Watercolor Friday 02/22/2013

The ocean was speaking to me this week as I just spent a recent day there by the sea. I love water and the energy of movement it creates! The lesson plan this week was focused on the use of white gouache instead of masking fluid to retain the white of the paper. With the use of the opaque white paint and a toothbrush or some dry brushing you can create great ocean spray. Some students used different brushes for making slashing water texture. I did also notice that my Winsor & Newton brand paint, the Designers Gouache Permanent White worked best. Someone had some other brand that did not work as good and someone had Zinc White witch was not as affective. 

Waterclor Friday 02/15/2013

This week we made something ordinary into something extraordinary!!!!! With the use of composition and color.

Watercolor Friday 02/08/2013

     This was yet another great week of painting watercolors!!!!! I took this photo on a trip up the northern coast in the town of Elks. Great area for cave rocks and this time of year the ocean is very calm. Minimalism was are main focus this week. Having lots of inactivity in the background and leaving all the details for the focal point. Really punching up the darkest dark to draw the views eyes in on the arch of the cave rock. I also added some warm punches of color the further more enhance the focal point. Worked out nice because the complement of red and green goes great together.

Watercolor Friday 02/01/2013

     This weeks assignment was to paint a still life that I set up in the studio. I photographed my set up of fruits with a strong warm light and printed out the same image for all the students to work from. We almost always make a plan and create thumbnail sketch of our design. I posted my thumbnail drawing today for you to see. Breaking down my painting into a three value system of dark, medium and light is part of making the plan. I also changed how far down the dark background came to push the fruit more forward. And in the photo the orange and pear just touch the black background and creates a tangent.
     As shown in my painting above I picked a focal point and made the strawberry the center of attention and the star of my painting. Just leaving out the details in the other elements of the painting help make my strawberry become the focal point. Using the darkest dark within the shadow of the strawberry helps your eye to be drawn to it as well. These were just a few of the lessons to be learned today in class. Great group today!!!!!!!!!!