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.
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!
Watercolor is wet. It needs to dry. In a studio setting or classroom, a lot of people use hair dryers. You see it on videos all the time – brrrrrrr! But, outdoors, unless you have an outlet and a long extension cord, and want to annoy yourself, you just sit and wait for air and evaporation to get to work.
In Saguaro Land
I opened up my big sketchbook – each page is about 9×12 inches – and it was a spread across the two sheets. Above, a more traditionally done sketchy watercolor. I did a basic pencil drawing and then applied color.
Last month we drove from north of Los Angeles out to Tucson for our Global Entry interviews. En route we drove through portions of the southwest I have not yet seen, driving east from San Diego along Hwy 8, at times just north of the Mexican border. The land was sparse and beautiful in a fierce way, and before we reached Tucson we drove through the Sonoran Desert, home of the mighty saguaro cactus.
What can I say? They are tall and strange, reaching upwards to 40 feet, with arms and branches against mountains and skies filled with drama. It was beautiful. As we were on a long drive – 8.5 hours – we didn’t stop. I took a bunch of lousy pictures out of the window, and these are the basis for the above painting. An impression, not a reality, although you know these are saguaro if you have ever seen one.
This painting had to be painted in stages, so my thoughts were what to do while waiting? I decided to do some direct watercolor and use a photo I had taken of the local landscape.
Below Mount Clef in Wildwood Park
Direct watercolor has no lines, and I have found it a wonderfully fresh way to see the world and to paint. It is also a challenge not to make mud, not to get carried away, and to think strategically. For me, the real challenges are negative painting and values. Because I am making sketches in a sketchbook and not something “serious” on a sheet of expensive paper, the direct watercolor and the more traditional studies are gaining traction.
I am learning a thing or two in my old age, and there is something to be said for that. Today’s painting was very satisfying. I spent it outside at the picnic table, a few supplies, a dog at my feet, and a kicked-back-who-gives-a-damn approach. And, I don’t think either of these paintings is half bad.
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.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 