It’s chilly here with rains to begin at midnight. Snow is on the mountains outside the valleys around me. I miss the smell of a winter of snow and pine, in the eastern woods, Rockies, high desert. This is a simple morning sketch, iron gall ink, a water brush, some watercolor to recall the wonder of a mountain winter.
I’m really stuck this year – maybe I just don’t have the time or focus or desire? Hard to say. I am behind. I don’t really like some of the pens I have been using for Inktober as they have to be either disposable or impervious to the corrosive effects of the iron gall ink I am using.
Maybe it’s the paper? Some of the paper I am drawing on is really old and yellowed, and not really of artistic quality. I have no idea what it is made of, and is in an sketchbook that is easily 20 years old, and one I never used.
#7: Enchanted
#8: Frail
#9: Swing
#10: Pattern
#11 Snow
Of course, we all want our fans to tell us how talented we are and what perfect paintings we do! Sadly, that is not reality. In and of itself, The Red Barn is not a bad painting – I am rather pleased with it. However, my husband is my nearest critic, and as he knows my issues of late with perspective, he pointed out, “The barn looks warped, like one side is buckling in.”
“Of course!” came my snarky reply. “It’s old. See? There are holes in the barn.” I pointed out the ones on the right, in shadow, under the eaves.
Well, I knew there was something wrong, but couldn’t pinpoint it. This morning, I took it out for another look, and just with casual measurement between my fingertips, I found the problem. The right front edge of the roof is shorter than the left edge. The same applies to the right and left sides of the front of the barn. Given the perspective of the painting, it is totally illogical!
This was truly a breakthrough moment. I thought I had done the perspective correctly – in many ways I have, as with the road, and such, but the building itself was the problem. I plan to re-do this painting today, working specifically on the barn roof and walls. Hopefully success will follow!
Stay tooned (as my friend Fraggy likes to say!).
Or, maybe, The First Day of Spring?
I have been breaking out of my safety zone and moving on to using more expensive paper and larger sized sheets for painting. Also, another is to use a somewhat limited palette, working to create colors by mixing in different strengths and blends. Ultramarine and cobalt blues, burnt sienna and burnt umber, a dash of sap green. Other colors include a mix of cadmium yellow and red, and some of Daniel Smith’s Primatek Sodalite (a black) for the road.
As always, there seems to be a lack of depth in my painting, despite my efforts . . . or maybe the road is not properly proportioned for its curve?
There is nothing like knowing Spring is nearly here, and see hints of emerging from the snow.
Well, it is winter, so snow shows up for some reason. New snow is so nice – but old snow is dreary, especially as winter begins to lose the charm it had at Christmas! Slushy, mushy, grey, dirty, muddy.
I decided to make up a scene – with buildings both wooden and brick, with telephone poles, and the grey mist of a city beyond. As a painting by itself, it’s a failure, but adding a few lines helped it out a bit. People will appear when the weather clears . . .
Ink, Yarn & Beer 