Time to Loosen Up...again

My creative juices haven't been flowing in great abundance this year and I've noticed that I'm falling backwards in terms of painting style. I'm painting tighter and tighter and enjoying it less and less. I've never striven to achieve photorealism with watercolor because I simply don't have the patience it requires or the desire to try and tame this medium. I chose watercolor because of it's unpredictability but old habits die hard it seems.

Yesterday I cut a little bunch of Houttuynia cordata, 'Chameleon' (nicknamed 'Hot Tuna' by some gardeners) out of one of my flower beds and brought it in to pose for me. This plant is a great little ground cover if kept under control and serves to brighten up my flower beds when nothing is blooming. Apparently it's grown as an edible in China and Vietnam(according to Wiki) and has a slightly fishy taste so it's aka 'fish mint'. I just tasted a leaf and it reminds me of the white fish with citrus beurre blanc I had for lunch this past Saturday. (BTW, that's not a compliment to the taste of houttuynia)

Fraise Des Boise ~ Complete

SOLD

Done! I decided the red of the berries was enough to break up all the green. I was afraid adding burnt sienna would 'muddy up the waters'.

This is fairly small...10" x 7". To complete the berries I did an underpainting using indigo mixed with a little crimson lake to indicate the shadows and create volume, then finished with a few washes of crimson lake to get that strawberry red color. There's probably more I could do to this but it's time to set it aside. I'll get it back out in a few weeks or months and if I still like the way it looks it'll be 'officially done'.

Fraise Des Boise ~ WIP 2

Quick update: I just removed the frisket film and am wondering if there's way too much green going on here. I'm not sure the few red berries left to paint will pull this one out of a dive. I'm posting this as much for myself as for my visitors to better spot any problem areas before continuing. I may add some burnt sienna to some of the leaves just to break the green up further.

Fraise Des Boise ~ WIP 1

Still today I had no idea how I wanted to go about painting this or what palette I wanted to use so I started by covering the blossoms and berries with frisket film to protect them. Then I began with a light overall wash of D/R Vivid green. I've added various greens I mixed up using indigo, Indian yellow, and perm. yellow to define the leaves. I also started working on some areas of the background and dropped in some WN Quin. gold while the paper was still wet to add interest and break up all that green.

Note: I prefer Windsor Newton's Quin. gold to Da Vinci's because it's not so orange.

I scattered some salt in the viewer's upper left corner for effect but fear I may have over-done it. I plan to darken that corner later so I can tone it down then. Forgot to mention....I'm using #140 Fabriano Uno w/c paper.

Fraise Des Boise ~ Study

After adjustments to composition. I added an extra berry toward the center and got rid of unnecessary detail.

After applying edge detection

Original photo

I've grown fraise des boise aka wild French strawberries aka alpine strawberries in my flower beds for years. I grow both a red and a white variety. Originally I planted them simply for ornamental purposes but discovered the tiny berries these plants produce (no bigger than an average person's thumbnail) all summer long have the most amazingly intense strawberry flavor.

This Spring I took a few photos when they were starting to set flower and a few baby strawberries were beginning to appear. Yesterday I decided to use the fraise des boise as a subject for a painting. I selected one of those photos and to save time applied edge detection to it in my photo editor, converted the altered image to negative and printed out a copy. Then I used pencil to make adjustments to the composition. I'm not sure how detailed I want to go with this one yet but better to have too much information than not enough.

New Look For ArtByCrain Blog

My blog needed a facelift so I'm experimenting with Bloggers new templates, colors, etc. Warning: Be prepared to see some changes over the next few days.

Bearded Iris ~ Complete

This is one of those paintings that I could fiddle away at for days and days but I think it's time to call it done. It's already slightly overworked for my taste. Iris 'Chasing Rainbows' lived up to it's name. I think I used almost every color on my palette save for red.

Bearded Iris ~ Update

After adding the background which defines the outer shape of the flower.

Here I've gone as far as I could before adding a background.

I finally knuckled down and got back to work on this one. I seem to have no self discipline this summer and it's not like I'm crazy busy either.

