A VERY DRAMATIC SKY - watercolour step by step

I did a fairly detailed [for me] value sketch.

First wet-in-wet washes. Sky - a bit of aureolin. Beach - a mixture of quin. burnt orange and cobalt blue. 

A mixture of indanthrone, quin. burnt orange and quin. pink for the distant mountains.

Then the part that really makes the picture. I wet the sky twice, drying a bit in between, to keep the paper wetter for more time. I needed the extra time to play with the dark sky, adding more colour here, lifting there. The colours are again indanthrone, quin. burnt orange and quin. pink.

Finally I add the details of the waves to lead the eye to the focus on the lower right, and make the image actually look like a beach scene. I might have made the sky more imposing than it was in the photo, but then the painting IS about the sky. And the dark winter weather here has left me feeling somewhat "dark", too. I wish to thank Barb Thurgood for the use of here image of Black Rock Sands as reference. The painting is 8 1/2 x 14 inches framable.

Thank you so much for dropping by!

A GOOSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR - STEP BY STEP WATERCOLOR

A Goose of a Different Color 
13.5 x 9 in./ 34.5 x 22 cm.
Stonehenge hot press paper

It was going to be a white goose, so I started with a grey [aureolin, a quin. pink and cobalt blue] for the form shadows.

Some quin. sienna and pink for beak, and quin. sienna for feet.

Deepening colors. It was at this point, I asked Pat [my goose aficionado] what she thought. She found him to be a bit insipid, so ...

... I made up a grey-brown [quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone] to add some color, and got to work.

I had bought some Stonehenge paper, both cold and hot press, and planned to paint some intricate floral on the hot press. But the goose won out. It is a lovely surface on which to paint - I was very pleased with how it allowed me to work the feathers. Probably some more geese in future, but with more animation.

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A BOTANICAL BREAK ...

I just had to get these clematis buds out of my system, and I wanted to paint something simple, austere. At this stage, I used mixes of aureolin and cobalt blue for the cooler greens, and quin. gold and phthalo green for the warmer ones, and floated them in to get a smooth look.

I continued with those greens, as well as some steaks of brown madder for the bud tips. The tiny bits of flower showing were done with a mix of cobalt blue and quin. pink.

The stems were painted with quin. gold and phthalo green, with quin. burnt orange and green glazed over later for the darks.

Created more depth with more applications of the same or darker colors.

Et voila - c'est fini!
Clematis Buds
28.5 x 40.5 cm. framable
$265.00 US
unframed


I was inspired to paint this after watching James Fox's documentary on the art of Japan.

Thank you so much for dropping by!!!

A SHOW OF HANDS - TOWNSEND'S MOLE

A Show of Hands
10 x 13 in.
I think the title is apt, as they make their living, so to speak, with their paws.

I took these two photos this morning. Yup, we have moles in the yard.

Here is my dog, Maggie, a year and a half ago. I read that this particular mole has few natural predators ... except Maggie. Needless to say, I was upset.

Pigments for fur - quin. burnt orange, quin. violet, indanthrone
Pigments for paws and muzzle - quin. sienna, quin. pink, indanthrone
Grass - quin. gold, phthalo green, quin. burnt orange, indanthrone

Meet my next endangered species - Townsend's mole. They live almost everywhere here, and are considered endangered in British Columbia.  I believe their endangered status is attributable to their low rate of reproductivity. They navigate underground, about 10 - 20 cm. under, by their whiskers. They are able to detect light, but not images. As well, they have sensitive hearing and touch. They are solitary and territorial. I am happy to say, they are next to impossible to trap. I remember my landlord [who golfed, and loved a pristine front lawn] trying all sorts of gimmicks to get rid of the moles - from smoke "bombs" and traps, to setting those little hand-sized wind-mills on sticks [the vibrations were supposed to bother the moles] But they are still here :)
Thank you for visiting!

OK ... Hilda, This Is for YOU

Drawing

Spooky-looking eyes - using aureolin, quin. burnt orange and phthalo blue

Getting her furry - quin. burnt orange, scarlet lake, a bit of indanthrone

Adding the more neutral grey - orange, scarlet and indanthrone

Same colors for the bit of her back and shoulder

Touched up and darkened here and there. A very light background will be added later, after I finish all eight of the cats, so I can see them all together and decide on some unifying colors.

Several days ago, Hilda Muxo Klinger [fellow blogger] left a message on my artist's Facebook page. She very thoughtfully and kindly enquired if I had disappeared from the face of the Earth. Not quite! But I have been busy, and posting from this newer laptop is much more awkward and time-consuming. When I take photos, I download them onto my older desktop [which no longer can access my blog] There I edit them, because the photo editing is much better than the laptop. Then I have to mail the photos to my laptop, to make them accessible for me here. Damn, I really dislike computers!!! Anyway, thank you, Hilda! on to more cats ...

Thank you so much for dropping by!!

Distracted Parent!!!

My model - the distracted parent
"Me ... me ... come after me - my wing is broken"

My drawing, initially focussing on the head

First w/w applications of a warm grey-brown and some black
The eye done with a brighter orange - quin. sienna

Adding more burnt orange, and intensifying the detail of the head

Lovely burnt orange, applied w/w, using both a thin and also much thicker mixture, and intensifying the details of the head and neck

Tail feathers painted w/w with the warm brown then thick black dropped onto the tips and allowed to flow

A bit more detail added to the tail feathers, and she is done
"Distracted Parent"  33 x 28 cm
I debated whether to add some background - probably some light sponging  at the bottom with  the grey-brown to suggest ground. But I decided the tail feathers had become the focus; anything around them would be a distraction.
Colours used - quin. burnt orange, quin. sienna, quin. pink, quin. violet, indanthrone, cobalt blue
We have killdeer here all year round, and quite often they nest in the field, riding ring or even the manure pile. After the chicks have hatched, they are immediately able to run - and they do - like the wind, all over the place. Their parents must have quite the job keeping track of them. When anything "predatory" [including me apparently] comes near to the nest or the chicks, mom and dad immediately go into what is called distraction display. They make noise, and spread their wings and tail feathers, and sometimes even seem to limp along to give the impression that they are helpless, so the "predator" goes after them rather than the kids. All righty - that's the Nature lesson for today!

Thank you so much 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!