Ready for Scandal

Enough said. 

Happy with the wine glass on this one.

Remake of the Dream House

In an attempt to lighten both the sky and the greenery, I started over with a second drawing of the "dream house." I think I need to mix different colts and use more water for the sky and clouds. Though I have cerulean, cerulean chromium, and manganese blue sitting in my home palette, I am trying to develop skills with the limited palette. I have found the sky to be most challenging. 

I lightened up the greens by using a completely different style. With those, I think I just need to use white space better. 

Another issue may simply be the paper... The Stillman & Bitn journal is great for some things, but it doesn't do damp washed like the Arches cold press. That makes it tough to keep soft clouds. Maybe I'll try one more.

Working in the limited palette again.

Expanded the palette a bit for this one: Phthalo blue GS, Quin rose, Quin gold, cobalt blue, monte Amiata natural sienna, DR burnt sienna and a touch of indigo.

Clouds came out nice and puffy. Layering the Phthalo blue over the cobalt helped deepen the contrast and pull the piece together. 

Don't like the shrubbery. Too dull. Ni!

Painting from my photos

Recently I have been stuck, wanting to paint, but having difficulty finding a subject that interests me. After spending some time in iPhoto I printed several scenes to use. I painted the first, a bunch of grapes from a vineyard in Chile, about a week ago. Below are two versions of a second. 

I've been trying to stick with the limited palette. This one has Phthalo blue GS, Quin gold, Quin rose, hansa yellow medium, and a bit of burnt sienna. One was very quick with what people seem to call "juicy" paint, and I used Noodler's black in my Lamy Safari pen to finish it off. The other took much longer. The second also added cerulean blue for the sky. On this one, I tried to use negative painting around the edges. I think it helped. I have to remember to use enough water when filling in the background. Even in small spaces, to be sure there's enough texture in the background. Otherwise it ends up looking flat.

Finishing what I started

Yesterday I finished a sketch begin a few weeks ago. Today I completed one from even longer ago- a month or so. This was a rental building across from the hotel where we stayed in Delray Beach FL. Lots of pretty buildings there. I did the  original pencil sketch in the airport before our flight home.

I expanded the color palette a bit on this one, since I needed some brighter, tropical colors. I stuck with Phthalo blue GS to make the greens, and used my own bistro gray (ultramarine + cobalt blue deep). Then I used cerulean blue (not chromium) for the sky and man's hat, cobalt real blue for all of the turquoise, and combined Quin rose with pyrrol  scarlet for the salmony-pink. Should have gone a bit more coral, but it works. For the Indian red shades I mixed a little cobalt teal into the coral. 

Overall I am pleased with both the sketch and the painting/mixing. The only thing I'd change is lightening up the ink lines behind the palm tree. It does bring back that Florida feel!

Painting again

Since heading back to work I have had a tough time painting. Over this week I got two pieces completed. 

The first was a quick morning sketch.

The second was a watercolor of a sketch I began a few weeks ago. It's from a photo I took while we were in Chile in 2014. Stuck with three colors: Monte Amiata Natural Sienna, Helio Cerulean (Phthalo blue GS, and carmine, with just a touch of Burnt Sienna for the branches. Then I glazed with Aureolin at the finish. I'm pretty pleased with it.

Quick Practices Are Easier to Start than a Full Blown Project

I've had a tough time recently bringing myself to the painting table. Partly related to the adjustment to my return to work, but I've also felt a bit intimidated or overwhelmed by beginning a complicated painting. 

Today I broke the ice by practicing a scene that began with a wash. I used a pretty small palette- Phthalo blue GS, Quin gold, burnt sienna, raw umber, and hansa yellow medium, but felt the raw umber made it a bit muddy. 

Then I did it again with just 4: Phthalo blue GS, Quin gold, Italian burnt sienna, and hansa yellow medium. Though I think there's more harmony in the second piece, too much Phthalo blue in the water and impatience that caused too much feathering left the composition less defined. 

Adding ink to define the edges helped, but again, I overdid it: holding back a bit on the mountain and avoiding the sun/sunset area altogether would have left a much less "busy" feeling.

It was quick and fun, though, and best of all, it got me painting without feeling like it would be a huge, overwhelming process. Progress!