An artistic diversion

I think I got tired of working on the watercolor.  So I put it away for a day or two so I can look at it and get inspired again with fresh eyes.

In the meantime, I started a little pastel.  This is a coastal scene - boats - water - something I hardly ever do!  I am such a landlubber, but I do love looking at the sea too.  West Coasters will recognize this (maybe).  We are on a ferry that is taking us over to Catalina Island.  It is still taking me a while to get back into the groove with pastel.  I feel like I'm mincing around, starting very light until I find my way.

Progress is a little slow...

This painting is more challenging than I thought!  This is the first time I've ever painted a dog in watercolor.  And now I am at the point of doing the sliding glass windows and I realize I've never learned to do reflections on a window pane.  So, I'm winging it.  Now I'm realizing a compositional problem.  The palm tree is right in the middle of the dog, and the sign (not painted yet) is right in the middle of it.  That's what you get for following your photograph!  For the most part, I'm am satisfied with the progress, but I am definitely learning along the way.  This is turning out to be what I think might be called "illustration".  That's OK, I like to try new things and new looks.  In fact, my husband is rolling his eyes because I want to get a couple of wigs to change my look without cutting my hair!!!! 

A new watercolor in progress and tips I have learned

This is going to be a watercolor with watercolor pencils.  I have been having fun doing this technique, so now I am doing this on Arches 140lb cold press paper.  I am working from a photograph that I took of a real dog napping on a window sill!!!!! 

I started by drawing it freehand in a sketch book on good quality paper that could hold up to eracing to fix errors.  Then I traced it.  Then I made graphite transfer paper - a technique I learned from Anne Abgott in her workshop.  Using a 6B graphite stick (architectural supply), I heavily coated another tracing paper.  Then, I "fixed" the graphite by using a little bit of lighter fluid on a paper towel - rubbing in circular movements.  (The first application was a little too light so I had to repeat the process).

I like to use Scotch 3M painters blue tape in the grade of stickiness called "low to medium adhesion".  It holds the traced drawing paper down and yet you can peel it off without ripping the tracing paper.

Another trick I learned from Anne was to use a cleaning pad (architectural supply) to remove extra dark graphite spots from your watercolor paper before painting.  It worked great!!!

Next, I saved some white areas on the dog's coat and a paper sign with Mistix (liquid artists rubber cement).

Then I began to use watercolor pencils to define the grain of wood, the shadows of the wooden letters, and the texture of the dog's coat and other areas.  Then, I filled in some of the areas with various watercolor washes.  I am basically working on dry paper with a wet brush.  I think this is called "wet on dry."

Because the background of the dog is specific and complex, I needed to do tight work.  I did not tape my paper down to the board because I knew that it would be easier to rotate the paper as I filled in the letters and other difficult areas.

Making a sketch into something more

This started out as a sketch to prepare for the previous pastel painting called "Winter Colors".  Sometimes after I finish the painting, I go back to the sketch and do more with it.  In this case, it started with pencil to block in the shapes of the leaves and the cast shadows, and then evolved into watercolor pencils ... then watercolor wash over that ... then finally, Prismacolor colored pencils layered and burnished in some areas.

"Winter Colors" a pastel painting

This painting was inspired by a winter trip to the Scottsdale, AZ area.  These cactus turn the most gorgeous shades of green and violet.

The second stage of this pastel painting

The daylight hours are short this time of year.  Working on black is hard to work in various lighting, so I am just working in daylight.  Maybe one more day of work on this.  This piece is light-hearted for me - I'm just having fun pushing the colors and smooshing them around!  Listening to Gypsy Kings is upbeat and makes me almost dance to the music.

Beginning a new pastel in 2011

I haven't painted in pastel since the holidays began at Thanksgiving because my pastel studio is in the kitchen and kitchen table.  Now I'm back in the kitchen and it is not cooking!  It felt strange!  Like I didn't know where to start.  So, I thought it would be fun and a challenge for myself to do colorful cactus on black sanded paper.  The shapes are fairly simple and I can play with various ways of blending, or not blending at all.  I can see how far I can go to build up the lights on a black paper.  I can decide how much or how little of the black I want to show through.  Here is the first stage - blocking in the shapes and trying out various colors.  It doesn't look like much right now....this is a work in progress.

I took on another challenge for 2011.  I was accepted into a new Daily Painters of Nevada blogsite.  You can see it at http://www.dailypaintersofnevada.blogspot.com/ .  Then I also joined their specialty blogs for pastel and pencil art.  You can see these at http://pastelartistsinternational.blogspot.com/ and http://pencilartistsinternational.blogspot.com/ .  These are all under the umbrella website of Contemporary Fine Art International.  You can view their website and learn about it at http://contemporaryfineartinternational.com/ .  SO!  I will be posting to my own blog as well as 3 others!!!  The minimum number of posts they would like is at least 2 a week (they can be works in progress).  I need to do at least one pastel painting a week and maybe two drawings a week.  I still want to do watercolor painting here and there too.  WOW!  I think I can do this.  Maybe my husband can take up cooking (????)