I began an oil painting this morning, and within a half hour, the island was fogged in. Not in the mood to paint fog, I broke out my fabulous "Portrait Painting in Watercolor" book by Charles Reid, Watson Guptill, 1973, inherited from my mother's library. I need a lot of practice with portraits, using watercolor wet in wet, and drawing the features of the face. So I spent the afternoon following Charles Reid's steps for painting the eye.
I began with an ink contour drawing, put fifteen of them on the page and here is the result. As you can see, I have a lot of inconsistency in value and edge control but can see some successes. Below you can see my progress from the initial drawings, and I added Charles Reid's step by step illustrations below. Very interesting exercise!
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| Fifteen Contour Drawings |
This is my two hundred ninety-third daily drawing. I tried Charles Reid's steps for painting mouths back at Drawing 229 and certainly need more practice. I am enjoying the exercise!!
Thank you for your continued attention and interest.
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| Add a wash over each |
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| After the first six |
Here are Charles Reid's steps. I added a note to myself after the third.
Each week, there are bundles of flowers for the taking at our church; plenty for all. So, each week, I bring home whatever strikes my fancy. This week I brought home a bunch of sunflowers. Yesterday I painted the whole bunch as a watercolor sketch. Today, I taped off the page into six boxes, rotated the arrangement six times, drawing from a different angle each time. You can see the painting in progress in the following photos. I drew the view, turned the vase until something else caught my eye, then turned again. It is interesting to study a subject so many ways. This is my two hundred fifty-ninth daily drawing. Thank you for your continued interest in the world through my eyes.
I tried a few watercolor washes tonight, to create the feeling of dusk with this house warmly lit from inside. I need to darken the sky more, but I like how the windows convey the interior welcome and warmth of the house as night sets in.
This is my two hundred thirty-first daily drawing. Thank you for continuing to see the world through my eyes.
My daughter has been visiting a friend in Kaiserslautern, Germany for the week. She sent back a few photos and this one caught my eye.
I laid in the building in general tones with watercolor, then added ink on top for definition. I also added a little colored pencil in a few places and some china white pencil. This is my two hundred twenty-fourth daily drawing. Thank you for seeing the world through my eyes.
This lovely peek through the birches caught my eye one day on Monhegan Island, ME. Over to the left behind the shrubs, you can see a glimpse of my beloved Manana, the little island that provides Monhegan its sheltered harbor twelve miles out to sea. I like the way the graceful birches frame the distance.
This is my 26th entry into the #Inktober challenge.
The city is so beautiful, all day long, but especially at dusk. I loved this dusk view along Huntington Avenue, and will use it as a study for a larger painting. The one point perspective reminded me of so many Childe Hassam paintings of Boston. See a couple below.
This is my ninth drawing in the #Inktober challenge. As always, thanks for looking.
This is a study for nocturne painting I am considering. During the record-setting snowpocalypse a couple of years ago, we lost power for a couple of days. My husband and I spent an afternoon at the local coffee shop, having warm beverages, charging our phones and enjoying the warmth. We headed home to find this truck in front of our house, full of light and hope... and very hard working electrical employees. I remember offering to go on a coffee run for them, but they declined. An hour later, the lights returned. This is the second in my #Inktober challenge.
Yesterday I painted at the Marshfield Fair with a few other artists. We were each assigned a fireworks-themed flower arrangement to interpret as we wished. I worked with my sketchbook, intending to create a page which represented the busyness of this area at the Fair, and the sense of fireworks. I drew the scene in ink, then began adding watercolor. When I got home, I added a little watercolor crayon to tie together some of the darks... an explosion of color.
Here are a few photos showing my process.
As always, thanks for looking.
Yesterday I posted my watercolor and ink sketch of the forklift on the Monhegan dock. Today I added some more watercolor from a different watercolor set I brought that has a little more pigment in its pans. My goal was to add some mid-range values to the forklift and to bring in the contrasting cools of Manana in the background. I may or may not add some color to the people waiting on the dock for their departing ferries.
