tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60612388216407423412024-03-13T12:31:33.011-07:00E. C. LynestThe Influence of Art on an Ordinary LifeElainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-10594615522461893912015-04-08T21:36:00.001-07:002015-04-08T21:36:09.975-07:00Spring Class - Foggy MorningSpring break is over and it is back to class! The watercolor class is evolving from just painting flowers to painting a little bit of everything and experimenting with different techniques. So expect some different looking art on here.<br />
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This first week we are working on values again. Values can make or break a painting, I know many painters worry about the temperature of their colors, warm or cold colors, but without a good working knowledge of values in those colors the paintings don't work very well.<br />
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This is the reference photo for the painting in class. It was taken early in the morning before the fog burnt off. I found it interesting because of the depth created by the fog on the trees and vegetation. Plus the color of the sky against the silhouettes of the trees created a mysterious mood to the whole scene.<br />
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What I didn't particularly care for was that the trees bled off the bottom, so I made several changes to the final drawing for the painting. The trees have a base in the painting and I added a path and a birdbath.<br />
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After getting my drawing on the paper, 140# Arches cold press, I worked out the colors that would be used on the painting. The reason I did a color chart on this painting is because I really wanted a limited number of colors to help keep the mood of the painting. So for this painting I used Cadmium Yellow, Quinacridone Pink, Cerulean Blue, and Paynes Gray. <br />
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The Quinacridone Pink was a wonderful color to work with, mixed with Paynes Gray it made the perfect "foggy" mist, then adding a touch of Cerulean Blue turned it into a more "smokey" ground mist. I was surprised when I added it around the sun how a bit of an orange color around the bottom of the sun happened. One of those happy accidents that Bob Ross use to talk about!! I hope you all remember Bob Ross, he is still in reruns today.<br />
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Okay, to start the painting I wet my paper, the paper should not have any puddles on it, but you want to make sure that there are no dry spots either. If you tilt the paper to one side you can see where it is wet and where you might need to add some more water. I have found a small fine spray bottle works great for this or a haku bush. Be sure you are using clean water. I started by putting the Cadmium yellow in the sun area, then added the Quinacridone Pink going towards the top of my paper, and tilting my paper towards the top to make the colors run. While the paper is still wet I started adding the Cerulean Blue below the sun, adding some pink and even some Paynes Gray as it moved more to the bottom.<br />
When you are doing a wash of color like this keep in mind that once you have put the color down don't try to add or lift color while it is still wet. It will cause marks that are very difficult to remove. When you are doing a wash it has to be done all at once in a timely manner, before the paper is dry.<br />
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As the paper was drying I used a wadded up kleenex to blott out some clouds in the sky.<br />
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If you are working on a large piece of paper, do the wash in areas rather than the whole paper at once. In this piece the wash could be broken where the sky and fog meet. After the first few you do it becomes easier to do the whole background at one time. All it takes is a bit of confidence and a some preplanning on where you want to put your color. You can manipulate the colors in a wash by tipping and tilting your paper as it dries.<br />
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When the paper is completely dry, it's time to paint the foliage that is the farthest away. To give the illusion of distance and atmosphere a mixture of Paynes Gray and Quinacridone Pink and lots of water. This is the lightest value we will be working with. The composition has three main tree groups, the bushes and trees behind each group of trees is <br />
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painted with the light value.<br />
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Where the bottom of the trees meet the ground I dropped in a little darker value to give the trees a base to grow from. This also helps give shadow in the areas where there are many branches but not many leaves. <br />
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At this point only the light value should be painted, everything is very flat and no sharp edges on anything. As objects move to the back, edges are softened and lost. If your edges do look sharp, run a clean damp brush along the edge until the sharpness disappears. <br />
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Now on to the trees. The trees on the left are the farthest back, then the middle group and the trees on the right are the closest. So value wise the trees on the left will be the lightest, but darker that the bushes behind it, the middle trees are darker, than the first trees and the bushes behind, and the trees <br />
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on the right will be the darkest of the three groups of trees.<br />
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The trees are painted flat, what I mean by that is there are no marks on the tree of bark or holes. The light is dimmed by the fog so the trees are only silhouettes. Again, the edges of the trees may need to be softened to add to the illusion of distance, so take a damp brush and run it along the sides of the trees until it is softened.<br />
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Once the main trunks are in place add branches to fill in the upper area of the painting. Small groups of leaves can be put in place using variations of the lightest value to the middle value with an occasional pink leaf. Don't use the darkest value on the upper leaves of the trees.<br />
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Once the three groups of trees and branches are done it's time to put in the bushes and other foliage in front of the trees. This is where I changed the composition from the <br />
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photograph. I added a birdbath in the lower right side, grass and rocks and more branches fill in the space. This is where the darkest values are. Using mostly Paynes Gray with just a touch of Quinacradone Pink, here the edges can show a bit of sharpness as these items are close. In some of the foliage there is still light and medium values to give them depth.<br />
At the very bottom it is straight Paynes Gray, the branches coming in from the edge of the left side are the darkest of any on the painting. The fog is still covering the ground so much of what is on the ground is covered with only little bits showing through here and there.<br />
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This was a challenging painting, keeping track of the different levels of depth. In working on the painting I lightened some areas and darkened others, adjusting throughout the time I worked on the painting. I will be looking at this painting for a few days and perhaps making even more adjustment.<br />
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<br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-85000065269849636342015-03-07T17:08:00.001-08:002015-03-07T17:08:08.044-08:00Three Little Fishies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I started out just calling this painting "Koi", but the longer I worked on it the personality of the three fish took over the painting so the title "Three Little Fishies" came to be.<br />
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Not to sound like a broken record, but, be sure to check your drawing and make sure the entire pattern is there. A question I get quite a bit is where to start painting. I usually start on the right hand side, I'm right handed, so by beginning there I'm not dragging my hand and arm across the painting smearing paint or wiping off my drawing. Left handed people would do well to start on the right side.<br />
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Because there were so many elements, (fish, leaves, flowers, water) I wanted to do a little bit of each to work out my color palette.<br />
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Start the leaves by covering the leaf with a coat of light Sap Green, lots of water little pigment. As it is drying add more Sap Green where you want dark, into the dark also add some Paynes Gray. In other areas drop in some Quin. Gold or Yellow Ocher, add in some Cad Red and cad yellow and in some leaves even put in come Cobalt Blue. When I say "drop" in a color, I mean just that, don't use a brush stroke, just dab the color into a wet area and let the water blend the colors. Try to make the leaves different looking, some will have more of a color than another. If part of a leaf overlaps another leaf the top leaf will be be lighter where it overlaps and <br />
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the underneath leaf will be darker. If a leaf has a turn up that will be more of a brown to it is green and red with perhaps a touch of yellow. When a leaf is almost dry you can take a clean damp brush to wipe out some color for highlights.<br />
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While doing the leaves put the yellow centers in the flowers, using your darkest yellow.<br />
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Koi, like the fuchsia, come in many colors and combinations of colors. I chose to do all three in the same color, that way they are all equal and none stands out, they are part of the pattern. I used Cad. Red and Cad. Yellow to make a bright <br />
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orange. First the eyes are painted Paynes Gray and the inside of the mouth, when dry a coat of watered down orange over the whole fish, while still wet add more of the orange, less diluted. In the darker areas add pure Cad. Red, for the darker shaded areas use Paynes Gray. If you want some lighter area after you have all the paint on, use a damp clean brush to pull up some of the color. Some of the darkness on the fish that you see was put on when I painted in the water. If there is any question in your mind about putting down a color, don't. You can always add more shadows when the rest of the color on the painting is put in. It is surprising how the <br />
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addition of a new color can change a color that is already down.<br />
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When all the leaves are painted it's time to move on to the flowers. The dark yellow centers should be dry by now, using the same orange as the fish, put in some small strokes around some of the stamens. I used a very watered down Paynes Gray to put in the shadows on the petals of the flowers. Like the previous water lily, work on one petal at a time so you keep some white areas on each petal. When all the gray shadows are in place. I used a watered down Hansa Yellow on <br />
some of the petals. You can do the inside of a <br />
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petal or the outside, try not to do both. On the two flowers in the upper left, I also added a bit of pink, Alizarin Crimson. <br />
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For now leave the flowers and start on the water. I started on the left side by the two flowers. Here I used Cobalt Blue, Paynes Gray, and Antwerp Blue. First putting down a layer of Cobalt, then dropping in the gray close to the objects. Let the water move the pigment, the layering of the color will give you wonderful water movement. The very highest waterlily is the only flower that is actually sitting in the water. So while the <br />
paint is still damp, pull out the reflection of the <br />
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white petals in the water. Move around the top of the painting coming down on the right side with the Cobalt Blue. Don't try to paint all the area and then go back to add the dark. Do a small bit of the cobalt and while still wet keep adding gray to get a darker blue. To give distance, the farther away the water the darker the water. As we come forward a lighter blue base with arcing strokes give the appearance of ripples from the water being broken by the fish. Here again you want to get some dark shadows underneath the leaves. If you can, leave a hairline of white paper between dark water and leaf.<br />
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Okay now this is a bit scary. Take the lightest blue of the water and brush it over the fins of the the two front fish. Leave some bits of the original orange showing through.<br />
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At this point looking at three fish with their mouths open, I figured there should be some food for them. I made a dark brown and painted little pellets near the fish. While still damp I used a damp brush to take out a bit of a highlight out of each pellet, then when dry I used some Antwerp Blue at the base of each pellet for shadow.<br />
