Category: Watercolor

Old Shack

Pictures made with only watercolor pencils seem insipid to me.  The contrast is not strong enough to be interesting to my eye.

So, I decided to set out to make this a lie!  But, I started out by acknowledging that I would be using whatever means it took – pen, ink, watercolor paint, white pigment – to make the contrast I desire.

What I like about watercolor pencils is the fact you can draw with them, and they create lovely textures.  Working in conjunction with other media, I hope to create a picture I like.  I am using a 60-pencil set of Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer pencils.

I put down a pencil drawing, and then sketched in basic colors, and then wet them to blend.

The next step was a bit of a gamble – putting down darker values and colors as texture.  Some colors were overlaid with one another, such as the blue shadows on the shack.  This is what it looks like before the water is added to blend the colors.

When wetting the picture, I decided to do two things.  First, work light to dark – that is, wet the lighter areas and then the darker.  The second was to follow the direction of the pencil lines.  Between colors I tried to be sure to rinse off my brush, and to blot as necessary to keep the paper from getting too wet.  I am also trying my best to preserve my white areas.

Next, establishing the pattern of the grasses in the foreground.  Here, I worked in the light colors to the lower right side, where there are white areas.  I drew the lines in the direction of the grasses, including white pencil to lighten the overall colors of the yellows used.  The lines are seen below, followed by the application of the water.  I laid the lines of the grasses down with some pressure, the idea to make them more distinctive and for the color not to dissolve into a blur.

Here, as before, I used water in the lightest areas and then in the darker areas, following the pencil strokes.  The lighter areas I did horizontally, and the darker areas more vertically.

To be continued!

 

 

 

Leaf Flight, ii

Much more pleased with the second rendering of this painting, based on Rick Surowicz’s video.  The black branches don’t work, but the negative space does.  This time, rather than using painter’s tape, I used Pebeo masking fluid for white areas, and then later to create branches on already-painted areas.

Meanwhile, the counters on the vanities are in – but it may be the plumber will be in later.

Tiny Flowers

Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, the house will be back to usable today!  Toilets and sinks installed and operational.  I’ll find out when I get home from my watercolor class.  Meanwhile, I looked through some of my photos and chanced upon one of a small flower, tiny, and thought it might be a good way to warm up for my class – before lunch – before coffee!

In Betwixt and In Between

The house is torn up.  The studio is empty.  The living room is filled with boxes, one corner for Josh, the other for me.  The shower stall will be done Monday.  The shower door will be measured and ordered on Monday, too.  The dogs will be boarded out Monday through Tuesday night because of the fact the flooring is going in on Tuesday day, starting at 730 a.m.  Thursday the painter starts.  Saturday the vanities arrive.  Wednesday next the painter finishes and the new toilets are installed.  Then the vanities are installed and the template made for the counter tops.  We will have a shower that works – finally!  hooray! – but we will not be able to use it until the door is installed.  We will be brushing our teeth in the kitchen sink (ewwwww!).  I go back to the doc on Tuesday to have my wrist and finger checked 3 weeks after my fall.

And . . . we have been packing, eating junk food, brewing beer, trying to have a life, and painting in between – pictures and samples of paint on the wall.

I will post photos of the new house stuff sometime later, but today, here are the things – little things, no bigger than 7×10 at the most – I’ve been painting and drawing, just to stay sane.  The painting of the barn needs a bit of help – the roof is too white, and it looks like the windows are some strange eye infection.  The meadowlark needs more contrast.  I could go on, but I need to go to work on my other stuff.

Click on a picture to start a slide show, and to see them larger.