How to apply ground rocks to gold leaf. It really isnt painting! https://youtube.com/shorts/cykHTNu8gF4?feature=share
Creating Mosses and Likens with Ground Rocks
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Watercolor & Masking
This is a follow up to the last post. This process came about because I used to always avoid using mask because it created such hard edges. But then I thought, that is silly its just a tool. Figure out how to use it effectively. What has hard edges? Start with that....
Values in Watercolor
Next is testing the palette. This is not only for color but also how the pigment moves on the paper. This changes with the weather. Moisture in the air changes the paper's absorption. Step 3 Fluid first coat creates the under lying movement for the painting.
Steps in Painting Tangled
I am recording the progress of painting as many who came through the gallery this summer have told me of their interest in watching the process. Here is my first attempt. Let me know if you want to see more or less! This piece is going to be filled with color and...
Sketching
The following is the curriculum from a sketchbook class to help students build the habit of sketching every day. Enjoy! DAY 1 Sharpen one of your drawing pencils with a knife carving away the wood leaving oh about 1/2 " of graphite. Play with using this in your...
Learning and Failing (Isn’t failure)
Well it has been forever since I have written... been far more into color... and learning. The fall started with taking a class in Abstract Painting ( which I kind of got kicked out of..I did complete all the projects though!) Now I am in a portrait class. I really...
Making a Living at Art?
Why in the world would one want to do this? I have been asked this as well as have been told many times, "Oh I dont want to sell my art I give it away." The implication is art is above trade, buying and selling those plebian activities of human commerce and may I say,...
Lets Start at the Very Beginning #4 Values
Values are lights and darks. Light reveals form by lighting areas and leaving areas in the dark. Plane changes result in abrupt value change. On a sphere the change is gradual. Relative value need not be extreme. THe change can be very subtle. Think about a rock...
Lets Start at the Very Beginning #3.5
A little project to apply what we have explored so far. Start with a light pencil outline. Take your brush which has some water not dripping, but wet, and fill in the lines of your sketch. Then take color on your damp ( not wet wet) brush and touch it to...
Lets Start at the Very Beginning #3
Explore the reds! Rose Madder Genuine a tender blue pink and Opera, stridently floral, are additions that will make more depth to your play and experimenting! https://youtu.be/B_hzDVUUn0g
Lets Start at the Very Beginning #1
Thank you for your patience! For the next however long it takes, I will post videos that cover little steps on how to start painting in watercolor. The first 5-6 will be learning the 4 elements of watercolor: water, pigment, brushes and paper. I hope to give you ideas...
Always Question
Always, always question. Art is about questioning. It is about searching for understanding. There are two parts to our job. One is to discern our vision the other is to build as many skills and tools as we can so that we can articulate that vision the best we can....
Layering Washes and Brush Strokes
Here is my first attempt at a teaching video! I hope it works for you.. please let me know will you? Layering video
Yellow- Butterfly Kisses on Paper
Yellow is hard. It is hard to get it to sing. Yellow can go so, so flat. I wonder why that is.. I know how it happens but what is the science behind yellow going flat? I know if - -- to make the yellow 'stronger' I have added layers of pigment, it goes flatter and...
Soft Edges
Here is a combination of pigments to create a grey. A gradual addition of RMG to Viridian and French Ultramarine. It does not look grey yet, but as more water is added it will be less purple. Nuance in color is another tool to use in watercolor. A beauty of watercolor...
Reductive Painting- Painting the negative space
The next skill specific to watercolor I call Reductive Painting. It is a powerful way to build depth into the picture plane and to make an object come forward. It is going in and painting around an object. If you want to paint a trunk of a tree which is lighter than...
Itinerant Artist
(The above picture is what I painted while in my tent during a deluge at a Bar Harbor show. All the other artists, except my friend Lori Davis a wonderful wild life photographer, had packed up and headed home....but I stayed dry, sipped my tea and painted...) For the...
Liquid Layering
Hi friends It has been a while since my last post I apologize! We have reached a place in our watercolor exploration from which there are several paths to take and have been deliberating which to follow at this time. What I have come up with is a curriculum of adding...
Watercolor Science
I wanted to be able to paint waves that did not look like a human hand had painted them. One can paint a wave in Oil or Pastel or even watercolor and it looks like a wave.. well it looks like a painting of a wave but it is not the same. A Wave painted with...