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I still wanted to put some grasses in along the bottom of the painting. There are several different ways of doing that. You can use your quarter inch flat and carefully pull out the paint where you want to put in the grass, time consuming and not always satisfactory. You could have used a resist before painting the rest of the painting. Leaves nice clean lines to fill in with new color. Or you could use gouche mixed with watercolor and paint over the watercolor already laid in. Gouche is opaque watercolor, it always reminds me of tempera paint in texture.<br />
I used the last method, exchanging the white gouche for gesso. <br />
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Gesso is used to prime canvases for oil or acrylic paint, but I have also found that it works well for priming watercolor paper for certain projects AND for mixing with watercolor for an opaque color to use over other colors. The gesso dries very quickly so once the color has been mixed in quickly stoke the grasses in, overlapping and bending some leaves of grass. I mixed several different colors of green, adding either yellow or blue.<br />
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Now you want to look at the whole painting see if there is any place that needs a darker shadow or a highlight that needs pulling out. Sometimes it can take days to see if there are changes or additions that you want to make or you will see it right away. Looking at your painting upside down or in a mirror will also show you if anything else needs to be done.<br />
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Here is the piece, I'm not sure if this one is finished or not, I see some areas that I might want to do some more work to, but for the most part I am happy with the results. I hope you are happy with your painting and ready to move on to your next challenge.</div>
<span id="goog_1161843007"></span><span id="goog_1161843008"></span>Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-15114636762699361702015-03-06T23:03:00.003-08:002015-03-06T23:03:58.764-08:00FuchsiaYears ago when I first moved here from the Midwest, I started a series of flowers. There were to be six in all and all of them were to be pink. The first was a peony, then a rose, a stargazer lily, parrot tulip, a hyacinth and last but not least a fuchsia. Well I finished the first four and got half way through the fifth and the sixth never made it, until now. I pulled the drawing up for this class to show another type of painting. This is a very "stylistic" type painting. It's all about design, the way the branches cross over, the perfect angle of the flowers and lastly the box around the flowers with the leaf at the top and the branch at the bottom breaking the box and no background. Just another way of putting a painting together.<br />
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I can't really stress enough that you must be sure that your drawing is correct and all there before you put one brush stroke down on your painting. Watercolor paper can be easily damaged by too much erasing or pencil work, making your paint difficult to manage and can even cause the color to darken in areas you don't want it to.<br />
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I do all my drawing on tracing paper, sometimes going through 10 or 12 sheets to refine my composition to exactly where I want it so there will be no changes once it is on the watercolor paper.<br />
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Okay once you have your drawing on the paper its time to start painting! I started this painting on the lowest open flower on the left. I chose to do my flower in two tones of pink, probably a carry back in my mind to finishing the series I started many years ago. But I gave you the option of using<br />
any color combination you wanted. Fuchsia come in so many<br />
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color combinations and they are all quite lovely.<br />
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Here you can see what the flower started out like, I was using Permanent Rose and Cobalt Blue for the top part of the flower and a mixture of Permanent Rose, Hansa Yellow, and Quin. Gold for the bell petals. Where I wanted to get darker shadows I very lightly used Paynes Gray. I didn't wet the area of the petals before I put my color down, but used a very light coat of color then as the area was drying I kept adding more and more color, allowing the water to blend the paint. If you get dark lines of color where pigment has floated to the edge of an area, use a clean brush, wet it, wipe it almost dry on a paper towel, then slowly run the tip of the brush along the line. Wipe the brush every little bit so the extra pigment is taken off the painting surface.<br />
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The stamens on this particular flower are the same color as the top of the flower, as is the stem of the flower. You can do <br />
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them as you do each flower or wait and do them all at one time when the body of the flowers are all done.<br />
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Following the flowers from bottom up I did the next flower, then skipped up to the unopened bud at the top. I did that one next because it is behind the other two flowers making it easier to make the petals of the front flower appear closer. It is a good rule of thumb when painting to consider the location of your items. Closer items will have sharper edges, items further back or behind will have softer edges. The further back an item is the softer, or blurryer (I'm not sure that is a real word, but you get the idea) an item will be. When I say item it can mean furniture in a room or the petals of one flower. By making close up items sharp and in focus and farther away items softer you create depth to your painting.<br />
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After finishing the flowers on the right I went back and did the last two buds on the left side. Why I saved them for the <br />
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last I have no idea, it just turned out that way. And here is where I ran into a problem with color. The buds are the same color as the top of the open flowers, the left petal of the open flower ran over the right bud and got totally lost. Normally I would just use my quarter inch flat and pull some color out and put a shadow under the petal to make it stand out. In this case I couldn't because I was using Permanent Rose, and when they say Permanent they mean Permanent. So instead of going lighter I went darker, adding some Paynes Gray to the tip of the petal. Now because I did it on that petal I used the same mixture in the shadows of the other three petals on this flower and very sparingly on the other flowers and buds as well.<br />
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The stems of the flowers are the same color at the darker color of the flowers, as the stem goes up towards the branch I added just a touch of sap green while the pink was still wet.<br />
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Before moving on to the leaves I want to point out an error I made it this painting that I didn't see until looking at the photos as I put them on this blog. The flower on the farthest right has a petal painted the paler color rather than the darker color. Do you see it? We all get tunnel vision when working on a painting, including me. This is an easy fix, all I have to do is go in with the darker color and do a little reworking of the petal next to it and it will be okay. If it had been the opposite and a light petal had been painted dark, it might have required a bit more work but would still be possible. Because this particular flower comes in so many color combinations I would have changed the lighter colors on all the flowers to a dark purple and saved the painting. Never get so frustrated with a painting that you give up on it without going over all your options. If is beyond help, it is still a learning experience and after all it is only one piece of paper. Start again or move on to another subject.<br />
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Okay the leaves are all Sap Green, to lighten add Hansa Yellow, to darken add Cobalt Blue, to really darken add Paynes Gray, For these leaves I work one side at a time, quickly brush on a coat of Sap Green watered down, leaving the little stem white. While still wet I drop in the other colors. No two sides of the leaf is the same color, usually the side that is farthest away is darker, closer is lighter either by adding some yellow or watering down the pigment. The stem that goes down the center of the leaf and connects to the branch is a mixture of Sap Green, Paynes Gray and a touch of Permanent Pink. The stem will look better if you don't make it a solid color from tip to end. Vary the strength of the color by the amount of water you add to the pigment. If your color gets too dark you can use a damp brush to pick up some of the color, one of the reasons I love sap green is because it is pretty easy to pick up. the branches are next to last to do and are a mixture of Cobalt Blue, Hansa Yellow and whatever red you used in your flowers. You should end up with a greenish brown color. As you are painting the branch in some places add a little extra of the red to make a reddish brown. Again, try to vary the color as you move along the branch, your branch will look more dimensional if you do. The border around the edge is just straight Sap Green.<br />
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Here is the finished piece, or almost finished piece, I do have to go in and change that one petal!! Now that I see it I can't take my eyes off of it. Hope you enjoyed doing this painting. Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-38767538951406759012015-02-23T20:23:00.003-08:002015-02-23T20:23:52.498-08:00Spring has Sprung in the Pacific Northwest!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Beautiful weather here, daffodils, crocus, and various flowers are blooming, grass needs mowing and the flowering trees are bursting with color. Kind of scary really, it's only the last week of February and all those little tender shoots have a long way to go before they are safe from cold weather. Usually this time of year I am chomping at the bit to get out and do some gardening, so to inspire myself I try to do some spring flower paintings. I found this photo of some lovely pink and yellow tulips sitting on an old distressed chair with dandelions blooming in the grass, perfect, everything I love about Spring in one photo!! Yes I even love dandelions!!<br />
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This painting is a little more difficult than the waterlily, lots of greens. Green can be a difficult color to work with, and because there are green in green areas in this painting there is a tendency to want to use different shades of green. Doing that can cause the painting to loose its harmony. In a painting like this I use one color of green, in this case I used Sap Green, I changed the values of my green by<br />
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what I add to it. For the back ground on the bottom third I added
Paynes Gray and some Ultramarine Blue, as I moved up I added New Gambogue
and Yellow Ochre. Before I put the green down at the top I painted in
the dandelions, let them dry, then finished painting in the Sap Green
with a bit of Cad Yellow around them. I found when I finished that the green was a
bit bright so when it was totally dry I did a wash of Quin. Pink over the
entire background (not the dandelions). That grayed the green down to
where the flower leaves would stand out.<br />
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One of the things I do before putting paint to paper, is to check my drawing. Using a No. 2 pencil, I connect broken lines, make sure the entire drawing has been transferred, darken any lines that are too light to see easily, erase confusing lines. The little bit of time you spend doing this will pay off big time when you are painting the picture.<br />
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After the background is in and dry, the next thing to get painted in is the the back of the chair. Cerulean Blue for that soft sky blue color. In this painting I did not wet the paper first before applying color, here I put the color down then wet as needed. It is a much more controlled way of painting. As the blue was drying drop in a little more pigment on either side, pull a little color out of the center, this gives the illusion the back is bowed. When dry a little line of darker color along the bottom to give it depth. The crackle lines are put in with a small brush, short straight lines angled into another straight line, very few curves. Paynes Gray works great for this task.<br />
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Next were the spindles, paint them all, including where the paint is peeling off with watered down New Gambogue, as it is drying add a little more pigment to the edges to create roundness. Get your edges clean and put in the shading where the knobs are. When it is totally dry it's time to do the peeling paint. The color is<br />