I worked some more on the standards (upper petals) of the flower, painted the bud and then wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with the background. I settled on a mixture of Indathrene blue and Indigo with a dash of Indian yellow. I dropped in some extra Indian yellow and perm. yellow while the paint was still wet to break up all that dark green. I also spritzed the background with plain water to add a little more interest. Since the flower is so busy I wanted to avoid creating a busy background. More work to be done on the flower but I'm in the home stretch now.

Bearded Iris ~ WIP 1

The Iris Farm

5385 E. Traverse Hwy

Traverse City , MI 49684

After attempting to paint another landscape and failing miserably (several times) I lost my momentum. It happens. I hate when it happens but it happens. I always feel better when I have something on my easel and after just so long I was ready to paint anything just to get my brushes wet again. I found some photos from 2006 I had taken at the Iris Farm, six acres of prime farm land devoted entirely to just about any variety of bearded iris one can imagine. The farm belongs to William Alpers of Traverse City, Michigan and when the irises are blooming it's a sight to behold.

I chose a photo of bearded iris, 'Chasing Rainbows' as my subject. I love all the colors in the falls(side petals) and the deep ruffling. I hope I can do it justice.

Landscape #2 ~ Complete

Here I attempted to highlight the shapes I saw when looking at the reference photo. The obvious focal point in this painting is the area of paper left white in the small rectangle, center of image.

I just finished this one. It's loosey, juicy and kinda messy but I wasn't planning on offering it for sale so it doesn't matter. I think this has potential as a do-over. I like the composition and the colors. I switched to the quill of a feather for some of the fine branches, did the rest with the squirrel quill brush. Bit of a sloppy job but I'm not concerned in this case. Colors and color placement are so important to a landscape but composition even more so. Where the various values are placed is critical, too. At completion it's all got to make some sort of sense no matter how creative I wish to be. I operate primarily on instinct being self taught so if it looks 'right' I just go with it.

Landscape #2 ~ WIP 1

Marilyn Campbell posted this photo of a beautiful wooded scene with a stream flowing through on Paint My Photo and I thought it looked like a perfect reference for my next landscape. I liked the composition, the range of values and the colors grabbed my eye. I'm posting my first update so I have a record of my progress. I'm working on a quarter sheet of Arches #140 CP paper with various brands of transparent watercolor and only a #2 squirrel quill. The purpose of using just the quill is to prevent me from adding unnecessary details. I want to keep this as loose and spontaneous as possible.

Learning to Paint a Landscape (skyscape?)

Original image

Tweak #1 (I ramped up the contrast)

Tweak #2 (Looks like a dust storm)

Tweak# 3 (Tornado skies. I can almost hear the warning sirens when I look at this)

I have never produced a landscape painting to my satisfaction...ever. Why this subject seems so difficult for me is a mystery but I've made it my goal this summer to tackle the beast. My interest in the genre was recently rekindled when I received the latest issue of Watercolor Artist and was pleased to see one of Z. L. Feng's landscapes featured on the cover. I absolutely love his landscape paintings, especially how he handles foliage and his use of color. I have a link to his website on my link list if anyone is interested. I suggest you take the time to check out his work. You won't be sorry.

I also received an email notice for the June challenge on Paint My Photo website. This month the subject is skies. The rules...any medium may be used but the sky must take up 3/4 of the total painting. Landscapes that are mostly sky can be very dramatic and exciting so I threw together a little sketch and gave it a whirl. I did spend time online looking at cloud formations prior to starting which helped but I couldn't find a reference photo I liked so this attempt is from imagination. I worked wet into wet with a leftover mixture of indigo, Quin. violet and Payne's grey, then floated in some white gouache and a little raw umber to create a stormy sky. I'm fairly happy with my cloud work. It's the stuff on the ground where I seem to stumble. Overall though, not bad for a start. I did play in my photo editor with the original image to see what other effects I could produce.

