Gathering Notes

Quite a while ago,  a  friend of mine gave me a picture she had taken of a mutual friend and asked if I would like to see what I could do with it.  It has sat in my collection of photo references for over a year.   I  wanted to try a figure on the masa paper and the above is what I came up with. I painted the figure, first, and then went in search of ideas. The interesting thought I had was that notes probably came from many sources. The background could have been a city or an event but I wanted it to portray something a little more far-reaching and, perhaps, more soulful and contemplative.   I placed him in nature and greeting a new day.

West Highland Cow 2 on Masa Paper

I have painted this West Highland before, here. This painting was painted on toned masa paper. Due to the toned surface, I used white gouache for the whites on the nose and horns. The whiskers were painted in with the use of a rigger brush and white acrylic.

More on West Highland Cattle, here.

Gesso Juice? and the Empire State Building

A New Year brought me a new adventure, already!

I read an article about the artist, Kathleen Conover,  in my February copy of Watercolor artist, February 2012. I was so taken with her work that I decided to try this “gesso juice” mixture she spoke of to surface her paper with. The recipe for “gesso juice” is 1/2 part white acrylic gesso, 1/4 part clear acrylic matte medium and 1/4 part water.  After mixing this up, I poured some on my taped down watercolor paper and spread it with a credit card, making slahes and dashes and all kinds of shapes on the surface.

I waited for the gesso juice to dry and painted in my initial washes. The surface is very much like painting on gesso. The paint does not sink down into the surface of the paper and mingles differently on this surface. It required more pigment to achieve the above effect.  I had to paint quickly so the side-by-side colors mixed without a hard edge. I waited for the above washes to dry and the surface go flat again.

I drew my composition on the surface and began painting the varied shapes in, being mindful of my values.  This was probably the most difficult phase for me. On this surface, I found, the darks had to be painted with strong dark colors as dark lights just appeared light still, unlike painting directly onrto watercolor paper. So, I learned a lot about my palette through this exercise. I, now, am getting a better feel for their properties.  Value is all important while painting on this surface.

I finished blocking in my composition of shapes and buildings.

In this step, I changed a few colors of the buildings and lifted paint in a lot of areas to show the different patterns, especially on or around the Empire State Building. I darkened a few of the darker value areas and put in a few details on the smokestacks and the antennae on the tops of a couple buildings. I lifted out a lot of the blue on the point of the Empire State so it would show up more.

   final painting

To finish, I splattered some darks I’d used and lifted lights out around the buildings by scumbling some water in those areas and dabbing with a paper towel.

I want to do more of these and explore and explore!

 

 

 

Indiana New Year

Happy New Year Everyone !

What a wonderful year of sharing with all of you, again. I enjoy this thing we call art blogging. I have viewed fantastic art and photos, read wondrous poems and stories by all of you. Thank you for enriching my life and giving me food for thought and helping me to grow.  Thank you for visiting me. Your comments have helped me to see through new eyes and most of all helped boost my confidence to continue sharing. Thank you.

The above painting was painted in much the same way as the previous one. I painted all the large light washes first; the sky and foreground. I, then, splattered frisket and painted frisket on the branches of the foreground tree and the roofs of the tiny buildings in the background. I painted more of the washes of foreground and sky so the frisket would show up. After those washes dried, I went in and used burnt sienna, halloween orange, blue stone, naples yellow and sepia to define the background trees wet in wet. After it dried, I removed the frisket.

Indiana Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Great White Pelicans

The above painting was accomplished similar to the elephant I posted, recently. I drew the pelicans in graphite and then went back over the drawing by drawing with an eye dropper and ink. Unlike the elephant, I did the whole drawing in ink before lightly spritzing it with water. This is because quite a large amount of ink is applied by drawing with an eye dropper.  The effect is a little more loose and the spread of ink is large and blotchy. I think it enhances the feeling of movement. I splattered the drawing with frisket prior to painting and then with a dark watercolor once the washes were dry. I have used this technique, previously, here and here.

Information on the Great White Pelican here.

New Student Art: Watercolor Plus Class

Jennifer Parks

Judy Notestine

David Hess

The above gouache resists were created by students in my watercolor plus class. This class has just ended. I have posted one example of each of the students’ work on the Student Art 2 Page.

In this class we explored rice paper collage with watercolor, painting on gesso, gouache resist, and ink and watercolor. We explored the effects of splattering, creating texture with saran wrap, and the use of frisket.

I want to personally thank all my students for their hard work and extra input and sharing during this class. I am always sorry to see them end.

 

Ink and Watercolor: Elephant 2

This week, my class is working on something rendered with ink and watercolor. They could choose from several different techniques. The above is the one I chose.  I drew the above elephant in graphite, first, and then went back in with india ink and nib, like what is used for calligraphy, and traced over my drawn lines. About every three lines (before the ink dried), I spritzed that area with water (not a squirt but a “spritz”). This causes the ink to creep out into the texture of the paper creating the feathering you see around every line. This does not work on hotpress paper. It requires the use of coldpress and rough papers as their texture is what causes this creeping of ink.  The process is slow and somewhat tedious, but the results are well worth the extra effort.  I usually splatter the surface with some frisket, before I begin, to add some texture and extra effects. I also splattered with some ink to provide more texture. I wait for this to dry completely before painting.

The above is what I came up with.

Other examples of this technique are here and here.

Goauche Resist: Abner 3

Carol commented on the previous post that she liked both the black and white and the colored version of that featured goauche resist. I responded that I would be posting this one without the watercolor added. I like the resist, in and of itself, and can not convince myself to paint it.

This is a a portrait of my daughter’s weimaraner. I have painted him previously here and here.  His expression captivates me, so I just may paint him again sometime in the future.

A tutorial on how to do a goauche resist can be found here.

Gouache Resist: On The Lake

My watercolor plus class is working on a gouache resist for their next assignment. I was introduced to this form af art by another blogger I follow here. I posted a tutorial of this technique here.

The first image is the resist once I wash off the ink.  The second image is after I watercolor the resist. I like these even though they are time consuming to do.  I never know what I am going to get.