Color Studies for Some Cats, a Second Run at the Seiner and a Class Quickie Demo

I started with the eyes - a  small w/w application of quin. gold, quin. burnt orange and cobalt blue.  The markings were done with a mix of quin. rose and quin. burnt orange.

I did a dry brush application of black [quin. rose, q.b.o. and indanthrone] for the dark markings, let it dry the did a w/w application of a grey mix [aureolin, rose and cobalt blue] for the rest of the coat.

I darkened the pink-orange areas and then ...

... dry-brushed the black markings again, added some detail to her nose, and glazed her eyes with cobalt blue.

This second cat is coming along much more slowly. I think it's all that expanse of black that is putting me off. I started the eyes with quin. gold and quin. burnt orange, and used some of that pink-orange from the other cat for some of the light markings.

Some pupils and a touch of cobalt blue for the eyes, ...

... and a w/w wash of black. She is a Scottish fold with, I think, some Persian, so no nose and tiny ears - not a lot of facial landmarks with which to work.

I wanted to try the seiner again - lighter this time.  This has had  a wash of aureolin, followed by a gradated wash of quin. rose, then one of phthalo blue. I am stalled, trying to figure out how I would like to represent the waves.

Started teaching another class yesterday. This was one of the demos.  I borrowed the idea from Thomas Schaller [love his work], as it was an elegant image, brought to life by the w/w application of colors. I definitely paint differently when teaching - faster, looser, always standing - and it shows in the work. I'll have to try painting like this more at home. On my own, I sit, and am very slow and methodical - sometimes good, not always.

On the horsey front, I haven't ridden for 3 weeks. I miss it, and Bruno does, too. But between being tossed off, and then the weather becoming very wet and turning the ring to a sodden mess, we haven't been able to do anything. Today is drier, I'm feeling much stronger, so off to the barn I go!!!

Thank you for dropping by!   

Ghost Ship Finished

Ghost Ship - Seiner
11 x 14 framable

I wanted to remove just the photo because, OF COURSE, I did a bit of touching up. But the entire post disappeared.  So here it is, and I promise - no more touch-ups!!

Thank you all for dropping by!

Herding Cats and Slogging Paint

I made myself sit down and finally do some drawing on the cats. Some I did free-hand from the photos, others I used a grid over the photos on the computer screen. They were difficult - the photos were not the best for gleaning information. I think I had my nose almost pressed to the computer screen at times to see! But it's a start.

Masked, then wet-in-wet with indanthrone blue.

Again wet, and drizzled on some quin. rose and quin. gold from the top.

In hindsight, I probably should have left it at this stage for background darkness.

I did a pour-drizzle from the top onto wet paper, using a mixture of indanthrone, quin. rose and the gold...

... let it dry, then painted islands and two small fishing boats in the distance. The closer seiner is yet to be done. I'm not sure if I like it or not - it's rather dark.

In the world of Horse, I had a set-back with Bruno. We were out in the park a week and a half ago, and he thought he saw a leaf making a move to attack. He dropped under me about six inches, and spun like a dervish. I flew off his back, and slammed down partly into a soft ditch, but managed to crack my head onto hard-packed gravel. He hadn't taken off far, so I got him, took the reins and walked him back to the start of the trail so I could use the mounting block. And we did the trail again, this time with no accident. I was stiff and sore from the landing, and later started getting very dizzy and nauseated, so I must have received a fairly decent concussion. I have tried to take it easy, but I'd like to start riding again next week - going squirrelly without my dose of horse!

That's it for this week. Thank you so much for dropping by!

Taking a So-So Painting to Completion and Playing in Watercolor Class

My nemesis - the dreaded magnolia

First attempt

Further on with the background - it was at this point I realized it wouldn't work.

Second attempt - I just flipped the paper over, and re-traced the image.  I masked first, then started applying quin. pink, quin. burnt orange and indanthrone in a wet-in-wet manner.

Many wet ones later ...

Glazed stem and buds in pink, then started to paint with truer versions of their local color.  The stem was a mix of indanthrone, pink and orange.

The buds were done with lighter and a darker mixes of indanthrone and quin. gold. Quin. pink was used in the petal accents. And the shadows were a combination of pink, orange and indanthrone.
The paper was not very obliging as far as accepting color went; between soaking twice, using the "wrong" side and applying masking fluid, the surface was quite roughened up.