Dragonflies on Canvas~Complete

I've sure had fun with this one. I finished up the dragonflies yesterday but today thought it needed a little something else. I've had a 'thing' for metallics lately so I got out my gold Zig Painty and went to town.

Dragonflies on Canvas~WIP

This project seems to defy photographing. Everywhere light strikes an area of high texture it shows up as a white spot and the colors are nowhere near as garish as they appear but I did my best.

Jerry's Artarama ran a sale not long ago on pre-stretched, pre-primed canvases so I bought six 9" x 12" canvases with the intention of mounting and varnishing some of my watercolor paintings on them. There they sat, in the box they came in because I have no supplies to complete the job. A few days ago I decided to try my hand at coating one of these canvases with gesso and painting something with fluid acrylics. I protected my main subjects (the dragonflies) with masking fluid and just started painting...mostly amorphous, vaguely leaf and grass-like shapes and applying color with no thought of realism or 'sense' to placement of color. I'm ready now to remove the masking and complete the 'flies.

Cherry Blossom Time~Complete ?

I wanted to keep the background fairly simple but wasn't sure how dark I wanted to go so I compromised by doing a little half and half. I used DS perylene green and Vivid green. I'm wondering if I should bring a little of the green into the flowers, possibly on the sepals to make them mesh better with the overall painting.

It's Cherry Blossom Time~WIP

...for my weeping cherry tree. It's been in bloom for over a week now and is still loaded with blossoms despite some recent windy weather. The blossoms make me think of those old time swing skirts with crinoline petticoats underneath. When the pendulous flowers sway in the breeze they look as if they are ladies dancing.

I decided to skip the sketch, go right for the paint & brushes and hope for the best. I'm using only DV cobalt blue deep, DV perm. rose and D/R Vivid green. Vivid green contains so much yellow I might as well be working with three primaries and they all combine to create enough variations in color for this project. I really do love working with a limited palette.

Pink Lady Slippers~experiment continues

Closeup 1

Closeup 2

I've been playing around with this painting, trying to see what effects would make this pop more. I toned down the red-violet in the background with some DS Iridescent blue, then added metallic gold ink. I used an oil based gold Zig Painty pen to outline areas of the flowers, leaves and stems, then applied some metallic gold ink from a stamp pad by tapping it through nylon window screening with an old brush trimmed flat to use as a stencil brush. I think it looks kinda cool!

Pink Lady Slippers~WIP 2

Cropped

I'm still considering this a work in progress even though it looks completed albeit kinda sloppy. I want to experiment further with it to see what effects I can continue to create. I tried various mixtures of greens (both cool and warm), making different marks with the brush, working wet into wet, wet into dry, spraying, etc. I'm wondering if acrylic inks would give me more vibrant colors, possibly using a mixture of both watercolor and ink to achieve the look I'm after. I'd also love to get some metallics into picture.

Pink Lady Slippers~WIP 1

I had a drawing all set to go, then decided after seeing a dyed silk piece that inspired me to such a degree as to send me in a whole new direction. I have no idea if this will turn out well nor do I care at the moment. I loved the effect of the dyed silk painting so much I'd like to try and create roughly the same effect with watercolor on paper. I know it's going to take some experimenting and I also know I'm going to have some failures. I'm currently working on Arches #140 CP w/c paper but I may switch over to hotpress paper if I don't like the outcome. I did do a quickie sketch to get things started but I want to keep this fairly loose and spontaneous for the first go.

Lucy & Ethel Revisited

I felt Lucy & Ethel looked a bit drab so I got to work with some magenta, Quin. gold and gouache. I created this panorama for comparison. The 'after' is on the left.

It's been ages since I've failed to update my blog for over a month so apologies to my followers and visitors. April shot by like a comet it seems and other things got in the way of painting. I did manage to ready some pieces for the gallery and get them delivered. I also took time to pull some older paintings and look them over. I thought Lucy & Ethel needed a facelift but fear I may have tweaked them to death, always a danger when revisiting a painting. At this point I'm just plain tired of looking at them so I've begun another drawing for a new piece. I hope to spend more time painting in May. I just have to get the momentum going again.