Expressive watercolor - 8

This week, the assignment was to start working the the "graduation piece" aka "the masterpiece" aka a finished painting. I used a postcard from my trip to the Grand Canyon as a reference.

 All in all, I am pleased with the result. On the spot though I almost hated it, but the next day, in the daylight and with some more work it looked better.

Them boots ...

... were ready for the winter, but I was not. I am never ready for the winter.

I tried a different approach based on hot shot 10 - dividing the structure of the object in simple shapes. I found this method harder to apply than the previous one - paying attention to angles. I suppose I need way more practice, as usual. I made two pencil sketches starting with the shapes - a cylinder and a parallelipiped.

I drew these in bits and pieces because I am so slow- two minutes here, three minutes there. Then I realized I was never in exactly the same position from one micro-session to another so I kept erasing and adjusting to match what I was seeing  at the moment.

Expressive watercolor - 7

Topic du jour - landscapes. Mark brought some posters with various landscapes. I picked a seascape, which I did not finish in class. I was overwhelmed by the size of the painting - half a sheet - and the amount of details in the rocks, foliage etc. I started fidgeting with small brushes trying to add shadows on the rocks. I need a faster way to add texture! Here is the result:

In the classroom, the colors looked somewhat lifeless, but when I checked at home in daylight, everything looked better. I took a picture of the poster because I want to work on this a bit more. This is Fabriano hot pressed paper - this posed an additional challenge because the paint dried almost instantaneously.

Before starting on the painting, we did composition and colour sketches, but not thumbnails. I found them much more useful at this bigger size, especially for a subject with so much detail. And I got to try two compositional approaches: one with the horizon line higher and one with the horizon line lower. For the final painting, I chose to lower the horizon as it made more sense given the size of my paper.

Fun with faces - 3

I decided to try another one - an older lady this time. Proud, very proud indeed! Now I need to find a way to accurately measure when I draw from life. I tried to draw a book sitting on my desk and the angles were totally wrong... I read somewhere a tip - think about angles as the hands of a clock. This was not helpful, but may be worth a second chance...

Fun drawing faces - 2

I found the blog of a Nigerian artist from England - Adebanji Alade. I started watching the videos. The one about the angles stroke a cord. I have such hard time drawing correct angles - it is very frustrating. I know it would make a lot of difference to my drawings. I decided to practice drawing faces and measuring angles.

First try:

Not bad at all, if I say so myself! There is even a likeness with the original picture. Some angles I had to measure few times to get them right.

List

Run

Work

Yoga

Swim

Art

Knit

Night school

Books

     Perspective made easy Ernest R. Norling

     Dear husband Joyce Carol Oates

     Make color sing Jeanne Dobie

     The decorated journal Gwen Diehn

     Idiot's guide to Wordpress 

     A garden of earthly delights Joyce Carol Oates
     The creative habit TwaylaTharp
     Everyday matters Danny Gregory
     Creative license Danny Gregory

Expressive watercolor - 6

Topic of the week - long pose with costumed model. I had some help with the hands - I just could not figure out the right proportion and placement of the hands. I used Aquarius II paper for this one and I am not enthusiastic about it. I found it harder to work on it than on watercolor paper. I should have probably use more water or something. In any case, I don't think this is a paper for beginners. I'll use it for ink drawings or dry media.

Fun drawing faces - 1

I found an old book page with a whole in the middle. The whole reminded me of the contours of a face.

It reminds me of the pictures taken at amusement parks where they have those cardboard bodies with wholes for faces. I finally managed to draw the eye sockets! Now. if only I can remember to draw them all the time ...

Find the cat!

For the last few days, my cat took residence on the retro chair. The seat is curved so I makes for a nice comfy spot. I then drew him few more times - pencil, watercolor pen and marker.

Tulips

The tulips I bought few weeks ago dried, but I am not throwing out the bulbs. Never know, maybe they'll come back in spring...

Ol' brushes ...

I did not have a lot of time the other day, so I did a quick sketch of my dirty brush container.

These are some of my beaten up brushes, the kind that have been forgotten many times in acrylic mediums of all sorts only to be resuscitated after - with more or less success - by using various brush cleaning concoctions. I have a rather extensive collection of such relics that I am not parting with them...for now.

Expressive watercolor - 5

In spite of the obvious mistakes, I am pleased with the result.

Altoid palette

I finally made myself one!

The compartments are surprisingly big, I could have probably made 16 of them.

I have an Altoid mini box about one-third of this one. I will make another palette for a triad. This will give me the opportunity to try other paints. This is what I take with me when I go out to paint.