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a mixture of Sap Green, Quin Pink (or Alizarin Crimson), and Cerulean Blue, mix together until you get a reddish brown. You can make it lighter by adding more water or darker by adding a little Paynes Gray. Looking at the photo you can see where the paint is chipping off, dab the color on with short strokes. You can see in the photo I used some of the same brown for shadows in areas where the paint is not peeling. These areas should not be just a flat color, try to get variations in the brown by adding more pigment in some areas or pulling some out with a damp brush. the more variation in color you get the more is will round out the spindles.<br />
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When that is all done it is time to move on to my favorite part of the painting the tulips. For the pink tulips it is Quin Pink (or Alizarin Crimson), for the yellow New Gambogue. Leave the paper for the tops of the tulip, starting at the bottom of the petal, drop in your color, clean your brush, leave damp and drag the color up towards the top of the petal, leaving the top <br />
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of the petal uncolored. The inside of the tulip will be darker towards the bottom, lightening as it goes up toward the edge. In some cases I left a small line of white, in others took the color all the way to the top. The yellow tulip that is pitched forward has a few dark pieces that are Paynes Gray.<br />
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Next was the stems and leaves. Just Sap Green, Cerulean Blue and Paynes Gray. No Yellow in the leaves, any yellow would make them disappear into the background. If you look at the photo, you can see that the leaves do not stand out that much, they are there but the tulips are <br />
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the center of attention. There is some yellow in the tulip stems, but more towards the inside. When doing leaves like the two branches sticking out to the sides, have a lighter side the overlaps the dark of the leaf underneath. That builds volume and dimension. The little dangling flowers are white paper with the same green as the leaves along the bottom.<br />
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The chair seat is Quin Pink and Rose Madder, and some of the brown from the spindles. You can leave some white areas or whatever to make the seat look old and battered.<br />
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This is where I ran into a bit of a quandary. I really didn't like the clear jar the tulips were in and although I had dropped a bit of the blue in the chair seat, the back was the only place with a noticeable blue in it. So I decided to make a change to the color scheme of the painting, by making the jar blue and the ball of string green.<br />
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To get the color of the old Ball jars I mixed Cerulean Blue and Sap Green. In areas where it needed to be a bit darker just adding some Paynes Gray did the trick. First decide where you are going to leave the glass reflections, if you are not confident about leaving those areas white use some friskit. Paint in the stems, using the same colors as the top, where the stems enter the water leave a little line of white paper. When dry put in the blue shadows on the jar, remember too that there will be reflections of the pink chair bottom and the green twine in the jar. All the colors and shadows get put in place now, When all of that is totally dry, do a wash of the blue over the entire jar, except where you have left highlights. The wash should be light in color and go on in one or two light strokes. If you keep brushing it will pick up the paint underneath and it turns into a muddy color. If you want to pick out more reflections, use your 1/4" flat. The green ball of twine is green because "why not?". There is so much green in the painting it just seemed to fit in.<br />
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Here is the final piece, although I may end up doing a few more things to it after I have lived with it for awhile.<br />
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I harp on values a lot in class because they are so important for a successful piece of art, no matter what medium you choose to work in. I read a quote today that really hits the mark.<br />
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<i><b>Values do the work, Color gets the glory.</b></i><br />
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Think about it!!Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-40585085763328182892015-02-12T22:53:00.002-08:002015-02-12T22:53:39.116-08:00Waterlily - 2-10-15<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9TkBrkGUl3c/VN2O4J6nBZI/AAAAAAAAAfM/LLqtG3isZhg/s1600/waterlily%2B9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9TkBrkGUl3c/VN2O4J6nBZI/AAAAAAAAAfM/LLqtG3isZhg/s1600/waterlily%2B9.jpg" height="380" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Waterlily</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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This week the painting we did was of a white waterlily in bright sunlight. One of the peculiarities of painting with watercolor is that for the most part not using white paint to show highlights or to lighten colors. The white of the paper is left unpainted to show highlights and as far as lightening colors it is just a matter of adding enough water to lighten the color. If you have used oils, acylics or pastels, you know that for highlights you add white paint for highlights as one of the final touches to complete a piece of art. In watercolor, whites must be planned in advance of laying down any colors, especially if you are using dark colors. Once color is down it is almost impossible to get your paper back to its original sharp white. That being said, this painting needed the pure white of the paper to show the light coming through the petals.<br />
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So in the areas where I wanted to keep white I applied masking fluid. I used PEBO masking, which is a water based liquid, nice and very easy to apply. One of the other things I normally do before beginning a painting is putting artists tape all around the area that will be the painting. This gives me nice sharp edges when it is removed. I use a white artists tape, available at most art supply stores, but you can also use painters tape, the same tape you would use when painting rooms in your home. <br />
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The background was the first thing that I painted. I mixed a combination of Antwerp blue and Payne's gray, about a 50/50 mix. I wet the paper being careful to not let the water go into any areas of the petals. I wanted a pretty solid background so after the first coat of paint was completely dry I added a second coat of the same mixture. While the background is drying I started working on the shading on the flower petals. The photo's above show the shadows after I rubbed off the masking fluid. I used the same mixture of colors that I used on the background only adding lots of water to make the color much lighter. <br />
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Next I painted the stamens with New Gamboge (yellow), as the paint started to dry I added another coat of paint to the left side of each stamen to give the illusion of roundness. The base of the petals also gets a a light wash of yellow, the reflection of the stamens through the petals. Also now is the time to look at the shadows on the petals, perhaps adding a little more dark in some areas or lightening some others. There is a pattern of shadows underneath the petals and the water, I used the same colors as the background to lay them in.<br />
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Sometime, even though I had planned the painting out a certain way, as I work on the <br />
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painting I may decide to make a change to the plan. In this case I felt the petals were too stark and they need just a touch of color. So I did a light wash of very watered down quinactridone rose over some of the shadowed areas on the petals. I liked the little bit of warmth it gave to the shadows.<br />
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The reflection of the flower in the water was next. Using the same colors as the top, with the addition of a lot of water, I quickly brushed in the reflection of the shadows on the petals, added a bit of the yellow and rose. When almost dry I used my 1" flat, wet but not dripping wet, and dragged it across the reflected petals. Brushing in one direction only, if you brush back and forth it ends up just muddying the paint. When the petals <br />
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are dry I painted in the rest of the water with just the Antwerp blue, added some Payne's gray next to the petals and while slightly wet, using the 1" flat brushed the blue across the reflection of the petals. Last I put in the yellow reflection of the stamens.<br />
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There are 4 drops of water on the lily, very easy to paint. Using Payne's gray, put a shadow line around the drop where is overlaps the white petal, inside the drop leave a white area all around the inside of the line, then there is a shadow the goes from dark to light starting on the left side and then graduating to pure white<br />
on the right side. The three drops on the far left petal are a little darker. When I was sure all the paint was totally dry I removed the tape, used my kneaded eraser to take off any pencil lines that were still visible. Done!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ey6xsjOjGZ8/VN2dX1CuCyI/AAAAAAAAAgU/1g-fzyzDxzc/s1600/Dee%27s%2Bbarn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ey6xsjOjGZ8/VN2dX1CuCyI/AAAAAAAAAgU/1g-fzyzDxzc/s1600/Dee's%2Bbarn.jpg" height="225" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here are two more finished barn painting. Very successful!!</td></tr>
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<br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-33542345497490632552015-02-07T16:23:00.001-08:002015-02-07T16:39:17.597-08:00BARNSI've been teaching watercolor classes for over 20 years and one of the problems that many artists have is seeing the values and translating them onto their paper. First of all I should explain what I mean when I talk about values.<br />
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VALUE is defined as the relative lightness or darkness of a color. It defines form and creates spatial illusions.<br />
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CONTRAST of value separates objects in space.<br />
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GRADATION of value suggests mass and contour of a contiguous surface.<br />
If values are close, shapes will seem to flatten out, and seem closely connected in space; none will stand out from the others. If values contrast, shapes will appear to separate in space and some will stand out from the others. This works whether the colors are just black, white and gray, or whether hues are involved.<br />
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So when I found the photograph of the barns I thought they would be perfect to do a value study of, wonderful shapes and shadows. After the value study to do the same photo in full color would be a great learning experience.<br />
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This is the value study I did using one color. When choosing a color to do a value study it is better to pick a color that will give you a good dark. Remember that you can add nothing to the color you pick to get a darker value than what 100% of the pigment will give you.<br />
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To get the different values in watercolor it is just a matter of adding water to the color you have chosen to get the different gradations. Your darkest values are from the pigment with the smallest amount of water, just enough to make it move. You can get it a little darker by doing more than one coat of paint, but be sure the first coat is really dry. The lightest values are achieved by mostly water with just a touch of pigment.<br />
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If you get too much pigment down it is easily lightened with a bit of water and dabbing with a paper towel or tissue. <br />
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This is my finished color piece. I used a warm red, cad red med, and a cool red, alyziran crimson, plus paynes grey. I also put in a little yellow ochre on some of the closest barn.<br />
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In both paintings I started with the sky, wetting the area with clear water then adding a light wash of paynes grey across the top then tilted my paper so the color would run down. I wanted the darkest sky at the top of the page and then fading as it went down towards the roofs. Anywhere there was snow I left the white of the paper, so where the roof of the tallest barn meets the sky there is only a small value change between the sky and the snow on the roof. I then painted the dark roofs to get my pattern of dark and light on the paper. Then I progressively moved forward painting the back barn first then the middle and lastly the front building.<br />
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Many times as I am painting I will go back and rework an area, either lightening or darkening. <br />
