102 - Maybe I will do 150 days?!

It's becoming an endurance contest...if I have blogged for 100 days maybe I can do it for 150??  We shall see...lots going on...In the meantime I have signed up for sketchbookskool as if I wasn't doing enough already.  Our first assignment was draw a recipe.

I picked my sweet father in law's famous Cheese Straws because today would have been his 88th birthday and I wanted to remember him.  Here's the finished recipe.  Try it..I LOVE his cheese straws.  I used to get a large bag for my birthday and another for Christmas. 

This is how I made it...first I made a sketch on a scrap of paper.

Then I drew it in black ink.  Its painted with watercolor.  As usual I used LOTS of cerulean.  I can hardly paint now without cerulean.  The green is cerulean and aurelin yellow.  All the yellow is aurelin.  The greys are burnt sienna and cerulean.  The reds are quinacridone red.   Orange is aurelin and quin red. It makes a very transparent orange. 

 I debated over the lettering around the edge...thought it was a little light in this version so I lettered over it with a fine point kuretke marker.  The big cursive lettering was done with my Pentel brush pen, my very favorite pen.  The black line drawing was done with a pigma pen.

And this is the final version.  It was alot of fun.  Next I am going to print out copies of this as a memory of Hunt, as we called him, for family and friends.  

This was so much fun I think I will do a few more!!

Day 66 - Zoe Alla Prima

WOW SIXTY SIX posts...sometimes I amaze myself.  I had drawn this sketch of Zoe in my wc journal a few days back but not painted it.  

Was talking on Instagram with some other artists about Charles Reid so I decided to revisit his alla prima style in this painting...I do love the way the individual watercolors intermingle with each other when you paint using his method.  

OH you say HOW does he paint? Well if you have ever painted with oils or acrylics he paints that way.  Lays the color down like oils and generally leaves it alone.  He also uses pure wet colors - generally cad red light, cad yellow, vermilion, rose madder, cerulean,  yellow ochre, cobalt and raw sienna, and ultramarine blue with burnt umber and lets them mingle on the page.  He can paint anything with about 12 colors.  He also paints quickly, doing portraits in two hours.  Said anything more than that is messing it up.  

So here's Miss Zoe.

Here she is...I am really pleased with how she turned out.  The only thing I would change is to make the tip of her right ear round instead of pointed!! 

Why do I say this is Alla Prima aka First strike?  Most of the color was laid down all at once. 

Cerulean blue to the right of the right ear is negative painting to define her white ear.  So is the cobalt under her chin.  Can you find other blues used as shadows to define areas. That's negative painting.

Splattering?  The spots of yellow ochre and cerulean were made by splattering.  I covered up Zoe with a papertowel and the thump a loaded brush at the background.  Too much?? Not a problem.  Turn your brush sideways and roll out some of them or smudge with your finger.

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 48 - Tom Cat

I seem to be doing everything by twos lately.

Tom 1

He got a little dark. The thing about watercolor is that even if you spent fourhours painting a tiny painting like this in your moleskine its easier to do another if its too dark.  So I painted him a second time. I do love the quilt part. If there is a quilt around Tom will be either under it or on it!!  Best quilt I have ever painted...maybe I should paint another cat, cut it out, and glue it on OVER the first cat?!

Tom 2

I like the second watercolor so much better. I didn't go too dark.  I started with a pale yellow/yellow ochre wash over the cat.  Then I added stripes of watery quinacridone sienna mixed with a little burnt umber.  The whites were darkened with cerulean/yellow ocher and cobalt / q. sienna.  I also used some Piemonite in the shadows and indigo.

Day 33 and the powers out

A huge storm blew in from the west knocking out the power. Good excuse not to blog right??! Of course not. As long as my phone works!! No wifi so we shall see!!

Storm from the West

Here's a not quite finished watercolor of the storm blowing in.

Like the tree but clouds need more work. More when the lights come back on.

POWERS BACK!! HURRAH!!

So how did I paint it??   The clouds were a purpley blue as the storm blew in.  So I used cobalt greyed out with burnt sienna and added a touch and I mean a touch of quinacridone magenta to get a touch of purple.  I kept the whites by not painting in the middle...but as the paper was wet I blotted alot with my paper towel..all over the place...across the top of the trees...and down the middle because the wet paper was wicking the blues.  The yellow in the trees in Daniel Smith Gamboge and American Journey Sap Green for the Greens with a bit of American Journey Phtalo Green. The darks are DS indigo a nice dark lovely indigo not a black indigo like American Journey or a light indigo like that tube of Van Gogh. So many Indigos and none the same!! 

The water was largely painted with indigo..it had gone quite dark and smooth  before the storm with touches of green in the rough spots.

I scratched the trees in while it was still wet with my fingernail but you can use an xacto knife or that cool scratch tool that was my dads but darn it is missing somewhere...here yesterday and gone today!! Sigh!! 

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