"Window Into the Past" watercolor pencils and watercolor

I think I am addicted to drawing and painting old barns and buildings with watercolor pencils and watercolor.  I am starting a series (this is my third) of scenes from the ghost town of Bodie, California.  I am now using a thicker drawing paper from a sketchbook by Aquabee.  It accepts light washes well and has better tooth for the pencils. 

This medium is very clean and portable to work with and I don't require an easle or a large area.  So, I will be doing this type of work on my babysitting days for my new little grandson while he sleeps. 

A second painting of "Catalina" in pastel

9-1/2 x 5-1/2

"Catalina v2"

Painting the same scene multiple times has its advantages.  The more times you paint it, you get more comfortable with the subject, think less, analyze less, and get more spontaneous and intuitive.  That is why I decided to paint this scene again. 

The first painting was on blue colored LaCarte.  This one was on terracotta colored LaCarte.  The reddish orange shows through a little bit and visually vibrates with the blues of the water.  The first painting is very relaxing and has a misty or hazy effect since I painted with a light touch.  This painting has more energy because of the complementary colors vibrating, and also because I pressed harder with the pastel. 

More on "painting watercolor on aquabord"

Here are some detail shots of different areas of the peonies I am painting on "aquabord".  I am trying various watercolor techniques I am familiar with and have used on Arches coldpress watercolor paper.  It is turning out to be a totally different animal.  You do not get that look of paint that sinks into the paper, nor the soft, subtle self-blending of wet paint side-by-side.  Aquabord dries faster, so the self-blending is limited.  After I took off the liquid mask, I am re-wetting the hard edges around the mask and trying to blend the petals.  In the top detail you can see where I've done some of the outer petals.  I seem to be pushing the paint around on top of the board and getting unwanted streaks. 

I think it is like any new paper or product you try - you have to experiment.  You have to try different ways than you are used to - to get the effect you want.  This board is fairly large and it will take me a while - days - to learn on it and make this into a painting.

One more thing about this board - if I don't like what I've done - there is an option to put it under the kitchen faucet and wash it all off - and start all over on white board again!  Yes!  They claim you can do this!  Go right back to white!

"Back at One" a watercolor painting

This painting is 9 x 12 on 140 lb Arches coldpress watercolor paper.  A couple of years ago we visited Catalina Island and we were waiting in a parking lot for a bus tour to pick us up.  Across the lot was a ticket booth for Miniature Golf.  An old golden retriever was sleeping on the ledge of the ticket booth window.  It was so unusual that I took pictures.  I've been wanting to paint this for a long time - it looked like it would be fun.

It turned out to be hard!  I'm very happy I finally finished this painting.  I had to work out some problems and make some changes along the way.  I decided to make the dog darker and backlit.  So I got to try my hand at wetting and scrubbing with a watercolor scrubber to lift out the tree and background that is through another window on the other side of the ticket booth. 

Exploring a new painting surface with watercolor

One of my awards for placing a 3rd in the Sierra Watercolor Society judged show last September, was a 12 x 16 Aquabord by Ampersand.  I decided to try the splatter and poured painting methods I learned in Lian Zhen's class last year.  In my blog slideshow is a painting of peonies from his workshop.  I'm SO glad I am a note-taking freak, because I have forgotten how I did that painting!  After reviewing my notes, I printed photos of peonies I took, and drew a composition on this new board.  One flower is supposed to be the "diva", so we were supposed to draw it in detail and mask the edges with liquid mask.  Then do a series of water spray, splatter with paint, fingerpaint, drop paint in with a brush, tilt the surface and let it run ... all kinds of fun stuff where you trade in control for serendipity.

Here is the beginnings of this process on this board.  Very interesting!  Although it doesn't come out the same as Arches coldpress paper, it does accept the watercolor in a nice way. 

...to be continued...

Artist Interrupted....

Yesterday my daughter had her baby - a beautiful baby boy.  So, I am an artist who is happily interrupted!  So, it is time for show 'n tell from "days gone by" art.  I started this as a watercolor on watercolor paper and was displeased.  So I tried pastel pencil over it and had a lot of fun with the detail aspect.  This is a large Proteus flower - a tropical flower grown in Hawaii.  They fascinate me because the center is furry-like.  I always have to touch them! 

I found my reference photo, which I took on a trip to Hawaii, so it is original.  I have never shown this before because I considered it a practise piece for many years.  Now that I am doing pastel over watercolor on purpose, I am changing my view of this painting!

"Catalina" a pastel painting

I had it in my mind to do this painting a little impressionistic, and I think it came out that way. I am learning Adobe Photoshop to crop and adjust my photos of my art.  Sometimes pastel doesn't photograph the way it looks in person, especially if you allow the paper to show through.  I always photograph my work in natural light, but this particular piece looked washed out.  I used the autofix feature and it really made this painting look great without changing it much.  It restored the contrast that was washed out.