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When working from a photograph like the one at left, you as the artist need to make some decisions. In this instance I chose to leave out the grass in the foreground, changed the shape of the windows and darkened the shadows a bit more. I have a tendency to go for a more dramatic feel to the colored piece, although in the value study I followed the photograph a bit more closely for values. You, as the artist, can make changes in the composition, color and atmosphere if you feel it would make a more interesting painting. The more you paint and play with the colors the more confidence you will acquire and the more fun you will have painting.<br />
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Here is a close up of the front building. Interesting how the one on the left photographed about the right color and the one on right so much darker. On both you can see how I left the paper to show snow and then used a very light paynes grey wash to indicate shadows.<br />
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Two shot of the roofs, one showing the sky up against the snow on the roof and the other where some has either blown off or melted a bit.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checking out everyone's paintings.</td></tr>
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At the end of class, in the last 15 minutes or so, I like to have everyone put their paintings up on the board and we do a critique of each others work. The thing that always amazes me is that everyone is working from the same photograph and drawing, using pretty much the same paint colors, similar paper and brushes, but every painting is different in big right down to subtle ways. That is my favorite part of teaching.<br />
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One of the most important things you will learn from me is to NOT compare your work with anyone else. YOU are an individual and the only one to compare with is yourself. Every painting and or drawing is a learning experience, learn from your successes and your failures. There is no right way or wrong way there is only your way.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hOhdMmaCIoY/VNabGZqTTbI/AAAAAAAAAes/YafKWEKGAjQ/s1600/st%2Bbarns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hOhdMmaCIoY/VNabGZqTTbI/AAAAAAAAAes/YafKWEKGAjQ/s1600/st%2Bbarns.jpg" height="156" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barn paintings in work.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JTJQXYefr_w/VNaaEGEnMMI/AAAAAAAAAeE/YwCimW6wiD4/s1600/collage%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JTJQXYefr_w/VNaaEGEnMMI/AAAAAAAAAeE/YwCimW6wiD4/s1600/collage%2B4.jpg" height="117" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the value studies.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artists at work!!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Next weeks project is a waterlily in bright sunlight. I gave out the drawings last week and suggested that you might want to put on resist to keep the sunlit areas from getting any color on them. Here is where I applied it. The photo has some reflective areas and that is also where the resist is.<br />
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See you Tuesday, Happy Painting!!<br />
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<br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-91655139457723421022014-05-08T13:12:00.000-07:002014-05-08T13:12:01.772-07:00Yellow Roses 5-6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This a watercolor that I did a few years ago of roses from my garden. Originally I wanted to paint a whole still life, crystal vase, lemons, table. The more I looked at the flowers and turned them for the best view the more I could see the patterns of the petals and wanted to do them large. I pretty much used the flowers in front of me to draw from, but after looking at the drawing I decided to add one more but to the lower right side for balance. Thus this composition. The dark negative space came out nicely and completed the composition.<br />
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As you may have discovered, yellows can be difficult to work with. Normally if you wanted to create shadows on yellow you would add the complimentary color, which would be purple. In the case of this rose I chose to use cad red with just a touch of purple. Yellow can become muddy so easily and I wanted to keep the brightness of the yellow. I used 3 different yellows, a light, med, and dark. Almost any yellows would work, cads, hansa, gamboge, the only one to stay away from would be lemon yellow, it has white in it and looks heavy and opaque. When you are working with the light yellow use more water, as you want to get darker color less water more pigment. In the shadows I use cad red light. The key to getting a dimensional look to the flower is to remember the lightest light next to the darkest dark. The outside edge of a petal should be light and cast a shadow on the petal underneath. Flowers with layered petals will almost always work that way and if you keep that in minds you will get a nice dimensional effect. <br />
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The leaves and stems are done in sap green, lighten with more water, darken with ultramarine blue. I always like to add a little color from the flower into the leaves, so in this case I added a little yellow on some of the leaves and a little cad red on the tips of a few. You may notice on these leaves I did dark veining. On the last two paintings, the magnolia and the tree peony when I painted the leaves I left them white and then ran a light color in the space after the leaves were dry. This is something you can decide as you are painting to compliment the composition. If I have a lot of veining in the flower I will usually do white veining in the flower. A flower like the rose which has no veining I will do a dark veining on the leaves. <br />
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The background is several coats of ultramarine blue or if you don't have that you could use cobalt blue. When you want a solid dark background don't try to do it all in one coat, the result can be very uneven. I do a light coat and let it dry totally, when you do subsequent coats only brush an area one time. The more times you stroke an area the better the chance that the paint underneath will pick up and you will have a hard time getting an even coat of paint. This is also the time to clean up the edges of your flowers. There are times when you will want to put the background in before you paint your flowers, white or light colored flowers can work for that method. Most of the time I will paint the flower first and then put in my background or many times that the flower doesn't need a background color. It pays when you are painting your flowers to keep your paper as clean as possible in case you decide to not put in a colored background. This is a decision you, as the artist, have a choice on.<br />
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I will still be posting how to finish the magnolia, hopefully before the next class. and photos of finished pieces from the class. Beautiful work!!Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-90039439420252422292014-04-23T20:56:00.000-07:002014-04-23T20:56:10.307-07:00Tree Peony - 4-22-14What a talented group of painters in the watercolor class! Each week I am more and more impressed by the quality of work being produced. Last week the project was white daisies, not as easy as it sounds. White flowers on white paper without using any white paint can be a real challenge. As you can see the challenge was well met.<br />
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And as a real plus one talented artist painted a very charismatic cat that is worth sharing.<br />
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This last Tuesday the project was a tree peony with a little oriental twist and a very limited palette.<br />
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The main color of the flower is a peach color created with Cad Red and Lemon Yellow, (or Cad Yellow light), variations on the color are made by adding Alizarin and New Gamboge.<br />
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The green for the leaves is created by mixing Cerulean Blue and New Gamboge, it makes a lovely green. To darken use a touch of Paynes Grey, lighten by adding more yellow.<br />
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The stems of the tree peony are woody, so I created the color by using the peach color and the green of the leaves, the two colors combined make a wonderful brown. The cerulean blue gives the brown a misty look.<br />
One of the secrets to a more dimensional flower <br />
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is how you handle the
shadows in each petal of the flower. This tree peony has ruffled edges
on the outer edge of each petal. When you paint in the shadows on the
petals look at the ruffles, choose to put the shadow where the ruffle
comes down into the petal, by putting the shadow there it makes the
outward ruffle come forward. For this flower it is really important to try and show the shadows of the crinkling of the petals. Think of crepe paper, with its many wrinkles, that is the closest material I can think of that is similar to the tree peony petal.<br />
I do one petal at a time, wetting the area with clean water then dropping in the color. As the <br />
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paper dries I keep adding darker color where needed or pulling out color
for highlights. I try to get all my color on each petal before it dries
completely. The colors blend together much better when just slightly wet.
Too wet and the pigment floats on the water, too dry and you can see
the additional layers sitting on top.<br />
The next petal should be away from the one you just worked on, to keep the petals distinct from each other and give dimension to the flower. Remember where you have the darkest shadow, the lightest light goes next to it. I usually work my way around the flower by doing every other petal, by the time I have worked my way around <br />
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the flower the petals are dry and I can start to fill in until all the petals are painted. This drawing has petals that have little turns, or fold overs, where you see the back of the petal. This is another opportunity to give the flower more dimension. On the inside of the petal there will be a strong shadow to make the fold over stand away from the rest of the petal, the edge of the back of the petal needs to be lighter gradually getting darker as it goes towards the base. Think of a sea shell as you shade in the area. <br />
This is also a good time to think of your values. Values give your flower dimension. Without the dark shadows and highlights the flower will appear flat, the petals just lying on top of one another. Values make the petals appear to have space between them and to give the flower a 3 dimensional look. <br />
Learning to see and work with values can make the difference between a very successful painting and a mediocre piece. For this painting see if there are areas that would benefit from <br />
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darkening. If you add some dark in the lower left area ( using numbers on a clock), at 8, then add some dark at 12 an 4. That will balance the color in your flower. Do the same with the lights.This may sound like a broken record but as you paint remember your darkest darks go next to your lightest lights.<br />
For the center of the flower, I put in a line of dark along the edge of the petal in front with my darkest shadow color, then softened the inside edge with a damp brush. Using my small round (#4) I put dots of new gamboge at different heights above the dark shadow. When that was dry I used my small brush and drew fine lines around the yellow dots and put a tiny dot in the center of each yellow dot and drew a line down into the shadow. You can pull out some dots in the shadow with the point of a clean damp brush.<br />
Now it is time to put in the krinkle lines on the petals. Think<br />
again about a sea shell, the lines have to curve with the shape <br />
of the petal. Straight lines will flatten the petal, by curving <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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your
lines you add more dimension. The lines start at the bottom close
together, as they move up towards the middle they spread apart and close
up again as they go towards the top. Very few of the lines reach the
top edge of a petal. The lines can wiggle a little, break apart and
start again. Try to keep them from looking mechanical, vary the length
and spacing. I used straight cad red, use only the very tip of your
smallest round brush. Hold the brush straight up and down and do quick
strokes, the more you do the easier it gets. One of the major
differences between the tree peony and a regular peony is that the tree
peony does not die back in the winter, the stems are woody. So for this
painting the stem is painted a warm brown, created by using my darkest flower color and my darkest leaf color. You can see in the photo at left on the branches that are thinner leading to the leaves, the stems change to the dark green of the leaves. The leaves are painted <br /> with a mixture of the cerulean blue and new gamboge, leaning towards the
blue. In some areas I dropped in the color <br />
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of the flower to give the
leaves movement. When I paint leaves like these I tend to paint half of
the leaf at a time leaving a thin white line between the halves.
