ink – Page 37 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Once Waitlisted Weekend Watercolor Workshop

How’s that for a few Ws or so?

This past weekend I spent immersed in painting and drawing and sketching, all focused on watercolor. This lucky girl got in after being waitlisted to a workshop with Brenda Swenson, an excellent watercolorist, and as it turns out, a very good teacher. Three days of organized to increasingly looser structure was perfect.

Day 1 began with continuous contour line drawing and lost edges. At first I got it – and then didn’t – and then did again. These drawings then led to watercolors using lost edges to blur and bleed color into color – wet working with deliberate movement of color. This helps with reflected light. The mind fills in what the brush does not.

From there, on the second day, we moved into landscapes from photographs, all of which were provided by Brenda, and from which all the landscapes in this post are derived from. For some reason I couldn’t seem to think straight – I was restless and goofy and my mind was all over the place. Somehow, I managed to survive and produce a few pictures of value. The still lives I did sucked. Structure of the day, if I recall, along with the first was draw, format, paint. Formatting was finding a border for the image, where edges might break out of the line, and give an interesting look to the painting. Good graphics!

And on the third day, structure loosened. The focus was on painting vignettes. A vignette, I knew, had white around the borders of a painting – a piece of a painting. Brenda put it into a different perspective, on which I never had heard of – cruciform. Don’t touch the corners with paint, touch one or all of the 4 edges of the picture’s ostensible borders, and focus on how the shape – the negative space of the corners – looks in relationship to all the other.

Lessons each day, thoughts for each day. If I get another chance to attend here workshop, I will – if you get a chance, do it!

Now, a few things done during the workshop . . . click on a picture to see them bigger!

Watercolor Workshop, Day 2

Another day just painting! What a pleasure to be able to do it!

Today we did two different things. Actually, three. For warm-up, we returned to the quick three minute sketches, which eventually morphed into a still life with three objects. Mine were a piece of dried corn, a plastic mushroom, and a plastic artichoke. I was not particularly nimble this morning, but here is one I produced.

From there, we moved on to landscapes, but I will hold off for a moment on those. We did an exercise which I found fascinating: take one object and paint it 6 different ways. I chose a really lovely fake pear – golden and red, reminiscent of autumn. Take a look . . . they are in a gallery format, so click on one image to be able to scroll through them larger than they are here.

This was a lot of fun to do – nothing I ever have considered as an exercise. And then . . . we moved on to landscapes from photographs Brenda took, laminated, and brought to class.

The idea was to take a photo and modify it. This one is in the wine country of Northern California.

This one is, I think, in Carmel, but I don’t recall. All the speckles are from the fact that it is a ghost image from a wet painting. Truthfully, I was surprised it was a success at all. All day I felt restless and unfocused.

Finally, this one. I think it is the best of everything I did today. The mantra for the day was draw, frame, paint.

45.3 Tulips (Iron Gall Ink) – Painted

I should have done a value study here, but not in the mood, and not having a lot of time, I just decided to paint, hoping I “saw” the shadows enough. Pretty tulips turned into a rather ugly mess! Still, it is a learning experience, and the doing is often more important than the final results. I am quite sure my paintings will be gone and not found in a museum.

Ink, Color, Paper

For some time now I have been practicing “urban sketching,” which is a fun way to record what you see around you. Sit down, have a cup of coffee, take out the ink, color, and paper. Go to a park, visit a zoo. The world is around you!

Ink and wash in Stillman & Birn sketchbook. Light washes are more successful than heavy washes as far as I can tell.

Part of the process of this style of sketching is to realize the essentials of what you see in front of you. It is a good way to evaluate and decide what to keep, what to discard. By the same token, you learn about your materials. To me, one of the most important elements is the paper – how it responds, how it reacts. After a bit, paper becomes like an old friend – you know its nuances, when it’s in a good mood, when you are having difficulties. And, like people, you find you like some paper better than others.

Painted with multiple glazes in a Hand Book. There is some blooming, which can be annoying, but the paper holds up well to repeated washes.

I’ve picked up a number of sketchbooks, many with heavy paper to handle watercolors and ink. Handling a wash is critical. However, learning what a paper can and cannot do is also important, and part of that is just using it.

The Pentalic sketchbook holds up really well to repeated wetting. The sky is a good example of this – I went in about 5 times, just because I could, to see how it worked. There isn’t too much blooming with this paper. As well, the paper has a pleasant texture. Both wet-in-wet and dry brush work on this paper. I painted all of this with a flat water brush to get a sense of how to use it more successfully than I have in the past. Ink is both Carbon Ink and pigmented markers.

To date, I have a Stillman & Birn, Hand Book and Pentalic watercolor sketchbooks. Stillman & Birn doesn’t respond quite like I would like it to for wet washes, but it holds lines well. I need to practice with it more to get a sense of its personality. Hand Book seems to have better wash-handling qualities. Pentalic, so far, appears to be the best. I also have decided I like spiral bound vs. signatures.

Tulips (Iron Gall Ink Sketch)

We had a leak in the house, and the result was scurrying around doing everything else but find time to even think or go to work. Finally, the leak was contained yesterday. Towels and such could be put away. Now we wait for insurance and contractors!

And finally, I can get back to drawing and painting. This morning, more tulips, done with iron gall ink, prior to applying some paint. Here ya go!