Tag: California

Last Day of April – Morning Sketches

The last few days have been the quintessential spring days in Southern California – and I have been outside, but never enough. I planted some tomatoes and cleaned up some plants in the patio garden, basked in the sun, and have done very little. Today, though, pen and watercolor beckoned with the morning coffee, and the colors of spring and the outdoors called.

Grape hyacinths are so odd to me! I am used to the big ones, in pinks and blues and flower petals which curl outward. Grape hyacinths make me think of little bells. This is the first year I have ever grown them, and short-lived as they were, they were so much fun to see. Bulbs always make me happy, and I have a variety of them, such as iris, ixia, daffodils. Bulbs need to be hybridized for our warm California winters, so they are not so rare as they used to be, but never seem as exciting as they do when they flower in a patch of snow.

I was poring over some photos I have, taken by me or collected through Pixabay and other free online royalty sources. Palm trees and banana plants. I did this to practice dry brush on a wedge brush – nothing great but it accomplished what I wanted – a soft bit of blending, such as in the foreground.

Once more lavender fields in Provence and other areas of southern France. In particular, mixing lavender that is bluish is a challenge; here, in watercolor, I diluted my purples with some blue and rose, as well as some greenish colors to suggest the lavender’s foliage. The scan didn’t do a great job. Additionally, I wanted to capture the texture in the rocky faces of the mountain, cracks vertically and horizontally in the bare stone.

Finally, a favorite place of mine – Figueroa Mountain in Santa Barbara County. In the spring, lupines and poppies bloom, and the view across the Santa Ynez Valley extends for miles. To me, this is the epitome of a wonderful time of year in California. It is when the rains turn the hills from brown and dull to an intense display of yellow, gold, and purple.

Drawing with ink and watercolor is pleasant and relaxing, and doing it in a sketchbook takes away the desire to create a masterpiece. Here, exploration, play, practice.

Carbon ink on watercolor paper; Rosa pan watercolors.

Somewhere in Ventura County

I have been taking classes from a local teacher and artist, Harvey Cusworth, through a seminar and adult ed classes in oil painting. He is an experienced teacher and one who pays attention to each student, gives good suggestions and advice. Additionally, he is an experienced teacher which, in my opinion, adds a lot of value to a class as he is very aware of how a classroom of unruly kids or adults can act!

In the seminar we started landscapes, but because of getting sick, I missed two of the classes along with a number of adult ed classes. I decided to continue into the adult ed class the landscape I had started in the seminar just because I thought it challenging but also something I wanted to paint – a landscape from the back country here in Ventura County.

First: my final (as of this writing) version of the painting.

And now, it’s evolution. First, Harvey’s photo which was the subject matter – in color and then reduced to black and white to get a sense of values.

Photograph by Harvey Cusworth

Next, my own rather goofy value study, painted in color and then reduced into black and white.

Underpainting

This painting is done in oils, and has taken me several hours over several days to complete it. Even now, I have to let it sit and dry and regard it a bit more carefully to see what I think of it. As it is still wet I took a photo of it, and in places there is some glare, seen more clearly when enlarged. 11×14 on a cotton canvas panel.

As above, I like to see what my work looks like when turned to black and white – for values. Also, it is just fun to do! I just use the sliders in LR to reduce vibrancy and saturation reduced to -100. Doing this is really a good way fro me to evaluate contrast and such.

Final painting in color and black and white

So, there we are. In general, I am pretty pleased with this painting. The goal is to lead the eye along the creek to the small stand of tree at the top of the creek. I wanted to show the brightness of the barren mountains in the distance, but did not want them to become overwhelming. The BW image of the final painting shows that the mountains are very similar in value as the sky. Is this an issue? Not sure. Things like this are to be considered in a few days when it is no longer in front of me.

Now, on to other things, like cleaning my brushes . . .

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.