The Outgoing Tide

Yesterday’s painting got rather fussy when I looked at it this morning. So, determined to work on simplification, I decided to use a huge brush for the most part. Again, Kilimanjaro 300# 11×15 paper from Cheap Joe.

To keep myself in a “logical” sequence, I worked top to bottom after taping off the horizon line to keep it straight. (Yesterday’s painting needed to be straightened up when scanned – it was going uphill!) It worked with very little seepage into the other half. So, sky first, wet into wet, blotting as necessary, using a spray bottle to coax color and water, tilting the paper this way and that. Then the blow dryer.

One the sky was to my liking, I did the islands in the distance, again focusing on simplicity and distance. Not gonna get fussy! It worked. Then, the blow dryer.

I didn’t draw the water or sand. Instead, I used the big brush to delineate the sand and rivulets of water from the sea. To pull the painting together, I used glazes and washes, mixing in colors from sky and islands into the sand. I put a few details in with a very fine brush, using some tiny dots to represent sand, and larger blobs of brown / blue to make stones and pebbles and other bits of detritus.

While this is not my favorite painting of late, it is perhaps one of my more successful watercolors. It doesn’t feel overworked and the colors reflect the overcast, wet day. Wet, wet skies are always fun and a crap shoot, but a delight because watercolor is not predictable and has its own beauty. I think I would like to wander here a bit more . . . .

Along the Coast

The same painting, scanned with an Epson V600 and merged. However, two different software were used to merge. One was Microsoft Ice. The other was the photo merge bit of Lightroom. It’s hard to really tell which software impacted the final image more as both were manipulated a bit in post. However, the difference was that the LR version had dark paper around the edge and was rather muddy. The MS Ice was lighter and more clean in overall appearance.

This is the image merged in Lightroom. .

This is the one merged in MS Ice.

It’s hard to see the difference in some ways, but I think either is fine to my eye.

Anyway, I am rather pleased with the result here. I think I got the depth of field properly done for once. Perspective doesn’t seem off. The sandy berm really pleases me because sand is hard to do! I mixed together ochre, alizarin, and cobalt blue and then added a gallon of water to make the wash. The shadows are ultramarine with a bit of carbazole violet.

Another thing I like is the murky, seaweed filled foreground on the right that fills the shallow water. And, too, I did some justice to the reflections of the island in the right background. In the end, I applied a light glaze to the foreground water on the right and to the grasses to the left of the sandy shore in the middle left background. Painted on 300# Kilimanjaro from Cheap Joe’s.

I have few other WIPs, but they need a bit more consideration at present.

Shadow

Shadow

I really do like trees! I admit to a leaning toward deciduous hardwoods, but when I saw this shadow projected onto the building, I realized that one of the things I enjoy about palm trees is just their crazy (to me) appearance. This shadow looks like me on a bad hair day, but for the palm, it is nice and tidy.

Nikon FM3a, 50mm f1.2, and Tri-X. And more to come!

A Tunnel of Trees

A Tunnel of Trees

Out I wandered with my long-lusted-for Nikon 50mm f1.2 AI-S lens attached for long-lusted-for Nikon FM3a. A maiden voyage for the lens with film.

The film was Kodak Tri-X 400, shot at 1600, and supposedly processed at +2 at the lab. Did they do it? No idea! I just have to trust they did – I think they did, though, because the images are pretty contrasty, which is what I was aiming for. I made them a bit more so in post.

There is a small liberal arts college within a short distance from where I live, and bits of it seem almost like you are in the country, but the truth is, you are not. Still, I like to wander over in that area to enjoy the trees and their canopy of leaves. This is a panorama of 6 photos I merged together.

I linked the photo to my Flickr account, and may start to do that in the future. It will save space on my WordPress site. Also, you can click on the photo and jump to the Flickr site, and from there see the trees in their glorious detail. It really worth it to see these trees (I think, anyway!).