cactus – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Before Class

Every Monday afternoon I meet up with a class in oil painting. I paint oils at home, too, and they take far longer to dry than ink or watercolor. Hmmm. I really do miss those two quite a bit, so today, before class, I decided to do two quick sketches and use a bit of watercolor.

The first was daffodils – obviously! I have several in pots, some blooming and fading already, and others sending up leaves and stems and buds. Spring flowers for sure. I have some freesias which are just beginning to bloom, so perhaps some of those later on.

And then some saguaros from the Sonoran Desert. Sunset is always fabulous in Arizona, and here we are overlooking the metroplex that is Tucson / Phoenix in the distance. I am still amazed by these wonderful cacti – so tall and elegant, and silhouetted against the sky they are even more amazing.

Okay – time to pack it up and head out to class!

Ink and Color

Today is one of those busy days, but I have promised myself a bit of painting or drawing every day. This morning I thought I would do more saguaros, as seen from the road on our trip to Tucson. Every morning, the sky is usually a bright, clear blue, but as the day progresses, the skies change and clouds develop. What a delight to someone where skies are blue for days on end, nary a cloud in sight!

Ink, for this drawing, is the iron gall ink I have made, and a stub pen, on watercolor paper. After it dried, colors could be applied. Perhaps the colors are a bit heavy and a lighter touch might make a more effective painting. That could be something for tomorrow.

As the watercolors dried, on the opposite page in the sketchbook are the cactus flowers were ready for more ink. Below is the original from the other day.

Part of the drawing was begun with ink, specifically the large cactus on the left. The rest was done with direct watercolor. This morning I thought I would add some ink to see how it affected the rest of the painting – did it help enhance it or make it a mess? See below.

Now I have kept my promise to myself and feel satisfied as only doing something you love can satisfy. Not a lot but a bit. Even a taste of something can make your day!

Colorado Cactus Flowers

My sister lives outside Durango, CO, on 40 acres of high desert. Scrub oak, cacti, deer, and all sorts of things roam about. Today she sent some photos of the flowers in bloom around her place. Some prickly pears were in bloom, so here is the photo she took.

The plants in her area are similar to the ones here in California where we live. There are hillsides covered with prickly pear cacti out here, and as our climate is warmer, they bloom earlier than in Colorado at 8000 feet. This is my painting of her photo.

I outlined the big cactus plant on the left with ink and then painted it. The others I did with direct watercolor. Combining outlines with free form painting is rather fun, and a good way to continue practicing. I think the outlines made for a more successful cactus but not having outlines also makes it very important to look at shape and value. Practicing both in the same painting is rather an interesting process.

Saguaro

This is my third pastel, and second subject from the class on Monday.

There are some things I learned in doing this pastel. First, the large cactus has to be put in after the sky because it is just too big – the sky and the cactus – to work around. The mountains and smaller cacti are fine. I had to redo the sky a bit, and if you look, you can see halos of the cacti in the sky. Live and learn!

I also had to totally redo the foreground – it was all the same tonality! Midtoned. So, I went in and worked in a lot, a lot, a lot of lighter colors. It worked. Before there was nothing leading the eye to the big cactus- now there is to some degree.

The foreground plants in the corner are also at issue here. While they are lighter than the middle ground’s plants, they are not quite right. I need to increase the contrast within them, I think, to help them become individualized from the sandy dirt around them.

Finally, it is interesting to realize the importance of fixatives in the process of doing a pastel painting. Harder pastels don’t create as much dust (Nupastel) as do softer ones (Rembrandt). A “workable fixative” is necessary as the layers go down. A “final fixative” is applied when the painting is done. I have both, but the final fixative still allows the pastel to be rubbed off to some degree.

So, third painting, and I am getting the hang of it. Still very amateurish – my lack of depth perception always seems to get me. “Look at the light!” is my constant reminder, as well as the tricks of creating distance in a 2-dimensional painting. Gouache painting has proven to be very helpful here.

Cholla on a Cloudy Day

About a week ago, on a cold, dreary day (sounds like “once upon a time” or “it was a dark and stormy night”!), I went out with my Yashica D and a roll of color negative film, Fuji Pro 400H. Colors everywhere were muted, more so as it was in the latter part of the afternoon. I guestimated all exposures, and found that I had been too conservative in my estimates as many of the pictures were under exposed. Fuji Pro 400H makes for beautiful colors in the sun, but perhaps Ektar would be better suited for a cloudy, dull day. Perhaps, too, colors would have been better rendered with more light? Hard to judge at this point – the more I use film, the more I have to think about beyond exposure!