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!
Watercolor paint mixed with white and / or black artist’s gouache. 11×14 on Canson watercolor paper.
With a break in the cold and rain, a relapse of my cold, and sheer need to get out into the afternoon sunshine (74F! – 23.3 C!), I sat down and listened to Lord Peter Wimsey on Audible, pulled out a pan of paints, and looked around me. There are a lot of daffodils in various pots, a bunch of daisies, and a basil plant I just bought. The rains have kept me from replacing and modifying my drip system, but as today we probably had the last of the seasonal rain, it is time to reset them as as well as clean up various beds.
This potted basil was the first bit of painting. I wanted to focus on the lights and darks, the shadows and bright spots. It is quite a complicated bit of greenery to paint – enough detail to get depth and separation of leaves, as well as a sense of the direction of light. Pencil first, and then a try at a bit more than a lick and a promise. Not great, but I did accomplish a bit of what I wanted.
Once the basil was done, the paper was flipped over. I have a huge pot where some spring daisies are just jumping up with an enthusiasm that always frustrates my own when I try to paint them! I tried to paint them as masses – but the white daisies are very clear in shape, white with bright yellow centers – and all this in a field of varying green. The sun was in and out behind the clouds, so the two patches look a bit different. Again, complexity being simplified. The one on the right is my favorite as it feels somehow “cleaner” if that makes any sense.
And then, the daffodils. The one on the left is better than the one on the right; the spiky leaves are okay. What I focused on here were colors and their shapes, not a daffodil. The same with daisies on the right. This meant I did not use pencil, but painted directly.
Altogether, a few hours in the afternoon spent playing and relaxing. Some success, some failure.
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.
These past several days just seem to have been filled with stuff that needed doing, not necessarily things needed and wanted. Getting taxes done, going to the dentist, etc., are not my ideas of a Fun Life, but things Needing to be Done.
Despite duty, I have been putzing around. I realized that I don’t have a fountain pen and permanent ink for drawing any more as I lost a pen somewhere – which, no doubt, will soon be found as lost objects always are once replaced – and used up all my waterproof fountain pen ink. I now have a new drawing pen, a $17.00 job from Amazon with an extra fine point, and some of Platinum’s Carbon Ink, which is a long time favorite of mine for drawing. My Not Taken Vacation sketchbook was easily accessible, so off I went to the sunny patio to do some drawing. I used a few reference photos for ideas, and then began with ink and pen.
I chose to draw some snow drops in a vase, Pigeon Point Lighthouse here in California, a little cleft in the landscape, and a wintry farm somewhere. From there, my box of Schmincke pan watercolors, some water, and a brush. All this was sort of awkward as I have not done ink and wash for a bit, but it always feels so good to just sketch and paint, more so when it is out on a sunny patio on a beautiful spring day between last week’s rains and this weekend’s expected downpour.
I am quite pleased with my inexpensive fountain pen which came with the fillable screw adapter I prefer to cartridges, and coupled with the Carbon Ink, I think I have landed a rather happy combination for my drawing pleasure. Hopefully you like them, too!
As someone who has used water-based media for years – watercolor, acrylic, gouache – I am used to using just one brush for the most part, or two if I need a different quality. A round, a flat. That’s about it for watercolor or acrylic or gouache. Of course, different sizes matter as far as what I am painting, but with a couple of good brushes, much can be accomplished. I just take my brush, swish it around in water, and then on to the next color.
Oil painting does not allow this. To clean a brush means to work at getting it clean, and that work is best done at the end of a session when all is ready to be set aside. This means cleaning the brushes in mineral spirits to get rid of the oil. This is done after wiping excess paint off and discarding the rags or towels. After the mineral spirits comes a bar of soap and hot water. Squish and swish the brush in the soap, rinse. Repeat if necessary. Set aside to dry after reshaping the brush, and you are ready for the next session.
I have done a bit of observation and a bit of reading about brushes. Some oil painters say you never need to wash your brushes, just clean them off by wiping and using some mineral spirits. For me, this is a disaster in the making. My habits are to use the same brush with rinses in between, and oil painting does not allow for this – at least, not the way I paint.
The classic picture of an artist is with his handheld palette, beret on head, easel in front of him / her, and multiple brushes being held in the hand holding the palette. It makes sense! Brushes with different colors, different values, different shapes to create different strokes. I watched a lot of oil painters, and some do hold multiple brushes. Some even go so far as to have the same brush in 3 editions – one for light, one for medium, and one for dark values, with other brushes exclusively used for blending. Recommendations for brushes are also as varied as how and what to do with brushes – what shape, what size, what material, how much to spend.
Well, for now, I need to focus on clean brushes. Mud was a very common byproduct of my earlier days in watercolor, and now I have to fight the same problem with oil painting. I need to retrain how I use brushes altogether. I have also found I need to determine what kind of brush I like. Watercolor works with both soft and stiff brushes, depending on desired effect. Soft brushes are the best, IMHO, for gouache. Acrylic, like watercolor, can vary with the need of the painter – hard, soft, round, flat, filbert, fan. Right now, I prefer softer brushes for oils, but I know that this will change as I become more comfortable with the medium.
Meanwhile, I think cheap brushes for 3 values will be my default for now – and it won’t be easy!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 