A Few Exercises

After enjoying an unexpected Winter Break last week, I am finally able to post some new work. This work finds me in the role of a student. After reading Judy Morris' book, "Watercolor Basics; Light", I found a real connection with what this artist is trying to do. I always liked watching Bruce Neville lay down some very intentional highlights and shadows and that's one of the things that drew me to him as an instructor, so it shouldn't be suprising (to me) that Judy's work resonated with me in a similar way. What I am posting here is a result of following two of the demonstrations that Judy does in her book. I followed here method quite a bit, but still managed to infuse some of my color sensibilites into these. The bird houses are on 14 x 20 fabriano cp paper and the flower box is done of 12x16 arches cp.

Sunflowers

In preparing for my class I thought it would be fun to demonstrate the same subject on different types of paper to show the different effects that papers have on a work. I chose to use the two most contrary papers in the privacy of my own studio (so no one except the cats got to hear me groan) and after much struggle I came out with two pieces that I am rather pleased with.

The bottom one is on Yupo paper, which is a synthetic paper that has no tooth and allows the paint to pool around on the surface. It is really a fun paper, but can only be used to achieve freer flowing, more abstract paintings. The top piece is on hot pressed paper which is also smooth but it absorbs the water and shows nearly every brushstroke. It is good for fine, detailed work but allows for very little "on the paper" mixing of the pigments. Hope you enjoy them.

Baby Bear

This one is a fun little wc sketch of our crazy little kitten, Osito. The name means "baby bear" in Spanish and seems to be a perfect fit, as demonstrated by his tree climbing abilities. Kaily caught him in the act with a wonderful reference photo which I used to paint this one. Hope you get a good chuckle out of this one...we did.

Olga's Window

This was one of about three or four ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for the last few weeks. I have not been able to lay brush to paper near as often as I would like to, so this is the only piece that made it's way out of that jumbled mess commonly referred to as my mind! It is about 14x18" painted on Fabriano cp 140lb paper. I have been testing out some new colors that were recommended to me by Char from WetCanvas, and this is my first effort with some of the new paints. Hope you like it.

Village Farm

This is a piece I started last week, that I really kind of gave up on. I went ahead and posted it on WetCanvas and asked for a "no holds barred" critique and received some excellent feedback. I decided to post both the "before" and "after" pictures. Hopefully, you can tell which is which!

As I was painting this, I was thinking about my upcoming class that I will begin to teach in January. I had one of those, "do what I say and not what I do" moments. I had laid down a nice wash in the sky and it was drying nicely when I got this hair-brained idea to drop another color in. Well, that is a watercolor 101 NO-NO, but for some reason, I couldn't help myself! Oops! Of course, it had disastrous results, but overall, I feel I pulled it out rather nicely. Hope you enjoy, it is painted on Farbiano cp 140lb paper and is about 9.5" x 20". It is taken from a lovely reference photo from watercolorbill at WetCanvas.

Doorway with branches

This one is based on a reference photo from "TrishaFitz2" at WetCanvas. Doug ("Yorky" from wc ) thinks I have the makings for a good series with these doorways and windows. I think I may agree, but I never really planned it that way; I guess the series found me! The painting is approximately 11X15" on 140lb Arches cp paper. Hope you enjoy.

Garden Window and more...

Several things going on artistically for me these days...

Teaching is a pleasure, the kids are entertaining and love to create art, so that is going very well.

For the first time in my illustrious career, I am going to give introductory watercolor lessons to adults! This is very exciting and a bit scary at the same time. I knew this was a direction that I wanted to go, just wasn't sure when it was going to happen. Going to start this up in January, so I have been doing some research and preparation to get off to a great start!

Been doing some painting, never seems to be as much as I would like during the school year, but I am certainly not complaining. Completed a Winter scene that I am yet to post and here is a scene from warmer days, that I have titled, Garden Window. It is about 16x18" on Fabriano cp paper. Hope you enjoy; and perhaps it will warm you up a bit! ; )