The Cellist ~ WIP

Quick update. This is my latest project inspired by a photo I found on PMP submitted by franklin. I'm always trying new things and this time I decide to stain tissue paper with pure watercolor and tear into pieces which I then adhered to my working paper. I chose various violets and golds, one of my favorite palettes. I think the effect is quite nice but I'll have to knock it back a bit for this application. I don't want the border to distract too much from my COI.

Oil & Watercolor~continued

Here is the result of a mixture of silver oil based enamel paint and watercolor/fluid acrylic poured onto damp w/c paper. Pretty dramatic, wouldn't you say? I thought so.

A closeup of a really cool passage.

One more closeup.

This is the result after dropping silver oil based enamel into wet watercolor on paper. The enamel tended to push the watercolor away and create it's own blooms on the surface.

This is gold metallic oil paint thinned with mineral spirits, then premixed with a watercolor/fluid acrylic mixture and poured onto damp paper. I couldn't get a very good photo but I was pleased that the thinned paint dispersed much better on the surface. The look is much softer IRL and the closest to Ann Blockley's results.

Instead of dropping the oil based paint onto wet paint/paper I premixed it with my watercolor/fluid acrylic and poured it onto damp paper. It formed this scroll work all on it's own.

I continued to experiment with the oil based paint today. In all the trials I used #140 CP Fabriano Uno w/c paper as a substrate. All of my results were interesting and created varying effects. Some of my water based mixtures were straight watercolor, some with fluid acrylics added. This is not something I would try during the winter months due to fumes and lack of proper ventilation.

Observations: I noticed if I wanted to manipulate the oil paint on my paper I needed to do it as soon after applying as possible. Otherwise I wound up with slightly congealed (and partially solid) masses or 'islands' of oil paint floating on the wet surface that broke apart in a very unattractive way when I tried to use a bamboo skewer to disperse them.

Also I mixed my oil paint/watercolor combos in those flimsy mini yogurt cups. Next time I will find something sturdier as the oil based paints will dissolve the bottoms of these containers in fairly short order.

Oil & Watercolor

This afternoon I decided to try Ann Blockley's technique of applying oil based metallic paint onto wet watercolor. My first attempt was an abysmal failure. My paper was too wet, I had too much pigment on it which wound up on me, on my worktable, everywhere and the oil paint just floated around on the surface, threatening to slide off the sides of the paper if I made a wrong move. This time I tried less water/pigment and used a spritz bottle of water to get the pigment to move taking the metallic paint along with it. I used a bamboo skewer to dot on the oil based paint and coax it a bit in some places. I'm not entirely happy with my second try but it's much better than the first. I'm wondering if I should thin the oil paint a little. I'm not getting the same results as Ann even though I do like the effect I did achieve. I want it to disperse more and not produce such a heavy layer on the paper when dry. One benefit of the oil paint...it is permanent. When they are dry, you can easily go back in with more pigment around oil based metallics to deepen values or adjust color. I also have a can of silver enamel I may experiment with. I think this is a technique worth pursuing as the effects created make dramatic backgrounds when done well.

Texture

I'm calling this 'Sunset on Pluto'. I don't know if Pluto even has a sun much less a sunset but that's what popped into my head when this was dry.

Love the little tendrils the paint forms working wet into damp. Nick Simmons calls them dendrites(sp?).

Here I didn't wait for the dried perm yellow to fully reconstitute before pouring. After the painting was dry I brushed away the tiny 'chunks' of paint to reveal what I thought looked like a field of yellow daisies.

Even though watercolor has the ability to be reactivated on the palette after drying , some colors like cerulean blue like to remain in nugget form no matter how much water you add so I left them on the paper. I liked the look! I think I also see the ubiquitous cat hair that seems to show up in all my paintings.

One of my favorite tricks to create texture involves spraying a fine mist of water over (not directly on) damp paint. This creates tiny blooms that add a neat effect. I'm not sure if it's visible in this image, tho. The purple you see is Dioxazine Purple fluid acrylic by Da Vinci. I applied it straight from the bottle onto wet paper. After it was dry I dripped on some cerulean blue watercolor, fully reconstituted. Applied onto the dry fluid acrylic, it retained it's vibrancy and it's semi-opaque qualities created a really cool passage in the painting.

Here fluid acrylic is interacting with straight watercolor, wet into damp. It's fun to play with your paint and you can learn a great deal in the process.

When you mention watercolor I doubt most people immediately think 'texture'. Sure, you can take a brush and recreate texture...the textures found in nature, in man made objects, etc. What I find intriguing is the exciting and often times unexpected textures that simply happen when working with watercolor. I'm also discovering that those same wildly interesting textures can be achieved with fluid acrylics used as watercolors.

I had some yogurt cups on the shelf in my studio that contained long dried watercolor from a pour I had done last year. I almost threw them out as there was nothing but a thin crust of dry paint left in them. Then I thought ...well, I'll try to reconstitute them and see what happens. When I think texture in watercolor I think of Ann Blockley's book, Watercolour Textures . I've referred to this book on my blog more than once. Her beautifully textured backgrounds in the book make her subjects almost incidential....almost. Somehow she manages to balance the subject matter and the background so the subject is not lost but rather enhanced by it. Anyhoo, I'm posting my results with the dried paint. No subject, just lots of pouring to see what happens.