Inconsequential Stories
Of an Ordinary Life There are days I really just want to paint with words. Creating a world to enter with words is so different and yet the same as using paint. Is that an oxymoron? I have always wanted to be a story teller which is why I paint stories. Now I shall...
TRUTH, Truth and truth
Hi friends I am sorry for the silence the last couple of days. Have been pondering how best to proceed! But before we return to watercolor, I want to share a belief rooted in an epiphany which evolved for me in the early years of painting This breaks both Truths and...
Hue and Edges
Today lets explore hues and edges. One of the most difficult aspects of watercolor is achieving glowing saturated hues. Hues are colors. This lesson will use our AY. Try a brush stroke of AY like 1/2 pigment and 1/2 water. Now try one 3/4 pigment and 1/4 water. One...
Learning Brushes
Several folks have contacted regarding brushes. Brushes are a beautiful, elegant and utilitarian tool. Take care of your brushes and they will last you forever. Key points Before you use your brush really soak it well. It is like a sponge. You know how a dry sponge...
Foibles and Flops and Fixes
I painted the piece below and was quite happy with it for many reasons. First I wanted a sky that was less saturated hues than I usually do - a more tender, subtle feel. Our skies here in Maine tend to be very showy. But this day was not. It was late fall,...
Lets Make a Mess
Hi all! Lets paint! Did you squirt your paints a while ago? Fill lots of pots with water. ( I think I became a painter so I would have a use for all the plastic containers mushrooms come in. Its so hard to buy bulk mushrooms). Draw some rocks or something in the...
INTENSE!
Well I have heard from several of you regarding washed out color! So today our first chat is going to be about preparing your palette for painting. When you set up your palette, make sure you squirt out lots of color and do this several hours if not a day before you...
Not All Reds are Alike – Watercolor Hygiene
How are you all? I have a story. Skip if you want to get right to work! So my family has set up a Zoom meeting so we can be in touch. Aahhh heaven for a mom... One night though, more years ago than matter I was asleep in my futon in the Kyoshikan in Tokyo when I was...
Warm and Cool Colors
First logistics to address! So you can anticipate when to check for a new step in our journey, I am going to write a post Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. If I can do more I will. I have heard from several of you and it makes my heart glad! Thank you! And I will...
Day Whatever whatever…- values
to my friend who loves birds and is learning watercolor! Think of a bird as 2 ovals. (Yes I know I should have rotated the picture!) What makes something look animated is making sure each part is torqued or not lined up. See how the body is juxtaposed to the head? I...
Supplies
Hi all.. I hope you are doing well and being Creative During Quarantine! Let's talk about supplies today. When starting in watercolor there are some basic items one needs. I encourage you spend what money you have for good but fewer supplies. Fewer supplies for 2...
Day Whatever- Sketching and Watercolor
Loosing count of the days! But at least these are posted in sequential order- backwards! Today will be a little different. I want to take a moment and talk about some good habits to build. First is keeping a sketchbook. When I first decided I wanted to tell visual...
3 Colors and a Color Wheel
Today will be focusing on 3 colors as well as playing more with water and pigment ratios and combinations. The 3 colors are Cobalt BLue (C), Rose Madder Genuine (RMG) and Auroline Yellow (AY). These 3 pigments are both transparent and non staining. Because of the...
Moving the Liquid
The beauty of watercolor is how water moves the pigment. TOday's play is some suggestions on how to help that water. The top iris petal was outlined then filled in with pigment/water mixture. THe bottom the area was filled in with water then the pigment added. See the...
Day 4 Stuff to Try
My goal today is to show you some things! How I wish you could all be in my studio right now... First my brushes ... and yes one of our kitties and no I have not washed a brush yet in that pot!. I always keep 3-4 pots of water out. I keep the water very clean for as...
Watercolor Day 4 – terms
A major motivation for picking up this teaching venue again is for my nephew, Remi. Hi Remi!!! He is so enthused about learning to paint! He is also giving me feed back about what is and is not working. In our talk today I realized I need to back track a bit and cover...
Watercolor Step 3 -Start Simple
OK so day 1 was about our palette but more the questions I asked were to help you decide what you like. Day 2 was about playing with water and pigment proportions., This post will be about the pigments. Here is some of the science about watercolor What makes...
