New Painting

Yesterday I started on a new painting.  I did the drawing and used maskit on the areas I wanted to remain white.  That was pretty tedious work so I didn't get any painting done other than a wash of blue over the entire painting.  Today I have had more time to paint so I have made decent progress on it.

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This is one of those paintings where the details will make or break things... IMO!  I don't have a lot of patience so I have to work on the painting a bit, then get away from it for a bit... then go back and work on it some more, and so on.  Slowly, usually very slowly, it begins to pull together.    Do you ever work on paintings with lots of details?  Do you ever get lost in all the little shapes?  Value will be a big key to this painting... that is what will pull the small shapes together into big shapes.

 Color Formulas (in case you don't have them already or have forgotten about them...):

• Burnt Sienna + Ultramarine = very attractive gray which dries with subtle granular patterns. (An excellent mixture for painting skies)
• Raw Umber is ideal for dulling blues, yellows and greens.
• Paint several sequences of colors in areas that move from light to shadow:

                   Red, Carmine, Violet - warm shadow

                   Thalo Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Violet - cool shadow

• A neutral gray blue - Cobalt Blue + Burnt Sienna
• Shadows:

                  Dark Shadows- Winsor Blue + Permanent Alizarin Crimson

                  Intermediate Shadows- French Ultramarine Blue + Perm. Aliz. Crimson

                  Subtle Shadows- French Ultra. Blue + Perm. Rose

                  Vary the shadows from cooler (more blue) to warmer (more red)

                  Warmer in foreground, cooler in background

Be Still My Art,

Kay         

            

On Composition and Design

When I read watercolor books and also when I go to workshops or to demos I always take a few notes... or at least scribble on some note of interest.  Unfortunately I don't always label where I read what I wrote down or where I was when I heard some tidbit of interest.  I have all these "floaties" stuck in various places around my studio to inspire me or to remind me of something I need to be doing.  I'd like to pass them on... and I will give credit when I know for certain where I read or who said whatever it is.  Unfortunately, I don't know where I picked up the following information.  However, I thought it might be of interest to you or someone you know.  Just know that the original credit doesn't belong to me.  (A lady in a class asked me once why I didn't write a book.  My answer was that everything I know I learned from a book that has already been written... why write it again?)

When planning your painting concentrate on the following:

• Balancing shapes
• Harmonizing color
• Making the eye flow through the painting
• Simplifying forms
• Giving the painting clarity

Before completion of the painting ask the following questions:

• What is dominant?
• What shows repetition?
• How is it balanced?
• Do we see gradation?

Do you have "floaties" with bits of wisdom in your studio?  Maybe you'd like to share some with me.

Be Still My Art,


Kay