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We are finally getting a rainy weekend here in Silicon Valley, which means I have a really good excuse to stay home and paint. I have decided it's time for me to catch up on the EDM list. I am vowing to complete at least 6 challenges this weekend. Here's the first:
I broke my awesome pair of glasses about 2 weeks ago and here they are now, in pieces. Thank goodness I have my old pair!
I have had to sit through a lot of meetings and classes lately and when I get bored (which is often at these things) I doodle. This set of post-it art was from a particularly long training. The training should have been done in 45 minutes and was amazingly stretched to 2 1/2 hours!
Not the best work, but I kinda surprised myself on the gazebo- the bottom half doesn't look that bad... the top is hot mess, but I can just call it abstract and get away with it :-) Each is of a different part of Bellingham, Washington: the gazebo and tree are from Elizabeth Park, the waterfall is the diving basin in Whatcom Falls State Park, and the last is my reoccurring favorite- the view from Marine Park.
Speaking of which, the class I'm taking for continuing education credits has been taxing at best- a class of 18 year olds "discussing" literature they didn't bother to read will do that. So I took the opportunity to draw my (apparently) favorite scene...
I think this one came out nice... the people sitting directly next to me in class seemed to think so too :-) I really think that art should make you happy when you see it (even if the subject matter is sad) and *this* makes me happy.
Still working on Jane's first lesson... here's my second painting on the awesome hot press watercolor paper (5" x 7")!
I can't express my love of this paper enough. I really feel like I know what I'm doing using this stuff. Thanks for everyone's reply to my last post. I've been feeling like I'm improving (or even if I'm not, I feel more confident) and it's nice to get some confirmation from others on the subject. I'm glad I found EDM at the beginning of my art "career"- it's kinda cool to have people watch me get better besides myself.
Well I'm off to gather leaves for our lesson on greens!
I am taking Jane LaFazio's Joggles.com class and the first assignment is fruit. I chose pears mainly because I figured if I was buying the stuff it should be fruit I like to eat :-) Plus I've always really enjoyed the colors of pears... they've always appeared more matte than apples to me and I like that lack of shine. Anyways, here it is!
There are some new things and techniques I have tried on this piece. First, I'm using the most expensive paper to date- Acquarello Artistico extra white 100% cotton hot press 140lb watercolor paper (5"x7"). Yep, that's right- hot press. I didn't know watercolor could be done on hot press until now and all I have to say is holy jeez! Where has this stuff been!? My paint all of a sudden flowed just like the people I've watched who know what they are doing! It was so forgiving- I might never go back to cold press again! (Well that's not true cause I still have a ton of cold press left... but you get the idea.) Totally worth the extra monies!
Second, I really planned out what colors I was going to use and really took my time painting. I know I spent a long time layering my Deception Pass piece, but I really just flew by the seat of my pants on that one. This piece I really thought about what colors I would use in advance and really gave each layer some time before I added to the paper. I think it came out better for the time I spent.
Lastly, it's important to note that I finally figured out how to use the scanner function of my printer! Hooray for better picture quality!! I'll prolly rescan my Deception Pass piece because the pictures posted here really didn't reflect the colors on the actual piece.
I am very glad I decided to do this piece in stages. Using the whole sheet of paper is still kinda scary and I loved my pencil sketch so much it was hard to add color. I kept thinking that I was going to ruin it somehow. After I did the mountains, I worked on the sky, trying to get the fade to almost white towards the horizon to look natural.
I was still rather unhappy with the mountains' color... a little too green. So when I took up the painting today I decided to add more browns throughout and I think it looks more like the real thing. I also decided to try wax to create the reflection of the sailboat in the water as well as the crests of the waves left by the faster passing ships. I found that layering the blue after amble drying time got the color dark enough finally. Overall I am pretty proud of myself. I really like it.
I am already trying to find another larger subject to paint so I can feel more comfortable with a whole sheet of paper.
I have finally conquered my fear of putting paint to paper on this one. I decided that I will do this in stages, especially because the color is a little too mossy green... I need to add some more tanny browns for the rocks on the far shore, but I didn't want to overwork the paper. Anyways, less chat more art. Here it is.
Some of you may notice that I have no ink on this painting. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. First off, the bridge is green and I don't have a green sharpie that dull industrial green color- or anything even close! Secondly, I kinda am feeling more natural colors and textures would best suit this landscape. So after staring at the sharpies and the drawing for a long time, I decided to be brave and not outline anything on this one... though I'm still not sure about the sailboat which was all white with white sails.
Last February I got to visit Deception Pass inbetween Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island in Northwestern Washington State. It is beautiful there, though I must say I didn't venture out onto the bridge by foot. It is amazingly high and my fear of heights stopped me in my tracks. We hiked down to the strait's shore and I got this amazing photo:
I decided about a month after this visit to try to do my first full page watercolor (ordinarily, I fold the page in half because for some reason a whole page is just too scary :-). So here is the pencil sketch I have done so far.
Now that it's all sketched out, the paper doesn't seem so big and scary anymore :-) I hope to have the inking done soon. Then I plan to watercolor the whole thing.
I did these two doodles while waiting for my online game to load between zones...which can sometimes take a while.
Both are done with whatever Crayola crayons I could find in the computer desk drawer, a medium point black Sharpie, and generic computer printer paper. Not the fanciest, but they definitely got me through those long zoning times.