Water —-
Water - watercolor... Its about the water moving the pigment. Its physics! and the chemistry of the pigment how heavy it is determines how it will move in the water. That is what we must learn so we know what we can express with this medium. To start, put some water...
Beginning in Watercolor – The Palette
This is how I set up my palette. However, when it comes time for you to set up yours its important you decide based on what you want to do. Some of the questions I asked myself before squirting out paint were How do I want the colors organized? But value? By hue? By...
Hills and Moors
It was a rainy day so it is a story eve. Our Jack and I went for the walk across the barrens and marsh. Now tell me how would you describe the sound of wind driven rain hitting the cacooning anorak? That sound brought quicker than a photograph moments from 40 years...
Words What do they Say?
So accustomed am I to the visual which of course we each interpret through our own lenses, that I neglect the nuance of words. English used by separated communities has its own evolution.... Mind the gap Top up pop down Sorry instead of excuse me Raw living ...
Water – Epiphanies, Revelation – Water
Water mediums abound. What does it mean to work in a water medium? There is of course, acrylics which are water based, but the water does not move the pigment. But then there are those mediums for which it is all about the movement of water. Water circling and...
Maine Landscape Paintings: Treasuring Lessons from Hiroshige
Hiroshige teaches me about Maine Landscape Paintings. As I work on a new gold leaf screen, I become inspired by the swirls in the gold and the texture in the substructure. The piece is of the outbound road from Schoodic. For 7 short miles we preserve beauty even if it...
Pastel Process
First step is choosing the key colors around which the painting will originate. This process might take as many as 2-3 days. I a testing colors for value, hue and temperature making sure that when layered on top of each other they create depth of field as well as...
Maine Watercolors Color
Maine Watercolors Color How to use water when painting in watercolor is what I must study again everytime I have taken a break from this medium. Water -- how much water and how much pigment, when to add some water, when to take out water, when to add more pigment to...
Snow in Pastels
How to make Snow in Pastels? Well.. living in Maine in the winter teaches this! Everyday it snows or there is snow on the ground is a lesson in white... the full range of white like Gandolf's cloak. Here on the Schoodic Peninsula we have our own weather system.. I...
Recreating a Scene-Pastel
Recreating a scene seen on the fly... I am trying to recreate something I saw last fall when I could not stop to sketch or even take color notes. Day 2 is spent building layers of depth in the sky, choosing specific colors to help leaves pop, testing colors for the...
Painting Snow in Pastel
Painting Snow in Pastel is full of dsnuance. In pastels I have two large trays of whites- I have them sorted by warm and cool colors. I pick from these trays the whites that are right for the scene I am observing and for the feeling I want to create. This is our dusk...
Asian Sensitivities in Maine Paintings
Asian brush work, plane delineation, charged colors and spatial relations speak Maine landscape. Every time I paint, the Asian skills I learned come in to play. First, the sensitivity to the importance of negative space is critical to western composition. The space...
Oil Palette and Potential
Returning to mucking in oils after 10 years of sloshing around in watercolor, it has been a joy --and an eye opener-- discovering how different pigments react in different binders. Alizarin Crimson and Viridian do not sing the same properties in these two mediums!...
Copies
Recently I have been in shows in which a goodly number of an artist's inventory relies on copies. There are 2 reasons for this. One is to maximize the amount one can gain from a given image. The other is to make available an image with which many want to live. There...
Mixing Spring Greens
Whether one mixes greens from blues and yellows or uses greens from the tube, greens need to be warmed. Mixing greens for Eastern spring is fun. But I just figured out, not so much a formula but a Guiding Principal. I am a bit embarrassed it has taken me this long to...
Choosing Pastels
There are so many pastels .. and they are not cheap. How does one choose which to purchase. Nupastel has a 96 stick set. These colors are clear, not chalky and cove a range of values and hues. I take them on location and complete most of a painting. They are a very...
Watercolor Palette
How to set up palette is a very personal choice. One must ask several questions before squeezing out the precious (expensive)colors into the wells of the palette. 1. Do I use hard tablets or tube pigment? 2. Do I want intense colors? 3. Do I want to know mineral...
When A Medium Sings
HELPING A MEDIUM SING This summer more folks are asking me why paint in so many different mediums. This pointed question has made me articulate an intuited tendency. Just as with my children, I work to bring out the best qualities and characteristics in a medium. This...