Tag: coastline

1. The Cove Below

Siena Blue did a series of 30 gouache studies – and she/he did a beautiful job! Inspired, I have decided to do a series of gouache paintings over the next several days, but I am not setting myself a goal as to how many. Gouache can be returned to easily enough as the paint re-wets quite well. As I have not worked in gouache lately and my life is going to be rather crazy over the next few weeks, it seems like the perfect medium for playtime.

So, a view looking over the edge of a cliff (I assume) taken somewhere on Capri – thus states the Pixabay description. As it is now summer, a rocky coastline, and a moored sailboat on a turquoise sea is quite a pleasant thought!

When I first began exploring gouache I found the work of Lena Rivo, observed her YouTube videos and took her short course. Both really helped me get a sense of how gouache works – it’s not watercolor nor oil or acrylic – and has an odd opacity that takes some getting used to – the colors are unique in many ways as there is a lot of white filler in the colors. Good quality gouache paints are opaque and cover well. All of my colors here are the same Lena Rivo uses, made by Holbein.

Gouache, about 8×10.

Offshore Fog

Living along the coast, fog is a part of the landscape. Coastal fog in particular is fascinating in California as in many areas the plant life depends on it for water. The beauty of fog is its ability to soften a landscape and create a mysterious effect. Inland, we don’t have much fog where I live, but in coastal areas, just a block can move you from gloomy and depressing by the beach to sunny and shiny and cheery inland. As a result, I prefer to live inland a bit so I don’t get socked in by fog.

There were two goals here. First, experiment with using only linseed oil as a vehicle to smoosh around paint, creating in the process soft gradations. The second was to experiment with using the Canson XL Oil / Acrylic paper. This paper has gotten some of the best reviews, in part because of its linen finish texture. I agree, the paper and the texture are very nice to work on! The rather grainy effect of white on the still water is done by dragging a wide brush across the underlying blue paint with dryish paint. It makes me think of fog resting above the water, but you can choose what it means to you if you are so inclined!

Because I am using linseed oil, the oil paint takes forever and ever to dry; after scanning this, I had to clean off the glass plate on the Epson V600 even after its drying for 2 weeks. So, it is back in the garage to continue drying.

Oil paint, 9×12 Canson XL Oil-Acrylic paper, linseed oil only.

Haystack Rock

More of the northern coast along the Pacific Ocean. Here, Cannon Beach in Oregon, possibly one of the most dramatic beaches I have ever seen. Sea stacks, tide pools, sand, mist and fog. When the fog lifts and the sky brightens, there is a glare that cannot be explained. It’s not a summer day brightness as we have in SoCal, but a brightness that is cold but not like on a snowy day. There is a lot of moisture in the air, from sea and fog, and perhaps that is what magnifies the light to such a degree.

If you look closely, you will see some of my ink bled into the paint. I used my iron gall in, not my waterproof micron pens, and a stub nib to draw. From there, I wet the sky, dropped in colors, and then let things dry to dampness. I wanted to create soft edges for the mist in the distance which blurs and softens edges. The rocks themselves were painted wet-in-wet initially, and then other colors applied to either dry or damp paper. The sand and the rivulets were painted in the same manner. In the end, I drew again with my iron gall ink to add texture or detail.

Keeping this sketchbook is so much fun! I have room to paint as the sheets are big, the paper is strong so I can use both sides, and I can paint with a lot of water should I wish. It is proving to be one of the best decisions I have made of late!

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.