Gesso Juice: Cloud Study

A little over a year ago, I tried a new surface that I read about in the February 2012 issue of “Watercolor Artist” magazine. The artist was about Kathleen Conover. She uses a mixture she calls gesso juice for some of her paintings. The juice is made from 1/2  white acrylic gesso with 1/4 water and 1/4 acrylic matte medium.  You pour this on your watercolor paper and spread it over the surface with a credit card.  While it is still wet, slash marks in it and squiggle through it with the credit card to create texture and all sorts of calligraphic marks. Allow this phase to dry completely. I have found that you can adjust the ratio of the mixture. There is also a thick acrylic gesso and a more fluid one. Check the label. The more fluid one requires less water and matte medium. The thicker the gesso, the more slippery the surface.  This slippery surface is much like painting on yupo but not quite as slippery as some of the pigment does stain and adhere to the portions of  the surface where the gesso is not as thick. I like it much better than yupo and appreciate the lifting that can be done.

The above is my first washes of this painting. This is really a phase where I lay in the shapes and initial colors of my piece.

Next, I added richer color and began to shape and lift and shade the forms of clouds and waves. You can lift with a damp cloth, brush or Q-tip. Kathleen Conover has also used stencils she has made to apply color or wash color out by scrubbing. The design possibilities are endless as you can just keep re-modifying your painting until you are satisfied.

  finished painting

In the last step I shaped the waves and used acrylic white on the white caps.

I spray these with a matte fixative when I am finished.

Drawing, Music and Painting

I drew the above drawing in a life drawing session about 2 years ago.  Every once in awhile, I enjoy taking a line drawing, like this, and creating a painting from it.  The drawing was smaller than what I wanted so I  placed the acrylic cross hairs I use to lay over a photo and laid it on top of my drawing.  I discussed this in this previous post. I then drew the two cross hair lines on a larger format watercolor paper and re-drew the lines  of the drawing. This enlarged my image.

Knowing that I would need to stay focused to paint this image using my imagination, I  opted to play some sort of music in the background. The figure appeared rather restful and contemplative, so I chose two CDs of  Adagios. One was Mozart and the other Vivaldi.

I followed what I had learned in my workshop this summer about carving out a pathway of light along the figure’s form and allowing that to remain the white of the paper.  I chose colors that seemed to fit the music I was listening to as well as the mood of the figure.  The above painting is what I ended up with.

It seemed only fitting that I post a drawing and a portrait painting, today, as my first session classes ended tonight and they were in  Beginning Drawing  and Watercolor Portrait.  You may view some of the students’ work here. 

Thank-you to all my students who contributed to the Student Art Page.

Seeing Lake Michigan

This was the first time my Grand daughter saw Lake Michigan. I remember the first time I swam in Lake Michigan and the first time I went running into the ocean. There is something special about the grandeur of it all.

Painting with a Friend

                      

     Tracey                                                 Leslie

             

        Tracey                                                  Leslie

                         

    Tracey                                                    Leslie

If you ever get the opportunity, paint with a friend. Years ago, Tracey and I began to get together and paint outdoors from life and indoors from reference photos. We learned together and laughed a lot about mistakes or hard challenges. I remember one day when we drove around the entire time and never found anything we wanted to paint or draw but came home with some great reference photos. I find that I learn a lot just from watching others draw and paint. We are always amazed by the differences in our work even though we are painting the same subject. I have posted several of the things Tracey and I have painted above. You can click on them if you would like to view them larger. Tracey’s blog can be found here.  Tracey does incredible paintings and drawings of local Indiana landscapes and buildings. Recently, she has expressed an interest in learning to draw and paint animals so I am lucky enough to share that journey with her.

I have also added a Student Page to my pages above. I did this because some of you have expressed an interest through your comments and e-mails in viewing them. Thank-you to my students for giving me permission to photograph and post your work.