Last Saturday, the class asked to have some tree demos.  I like the opportunity to be able to paint faster and looser, but I'm not sure I could finish an decent, completed painting in this way. 

More of the class demo's - again I really like that tree on the left, but wonder if and how I could integrate it into a finished painting.

That's it for this week. I hope to get started on another seascape. I would like to give a painting to my sister's old boyfriend in thanks for finding me a very lovely car at an excellent price. [My Honda was written off in an accident last October.] Gary's dad worked on a seiner for years, and I know he would love a painting of the ship, which still heads out from Steveston to fish.

Thank you all very much for dropping by!

Metamorphosis of a Mushroom ... or ... Process of Painting a Red Russula

A photo I took last Fall was my inspiration.

Sketches and value idea for background.
I wanted to create a vignette, which,  as I understand,  is more focussed, and three areas of the painting run onto the edge of the work leaving a fair bit of white.

I masked the mushrooms, and did a thin wet-in-wet application of   dark brown, then dropped in some green .

I needed help figuring out how to paint the grasses - who better than Albrecht Durer? He created so many exquisite watercolors of animals, landscapes, and intimate little scenes like this one.

I thinly applied some green around the mushrooms, then while wet, used a rigger to drag and flick some of the green outward.

Masking off

I then started [one by one] darkening the blades of grass with varying shades of green. I painted the large fungi  [fungus?], and dabbed drops of blue in the smaller ones. I also started on the underside of Big Guy.
I took this photo with AV mode, and it is quite bleached out.

Here they are right now. It is quite a detailed work, but I must admit I love working on all the  intricate bits - it's somehow soothing for me right now. There is still much more to be done, but the basics are here.
The colors I am using are leaf green, indanthrone and quin. burnt orange for the grass, and for the rest - aureolin, cobalt blue, quin. red, quin. sienna and alizarin crimson.

I apologize to all of you whose blogs I follow - haven't been following very well. Life is more hectic than I like right now. I am one of the executors of my aunt's will, and that means a lot of sorting, digging for information, talking with lawyers ... UGH! I find that at least one of the things I love doing has to be left out daily - today it was walking Maggie, my dog. But she did get out with my friend. Bruno was ignored for a few days, other than feeding and watering and making sure he was OK. Today he had a good grooming session and some TLC. Planning for classes takes a lot of time, too; I am teaching a watercolor course and a drawing course. The drawing class is harder for me to teach - drawing comes so easily to me [been doing it for decades] that I don't really have to think/plan as much as for painting. So appreciating and understanding a student's difficulty with drawing takes more effort and time.  And of course there's the part-time work as a dental hygienist. But I have made a decision to retire very soon, and I feel very good about that.

Anyway ... that it for now. I will try to post once a week, and keep up with all you bloggers.

Thank you for dropping by!!

EXPERIMENTING ... It's a Good Thing

This photo of my neighbor's sunflowers was my inspiration - taken several weeks ago, during a cold snap.  

My drawing

First washes. I wet the entire sheet [15 x 22 inches] and stroked on some quin. burnt orange.

I did some detail work on the old flower and leaves, using quin. gold, the orange and indanthrone blue for muted greens.

I masked the flower, wet  the paper all over again,  and stroked in some green, mixed from gold, orange and blue.

I added more detail and shadowing using orange, quin. violet and blue. The techniques were a combination of wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry [softening the strokes].

With the masking off

I felt there was not enough strength/support for the sunflower. So I wet the left side and stroked in some of the dark brown mixture.

This was the experiment. I saw the painting as lacking integration, no sense of wholeness. So I wondered .... ??? Could I get away with wetting the entire thing and not loose what had been so far painted?
YES!!! After letting it dry overnight, I wet it all, and applied gold, orange and brown in a circle shapes with the center around the flower. I then sprayed a bit to encourage the colors to move and blend. I am very pleased with the result! If you plan to try this technique, I encourage you to read Nita Engle's book, How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself. I could get away with this because I had used staining colors; anything else would turn to mud. 

This was the same stage as the above painting, but taken on "auto" mode. The previous one was with AV mode.  I find it works better in winter under an artificial light.

And this is the next project.

For a while now, I have been wanting to push my paintings further, using shapes, values, colors, design to convey some emotion. One way I plan to do this is to religiously prepare several value sketches to work out kinks before painting. And I want to be able to skillfully use more of the lost-and-found techniques for edges.

Hmmm ... I guess that's it for today. Thank you very much for dropping by!