When you paint outside, the shadows move very quickly. I decided to lay in the shadow shapes first in this sketch, then add the color after. This is opposite my usual approach where I draw with ink and add watercolor, including shadows, later. I used the oil painting below "Berkeley and Boylston" as my subject for practice, mixed a couple of neutrals from ultramarine and cadmium red light. I used toned paper, which is great fun, providing a mid-range value. I then added ink drawing over the shadows, then some color on top, including white gouache for the lightest lights. Can't wait to use this approach on my next urban sketching outing. Thanks for looking. You know I love your comments.
A friend was visiting from North Carolina this week. I was invited to a small gathering of women on the porch of her host. We had a lovely time catching up on each other's lives. It was a pleasure to sit in the company of these smart, interesting women in a beautiful setting. While we visited, the sun got lower and lower in the sky behind the trees, and eventually set behind the river. I wanted to recreate the feeling of the evening with the trees silhouetted against that vibrant sky. I painted a rectangle of ink. When it dried, I used gouache, almost without water, to paint the negative spaces between the branches. I like the feel of the chunky gouache, and without thinning it, the paint builds upon itself to enhance the feel of the glow. I chose each stroke very carefully in this extractive exercise, because my goal was not to reapply any of the black below. I like the effect. I certainly conveys the feeling of the evening for me.
As always, thank you for looking. I enjoy your comments as well.
I have been experimenting with gouache, opaque watercolor. It has an interesting matte texture, and I am learning to mix it as well as to pull it thinly over other layers. This is a copy of an oil painting I did a number of years ago. I like its backlit quality against the window.
This is my five hundred seventh consecutive daily drawing. Thank you for looking.
I have been experimenting with gouache, and have a lot to learn. I like the opacity, am getting used to the matte finish, and am working with the quick-ish drying. This is a gouache painting of an oil painting I did a number of years ago. I like the deep darks I can achieve, and I can carve with the paint as with oil paints. I can drag dry paint over other paint, and the rapid drying on the paper is different, but interesting.
This is my 500th daily drawing. These five hundred days have passed quickly! I am enjoying looking back over the last year and almost a half. I have decided to put some of the daily drawings on my web site under a new sketchbook tab. Take a look.
As always, thank you for looking at my daily endeavors. I enjoy your feedback.
The Girls Just Wanna Paint Challenge for this month is the theme "passage". Usually, I think about the theme, and I wind up with several ideas and mental pictures from which to choose. But, "passage" had me a bit flummoxed. I thought about Bible passages (I'm no expert, and didn't want to illustrate a narrative), then about passages to other places as in the "The Secret Garden", then about "rites of passage" in life... but still, no interesting visuals came to mind. Then, I began searching for images of "safe passage". I discovered an organization called Safe Passage, originating in the Chicago area. It involves Chicago Police-trained volunteers providing a safe passage for students to and from school in neighborhoods where violence is the norm. This model has expanded to other cities as well. I explored several design ideas for presenting the Safe Passage volunteer as a barrier to violence. You can see the designs below.
From the beginning, my idea was not to present the guard completely, but as an obstruction between any violence and the stream of children behind. As a teacher, this research was a good reminder for me, how much many children deal with before they even arrive in a classroom seat. The Safe Passage model has expanded to a number of cities. Glad to see it.
Thank you for looking.
"Early Light"
is a recent and early exploration with soft pastel. I wasn't sure where to begin,
but knew I wanted a dark ground. I squeezed some burnt sienna, viridian
and ultramarine gouache onto the board, and spread them out which
provided a very dark ground with some cool and warm components. Turns
out the gouache dries with a nice matte finish with tooth! Great for
the application of the pastels. My plan was to build up the lights,
leaving the ground in places. You can see a few transitional images to
the left. I'm pleased with the result and encouraged to keep
exploring. One of the challenges for me was that when I wanted a
neutral violet of value 4 with hints of ochre in it, which I could make
quickly with my oils... I had to hunt and open another box, and lay
color next to other color to approximate the color I was looking for.
It's a puzzle, an exciting puzzle. Looking forward to more exploration.
Every couple of
years, North River Arts Society holds a fundraiser, Outside the Box
(OTB). The public is invited to create art, this year on a 5 x 10 inch
board. Nothing is signed, and each participant is invited to make art
that is different from their norm. The resulting hundreds of pieces of
art are displayed for a month as silent auction. Visitors bid on the
art they love, without knowing who created it. "Early Light" was my entry for this year's OTB.
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| "Last Light" start |
I am experimenting with soft pastels. For "Last Light", I created a ground on canvas with gouache straight from the tube using a combination of ultramarine, burnt sienna and viridian. The ground formed is matte, and toothy, which I like. I built up the lights, leaving some of the ground showing in the darkest darks. Interesting effect, and completely counter-intuitive for me thinking about how to lay color next to other color, rather than using my limited palette of oils or watercolors to make the color I am looking for.
Thanks for looking.. we'll see what happens next.
