Under The Sea

This was an interesting class project, paint a background, cover it with crinkled Saran Wrap, weight the wrap down and let the painting dry. Then go back into the painting and make a scene out of it!

I just randomly chose blue and green.  The effect made remember diving in the Caribbean.

This one just cried out for there to be some fishes in shallow water.  Throw in some kelp and viola!

It was fun because I had no clue what we were doing, where it was going, nor what I would end up with!

Happiness.

Fall Foliage

From another calendar photo, this time of fall foliage up in the Yukon.  The brush there is beautiful in fall but short in height.  I thought it would make a nice picture. And, actually this is a decent representation of what the photo was.

However, it is really boring rather than interesting.

The instructor pointed out that everything is the same height.   Yes, even though it is that way in the photo and nature - it needs to have variety in height to make an interesting composition. Hmmmmmm.

So, thus began the quest to understand composition ...

Creede Attempt Number 11

Still continuing to work on my painting of the Nelson Tunnel, above Creede, Colorado.

I am starting now to like the mountain more and just playing with the rest of the details. Trees still continue to taunt me - but it is the mountain that is giving me the most misery at the moment!

Nelson Tunnel - Attempt 1

Outside of Creede, Colorado is one of the most picturesque spots I know of in the world.  Since I was feeling cocky, I decided to attempt to paint this scene of the Nelson Tunnel.

Ha-Ha-Ha!  It was pretty horrible.

However, I learned a great by doing this (like what I need to learn!).

Chicago Peace Rose

Casting about for something different to paint, I spotted this beauty in the garden and settled down to paint it.

This is where I learned about the granulating colors. Yes, attack of the Ultramarine. It separated all over the place and made quite a mess of my picture.  And there is just no recovering from that one!

Oh well, live and learn - the endless cycle of watercolor!  So frustrating, so challenging, so satisfying when you win one!

Calendar Picture

I had this picture from a calendar of places in Chile.  I loved all of the blues, so thought I would try it since I had done one seascape already. Too bad it failed miserably.

However, what I did learn was about granulation of watercolor paints and how the concept of transparency works.  So it might have failed as a painting but it was a tremendous learning experience.  I can not say I have it all worked out yet - but I am not making these kinds of mistakes anymore!

So, I built a data base of all paints current on the market and their attributes.  New doubt what any IT tech will do when frustrated ...

:)

Sponging A Tree

Since the round brush did not do anything for me in making a tree look like a tree, I went to the sponge to see how that would work.

 Well, sort of an interesting effect but not really what I was looking for ...

Doing better with washes though.