Today was interesting, did some drawing, met a nice couple over here from Orono, ME, and visited the Lighthouse Museum. This year's show is titled "Reckoning with Nature, Andrew Winter, at Monhegan Island". Winter (1893 - 1958) arrived on Monhegan in the early 1930s. He spent a decade living full time on the island and painted its rugged topography and working families. I chose a few of his paintings here of Manana during the winter.
I will visit the exhibit at least once more during my stay here on the island to drink in the rich colors and strong design in each of Winter's paintings. His darks are layer upon layer of varied, rich color shifts that convey the majesty of the rocks on this beautiful island. In fact, we renewed our family membership to the Museum to help support its important work here. Here is a link if you are interested in checking out this gem of a museum.
As always, thanks for looking.
I added some watercolor to a sketch of the swan boats from the Boston Public Garden. Have you ever ridden them? It is really a slice of the past; the boats travel slowly, propelled by a pedaling pilot sitting within the swan. They travel through the Public Garden Lagoon, past the sights found in the famous Robert McCloskey book "Make Way for Ducklings".
I did a little research. The Swan Boats were introduced to the Public Garden in 1877 by Robert Paget, who combined the popularity of boating in the Garden lagoon with the new and popular mode of transportation, the bicycle. And, interestingly, Paget designed the swan boats with the opera "Lohengrin" in mind during which Lohengrin crosses a river in a boat drawn by a swan.
The fourth generation of the Paget family still runs the Swan Boat operation today. Check out the Swan Boat website from which I pulled a lot of my information.
As always, thanks for looking.
Another glorious week up here on Monhegan Island; highlights include seeing the Aurora Borealis two nights in a row above the tree line looking north; a wonderful breeze every day so although it's warm in the sun, there is respite in the shade everywhere; a week with great friends filled with good conversation, good food, new card games, and the usual sensory joy. Here are some sketches of the various views from the deck of the house where we stay. Yesterday, I sketched to the sounds of trumpet practice filtering up from the village below.
This has been a week of mixed feelings; relaxation, joy, wonder, and thankfulness contrasted with news that local friends of ours are facing a mighty struggle. Concentrate your energies and prayers on a positive outcome for them during this time of transition, and excuse my intentional and necessary vagueness.
Thank you for looking. Thank you for your thoughts for our friends.
Yesterday I perched in one of my favorite spots along the rocks above Swim Beach here on Monhegan. There's a great space, nestled in the rocks with just the right surfaces for sitting, leaning, and laying out a small watercolor setup. I always wanted a window seat in my bedroom as a girl; this has a lot of those same qualities; comfy, snug, good light, a view, and just remote enough to know what's happening nearby without being in the midst of it.
And, I watched a gull through its entire "I snagged a crab, and this is how I eat it" routine; a few jab it-drop it-grab it-repeat cycles until the crab stopped wiggling; devour the inside; then eat the shell and claws in small chunks by crunching them up and swallowing them. So interesting. I really thought the gull would eat the tender innards. (Definitely the first time I have used the word "innards" in a blog post; can't promise it will be the last).
I added a couple of photos here of my sketch without watercolor and the finished piece with the subject in the distance.
Another great afternoon. Thanks for looking.
The southern tip of Monhegan Island is defined by beautiful, powerful, rugged rocks. When staying on the island, I listen in the morning for the sound of waves from that direction, although I'm sure there is a much more accurate way of predicting interesting surf along the southern end of the island. Perhaps wind direction... I don't know. It's a small island, so I listen, and can hear the waves through the 1/2 mile of forest between me and the rocks. Sitting on those rocks is absolute joy, all senses activated by the movement of surrounding air and water. I wish I had a recording of the sounds accompanying the visuals. I can hear them when I look at the painting, deep booms when waves crash into narrow crannies, splashing sounds of surf and spray on the rocks, and the silky withdrawal of the water back into the sea.
Thanks for looking (and listening)
Here are Charles Reid's steps. I added a note to myself after the third. 
