Cowboy

I painted this picture for a friend.  It's her dad, and she wanted to give it to her mom for Christmas.  It's a mix of transparent watercolor and gouache.  I think the man and his horse turned out okay, but I really struggled with the background.  I wanted to edit what was in the picture and make it more simple, but in the end I think it became a little too simple.  And working with gouache is more difficult than I thought it would be.

Experimenting Again

This is another mixed media painting.  I used watercolor and charcoal again.  It didn't end up quite how I wanted it to, but my point was to paint kind of freely.  I do like painting with lots of splatters and quick strokes.

Here is a closer detail of some of the charcoal and splattering.

I keep wanting to experiment with different styles and methods of watercolor painting.  For this painting I decided to try using the paint in a cleaner and more vibrant way.  I like the mix of warm and cool colors.

More experiments

I wanted to keep experimenting with different techniques and textures.  In this painting I wanted to try spattering masking liquid on with a toothbrush and seeing what it could do.  I started by painting the foreground yellow, then I spattered the masking fluid, then I glazed blue over the yellow to create the green field.

A closeup of the spattered flowers.

I wanted to practice working with wet on wet more than I normally do.  I did everything wet on wet until the end I put in the fence, the tree trunk and branches, and some of the background in with direct method.

Texture Experiment

The focus of this painting was just to experiment with texture.  The subject matter was more secondary.  I just found some face I could do a quick sketch of just as a vehicle.  I wasn't really going for accuracy and I didn't use the reference while I was painting.

I painted this on a piece of heavy bristol paper.  So the surface was a very smooth texture.  I started by drawing the picture on with heavey charcoal.

I used a little pit of red pastel and white charcoal.

I started with a layer of loose watercolor and then built up the texture around it.  I wanted to make sure that the highest point of contrast was the focal point.

I used a lot of spattering and smudging in order to add texture.

The Philippines

This is a painting I did from a photo that my sister took in one of her areas in the Philippines.  There are always neat cloud formations during the monsoon season, and that's why I liked this picture.  I wanted to try and keep it clean and "wet" looking.  I also wanted to try and capture the lighting of a monsoon day.

Pear Still Life

I painted this picture on a whole sheet that was trimmed to create a longer format.  This painting was so frustrating!  The problem was I was trying to do a large picture with very dark darks using colors that were more opaque.  (burnt sienna, yellow ochre, indian red).  Every time I went in to correct something or make something darker, the paint lifted.  After trying over and over again I finally gave up and called it a learning experience.

Indiana Farm

I started with wet on wet for the sky and some of the distant trees.

I did another wet on wet wash for the field, and splattered some other colors for texture.  I used dry on wet to the trees around the barn.  I formed the barn using negative space.

I contintued to add more texture in the field and different areas.



The final painting.

Cactus Study

I wanted to try a painting that was part loose and part tightly rendered.  I started by splattering different colors for the rocks and pebbles and rendered the cactus.

I continued splattering for the rocks, and then tried to loosely render some of the rocks immediately around the cactus.

Finally I added the spines on the cactus with gouache and touched up some values.  I added a couple of splotches of color here and there to help with the composition.

The final painting

Indiana Farm

Me and my sister decided to try painting the same subject to see how we would interpret it differently.  This is a farm that is near our home.

Still Life Fruit

I chose a photo that my sister took on her mission in the Philippines.  This is what we ate every day.  I loved the colors.  I decided to do glazing with the tomatoes in order to make them more vibrant.

Here I layered the Cadmium Red over the Azo Yellow on the tomatoes.

I continued to render out the picture with Azo yellow, Cadmium red, Cerulean blue, and a little Quinacridone Rose.

I put in some of the darkest darks with a mixure of Pthalo blue.

This is the final painting.  I decided to use a small format and take advantage of a white paper border.  I loved the Arches watermark in the bottom left hand corner, and so in the beginning I decided to paint the picture small and leave the watermark in the corner.  This way I can float it in a frame.

Here's the watermark I loved so much.

Desert Landscape

      My first step was to make a rough sketch of my resource, blocking out the large value shapes and making some preliminary notes.

Next, I did a more detailed value sketch and played around with a few different color triads.  In the end I decided to go with the Basic Triad (Ultramarine blue, Cadmium Red, and Cadmium Yellow)

I did a quick wet on dry underwash, making sure to vary the temperature.  I also made sure to add texture and leave some of the white of the paper with the intent of letting some of this original underwash to show through in the final painting.

I began by blocking in some of the darkest shapes and added texture by spattering and dropping salt and water into the wet paint.

I then drew a rough charcoal sketch over the blocked in-shapes.  I like the texture and the velvety darks that charcoal creates when it mixes with the watercolor paint.

I worked the sky in a little darker, with wet on wet.

 

I continued to render out the picture, making sure not to cover up too much of the underpainting

I added some bright blues and oranges to the rocks in order to give the final painting some variety

I kept the most finished and rendered part of the painting as the focal point, and experimented with leaving less important areas unfinished.

The final painting

Watercolor Sketches