Tutorials

Here are some references for tutorials on techniques:  

1. Watercolor Tutorials
2. Watercolor Wisdom (A Google Book)
3. Watercolor and Tissue Paper Shanti Marie
4. Ask Susie
5. Pouring Watercolor

Experimentation and contemplation are well-founded partners in the growth and development of skill and success.  In other words, enjoy the process; consider the process; learn from the process; try it again and expand on it until you develop a skill and the process develops you.

Fiery Winter

This painting was out of a desire of not wanting to be too mental when I painted, so this is just experimenting with feeling, mood and color.  Since the winter is coming and November is quite brown and grey, the fiery and warm colors on large plane of the ground make a vivid contrast in nature and temperature with the broken blue plane of the dark and wintery sky.  I think it works well to express that fire found on cold days that we desire to express.

Leaving Home

This was painted on tinted pastel paper, causing the edges to be softened and the watercolors an almost guache look.

Children's Work

Drawing for and with children is one of my top rewards.  Children's hearts are so precious I love to be around them, even the naughty ones, and to share with them in something that I love to do gives them a reward too. Yesterday, a little group of us were drawing together.  I had cut animal pictures out of magazines and let them use pencils, colored pencils, oil pastels or chalk pastels.  Here is mine.  I had fun.

View from my Window

The seasons change in the park next door, and the mood each day can be very different.  I took a photo of the park that I had taken on a recent morning to my class to have a little inspiration in something I was familiar with. For the color scheme I used a limit palatte, Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, Alazarin Crimson, Neutral Tint and a small amount of Hookers Green. I wet the paper where the sky would be.  I loosely mixed the prussian and neutral and then after painting the clouds and foggy trees.  Later I added a little warmer yellow ochre to the mix to get greens that came forward slightly in the background.  I layered the grass color to add a little interest to the strong planes in my painting. A detail of my painting is on the right.

I learned something new today about washing brushes.  Usually a product called "Goop," is what I use to clean my brushes with.  It is a handcleaner designed for getting greasy mechanic's hands clean, but I haven't had any for awhile.  My teacher Rene uses Murphy's Oil Soap.  That seemed to work well.  A gentle soap is good for the natural hairs of the brushes, but a little oil is also good to bind with the paint to strip it off of the hairs.  Remember never leave your brushes sitting upside down in the water.  A good brush will last a long time if it taken care of. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life."

John 3:16  To read a footnote on the word "believe"  click here.

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Sorting Through Supplies

Getting Ready to Go to My Class, Gathering my Materials

Here is a Basic Checklist:

1. Drawing Pens and Pencils
2. Measuring and Cutting Tools
3. Masking Tape
4. Rags and Paper Towels and Sponges
5. Spray Bottle
6. Masking Fluid, Salt, Alcohol, Soap
7. Paper
8. Assorted Brushes
9. Range of Paints in Palette
10. Painting Tray or Palette
11. Board or Easel to Paint on
12. Containers for Water and Brushes
13. Way to Carry it All and Keep it All From Getting Wet

   

Whimsical Water

 Watercolors are of course a good medium for water scenes due to their naturally fluid nature and their transparency. There are also techniques using watercolors involving layering colors, using masks and dabbing up for highlights which create the effect of water very nicely with this kind of paint. The picture here is a fun underwater fantasy created from objects that I was looking at, such as the shells, and created sea characters mostly out of my memory of aquariums. The difference in the objects shows I think. However this creates some childlike quality to the piece. Adults as well as children often enjoy a bit of whimsy. I know that I do.

Sometimes I like to create a painting just to play with the paint. These experiments for me often look like children's illustrations. I think that deep down I am just a kid at heart. Try being playful with some paintings. It will keep you from taking yourself so seriously, and you will enjoy the process of all your painting more I think. A good exercise is playing with the way different paints layer on top of one another when dry. There are articles that you can read on which pigments are permanent and which are not, but sometimes, just creating your own notebook of experiments can be more valuable in the long run.

I started this painting by experimenting with long strips of masking tape over the whole length of the paper. This was to emphasize the vertical aspect of the painting as well as give the eye some identity with the water grasses. You can see this best in the bottom of the picture by the shells. Most of my paintings are experiments of one way or another. I want to learn something in my process. I think something might work, so I try it. Hope you do too. Happy painting!

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As White as Snow

Snow has many colors in it, as essentially it has no color at all but is a mass of clear, crystalline structures, reflecting and refracting the light around it. Many times we will see pinks and blues and yellows cast in the shadows of snow. We tend to be purists with our blacks and our whites, but actually both tend to have more variety in them than to our first, quick observation. Using varieties in these colors will add vitality and depth to our paintings. Because white and black in their extremes define most sharply and bring to the front more dramatically, we need to consider their use in space. Notice that the pure white of the paper defines the edges along with the deeper blue that appears to be black. The back most water needed to be a subtler contrast, but I enjoyed the texture in the water so much that I left it alone. I used a warmer color for my darks on the polar bears, along with yellow in the white fur to both separate them from the ground and to cause their "livingness" to stand out. For a lively watercolor, try to leave the white of the paper showing somewhere. Observe fresh watercolor paintings, the whites usually define edges or add some spark of interest or highlight in the work.

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Keeping the Paint Fresh

Although I admire very realistic scenes and paintings, I don't especially like to paint so exactingly. I would rather take a photograph to capture those details that I see. I like the feeling my eye gets watching the colors run on the paper, its like eating different fruits, they are so pretty and taste so sweet. For me, watercolor shouldn't be so predictable. I prefer a little serendipity. When I take a walk, though I may look at the same scene that I saw the day before, it still is not the same. Something always changes, and that's the fun of it. Of course I like to capture something definate of the element of what I am seeing or feeling or imagining, to articulate, if you will, those impressions, but I don't let those definitons dominate. It was a great folly of mine, when I first began to paint, to overwork my painting. I muddied up many. To let go of the feeling that everything had to be "picture perfect" helped tremendously with letting the paint have a little will of its own, so the two of us work together, the paint and me. The brush joins us together and becomes an extension of my mind and eyes. Remember, small brushes only produce tight, restricted paintings. To let the paint have fun, use a bigger, softer brush and loosen your hand. Then come in to do the details and defining with flat, riggor, and smaller brushes. Above all, don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Look Up!

The composition of this piece is fairly dichotomous, the contrast between bright and dull, between dark and light, the division splitting the picture into an angular half. The contrast makes it work, and does a little speaking, like the blue sky a frog sees out of a well. It could be considered hopeful if the opptomistic person looks at it; he will see the blue sky, but if the pesimist looks at it he may look at the dirt and the rocks. See the face there? Playing with compositions is fun.