Sometimes I will go back in and darken the line to one side to create a
shadow. Like the flower petals, there are no straight lines in the
leaves, the lines follow the curving of the leaves. You want your leaves
to have movement, curved lines do that.<br />
The last two things I painted were the small bud at the bottom and the opening flower at the top. Both of these were added to the composition to make the color flow. These were worked the same way as the large flower. Even though I added the flower color to the leaves, the big bright color of the flower creates a "hole" in the composition. The
viewers eye does not flow through the painting. By adding the flower
color <br />
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at the bottom and then again at the top the viewers eye is pulled
into, up and out of the painting. With no color to help in the
background the composition has to do all the work.<br />
The very last thing to do is erase as much of the pencil lines as possible. If you have left the edges of the petals very light you will get a very nice "lost edge" effect on the flower.<br />
Okay the very last thing to see on this painting is to check if my values hold up. Are there enough darks, is there a pattern of darks to make the pieces hold together? Do the light areas sparkle?<br />
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Check your paintings out by making a black and white copy, it will show you any changes that need to be made. This is one of the best learning techniques you can employ.<br />
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Nest Tuesday we will be doing a magnolia, 'Queen" of the spring bloomers. Here is the pattern. Have a great weekend! <br />
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Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-50887225308953198922014-04-18T15:04:00.000-07:002014-04-18T15:18:17.137-07:004-15-14 - Daisey Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Great class this week, the crocus painting was hard but the finished paintings are great, and I am sure the paintings that are still in progress will turn out wonderful. As the paintings get done I will post them here on my blog.<br />
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This particular painting was planned to teach a different way of dealing with backgrounds. The crocus flowers are like jewels, the background is the platinum setting that shows off the jewels . The background on the crocus was really fun to do, many colors running together, salt, kleenex . . . anything and everything! Experimenting can be a lot of fun, and especially with watercolor, if you don't like it wipe it out and try something else.<br />
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In my last blog I mentioned that I made a mistake on one of the yellow flowers, but decided to live with it, well that only lasted for one day. I kept looking at the painting, going to that one flower and it really bothered me. The yellow flowers created a line in the middle of the painting, nope can't live with that, so out comes the 1/4" flat. I carefully wet the flower and pulled the color out until all that was left was a faint yellow cast. I then used some white gesso in the area of the flower, if you remember this painting was done on watercolor board coated with gesso, that gave me a pure white to put in the shading for a white flower. I am a much happier with the finished piece now!<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aBb_FZx2kac/U1GPDD86KVI/AAAAAAAAAYg/GmsI5R-9Qzg/s1600/my+crocusb%253Aw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aBb_FZx2kac/U1GPDD86KVI/AAAAAAAAAYg/GmsI5R-9Qzg/s1600/my+crocusb%253Aw.jpg" height="400" width="282" /></a>The crocus painting is a really good example of color values. I have two photos of the painting, one is in color, the second I deleted the color in photoshop. Sometimes when working in color it is hard to see values. What do I mean by values? The variation in one color from light to dark in one area. For instance, we see a leaf as green, dark or light. If we put another color next to it, lets say we put a dark blue next to a dark green, they are the same value, change them to black and white and you would not be able to see the difference between the two colors. A green leaf may have as many values as you want to put into it, and with the addition of each value you add shape and dimension. As you can see in the black and white photo, even in the background you can see the different values, I used a darker value to make the flowers "pop". the green leaves, although dark and the background is dark, the value of the leaf is a little darker and by pulling a bit of color out of the center they are easily visible. The black and white version of the painting holds together as well as the colored photo, so for me this is a very successful piece. You can test your own paintings for values by getting a black and white copy made When you are first learning to work with values it is a great help.<br />
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This week we worked on a daisy painting, a simple painting of a simple flower. The original painting was done a few years ago as the background for a poster. Each year I did a different flower grouping in front of a<br />
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picket fence for the poster, since daisies are one of my favorite flowers I kept the
painting and now shared it with you. When I gave you the pattern I did not
put the fence in, and left that up to you whether you put it in or not. The colors used in this painting are paynes gray, sap green, new gamboge, and a touch of cad red. Paynes gray can be a little tricky, it is made from black and ultramarine blue. Some manufacturers don't use enough ultramarine so you may have to add more to get the desired effect. The cad red is used only for the flower centers for shading.<br />
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The lesson to learn from this painting is how to paint white
flowers. Simple? Not really. It is too easy to fill too much of the
white petals with shadow, then losing the whole idea of a white flower. I
have found it easier to pick my background color, in this case paynes
gray, and lightly put that in around the outside edge of the flower
petals. Now I have given the flower shape, I also know where to put in
the shadows on the petals to give them dimension. Again this is where
the values of the shadows create <br />
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dimension. Look at the color photo then at the black and white. The objects in the painting still retain their shapes, what is front still keep the illusion of being in front. Probably the best example of the values can be seen in the leafy area at the bottom of the painting. You can see the depth of the plant, <br />
some leaves are in front other are in back. I used sap green, new
gamboge and paynes gray to achieve that. Sap green is my mid value/tone,
for the darker areas I added paynes gray in increments so I ended up
with four or five different values of dark green. The same thing was
done to the leaves up front by adding new gamboge several times to get
different values and then is some areas using my 1/4" flat to pull out
some paint along edges. A good rule of thumb is darkest dark next to you
lightest light creates depth.<br />
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When you paint you are the magician, you create the illusion of
light, shadow, color, depth and emotion. You decide how much of each
will be in each of your creations.<br />
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Next week we will be starting on a tree peony painting with a bit of an oriental flair. No background on this painting, so you must be careful with your edges. I am posting the painting partial done and will continue the painting in class. This painting is about color mixing, you will note the different green of the leaves and the flower itself is a peach color. <br />
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I post a new painting each week of the class, however I do not expect you to finish a painting a week, so please do not stress out if you only get one or two of the paintings done. This class is a place for you to relax, have some fun, and learn a little along the way. Be as creative with the paintings as you wish, but most of all enjoy what you are doing.<br />
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See you all next week, enjoy your weekend!! <br />
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<br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-10406578057443345222014-04-10T21:01:00.000-07:002014-04-10T21:01:04.512-07:00Last Class Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-24191141473441326712014-04-10T20:56:00.000-07:002014-04-10T21:15:15.166-07:00Watercolor Class - April 8thWOW!! This class is huge! I had planned on the first class to do a crocus painting using a little different method and a few twists. What I hadn't planned on were so many new students who weren't use to painting with me. So, I apologize for the confusion last week. How I like to work in the class is to have a painting done and hand out a pattern for that, then do another painting of a piece of the larger painting to demonstrate how I did the larger painting. I work with each student as I walk around the class. The pattern for the next class is posted on this blog by Friday before the next class along with a series of photographs showing how I painted the piece. You can download and make it the size you want to work with or you can wait until class to get the pattern.<br />
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Next week we will be painting white daisies, here is the pattern.<br />
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I had planned to make 3 of the flowers white, but while I was working
with the yellow I forgot and made one of the flowers that was supposed
to be white yellow. The top right yellow flower in white would have made the composition better, but I will have to live with it. As I worked on this area I cleaned the edges of the petals from the inside with a damp 1/4" flat then added more dark around the flowers to give the petals a cleaner line. When you are trying to keep your lines clean be sure the area where you are working is dry. The yellow flowers, to me, are the closest, so there is more detail in them with a cleaner line, as I work my way up the edges bleed into the background a bit more. I am cleaning up some of the pencil lines at this point but I am leaving some too.<br />
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This is how I am starting the white flowers, I<br />
am using the same purple, ultramarine blue<br />
and alizarin crimson-more towards the reddish<br />
side of purple, that is in the background with lots of water added. If you look at the photo carefully you can see the hard edges of the wash I put in. Even after the wash is down and dry you can take a wet, not dripping, brush and go along the edge of the line and the pigment will move into a nice gradual shadow. Once the purple is down<br />
you can use your 1/4" flat to wipe out some of the color to create the white shapes. Remember, your darkest darks work best next to your lightest lights.<br />
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I used the same purple color for the shading on this flower, but then added some paynes gray to get the heavy darkness is a few areas and also added some alizarin crimson to the two back petals in the back to give it some interest. I did the centers the same on both of the white flowers I filled in the center with the same darker yellow then with a semi dry brush I dragged some of the yellow up the petals. When the yellow was almost totally dry I went in with a small round brush and made circles with cad red, leaving a yellow center. After it had dried I added some of the dark purple for shadows. Using the 1/4" flat I cleaned up the color out of the flower petal edges and folded over tips. I wanted them to be perfectly white if possible. The very last thing I did was with the tip of my small round, I pulled the color out of the center of some of the center circles. Again make sure when you pull color out clean your brush and wipe on a paper towel. You want it to be just damp enough to grab the pigment sitting on top.<br />
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First purple flower, work it pretty much the same as the other flowers, using a reddish purple - alizarin and ultramarine. To do the darker areas use more concentrated color, the lighter areas use more water, less concentrated color. When the paint is almost dry, use a damp brush to pull out the highlights. I did the same color combination for the center. If you look closely at these photos, you can see the lines that the coat of gesso on the watercolor paper has left.<br />
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When I got to the last flower it needed to be a little darker than the flower in front of it, so I altered my formula, adding more ultramarine and a little less of the alizarin. For the really dark shadows I added a little paynes gray. At this point I realized that I had the point of a leaf sticking out behind the last flower, and angle of it needed a base somewhere. So using my ever handy 1/4" flat, I used the edge to pull the background color out below the top flower and to the left of the other purple flower. The background color has to be removed to make the green of this leaf match the others even though it is back further.<br />
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Now is the time to see what needs to be done to finish this painting. I erase as much of the pencil lines around the flowers as I want gone, leaving some here and there. I then added more dark background color around the flowers to make the petals stand out more, I also added the same dark in the centers of the flowers that had stamens showing. I sharpened up some of the whites by pulling some more of the color out. When I did the background I had pulled out some little circles down on the left hand side to add some interest, in the completed piece I really liked the way they looked down there and decided to add a few more. Finally I was satisfied with how it ended up looking and finally signed my name! So off comes the tape and I am very happy with how the painting ended up.<br />
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I hope this has helped you finish your painting. If you need more help with it bring it back to class. If you have finished it be sure to bring it in for the critique.<br />
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Critique you say? Yes at the end of the class I like to have all the students put their work up front, sounds scary I know, but after a while you will enjoy seeing what everyone else is doing and learn to make changes or have questions answered that will make your paintings better.<br />
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Have a lovely weekend, enjoy the promised sunshine and we shall meet again on Tuesday.Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-51511433930097559332014-04-03T15:54:00.000-07:002014-04-03T15:54:21.315-07:00Spring is in the Air! It seems like last winter lasted longer than usual and I am more than ready for spring to appear. The grass is green and growing, the trees are blooming and the air smells of growing things. Must be time for spring classes to start!<br />
