Watercolor Painting - Winter Sky III

Winter Sky III watercolor on Arches 21x30

Crop of Winter Sky III

Hi all.

I absolutely love painting these poplar trees. Sorry, to all you birch lovers, but these are poplars, not birches. The weather has finally warmed up - freakishly warm actually, not that I'm complaining! - so I hope to get out to take some more pics. Need some new trees to paint.

The color was incredibely hard to adjust on these...I think because there are so many different hues and weird mixes... each time I got one right, another was wrong. So I decided to just STOP, and here they are. One cropped for that fascinating close up view.

In trying to make the colors work together and create a unified whole, I remembered Myrna's 'mothercolor', and mixed the colors making sure that each contained a bit of the 'mothercolor'...in this case, W&N Indian Red.

I also tried to keep in mind Edgar Whitney's rule about variety - variety in shape (white spaces), in direction (branches), value (which doesn't show up too well, but it's there), in size (branches), and texture (smooth vs rough). I may not have accomplished all that as well as I could, but at least I kept it in mind while painting, which is a big step forward on my part.

Has anyone read his book Complete Guide to Watercolor Painting? It's fantastic, and I just love the way he expresses himself. I love his passion, and he's definitely not shy about giving his opinions about art, and artists, and what he thinks they should be. Brilliant stuff.

Okay. That's about it. Not much goin' on. Work is...well...it pays the bills. I have about 12 precut mats to fill up. So I'm gonna get painting...

Tell me a story. You know I love the company.

Watercolor Painting - Poplar Trees

Winter Sky watercolor 22x30" sold

The bottom two images are crops

Oh glorious Friday! Is it my imagination or did this week last about a month!? Hm...well it's over now...two days of free, free, freedom!

So I think I finished this watercolor painting of poplar trees. There are definitely parts of it I love to pieces, and some parts that sort of missed the mark. I could quite happily lop off a good portion of the tree on the right. Too many straight branches...just doesn't work for me. And of course the color is off...that blue is very blue in real life...but not quite that blue. So, overall I am pleased, and sufficiently ready to set it aside and move on to the next.

I have been reading quite a bit about how to make ones blog more attractive to the search engines. Empty Easel (see link on the right) has some great information on the subject...as well as some other places I visited that I forget the name of. Some of the things mentioned are to use key words in posts, and be repetitive; bold and italicize words; use popular names, such as artists, websites, and clubs, groups or societies (which is why I am going to join some!).

Linking to other sites, and having them link you is another helper. And there is some other more teknikal stuff I have no idea how to do, but will get someone else to help me with.

These things are not going to be miracles, but in time they are supposed to help increase visitors. Oh, yeah, and getting PayPal too.

So these are some things that I am working on. I have a small fear of appearing presumptuous, and acting like I'm "all that"...but that's just too bad. A smart guy I know told me that it's smart to work on marketing your work early on in your 'career'...so that's what I'm doing. (Thanks Ron.)

Still working on Myrna's challenge...cruciform composition, and shape as the dominant element. I'm not really sure what that means, LMAO!! but I'm working on it. I mean, shape...it pretty much naturally occurs when you draw something...so how do I make it dominant? hhhmmm...off to the book shelf...

Drop me a line and tell me a story....

Poplar Trees - Watercolor

It is hard to tell in the pics, but I have done quite a bit of work on this. Next I will be adding in all the small twigs, and the knots and scars on the trees trunks.

I have ordered my first roll of watercolor paper! I'm quite excited to start a new painting on it. I want to do these trees big. And I want to do a tall narrow one. And I want to do a wide narrow one. Oh so many paintings to be painted. So little space in my livingroom.

Not much else to say. At least nothing pleasant. Off to paint now.

Inspiration, Watercolor, and Step I

I finally found a cork board to put over my painting desk. I've wanted one for ages, and...yeah, I found it at Walmart...

So I'm putting up little bits of this and that, a reminder of the Artists magazine art competition, paintings...then my daughter made me the sign that says "Do What You Want, it doesn't matter"...hhhmmm...good advice from a barely 14 year old? I'll take it!

I've been working on a full sheet painting...thought I'd put the first stage pic on, just to keep something happening on the ol' blog. It is at the third color stage...I don't really have a set plan regarding color...I just keep adding them until it looks right.

I'm really enjoying this technique...it is like a meditation. And I love the look of it. From a distance all the colors just blend together, but up close it is this wonderful mosiac of little bits of color. I'm sure there must be a name for this style of painting...anyone know? As with all personal discoveries, it's easy to forget that is has already been discovered by someone else, and they might have some pointers on how to do it better, or easier...or whatever. So anybody that has some input...jump right in anytime. I'm eager to learn.

I think I am going to have to order a roll of paper soon, 'cause I want to do this one big!

I'll put it on the list...

Let me know what you think about stuff!