Tugboats Re-visited ... a Watercolor Painting Process

I masked the tugs, and then covered the light areas with old watercolor paper and masking tape. Then I spattered and spayed greens across the top to indicate trees. There was a light blue/grey wash over all except the tugs.

This was the result. Spattering gave a much more natural look to the trees.

I painted a w/w grey/blue wash over the top again. It softened some of the green of the trees, and I quite liked the effect. Then I used a darker grey/green to give the feel of fog below the trees.

I did two separate w/w washes of green for the water.

 ... and then wet all the water and did it again. I think it may need a few washes.
The colors I am using so far are indanthrone blue, aureolin, quin. rose and alizarin crimson.

The last version of the tugboats was good, but didn't really say what I wanted. I was painting it for my saint of a landlady, and she agreed. Also, she preferred green, so off I went ...
I changed the format to "portrait", to enhance the grandeur of the forest, re-sketched one of the tugs, and started. I must admit, I really like the green better than the blue, but that's just a personal preference. And I find the vertical format gives the painting more of an imposing presence.

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

Another Hydrangea Finished

I have added some veins to the flowers, the stem and a shadow.

I have done the shadow beneath in two stages, to be able to enhance the gold.
Well, it's done, and to its credit, I like it better than my earlier attempts at hydrangeas [below]. I like the idea of the starkness against a soft, almost-not-there background. I will have to play with this concept a bit more ...

The above two paintings were done about a year ago.

What I really want to paint are some thoughts and feelings about Rio de Janeiro.  I have never been further south than Mexico, but I love the Brazilian culture - music especially. A few nights ago, I watched Black Orpheus - a great old movie. And I have been doing a lot of reading and researching on the recent turmoil concerning the "gentrification" of the favelas. I have google-mapped as far into the favelas as the map permits, and have scrounged for pictures all over the net. Now I must mull over images and ideas to come up with some work expressing how I feel about all of it.

Thank you for dropping by - hope you enjoyed the visit. And your comments and critiques are always welcome.

Having to Prove to Myself that I Can Still Paint ...

Reference - I am still fascinated with dried hydrangea.

I wanted to capture the shapes and translucent overlay of shadows.

My palette is cobalt blue, quin. gold and quin. pink.

I am fairly satisfied with the depth of color and shadow. Now I must decide whether I want to be really fussy, and include the veins in the flowers, and how to represent the shadow below the arrangement.

Suffice to say that it has been a rough couple of weeks. I haven't felt like painting much, and when I do, I don't like the result. So I thought to do something smaller, easier - simple and attractive to me. So far, so good - I LIKE it!

I appreciate your dropping by, and always welcome comments and critiques.
  

As for Bruno ...

Himself, having a munch of lunch. It's become very cold again, so he is wearing a quilted blanket under his winter blanket. It feels like about -5C out there right now, with a howling wind, too.

That scraggly weed is dock weed. When I looked it up, the note said it might cause an allergic reaction in horses if ingested. I believe this was the culprit that caused Bruno's hives, which are still being treated.

There was a line of the weeds along the fence line [nothing but barely visible stumps now], and I have now roped this area off.

He also pruned the honeysuckle I had planted along one side of the ring. Believe me, there were plants there. :) Thankfully, they are not noxious for horses, and grow very well even when cropped to the ground by someone with teeth needing exercise.

He also re-contoured the fence ...

... and the fence posts.

This is the new charger I bought yesterday, as the old one was doing nothing.

Last night, when I went to feed him around 9:30, this insulated handle was on the ground, not hooked up to the connection, as I had left it.  He had obviously been playing with the gate, and knocked it to the ground.  And when I opened the gate to go in, he jumped up in the air and 6 feet backwards. Usually, he is at the gate, over the gate, mugging me for goodies. So, it seems the zapper is doing what it is meant to do.
Horses like to chew, some of them more than others, and some develop neurotic behaviour associated with chewing -  usually the more highly-strung and very bored horses. They will chew and gnaw wood like beavers! Some people resort to trying various unpleasant-tasting solutions applied on the wood [which doesn't work]; others will put a top-line of metal stripping on the fence; and some resign themselves to their horses' habit, and just replace the boards as they are chewed through. I have found, for this property, the electric fencing works best. It delivers a relatively mild jolt - I know, as I have been at the receiving end many times. It's just enough to discourage most horses from chewing up the fences. There you have it - a little introduction to fencing-in horses.

