The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Sorry, no cats this week.   

I had thought this one was done, but apparently it was still wet when I put it in the notebook and parts got blotched out when I put it in a notebook so I had to fix it.  I made the tree much lighter and less red and filled in the interstices with those featherly little branches and I think it looks better.  9x12

I was putting paint down and adding water and blotching with a Viva towel, repeat and repeat, and at some point it looked like that, and I thought that looks pretty good, so I stopped.  5x7.

I took a cropping of the previous image meaning to apply the same treatment as above, but you never want to repeat yourself, and I think I have gone astray, but I haven't given up on it yet. 5x7.

Reached The Goal

 Value sketch then drawn directly on watercolor paper then painted. Photo has a turquoise background so holding back on that. 

It’s large ….11x15.   Too large for the paper. 

Then a small one 4x6. My daughter’s friend taken many years ago. 

May 17, 2025 — Elaine O.

I'm back in experimentation mode. I sketched this from an old B&W photo and toyed with using only three colors—with a catch. I mostly used just two of them, saving the third as an accent to define the focus of the painting. I'm not sure this worked. I can't decide if I needed the background to be even less colorful or if that would look gimmick-y. Or maybe the background needs to be lighter in value or less contrasty? I'll have to give it some thought and keep playing.

12" x 9"

Meanwhile, this is for Pat and Ken. Pat, because she wanted to see these side-by-side, and Ken, because he always questions the value of explorations with different media. Here's the same subject in watercolor and oil. The watercolor (left) is on aquaboard and sized 6" x 6". The oil (right) is on canvas board, sized 8" x 8".

My thoughts? Besides the differences in speed (weeks vs. months), the oil feels more formal and the watercolor feels livelier. She looks like she sat for the oil, while the watercolor seems more like a moment in time. On both, I do love that sweater! I don't think I have the inclination or the patience to do it again in oil pastels or colored pencil or even mosaic, so I'm done here.

Sketchy stuff….

 Working on this sketch to figure out values and proportions etc. …otherwise spending my time teaching 2 month old Claire to laugh!

cat and two trees

This is a bigger version,9x12, of Daisy Katt, in her pink cat bed. 

Well this is another one of those dit, dit, dit, texture heavy, sort of a tree.  Not yet done, just an exercise at this point, but I may be able to stitch it together. 9x12

 Here's another, more treelike, on 5x7

Georgia On My Mind

 From a 1918 photo by Alfred Stieglitz.  Proud of this because I actually DREW it.  However, I did not draw it directly onto watercolor paper which is supposed to be my goal  

Ignore other pics….don’t have a discard icon anymore  

1918 

Alan Spring 6

 Still can’t paint sitting down and I don’t like painting standing (but artists have been doing that for hundreds of years) so I did these two sketches sitting back in my recliner and drawing and painting that way. Greeta got me some watercolor pens for my birthday so I put in the color with those and used the wash brush to blend the colors. I just wish they labeled the colors with real labels. Like house paints they invent names like golf green instead of perylene green and even crazier names. 

Here’s a bowl of oranges, grapefruit and bananas that was on our kitchen table. Sketched in graphite. About 6 X 8 on 140# coldpress. 

And this is one of those Trader Joe’s orchids done with ink and watercolor on 5 X 7 140# coldpress. Had a difficult time blending watercolor pen colors on the page. 

  

I think I can draw a larger pic of something even though the backer board is cumbersome. I’ll try that next. Then, when I can sit down like a normal human being again, I’ll have something to paint. 

Not much

This is starting out as a tree, but it could end up as anything.  I need to flow untrammeled on something bigger than 3x4 

Thought I was done here, but I see I am going to have to straighten out her head.

I should probably just toss this and start again.
 

One More Go With Edith

 

This is large and a lesson in going back and forth with changes to just about everything. I’ve managed to paint a different woman in each of my versions. Where the highlights were lost, a damp paper towel brought them back. 

Spring colors…

 

In class I started the “good” portrait.  I’m Working on hot press, not sure if it’s going to be my friend…

I started this little quick sketch in class and finished it at home. It doesn’t quite have the drama of the previous window sketch —see last post—but overall it’s a more interesting painting imo, however the darks need to be darker to make it pop. I’m going to do another version of this —cause I think I have a frame this size…!