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There are only two seats left in the Flowers in Watercolor class, and 6 seats left in the Drawing class. The drawing class will be working on portraits in graphite, colored pencil, charcoal and watercolor. Plus we will be doing some figure drawing from a model, so it should be an interesting 7 weeks.<br />
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In the watercolor class we will be doing lots of beautiful flowers, crocus, daises, roses, peony, tree peony, iris and cherry blossoms. I thought is would be fun to learn to do some Chinese brush painting, thus the cherry blossoms and if there is time we may do another cat!<br />
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The last class we did in watercolor was of a jonquil and I was unable to get the series of how I did the painting on line, so I will do it here.<br />
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We start this painting by putting in the background first, a combination of ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson, to get it darker I added some paynes grey. Normally I paint the flowers first and then put in my background, I do that because it gives me a little more freedom with painting the flowers. When you put the background in first you are locked in on where the flowers and leaves are going to be. On this painting putting in the background first shows the shapes of the white flowers. I may go back in after the flowers are painted and darken some of the background even more if the composition needs it.<br />
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The jonquil is painted with two shades of yellow, we will be using the darker yellow for the outer petals of the flower. I did not wet the petal before putting on the paint, start at the base of the petal and pull the color out to the end of the petal, clean your brush in water, wipe all excess water out and pull some of the pigment off to give it some dimension. On these three petals you can see I pulled some color off to make it appear that there is a line down the center. Use the same technique you would use when you paint leaves. Remember too that you don't want to work on petals next to each other so the color doesn't bleed from one petal to the next.<br />
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You can see in this picture where I have pulled color out with a 1/4" flat damp brush to create lines.<br />
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The center photo shows that I have darkened up even more around the base of the petals using more pigment and less water. In the bottom photo you can see that the center has been painted with the lighter yellow then used the darker yellow in the center. When you are painting the lighter yellow in be careful to leave the out edge of the trumpet very light, pull out the color if need be. Leaving the edge light gives the center dimension. The darker shadows are purple made with ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson.<br />
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Now it's time to work on the paper whites. First paint the centers with a orange made with your dark yellow and cadmium red med. Remember it is a cup shape, so dark on one edge and then pull some of the color out of the center.<br />
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Do all of the centers, changing where the dark side of the cup is by which way the flower is facing. Flowers facing to the left will have the dark to the right, flowers facing to the right will have the dark side facing to the left. When you have done them all if you want to up the dark side add some cad red.<br />
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Now you can paint the stems and leaves, using sap green with yellow added to the lighter stems and ultramarine blue added for the darker areas.<br />
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For the shading in the white flowers you are going to use the same color as the background. For the lighter shadows add more water to the darker areas less water more pigment.<br />
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One of the last things I did on this painting is putting some of the background color in the orange centers to accent the cup shape. You want to make sure that the orange is dry before you put this in.<br />
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Here you can see the greens are all in and only the paper whites on top need to be finished.<br />
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This is the finished piece, you can see that I have darkened some of the background a bit more and punched up the darks in the petals.<br />
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The only thing left for you to do is sign your name!<br />
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The first painting we will be doing next week is of a group of crocus and here is the drawing. You can print it out and put it on your paper or I will have copies for the class. <br />
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Hope to see you in class!!Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-72558189635567180772014-02-28T15:45:00.000-08:002014-02-28T15:50:36.524-08:00Flowers Bloom in the Watercolor Class<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As artists we have the ability to take the darkest, dreariest day and
with a few strokes of brilliant color bring the warmth of a summer sun
into the room.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dmG8w2wSen8/UxEPMl1TmlI/AAAAAAAAAUI/Pdb7HMR_SLM/s1600/Tulip+collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dmG8w2wSen8/UxEPMl1TmlI/AAAAAAAAAUI/Pdb7HMR_SLM/s1600/Tulip+collage.jpg" height="494" width="640" /></a></div>
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It always amazes me how the whole class starts out with the same drawing and the same colors, but look how each person's personality comes through in their painting. As a teacher I feel the greatest success when my students take what I share and start to develop a style all their own.<br />
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This is my own painting of tulips.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hpAjBcEULJs/UxEPZheP17I/AAAAAAAAAUQ/57tyOg-q5tc/s1600/Red+%2526+Yellow+tulips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hpAjBcEULJs/UxEPZheP17I/AAAAAAAAAUQ/57tyOg-q5tc/s1600/Red+%2526+Yellow+tulips.jpg" height="640" width="494" /></a></div>
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Next week we are going to do a much different type of painting. Up until now I have done a detailed drawing and a rather tight painting. Little water and a lot of pigment. This time we will using a lot of water and little pigment, a much faster way of painting. Loose and quick strokes give paintings a shimmery spontanious look. We will be doing lilacs, the one scent that tells us that spring is finally come. This is the watercolor that I have done, and I will be demonstrating this technique in class.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ob4gQZ-wCog/UxEPsOxLt0I/AAAAAAAAAUg/PhupM2uqri4/s1600/lilacs+wc_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ob4gQZ-wCog/UxEPsOxLt0I/AAAAAAAAAUg/PhupM2uqri4/s1600/lilacs+wc_0001.jpg" height="358" width="400" /> </a></div>
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The drawing is very general, just an approximation of what will be painted. I will have this pattern for the students on Tuesday. </div>
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Everyone in the portrait class is working on their finished piece, several are working in colored pencil for the finished piece. Not an easy task, many layers of color go into making a good skin tone ergo, many hours of work. As you can see the portraits are going very well. Next week I'll put on new photos so you can watch their progress.</div>
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Only two more weeks of classes, the classes fly by, but to see how everyone has grown is especially satisfying to me, not to mention meeting a lot of very cool people. Have a creative week!!<br />
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<br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-68513305922990046102014-02-14T14:57:00.001-08:002014-02-14T14:57:39.713-08:00Classes - February 18thWe are already at week 4 of this session of classes and boy are these students keeping me on my toes! In the watercolor class we have done a tree peony, a rose and last week a hibiscus, here are some students work from the first two weeks.<br />
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The top row are some of the tree peonies and the second row, obviously are roses. Really nice job. It is difficult to do shading and highlights using the white of the paper for the variation in tones and these are really very well done. I will post more as they get done. I can't wait to see some of the finished hibiscus paintings next week.<br />
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This week we are going to tackle a problem that faces artists who work from real flowers. If you are a fast painter you won't have to worry about this, but for most of us it can cause a lot of frustration. Flowers continue to open and grow as soon as they are put in water, they reach their perfection state and then proceed to wilt and die. For some flowers that can all happen in a few hours. We can take photos of the flowers and hope the color and lighting stays the same, or we can do quick sketches and use those for the composition and quick color swatches for the color, or we can trust our memories and paint what we remember. So for this project we will be working on tulips. I had a lovely bouquet of red and yellow tulips which I took several photos of. To do the composition I envision I will be using the photo's to draw the tulips in different positions to form the bouquet I want to paint. Here is a montage of the photo's I just took along with some from last year, and the white ceramic pitcher that I am going to use as a vase.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eJ562AdLDSI/Uv22Agb09PI/AAAAAAAAASE/4VuyJ6gSUY8/s1600/tulips+montage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eJ562AdLDSI/Uv22Agb09PI/AAAAAAAAASE/4VuyJ6gSUY8/s1600/tulips+montage.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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Notice that all of the photos have the same light source, that way my shadows will all work when I start my painting. When I draw my composition I am more concerned with the shape of the flowers than the color of a particular flower. At this point in the process I am also looking at the values and how they will affect the final composition. I will draw the flowers and the vase completely and then decide how the composition will be cropped on the paper. So before I put the drawing down on my watercolor paper, I have worked out my composition, the pattern of my values, and the pattern of my color. I do this work at the beginning of a painting so when I start I can concentrate on just painting. And that after all is the fun part!<br />
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Sorry these are so dark but I hope you can see what I did. This first drawing is how I start the vase. Drawing in the general shape of the object, the box, then dividing that space in half, then drawing in the horizontal and vertical lines where the vase changes shape I can construct the shape of the vase that is the same on both sides.<br />
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Now I draw in shapes where the flowers are going to be. This is where the composition starts to take shape.<br />
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Once I have an idea of where the flowers are going to be I start to draw in the different tulips, referencing the photo for individual shapes.<br />
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Beginning shading has been added and leaves. You can see here that I also thinned down the bottom of the vase to follow the actual vase. This drawing will be my guide when I start to paint for light source, and shading. All of these drawings are done on tracing paper. Using the tracing paper allows me to keep what I like on to the next drawing, or move object a bit without having to start over. Saves a lot of time and aggravation.<br />
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Here is the final pattern for the painting. You can see that I have made some changes from the last drawing. When I look at this I see several ways to crop that would make an interesting painting, so my challenge to you is for you to crop the drawing however you see the best painting result. Be assured there is no wrong way to do this, if you like the whole composition use it, if you see one tulip that speaks to you then do that. What ever you decide to do it will be your creative voice. Good luck can't wait to see what you all do!!!<br />
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I would be terribly remiss if I didn't put up some of the pieces from the drawing class. The first week we did some up close work with eyes, the second week it was portrait on tinted paper with graphite and white charcoal, this last week it was conte on tinted paper. Absolutely brilliant work by these artists.<br />
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Next week we will be starting on a portrait rendering, using either graphite, conte, or colored pencil. The subject is up to the artists so this should be fun and very interesting!!<br />
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I hope you all are having a very happy Valentines day!<br />
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Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-65179029287609326512014-02-06T17:02:00.001-08:002014-02-06T17:02:27.056-08:00Watercolor Class 2-11-14Great class last Tuesday, everyone started on the pink rose and progressed pretty far along. To get and keep the pink clean can sometimes be very difficult, this is one of those paintings where it's really important to have clean water when painting. When doing a large flower with many petals I wet each petal with lean water before putting any pigment down, the first wash of color is very light and then progressive layers of color until the depth of color I want is reached. It is also important to remember to leave white paper where there are highlights. It is surprising sometimes to find that even the lightest wash of red is impossible to take out I can't wait until next week to see the finished pieces. I will take some photo's to share in next weeks blog.<br />