Thank you so much for dropping by. I hope you enjoyed the post!!!

A Fishy Tale in the Making ... or ... Koi in Progress

I started with a fairly detailed drawing, then wet all the background and dropped in phthalo blue.  I find I am not using cobalt blue as much, to start with, as it dulls or greys the later glazes a bit.

I added more phthalo blue to the tail, and applied a wet-in-wet wash of indanthrone blue. Then I painted some wubbly lines for ripples.

I spent some time darkening the background, with indanthrone, or a mixture primarily made with that blue.  I also lifted some highlights in the tail fin, both when damp and when dry.

Here, I started glazing the fancy pectoral fins, both w/w and directly. There is a touch of quin. rose at the top of the pectorals. I also shaded the head and body [those parts under water] with a thin glaze of the violet mixture.

Finally, I removed the masking that I had applied to some of the "dangly bits" - what are those things called??
Right now, I am working on the head and body, using quin. sienna and quin. rose. The inside of the mouth is the same rose/sienna mixture, with some of the violet from the background color in the depths of the mouth. This is quite small, only 10.5 x 9 inches, and I hope to finish it today or tomorrow, but knowing me ... it might be a week.
I needed something fluid and yet complicated to take my mind off other things - my aunt, Bruno and the bumps, the whopper traffic tickets I racked up last Friday ...  no, not for speeding.

Anyway, I am very glad you dropped by - thank you! Your comments are always a pleasure.

Mystery Solved ... and the Koi Are Coming along Swimmingly

This was His Imperial Highness yesterday, with some hives still there on neck and saddle area.I spent about an hour , giving him a good grooming, and trimming his mane [took off at least six inches].

Here's the area on one side of the barn. Usually there are dried weeds, up to almost 3 1/2 feet high. You can see that he has mowed them right down to the ground. I believe the culprit is that weed on the lower left - called curled dock. I looked it up in noxious weeds of B.C., and though not toxic, it may cause an allergic reaction. So that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it. :) I have now fenced the area off, and will be getting a new charger for the electric fence, as the one in the barn seems dead.

With the koi, I masked here and there, and darkened all the background. Then I painted some calligraphic-type shadows in the water. 

The background is more of a violet color, like this. For the fish, I am wetting areas I want color, and then dropping in a thinner mixture, followed by a thicker one of slightly different color. Above, I am using gamboge yellow with quin. sienna. The fins and tails are thin phthalo blue, with indanthrone. I think I'll just play with the fish today, as I'd like to leave Bruno till all the hives have disappeared.


Thank you for dropping by, and I welcome your comments!

Just a quick addition on the detail work done this morning ...

Frazzled, but Still Painting ...

This is part of my frazzle. Bruno has come out in hives again. They first popped up over 2 weeks ago. I called my vert, and picked up some dexamethasone, and dosed him for about a week. As soon as I stopped [last night], they came out again. I took this photo this morning to send to my trainer for advice. There is no reason I can think of that would cause the hives - same hay, same diet, a bit more exercise. He may have found some new and noxious weeds out in the field. That's the only thing I can think that might cause these bumps.  

I thought to take my mind off worries a bit by starting new paintings - something soothing, yet requiring concentration. A friend had some fabulous photos of koi, and he gave me permission to use them as reference.

You can hardly tell they are fish yet. I've been working exclusively on the background.

And my aunt is back in the hospital, this time with pneumonia and a fluid-filled lung. I feel upset, frustrated and angry with the slowness of our medical system.

Anyway, I am glad you have dropped by for a visit - thank you!