Wednesday Watercolor – a new-to-me Technique

Last Wednesday, at the art association’s open studio, Cheryl introduced the group to a technique of painting into wet paper using a credit card instead of a brush. She referenced the work of Lena Gemzoe.

Very intriguing, but clearly, it takes a lot of practice to get results this good.

For the class, I decided to use granulating colors that would settle out into the texture of the paper. Working from my imagination I attempted a mountain view, with a stream in the foreground.

To finish it off, I used my brush to make a tree, island and grasses.

Cobalt blue, Payne’s gray, raw sienna, burnt sienna, yellow ochre and a little white gouache on Arches 140 lb. cold press paper.

Watercolor Wednesday: Rust

This rusty car was our assignment at the art association open studio last Wednesday. I think I got a pretty good likeness of the photograph. The hardest part was deciding when to stop.

I used a palette of raw sienna, burnt sienna, cerulean blue, cobalt blue and ultramarine blue. Painted on Fabriano Studio cold press paper.

Sunday Sketching – Flowers

This month I signed up to take a class taught by the frugal crafter, Lindsay Weirich.

https://lindsayweirich.teachable.com/p/loose-juicy-watercolor-florals

Since today is Sketching Sunday, I am sharing a few of the quick and loose flowers that I have painted while following her instruction.

None of these took longer than fifteen minutes to do. They certainly help me fill up the blank pages in my watercolor sketchbook.

How are you spending your week-end? I hope you are making time for fun stuff.

Dreaming of Summer

This scene is made up. Last Wednesday at open studio, our group was practicing different skies using watercolor paints. When I finished this “sky,” one of the artists said “Why that looks like a landscape.” Upon close examination, I realized she was right. So I converted three of the “clouds” into stands of trees. By painting yellow on top of sections of the sky I got the land masses between the trees. The white space at the bottom of the painting became a still pond with reflected sky.

I like the big sections of white paper.

Because it is imaginary, I called this a dream painting.

Friday Finished Object: Watercolor

Lindsay Weirich, the Frugal Crafter, recently produced a tutorial showing how to use granulating pigments to create texture in watercolor paintings.

Get the Most from Granulating Colors (you already have!) Watercolor Techniques Video! ‹ The Frugal Crafter Blog ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

I loved the tutorial and wanted to try her technique. But I had in mind a landscape. Specifically, I wanted to paint mountains.

One of the artists I follow is Mitch Zeissler. He posts photographs taken over the past ten or so years using a Leica 35mm film camera. The one I have in mind is a black and white picture of the Madison Range in Montana.

South Along the Madison Range – ÆtherPx (aetherpx.com)

What attracted my eye were the lines of the landscape. They drew a series of enclosed planes that could be filled with a variety of granulating colors in a wide range of values.

Once I had worked through that step, I painted the foreground with some imagined animals and prairie grasses. Today it was finished.

Thank you, Lindsay and Mitch for sharing your work and stoking my creativity.