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This coming Tuesday the flower we will be starting is a yellow hibiscus with a bright red center. The photograph the painting is being done from was taken by Bertha Moore on a trip to Hawaii, very well done. When you look at the flower it looks to be fairly simple, unfortunately it is a bit more difficult. I started out using two yellows, cad yellow and new gamboge. If you look carefully at the photo you can see the areas on the petals where the lighter yellow fades into a yellow that is a bit more golden yellow, if needed a small bit of cad red can be added to get the color to the golden hue. Before the yellow was completely dry I laid in a light wash of cad red in the center of each petal all the way to the bottom. On the bottom of the petals I added cad red, alizarin crimson and a bit of paynes gray. These petals are very thin, and the shadow of the dark green leaves shows through, that is achieved with very light washes of paynes gray. Be very careful doing that, leave an edge of cad yellow along all the petals. The center stamen uses the same colors as the petals. Put a light coat of cad yellow light on the whole stem, add a small amount of cad red at the bottom while the yellow is still a bit damp to let the colors blend, then a light wash of paynes gray for shadows. Mix a small amount of cad yellow and cad red to get a bright orange, apply to the 3 pollen ends, and use new gamboge with a small amount of paynes gray to darken it enough to make the other pollen ends stand out against the petals.<br />
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The green of the hibiscus leaves is a very dark and shiny green. I used sap green as a base and then added paynes gray for the darkest areas and sap green and ultramarine blue for a lighter green. To give the leaves a feel of good dimension I left the edges light. The photo has 2 buds in it, I chose not to add any for this piece, but if you choose to do so feel free.<br />
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Have fun with this one!<br />
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This session of the drawing class we are concentrating on drawing portraits. The first class we worked on doing eyes. As you have probably heard me say over and over the most important part of the portrait is the eyes. The ancient Egyptians believed the eyes were the windows to the soul and I have found that so true when doing portraits. If you can capture the personality of the eyes the portrait is successful. The critique at the end of the class showed that everyone did a great job on the eyes. The last class we worked on rendering on tinted paper with graphite and white charcoal. This as a bit of a challenge because you have to think a bit differently. The tinted paper is the mid tone, the graphite the darks and the white charcoal the highlights. I think everyone is doing a great job and I will get photos of the finished pieces next week and post them. As an example I am posting a self portrait from this class.<br />
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I haven't done a self portrait in over 30 years, rather fun to do. I do like the results of the tinted papers. This was done on Bordon and Riley, Pastel/Charcoal paper with a 6B, HB and white charcoal pencil. Toned paper does not have to be gray, but that seems to be what you see the most of.<br />
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Have a creative week!<br />
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<span id="goog_1228061620"></span><span id="goog_1228061621"></span><br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-18681552217856722352014-01-30T15:28:00.001-08:002014-01-30T15:28:32.614-08:00A New Year and New ClassesTime sure flies anymore, it seems like not so long ago it was the start of 2013 and here we are January 2014. Last year was a busy, busy year, lots of paintings, lots of classes, lots of gallery shows, in other words...it was a GREAT year!!! And it looks like 2014 is going to be just as great if not greater.<br />
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Classes have started at Green River and I will be using this blog to post the next weeks project for the water color class and as the class finishes their paintings I will post some of them. This session has 11 students, from total beginner to experienced, so this is going to be a lot of fun!! This week the project was a tree peony on 300lb water color paper. For the next 2 weeks we will be concentrating on just a flower head. the purpose of that is learning how to handle the ratio of water and pigment, and letting the water do most of the work. Whether you paint very loosely or tight how and when you use water will make a huge difference in the outcome of your painting. For this project the petal being painted was painted with clean water, when the sheen from the water was gone the watered down pigment was applied from the base up, letting the water on the paper pull the pigment along to the top of the petal. If there were shadows from curled petals the shadow was then applied. The main pigments used in the painting were alizarin crimson, with a touch of new gamboge, the shadow is ultramarine blue. To get the very dark reddish color I used alizarin and paynes grey. The center was painted new gamboge with areas of cad yellow medium, then using a mixture of alizarin, new gamboge and ultramarine (creating a dark reddish brown) I outlined the little stamens. After that was dry I went in with a small damp brush and pulled out some of the yellow to give the stamen highlights. I did put a background on this flower of a purple made with alizarin and ultramarine, after that had dried I ran some cobalt blue on one side and paynes grey over the top for interest.<br />
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Next Tuesdays painting will be of a pink rose, my sample is painted on Ampersand's watercolor board with a 2" cradle. I am beginning to really like these watercolor boards because after the painting is finished I can just varnish and hang, no framing or glass to deal with. The painting was done with alizarin, cad red medium, new gamboge, ultramarine blue and paynes grey (hmmmm I am beginning to see a pattern here!). Yes I do use the same colors over and over, occasionally adding a another color if needed, this is what is called developing a palette. It is not necessary to purchase every tube of paint made to be able to paint a picture. Working with a limited palette will teach you more about color mixing than anything else. Again this painting was done in a similar manner as the tree peony, wet a petal with clean water (and this cannot be said enough, CLEAN water, do not use the water you clean your brushes with, it can ruin your painting), with a wet brush dipped in watered down pigment apply color from the bottom of the petal to the outer edge of the petal. In watercolor less is more, you can always darken a color, but it is a lot of work to lighten a color if it can be done at all. Using white paint is not really an option with water color, adding white turns your color into a pastel instead of a lighter version of the color you are working with. The white of the paper you are painting on is the white that you use in the painting. Lighter colors are attained by adding water to the pigment, the amount of water you add plus how wet the paper is results in the color you get on the paper. Darker colors are less water more pigment. Working the way I do, wetting a petal at a time, means that you only want to work on a new petal if the one next to is is totally dry or you will get bleeding over and lose the lines of the flower. Then it is just a matter of going around until all the petals are painted, go in and do some final touch ups of dark and the painting is finished.<br />
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Here is the finished painting.<br />
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And here is the drawing for the painting.<br />
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You can do this any size you feel comfortable with, my painting is 6" square. If you can have this reproduced on your paper by class time it will give you more time to work on the painting in class.<br />
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Remember the most important thing about art, be it drawing or painting, is to have fun with it. Every painting will not be a masterpiece, but every painting is a learning experience. So have fun and<br />
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<b>GO HAWKS!!!</b></div>
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<br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-52497818101370342062013-11-01T16:36:00.002-07:002013-11-01T16:36:50.384-07:00Watercolor Class<div style="text-align: center;">
Wow the students in my watercolor class are really good artists! They are keeping me on my toes to stay ahead of them. So far on week one they did a daylily. I hope you can see the photos, I did not do a very good job of taking the pictures and the paintings are much better than what is showing. </div>
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Week two, we worked on a single iris.</div>
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Week 3, we worked on a very pale pink rhodie. This is my painting, there were no finished pieces in class, but I will get some before the class schedule ends. </div>
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Week four, we did a sunflower. The first painting is mine. The last three are from students.</div>
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Week five, we worked on a stargazer lily. This was the painting that I did.</div>
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And week six we will be doing a red poppy painting. Underneath the painting is the pattern for this painting. You may download and have on your paper before class is you have time.</div>
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Week seven I will demonstrate mounting and varnishing a watercolor painting. It is the last class so any unfinished paintings can be finished.</div>
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I will take more photo's of finished pieces to post. This has been a great class and a lot of fun to teach. There are absolute beginners in the class and they are showing real talent. From beginners to professional the key to a great finished painting is to believe in yourself. Every painting is not a masterpiece, it is however a learning experience, that will make you better on the next painting and all the paintings after that. Never give up, the more you create, the easier is will be to believe in yourself. You can do it, I believe in you.</div>
Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-84981573782954621372013-10-10T17:03:00.000-07:002013-10-10T17:05:32.519-07:00Watercolor Class 11-15-13What a great group of ladies in the watercolor class! Each and every one is doing a great job on their paintings. I wanted to take photo's of the finished daylily paintings this week but forgot my camera, hopefully some will be brought back to class next week. This week was a much harder project, a picatee type iris. A lot of work to get done in a 2 hour period so most of the paintings were not finished so I can't wait to see what they look like next week.<br />
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Next week we will start a painting of a very pale pink rhodie. This piece is difficult because you want to be able to keep the pale translucency of the petals, but still get enough darkness there to show dimension. Because I have not finished my painting yet I've shown you the line drawing made from the photo we will be working from. A big Thank you to Liz Reynolds who sent me this photo a few years ago. I have held on to it because I knew at some point it would make a great painting.<br />
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Next week I will remember to take my camera and get photos of the iris and hopefully at least one or two of the daylilies. <br />
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Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-76728275844160826032013-10-03T15:28:00.001-07:002013-10-03T15:37:24.213-07:00ClassesClasses started last Tuesday and I was happy to see some familiar faces and lots of new, eager to learn faces! It's going to be a fun semester!<br />
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I plan the first class to show me where everyone is at and what I will need to do for each student. There are real newbies, no experience in painting or drawing, and really proficient artists sharpening their skills. One of the things that make these classes so much fun is diversity of talent. There were groans from the new students when I announced that the last 30 to 20 minutes of class would be a critique, and smiles from the returning students. At the end of the class and critique there were smiles all the way around. It is a great learning experience for everyone. Not only do you get to see everyone's work, you also get input on your piece and encouragement to get better. I really want everyone involved to leave the class feeling that they have accomplished something. Not every piece of art is a masterpiece, nor is it ever a complete failure, but every piece of art IS a learning experience.<br />
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It is important to develop confidence in yourself as an artist. Criticism of your art is not a criticism of you as a person, and should be taken as food for thought and growth for the next piece of art. I am more apt to keep a drawing or painting that didn't work as I am one that did. I want to see where my error was and how I did it so I do not repeat it.<br />
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The drawing class had a pretty difficult still life to render, and everyone did a really good job.<br />
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The first photo is of the actual set up and the second is the drawing done by Bertha Moore. Both photo's were taken by Bertha. Doing a rendering of a still life is excellent for sharpening your skills of observation, composition, and values.<br />
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In next weeks class we will be working on composition.<br />
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<i>Composition: 1) the nature of something's ingredients or constituents; the way in which a whole or mixture is made up. 2) the action of putting things together; formation or construction. 3) a thing composed of various elements. </i></div>
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<span style="color: black;">What does that mean to you the artist?</span><i style="color: black;"> </i><span style="color: black;">The ingredients</span><i> </i><span style="color: black;">are first<i>,</i> shape and value, then line and color. How these pieces fit together gives a good indication of the success or failure of the piece of art</span><span style="color: black;">. A good composition brings the viewer into the story and engages them emotionally. It sounds daunting doesn't it, but Arthur Wesley Dow developed an almost foolproof way of learning composition. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Who was Arthur Wesley Dow?</span><i> </i><span style="color: black;">He was an American painter, printmaker, photographer and influential arts educator, 1857 to 1922. In his lifetime art was taught by the time honored approach of imitation. Students learned by copying what had been done before. Dow broke down the teaching of art to three structural elements: 1)Line, referring to boundaries of shapes and the interrelations of lines and spaces, 2)Notan, a Japanese word meaning "dark, light", referring to the quantity of light reflected, or the massing of tones of different values, and 3)Color, referring to quality of light. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">We will be dealing with line first, creating shapes and spacing, then add Notan. Dark and light massing will reveal the mistakes in spacing. Color will reveal the weakness of dark and light. So as you can see these three structural elements are intimately related. You will find that it is much easier than it sounds and the improvement in your compositions will show immediately.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Next week in the watercolor class we will be working on an iris. Ruffled edges can sometimes be a bit of a challenge but in the end you have a lovely painting to call your own! Hopefully next week I will have some paintings to post from the class, so if you finish the daylily I hope you bring it with you to class for all to see and admire.</span><br />