Side note: Speaking of backgrounds...I received my August issue of Watercolor Artist yesterday. On the cover is a beautiful painting of bearded irises by Heidi Lang Parrinello. The actual painting is large...60" x 40", the attention to detail and skill involved in painting these irises is undeniable and must be stunning to see IRL but I have one problem with it...the background. I can only assume the problem lies with the crop for the cover but the over abundance of colorful and amorphous shapes in her background is extremely distracting and not only is it distracting but also looks so contrived. I suspect she did one heck of a lot of lifting to achieve that effect, too. I enjoyed looking through her portfolio on her website. She does seem to like busy backgrounds.

Batik Tulips~Completed

Ta Da! It's finally done. Last night I removed all the tape and finished the centers of the tulips. Today I looked at it and thought I could've done a better job on the tulip in the lower left corner so I retaped a few areas and applied another light wash. I got some very nice bleeds on the tulip and the background and thoroughly enjoyed this process. I would definitely try this again. It's a bit tedious applying the tape but more fun than a chore. Kudos to Sandy Maudlin for creating this technique.

Batik Tulips~Update 2

Here I've applied my dark wash over everything. I used Indigo as a base color. I added some Phthalo green in a few areas, perm. yellow in others to get a mix of warm and cool.

Everything is now covered in masking tape. This process was actually fun! Kinda like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.

I masked off some leaves and one bud and here I've removed the tape from those areas so I can put even more tape on.

I had hopes of completing this today but it seems like it's taking forever to dry. The tape as well as the paper has absorbed a lot of moisture and it's a bit humid here today so I'll just have to wait...but it's hard. I'm dying to start tearing off tape to see what's underneath.

Batik Tulips~1st Update

I'd call this the ugly stage. Every painting seems to go through at least one. I've added color and now I'm beginning to add more tape. Then more color, more tape and so on. It's my understanding that before it's completed the entire piece of paper will be covered in masking tape. I will reiterate...I have no idea what I'm doing. I'll add that I also have no idea what my end result will be. I think it's going to be like opening a present on Xmas morning...a nice surprise or a big letdown. I'm still excited to what happens either way.

Cardooning

I'm really enjoying using Linda Kemp's method of prepping w/c paper. No tape, no staples...just wet the paper liberally on both sides with a clean brush and water and place on Plexiglass. Voila!

I prepped a small (5"x 8") piece of #140 Fabriano Uno and dropped on some thick juicy Phthalo turquoise, Quin. rose and Cerulean blue. The paint fanned out beautifully into some lovely patterns. I got a nice violet from this palette and added a smidgeon of perm. yellow to make an interesting green. Some Indanthrene blue may have gotten into the mix because I haven't been bothering to clean my palette lately. I've been playing fast and loose with the attitude that whatever happens...happens.

I then let this dry completely and came back to see what I could see in the paint and what I saw were cardoons. A nice little cluster of three...one large in the forefront, one in back and another smaller one to the right and down. I then decided to use colored pencil to further define the shapes.

I've been admiring Vivien Blackburn's recent sketches of cardoons on her blog and we seem to share a love of thistle-like plants. Vivien works plein air and I love her expressive style and bold approach to her subjects. Please check out Vivien's blog on my blog list.

Crabby Cat Christmas

With some text added

I wasn't planning on printing any Xmas cards this year because I didn't want to spend the money at the printers just before the holidays. Maybe next year...huh? Last night I was fooling around with Elements and decided to try printing out 'Snowflake Flies'. I haven't had much luck with my home printer lately so I never expected the cards to turn out but they actually did!

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This gave me the impetuous to try another Xmas card idea I had floating around in my head. Pressed for time, I drew out my sketch and outlined it with a micron pen. Then I scanned and enlarged it. Today I printed out the sketch directly onto #140 HP w/c paper and added color with Prismacolor pencils and watercolor. I will probably add some text and will post the image again when it has been added. For the rest of the day I will be printing out the new cards and getting them ready to take to the gallery. I hope it isn't too late. Nothing like cutting it close.

A Photo Sunset

This is my first attempt at working with watercolor on photo paper...very cheap photo paper. I had a vague plan to paint Fall leaves when I laid down my first brush strokes but the paper had other ideas. I had expected the paint to bead up but instead it took each stroke and showed the trail of every bristle. When I want paint to move and soften I'm in the habit of lightly spritzing it with water from an atomizer but as soon as the mist hit the photo paper it buckled like crazy! There was nothing I could do but wait until it dried. Fortunately, the paper flattened itself out eventually so I looked at it trying to decide what I could work out. Because of the way the paper buckled it created a landscape of sorts, at least to my eye, so I proceeded to follow that up with some tweaking. The above image is my result. I DO plan to try this paper again, a little wiser but knowing full well I will have very little control over the end product. That's kind of exciting actually.

Exploring Options

Now this is what I'm talking about! This is definitely an option worth considering. I hit this one with the watercolor filter and got some real impact going on. It makes the original painting look downright drab. Anyone up for watercolor and wet charcoal?

IMO, this is a job for colored pencils. Not sure which filter I used for this effect but if anyone is interested I can sure go back and find out.

Last night I opened Elements and experimented with my latest painting. I got some interesting and extremely varied results. To tell the truth, the first time I considered painting the birch reference I thought of Nick Simmon's koi technique. His 'sewing machine stitch'(one of many unique techniques he demos on his DVD) and the use of spattering with a toothbrush to add shading and volume came to mind immediately. I will need to think on a much larger scale but I may try it out on a closeup section to see if I can pull it off. I'll need to order some full sheets of HP as well. It sure won't be Arches HP, though. I really should contact that company and let them know the problems I've had...at least with this latest block.