Hello all. July is World Watercolor Month and the challenge created by Doodlewash is to do something in watercolor or gouache every day of the month.
Normally I wouldn’t do a challenge like this but as you can see I haven’t been painting or posting as often as I’d like. In deciding to do this I’ve chosen to use a 5.5×8.5″ Strathmore pad in 140# cold press. My goal in keeping the paper size small is that I will be more likely to succeed in completing a new piece each day and try new techniques out.
So far four days in I’m doing okay. So without further ado here are days 1-4.
Day 1, a misty mountain sketchDay 2, a calm beachDay 3, a frigid icy beach done entirely in Prussian BlueDay 4, a desert landscape
I’m quite pleased with how these turned out. Is anyone else doing the challenge?
Here’s the third piece from my three color series. I used Cobalt Blue, Alizarin Crimson, and Yellow Ochre only on them. They’ve been quite fun to do and I’ve even reduced them down to fit as covers to differentiate between my different Travelers Notebook inserts.
Rather than write a whole bunch I’m just going to post the process photos and let them do the talking.
Background washSome trees to push the background back. Defining the midgroundMoving to the foregroundFinished
It’s been really fun working with these three colors. They’ve allowed some wonderful vibrancy to the work. I’m not sure if I’ll continue further with the series or if I’ll move on to some other colors.
Here is my latest piece. I started it and then put it down for a week because I was stuck.
It started out so strong and there was so much different between the colors in the distance and the white of the paper… but what to put there. I always like doing the background. The objects are simple and it leaves a lot to the viewer’s imagination.
Such a expanse of pristine white…I hate to spoil it.
This is where it say for a week. Me afraid to mess it up. The vibrant tones playing against the whiteness…most nights just before, or maybe after falling asleep my brain would startle me to wakefulness with a “what about this?!?” moment but in the light of day I would fret over the idea and dismiss it. This morning I decided that I needed some bare trees in the midground so I added them during my lunch hour (working from home).
Oh, I like this, they feel very nice.
This evening I decided to tackle the foreground. I feared that I would use up all the white and lose those wonderful whites but I think I managed it.
Finished
What do you think? I think I’ll do some more in this series.
This is a piece I did earlier this week. Working on using enough pigment to create a glow in the piece. Just a country road in the winter as the sun is on the horizon getting all those wonderful purples, reds and oranges in there. I’m quite happy with it. 10.14″ on Legion Stonehenge Aqua cold press with Winsor & Newton paints.
Yesterday YouTube listed a painting tutorial posted by David Smith called Mastering the Mist. I’ve watched a few other of his videos and they are really enjoyable but when I watched them I wasn’t consistent in my art and just looked at his techniques as “someday” skills.
So last night after dinner I cracked open a pint of Holidaily Favorite Blonde GF beer (if you have gluten issues I highly recommend their beers) and set off to use his techniques to make my own version of the painting he did. I think it’s important when doing a tutorial to not sit there stiffly trying to exactly copy what the instructor has created while watching the video. In general they move through the painting quickly and you can easily get lost. In my opinion it’s better to watch/read through it a couple times so that you can prepare for it and then do it on your own. It will inevitably leave you feeling lacking in skill rather than pleased with your own growth. It also allows you to adapt when things go wrong…
I was cruising through the painting and surprised at how well I was doing.
This is so not my style… wait, do I have a style?
David uses a spray bottle to splatter clean water on his paintings a lot. I was trying to do the same. I own two spray bottles. One super cheap Walmart special that splatters and sputters. The other from Ikea produces a fine mist so I was using the Walmart one and after years of use I discovered that the top is only held on by a single revolution of threads and its easy to tighten past it causing the reservoir full of water to fall off. You might see where I’m going with this. While splattering the bottom came loose, fell, and soaked the painting. Oh, the horror!
After cleaning it up some of the paint had lifted off and trees didn’t look like trees any more. The good thing about tutorials is that it’s all about learning, like how do I paint over the ruined trees? Good practice.
I eventually completed the painting and showed my family. My wife said “This is so not you. It’s COOL!” I’m going to take it as a complement.
I learned a lot about lifting paint and using lots of pigment. I never seem to use enough.
I hope you like this and check out David Smith’s work.
