Village Windows

Well, I don’t live in an interesting old village, but I think I could quite happily.  Suburbia just doesn’t make it when it comes to interesting lines, stones, and such.  Macadam and stucco and neatly cropped lawns are my daily world, so I always have to run off someplace else!  Not that suburbia doesn’t have its good points, like modern plumbing and electricity, but it’s not that visually exciting.

Okay, so I got our my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils.  I have a tin of 60 that I have been meaning to try on a serious level.  So, here is the first layer.  I used iron gall ink on a dip pen for the lines, and then just a quick scribble of pencils to lay down the basic colors.  Next, I will wet the pencils and let it dry.  Then, off to work. Bye!

Palm Tree

A while back I read an article that a 19th century artist  – it may be John Singer Sargent – used wax as a resist in watercolor painting.  That was a bit of a surprise as I never thought a “professional” painter would do that.  We used crayons and watercolors together in elementary school, and it was a lot of fun.  Not having any crayons, I got out a white candle and scribbled away in a palm tree sort of shape.  Then I painted, beginning with the yellows and then moving into darker colors.  I don’t recall many of the colors I used, but they do include Yellow Ochre, Hooker’s Green, May Green, Payne’s Grey, Ruby Red, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue.  The wax served to keep white spaces white, obviously.  And, I actually used negative painting ti create some of the shapes in the fronds and trunk of the tree.

Negative Painting: Pink Daisies Gone Mad

Today has been a day of frustrations.  Nothing seems to be going right.  Everyone has those days, yeah, I know, but I rather other people have them, not me!  But, they do serve a purpose in that they do make you realize … something.

That said, let’s get on to the negative painting scene.  It is not easy.  I think to create a painting like this, practice and experience play an important part.  Practice is what I keep doing.  And then I reach a point where I am just irritated beyond measure, and need to break loose.  I’ll come back to practice, but by nature, I am a gaudy color lover, and having a monochrome study makes me feel trapped.  I wonder if others feel the same way.  So, pink daisies, a la the hydrangea, and I am ready to go nuts.  Here they are  – the first round.

And then the second one from this morning . . .

Some success.  And then I did the third layer . . . and had to just mess with it as I was ready to scream.  Part of it was just frustration in that I didn’t really like this process at all.  Maybe it’s not for me.  In the end, just playing with some colors on my palette, some which I just recently got.  It was a total color mess – so lines were added.  It’s sort of cheery, but it also reminds me of what I cannot do.

The good news, no mud.  It’s kind of fun.  But I also know what I want to accomplish, and doing this stuff is not going to get me there.  The colors are fun, and good practice, but I also know that my impatience and scatterbrained-ness don’t help me, either.  Ongoing practice will improve my skills, I hope.  So, I keep playing.

A part of me wonders if / when I reach my desired “look” if I will become extremely boring to myself.

Negative Painting: I Wanna Scream!

Okay, negative painting is not, not, not easy.  At least for me.  Back to YouTube.  This video was a really big help.

The guy is really funny – and does a really good demonstration.  This one was probably the most clear of all the ones I have watched.  Simple in execution, but sophisticated enough to produce something useful at the end of the video.  This is what I got.

Then I watched another video – far more accomplished than I am at the present in execution, and once more, mud is the result and abominable flowers.  These are mutant flowers after some sort of environmental disaster!

Ugh.  So, back to monochrome – this time, pink daisies from some picture on the internet.  This is the first layer of many, but maybe I can just work on very simple things and follow the 1-2-3-4 steps and then get a bit more advanced in execution.

Practice is not always a pleasant experience – but you do learn!

Thinking About Things

 

As I get older, the more I find I want to just slow down.  I am not interested in this experience followed by that one, of rushing here to be able to rush there.  I just want to slow down my life and enjoy it.  This is probably related to simple math:  the older you get, the less time you have.  As a result, you want to enjoy it.

Retirement from an official job and job duties is looming ahead.  Preparations for such are underway.  While a lot of information has been gathered, there are still unknowns – which hopefully will be revealed in the not-too-distant future – so that final decisions can be made.  There is also a potential golden handshake coming in the next year and a half, and if so, I hope the qualifications are in my favor.

I have been on vacation for the last two weeks, and have enjoyed my time immensely.  Each day has been conscientiously filled with things I want to do, with my thinking about what I want to do and why.  I’m an introvert, so it is very easy to get lost in my head and forget to reach outward for human contact, whether family or friend.  Those contacts are very important.  With them, the world becomes balanced and isolation does not set in.

In the past 20 years, 7 people I have known have died, through disease or accident, and few others are seriously ill.  Most have gone in the past 5.  My mortality is right there in front of me.  I no longer feel like I will live forever, like I did just ten years ago.  Even my own health has its problems.

So, yeah, I’ve been thinking.  And doing.  Doing is the key to it all:  action and take in what I have around me.  Savor it.  Cherish it.  Live it.