Day 66 - Plein Air?

You decide!  I paint out my window in the cool ac. Essential in the humid south.

September 10 Out My Window

I seem to paint this three four times a week.  

Today I painted this in my new as in page 4 of my Handprint journal that looks like a Moleskine but the paper...well that paper.  It's not up to snuff...thinner. Doesn't lay flat when its dry.  And acts odd. I don't know how to explain it. Almost like hot press?  It just seems to repel the watercolor at times. 

The wash on the paper dried so fast the paper seemed to suck up the water...perfect one second DRY the next. I was amazed it dried so quickly!

 Took a while to get this one where I liked it.  The trees are already turning gold on the river. And I always love the gleam of the sycamore bark in the sunlight.  

The skies which had been full of puffy white clouds as I ran errands today of course were overcast with a little blue by the time I got home...hmm where did those lovely skies go?? And OF COURSE as soon as I got done painting a nice blue sky again with puffy clouds!! Darn!!  

Painted with cerulean and cobalt in the sky with yellow ochre and raw sienna  added for the greys.  The trees are Daniel Smith New gamboge, Green Apatite, Hematite, Indigo and touches of white gouache for the sycamore trunks.  

Really like the trees today.  I started with new gamboge then added the Green Apatite - Don't you love that name?  Then I darkened it with a bit of Hematite and alot of Indigo for the dark darks.  The way the paper drank the water I didnt have a chance to scratch in tree trunks so I painted them first with Indigo and then with some white gouache.

This is where I sit in front of the sliding doors in the den and paint out my back door.  Paints are on a large industrial sized cookie sheet. Includes the water and paper towels and other things like markers.  I use one of the  Fiesta Ware cups to keep the water in.  Don't want it to spill, since I am rarely where I should be painting...works great on the new sectional sofa! Don't tell anyone!!

Also great for clearing up your mess if the need arises...or moving your set up quickly!

My palette is a Holbein handheld palette that folds up from www.artexpress.com.  Expensive but I love it....not so heavy as those enamel butcher trays!! 

The stool is a folding stool that I picked up for $5 at Marshals...short people can NOT have enough stools...especially when you add a nice feather pillow to sit on while you paint!!

River Bend

Pretty soon this will be the view out the window.  Leaves are beginning to fall.  This is a pencil sketch on Bristol board I did out my window a few winters back...does that count as Plein Air?!  I do love Nekkid trees!!

Thanks for looking!!!

Day 49 - Tom again

Tom hiding

This time he's  in the clean sheets. He does love to hide in anything fabric or a bag or a small space.  Can a cat be right handed? He's fond of sticking his right foot out.  All those white sheets...shading done with cerulean and yellow ochre, cobalt and sienna.  Once againTom was done with a wash of a light buff yellow, then sienna, piemonite and burnt umber.  I think this one should be called practice practice practice...because it really does make perfect.

Sunday on River Bend

Painted with cobalt and cerulean blue for the sky color.  The rest is done with the Primateks.  Really enjoy the way they granulate...alot of fun in both the clouds and the trees.

Instead of a wet wash for the sky I painted the sky color first to define the shapes of the clouds...Then I added a wet wash for the trees and the water.  I also tried to time painting this painting..as in I quit after about 15 20 minutes.  Sometimes more is NOT better.  

Day 34-Storm Part Two

Storms on the river are often exciting. The winds can shriek down the Savannah. You can watch the storms blowing in from the west.

Last nite's started with a Thundercall:Red Alert status. Winds torrential rains lightening thunder hail. We were off to a good start with a power outage about 6:30.

Thundercall:Red Alert

The sky changed from angry threatening clouds to soft grey as soon as the storm started. Temps fell almost 20 degrees in minutes. The pool was filled so at least two inches of rain. Wild winds. No hail. Quivery dogs from the thunder and lightening. 

So what did I do?? I journaled it...the lettering was handpainted with a round brush and watercolors and the outlining was done with this really neat set of Pentel Fountain pens I got at Binders...7 different colors for $14....I LOVE them.  Anyway they bled when I decided to paint the background a very watered down yellow but I like the effect which is watery and rainy.  All the writing was done with the Pentel Fountain pens too...I am just sad they are NOT refillable...guess they can't be perfect right?!

The watercolor of the river was painted with a washed sky of watery indigo as was the river...the trees were painted with new gamboge, sap and Pthalo green and a little indigo.

Storm From the West

Reposting so u can see before the storm. The skies change so quickly it's hard to paint them from nature. 

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Day 32 - You thought I would quit?

Evidently I have more to say and more to paint !! I have been painting the clouds, the trees and the river for a while now.

Kayak Weather

Which is almost any day from April til November on our stretch of the Savannah. If it's sunny someone's going to be out there paddling a kayak.

I decided to paint it vertically in my moleskine and to add a kayaker because I was getting tired of just sky trees and water. I like the way it turned out.

The clouds grey is - you guessed it! Cerulean and yellow ochre. Got a little dark so I lightened it with a wedge of that fabulous Mr Cleab eraser!

Oh here's a TIP :

To make the kayaker stand out after I used that white gelt roll pen to make him  as bright as possible.

I did some negative painting of darker greens around him even though the water was really sparkly around him. He was disappearing into the sparkle so next time remember it's all about contrast!!! You have to make the background darker!!!

 Well that's if you want an object to pop!!

I also think it could use a crop. An inch or so off the top and bottom. That's just me. What do you think?!

Time to paint something else !!