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Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-72497568084069744162013-09-24T23:55:00.000-07:002013-09-24T23:55:52.540-07:00Back to SchoolWell this had to be one of the most beautiful summers in the Pacific Northwest, but like all good things it had to come to an end and the rains have come! Time to get busy painting, and I don't mean walls. I have been teaching drawing classes at Green River College for the past few years and this year in addition to a drawing class I will be teaching a class in two of my favorite things. . .watercolor and flowers. It was a great year for flowers this year and I collected a great selection of photos for reference in the class. Class starts next Tuesday and the first painting we will be doing is a daylily. This plant is right next to my driveway and blooms for weeks, the flowers are huge with multiple buds on each stem, the color is a bright gold that glows even on the dreariest days. Here is the photo that the class will be working from.<br />
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And here is the painting that I did from this photo.<br />
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It is on 300# Arches hot press paper, using Daniel Smith watercolors. The new element I am doing with my watercolors is mounting the painting and varnishing the piece. This eliminates the need for glass, matts and framing. I am mounting the painting using the Ampersan clayboard, on this piece the wooden rocker is 2" thick, so the piece can be hung or it will sit very securely on any flat surface. Another added benefit is that the rocker can be color coordinated with the painting. It takes a little time and effort but so far I really like the results.<br />
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I will be posting the photo and resulting painting every week and possibly if the students will allow it, photos of some of their paintings too.<br />
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Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-45041889600517373902013-06-04T16:26:00.000-07:002013-06-04T16:26:02.941-07:00ElliotThis is a portrait of a Elliot, a Bernese Mountain dog, who "works" at Cobber's Pet Pantry. He greats the customers who come in the door with a vigorous wag of the tail and a friendly grin. Cobber's is a great new addition to our community. They carry top of the line holistic and healthy food for pets, plus a very talented groomer on staff, and a self service washing area for pets. They will be doing dog training classes and seminars on healthy feeding. Now if you had asked me 6 months ago about what good food for Elvis and Albert I would have named a top of the line pet food I purchased at the local grocery store. Four months ago Elvis was diagnosed with a very rapid cancer, the vet said we could try surgery and chemo but with this type of cancer chances were slim. I made the choice not to put Elvis through that, but would attempt another course of action. The internet has a lot of information to go through but it was well worth the time. My friend Rick found a holistic Dr. and he prescribed several holistic medications. Elvis has lived several months beyond what the original vet thought he would, and as of this last Monday, the tumor is now half the size it was and he is doing very well!! Now back to Cobber's, they carry the foods that have attributed to Elvis's good health. Even Albert has been switched over, and has lost a much needed few pounds and gained a beautiful coat.<br />
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Elliot works with Cobber, meeting and greeting customers at the store, over and above their enthusiastic greeting it is well worth the time to visit Cobber's Pet Pantry if you have a cat or dog you care about.<br />
Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-28916609758264259622013-04-18T15:11:00.002-07:002013-04-18T15:11:48.179-07:00Quite a bit!I have been painting quite a bit, teaching quite a bit and learning quite a bit. My creative juices have been in overdrive the past few months and I have new work to prove it. As you can probably tell oil has been my medium of choice lately. There are many pros to working in oil, not the least of which is I love the smell! Oils seems to be the "Queen" of mediums, to the uninitiated painting in oils means you are a "real artist". All other mediums are for the "dabblers" in art. One of many reasons I like to paint in oils is that with the advent of the gallery stretched canvases there is no need to frame. That leads to an advantage for both the painter and the purchaser. The artists can price the piece without the addition of the frame cost, the buyer has the option of hanging the art without a frame or framing the piece in their taste. A win win situation for both. I really like the thicker canvases, it gives me four extra surfaces to be creative with, and I like the added dimension of the piece when it is hanging on the wall. Not to mention the availability to set the paintings on shelves or table tops without using an easel. But since Spring has hit the Pacific Northwest with beautiful blooming colors everywhere I miss my watercolors, the lightness and jewel like quality of the colors. Well I am so excited to have found a way to exhibit my watercolors without frames! It is a varnishing technique that does not damage the watercolor but in fact enhances the colors! No more frames, no more glass! The varnish made by Golden, comes in either matt or gloss so you have a choice in the way the finished product will look. I will have one finished this week and will post.<br />
<br />My current work is on display at the Arts Alive! Gallery, 1429 Cole Street, Enumclaw, WA. I will be demonstrating pet portrait painting at the Arts Alive! Gallery next month at the Enumclaw Summer Wine Walk on May 11, Saturday, from 5 to 9. And again at the Gallery on May 18th from 10 to 5, for the Studio Tour. June 1st I will be at the new pet store in town, Cobber's, 1549 Blake Street, in Enumclaw, again demonstrating pet portraiture.<br />
I am doing a solo exhibit at the Town Hall in Enumclaw, August 7th thru September 4.<br />
I also teach two classes at the Arts Alive! Gallery, Open Studio on Monday and Wednesdays from noon until 3. This is a great class because I get to work with all different mediums and projects. Artists bring in what ever they are working on and get instruction and guidance on their projects. These are on going classes.<br />
I also teach drawing classes at Green River Community College, Enumclaw campus. This summer I will be doing a plein aire class and in the fall a drawing class and a watercolor class. <br />
So looks like a busy Spring and Summer!!<br />
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This is a portrait of Reeses, brother of James. (portrait up last time). I figured out the reason for his name after painting him. His under fur is the color of creamy peanut butter and outer hair like chocolate, thus the name Reeses. And he really does have those beautiful green eyes. Two beautiful cats!<br />
Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-12939958671867353032013-03-01T19:51:00.001-08:002013-03-01T19:51:27.543-08:00JamesCats have always fascinated me. Over the years I have been adopted by many, many felines, no two alike in colors, patterns or personalities. Some with pedigrees, others genetic mysteries but with a regal sense of who they were. They make wonderful models to paint and draw, perfect in every pose, sometimes exciting, pensive, and always mysterious!<br />
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This is a portrait of James, for this particular painting I worked from a photograph taken by the owner, Susan. It is a great photo because it shows a lot of the personality. I love the bow tie!! James is a very serious senior, quite sure he deserves only the best I'm sure. When I do a portrait I start with the eyes, if I can get the eyes correct the rest of the painting usually goes together quickly. I also try to use the same color of the eyes in the background. That helps make the eyes pop even more. Since the eyes are the heart of the painting, I always make the pupils larger and round. The painting is on a 6" x 6" x 1-1/2" thick gallery wrapped canvas. The thicker canvas lets me continue the painting on the sides. I like to do that because then the painting does not have to be framed, it can be hung on the wall or it will sit very securely on a flat surface.<br />
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I had a lot of fun painting James because he has such a beautiful face and I love his coloring!<br />
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This is the photo of James that I worked from for the portrait.</div>
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Here is the finished portrait of the very handsome James. </div>
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<br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-41680588205156436602013-02-11T18:56:00.002-08:002013-02-11T18:56:55.035-08:00The more things change, the more they stay the same.Once upon a time a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, (Chicago, Illinois). Okay maybe not that long ago and perhaps not that far away, just seems that way some days. There have been two constants in my life, my love of art and my love of animals. I always pictured myself as I aged to end up being known as a "crazy cat lady". Although I was fascinated by cats at a young age, they "followed" me home a lot, I didn't get my first cat until I was 17. My High School art teacher gave me a Siamese cat for graduation. Being a gift from my teacher made him acceptable to my mother and Bootsie became my soul companion. Over the years I have had many cats, all individuals, all beautiful, each one special, and all remembered with love. There are days when I probably couldn't tell you what I had for breakfast the day before, but I could tell you the name of every cat I have ever been owned by. At one point there were 63 cats and kittens in my care. Not to worry, I hadn't lost my mind, I had a Cattery. I bred and showed Himalayan cats, today they are known as color point Persians. I was honored to have bred and raised the top seal point male in the Midwest, Tmu-Ra's Nonesuch. Now you are probably wondering where am I going with this story, well, during this same time I also owned and operated "The Cat House Boutique". It was a traveling boutique, going to cat shows and selling different cat items including hand painted cat items, jewelry, wall hangings, jackets etc. I really loved painting all the different breeds of cats. Time marched on and some things became less relevant, the Boutique being one. Not my cats, never the cats, always at least one graced my life.<br />
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Now to the point of this whole story, Albert has sort of demanded that I paint him. Of course who could say no to a face like that, not me, he knows where I sleep. I enjoy painting him so much that I started painting another cat, then another, and now have at least a dozen little cat portraits, from finished oil paintings to the pencil drawing on canvas. <br />
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All of the paintings are on 6" x 6" x 1.5" stretched canvas. I really like painting on the thicker canvases, I do continue the painting down the sides of the canvas so they don't have to be framed. The thicker canvases can stand alone on a shelf without an easel or hung on the wall.I find that cat's eyes are wonderful windows into their personality, so I tend to make them a little larger than they are in reality. It is fun to place them at different angles and falling off the canvas, it makes the negative space much more interesting. So you can't really call them exact portraits, more so personality portraits. Well whatever you want to call them, I am having a ball painting my little four footed friends!!</div>
<br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6061238821640742341.post-11580165736227486782013-01-10T15:45:00.002-08:002013-01-10T15:45:26.631-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>"Peaceful"</b></div>
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I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for thirteen years, for the past ten years when driving into Seattle I would pass this farm. In the spring there would be little white lambs everywhere in the pasture. I would stop and watch their antics, running and jumping, so carefree in their youth. As the years passed the flock got smaller and smaller until today there are a dozen at most, no more lambs in the spring. No one lives in the house, but the remaining sheep can be seen wandering the property. The windows are gone in the house and there is a large hole in the roof in the back, but the house still stands, sturdy, stoically waiting for someone to come and care for it again. The farm buildings are amazing, all in great condition, no sagging roofs or missing boards, maybe a coat of paint. Every time I drove past the farm I would tell myself what a great painting it would make, and then drive on. The property is posted and sits on two well traveled roads so plein air would have been difficult. So using my handy dandy iphone camera, I started taking photos. I went back three times to get more photo's from different angles. This painting ended up being a combination from several views of the farm. In this painting the farm buildings and the land are my focal point. I want to do another painting of this farm with the house being more prominent. In front of the house is a large apple tree, this last fall it was loaded with bright red apples. The house still stands, the tree still produces, a tribute to the farmer who built the house and planted the tree.<br />
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This is the first landscape I have done in probably fifteen years. Back when I was painting them it was of the flat lands in the Midwest, so this was a bit of a challenge to get the rolling land. The trees are different in both shape and color, not as much red here. I like the way the pastures have a glowing gold color, fading almost to white the farther away we see. I really enjoyed doing a landscape and will do more!<br />
<br />Elainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01150929116667612300noreply@blogger.com2