kept me from replacing and modifying my drip system, but as today we probably had the last of the seasonal rain, it is time to reset them as as well as clean up various beds.

This potted basil was the first bit of painting. I wanted to focus on the lights and darks, the shadows and bright spots. It is quite a complicated bit of greenery to paint – enough detail to get depth and separation of leaves, as well as a sense of the direction of light. Pencil first, and then a try at a bit more than a lick and a promise. Not great, but I did accomplish a bit of what I wanted.

Once the basil was done, the paper was flipped over. I have a huge pot where some spring daisies are just jumping up with an enthusiasm that always frustrates my own when I try to paint them! I tried to paint them as masses – but the white daisies are very clear in shape, white with bright yellow centers – and all this in a field of varying green. The sun was in and out behind the clouds, so the two patches look a bit different. Again, complexity being simplified. The one on the right is my favorite as it feels somehow “cleaner” if that makes any sense.

And then, the daffodils. The one on the left is better than the one on the right; the spiky leaves are okay. What I focused on here were colors and their shapes, not a daffodil. The same with daisies on the right. This meant I did not use pencil, but painted directly.

Altogether, a few hours in the afternoon spent playing and relaxing. Some success, some failure.

Watercolor, 9×12 Arches CP 140# paper.