"The Swimmer"...WIP

I didn't have a lot of time to paint today, but did manage a little time with my brush and paint.  Here is today's progress.

This is turning out to be some pretty tedious painting so things move along rather slowly.  At the moment it is difficult for me to wrap my head around the painting like I should so I just have to paint a little bit at a time.  I paint a little, leave it for a little while, then come back and paint a little then repeat the steps all day long.  Not the most ideal way to paint because I can't really get in the flow of the painting but it is the best I can manage at the time.  Do you ever have to just "make do" with the time you have to paint... and be happy you have that much?

These are some thoughts from Timothy Clark when he was at Watermedia 2003 in Houston. (Gosh that was a long time ago!!)

• Line inherits shape, shape inherits form, form is enhanced by value, value is enhanced by color.
• Pattern is 2-D and texture is 3-D.
• If you deal with shape and value, form will take care of itself.
• Composition is the way you organize the elements ~ organize with an underlying element (ie - triangles)
• Be aware of the emotion that you want.
• Local color + Light + Shadow = fully rounded form.
• If you paint orange on top of yellow your blue won't turn green in a sky.

Be Still My Art,


Kay

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