Background ... Here I Go!

Miss K. before I started ...

This was a variegated w/w wash of aureolin and quin. burnt orange. It seems to have softened her look quite nicely.

Another varied w/w wash, using quin. burnt orange and quin. violet. 

More of the same technique, with quin. violet and alizarin crimson.

Now, I am subduing the colors a bit. I lifted in a few spots, with wet sponge and paper towel, and then did a thin wash of quin. burnt orange. The next glaze will be a very thin one of indanthrone blue.
I read an article about Rogger Oncoy in the last issue of The Art of Watercolour.  He tends to paint his backgrounds last, and said that it was at this stage that many paintings were ruined. I couldn't agree more!

Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome.

I got the blue done faster than I thought. Here she is ...

A Happy Easter to You

I wish you all a wonderful Easter. I hope the weather is finally Spring-like.

A new project is in the making. I am doing a painting of geese for a friend for her birthday.  Pat's birthday is April 5, so I HOPE all goes smoothly, or she will end up with an IOU for a gift!

Didn't want to, but I had to use masking. Here all the initial washes are down.  All the washes were graded  and/or irregular in application. First was aureolin, then quin. red, quin. burnt orange, and two separate washes of cobalt blue.

I've done a w/w application on the goslings - aureolin, then dropping in two different brown mixtures to get a soft, downy effect. I will probably have to go in again, and darken some areas, lighten others, and soften the outlines. Now for the geese.

As always, your comments are most welcome

A Day for Frogs, Ducks and PAINTING

This photo of Bruno being shod lends itself to the saturated w/w lifting.

Couldn't find my old sketch, so I've done another one.

First w/w wash, with some lifting while wet.

Beautiful morning shot of some rhododendrons in the garden.

Little did I know I would need a color-coded road map - still working on it.

Once again, it's too wet for riding outside, so I guess I'll just have to paint. Actually, Bruno has been doing phenomenally well. He seems to like being ridden off seat-bones and legs. It gets very abstruse in a riderly sort of way. All horses have a preference as to how they like to be ridden - the hands, the leg, the seat-bones and weight, or a combination. Right now, the lad seems most responsive when I don't muddle and nitpick with his mouth; he just hums along on weight shifts of my seat-bones, and variable calf pressure. OK ... OK ... you have to be there ...

As always, I love to hear from you!

It's Too Wet and Windy for Riding So ...

I just couldn't look at the glup of whatever in front of the horse's eye.

So I started again. This is after a w/w wash of aureolin, brown madder and ultramarine. I have also carved out some of the highlights while wet.

Here's the first wash of black.

A second wash, with lifting while wet.

And I've done some lifting after it's dried, with very small and moist or wet brushes. This technique is a bit like sculpting, as you carve the highlights out of the paint - quite intriguing. 

The start of a painting of my niece as a Mona Lisa [sort of]. I've painted the darkest areas with quin. burnt orange, and then a grey. 

I started the background with a graded aureolin wash. I let it dry, then did a bit of a scrumbled wash with quin. burnt orange, to give it an oil painting look - I hope. 

I've just finished a very w/w wash, dropping in quin. gold and cobalt blue. I think the next step will be a thin overall glaze of the blue again.

As always, your comments are most welcome!

From Barn Grunt to Watercolor ... Today's Efforts

 I painted my first washes on the "practice" landscape - an overall warming wash of yellow ocher. I  let it dry, then masked the skyline and mountains. Then I painted a w/w wash with aureolin, quin. coral and phthalo blue.

Here I've done the shadows with a glaze of  quin. burnt orange and phthalo green [blue shade, I think].

These are the under-glazes - alizarin for the dark center, quin. siena for the warmer areas of the tulip, and quin. pink for the cooler spots.

Believe me, it IS redder than this. I've started applying carmine w/w, to get the varied depths of red in the flower. I've never used carmine before, and I quite like it. It is a bit warmer than alizarin, and it has more body, so when applied w/w it doesn't explode all over the wetted area.

This is it for the next few days - back to the office. As always, your comments are most welcome! 

Yes ... I'm Curious, Too!!!

I left off here ...

I decided to go bold and purple.

I'm doing a lot of w/w washes, not using masking.

Now I am here. I think the next step will be to do some w/w with aureolin on the leaves, before moving into the greens.

I actually did a color swatch. The left is  quin. violet + aureolin + phthalo green. The right is quin. violet + aureolin + phthalo +  indanthrone blue.

I really don't quite know what the finished colors will look like - part of the intrigue of watercolor. The woman for whom I am painting this [ a very sweet dentist with whom I occasionally work] loves her blues, violets and greys. I'm hoping she doesn't find the yellow iris too jarring.

Since It's Windy Enough to Blow Me Right Out of the Saddle ...

Two foreground geese masked.

Start w/w washes.

More washes, and loose shadows.
With background geese, I tried lifting while wash was wet. It worked quite well.

Mask off.

Starting on their heads,  necks and feet.

More detail painting on heads and feathers.

More detail to heads.  And I added some more colorful and intense shadows directly under their bodies, and on their backsides.
OK, Jane and Pat, I REALLY like this one! Even though I am very critical of my work, I am thrilled with how the geese turned out. There is still a bit of painting to be done on their bodies and on the feathers, and some shadowing to go on their feet, but essentially it is all here.
As ever and always, all comments and questions are MOST welcome!!!

I Am NOT Mentioning the "B" Word ... but the Geese Are Coming Nicely

I left us here ...

Intensified the streaky background ...

Removed the masking ...

And am starting the geese.


The vertical streaks of color seem to compliment the long necks of the geese; it's  interesting without being overwhelming. The geese are fun to work on - they've almost started to develop personalities for me [OR maybe I've been looking at them too long  :) ]
I'll have to leave them for 2 days - long hours over a hot mouth [dental office work] I had a call out of the blue yesterday, asking if I could work today in another office. Knowing the dentist and her somewhat difficult personality, their hygienist probably quit, but I shouldn't think negatively. It's a job, and money to pay for my vices -  horses and painting.
By the way, Bruno has been a superstar lately, listening so well and performing so beautifully. I am thrilled with him!  :)  :)  :)