Trolley bus two

 Not so sure about those background stripes but 1) I needed some really strong for such an odd space and 2) I used a similar pattern on the kitty and I am like doing an homage to myself and 3) maybe they could pass for a wood ceiling.  I might add a bit more, but it won't make much difference.

Fooling around with washes

 I didn’t like the little fairy tale forest so I made the background darker and added more shadows. 

I washed the background woods with a darker blue. It’s interesting that two woods scenes a so totally different. Artists have a lot of power. 

After I got the background right, I wasn’t happy with the flower so I added more vibrant colors until I got the effect I wanted. 

For my market basket painting, I started with a scribble drawing, then did a value painting with payne’s grey on old photo paper and then did an actual painting on 140# paper. 

I still have to figure out the shadows at the bottom. 

Having fun painting again. 

Elaine O. — February 26, 2021

I am still playing with the masking fluid before the last of it dries out. I used a squeeze bottle to draw the outlines before painting. The rough line quality added to the whimsical feel, I think. These are garbage bags, on their way from my Mom's attic, through the kitchen and porch and down the stairs to the dumpster. In real life, it felt like a scene from Disney's Fantasia. While this isn't great art, it makes me smile.

March of the Garbage Bags    10"x8"

Can you tell I'm still trying to decide on my next series? I tend to get a little restless and try new or new/old things. Here, I experimented with some charcoal. It comes in a tin and is water soluble so you can paint it on like watercolor. I combined it with watercolor for the granulation...

... and used it alone for some quick, direct portraits. These served double duty as I'm continuing to try out my dagger brush. We're becoming quite good friends. In fact, I sense some of my other brushes getting a little jealous.

 

In a palette cleaning mood, I've combined ultramarine blue with light red. They both granulate and tend to separate easily; in fact, they almost repel each other. Notice the orange halos on this sketch? There must be something I can use this for, right?

 

Folded WC Paper

 Page 1 of book made from one large sheet of watercolor paper. By folding and cutting you get 16 pages approximately 5x7 inches each. If you paint on both sides 32. In this way,  you have a book with very high quality paper.   Usually I have a theme or some sort of criteria for a collection. Don’t know what that is yet. 

Announcement:  there is a technical gremlin in my phone and tablet. I am unable to make comments on other posts or respomd to comments on mine without it being repeated, sometimes several times. My IT guy confirms it’s not me. So I may comment on your work in my own posts. 

trolley bus

 This is from my Trolley Bus series about ten years ago  http://www.bckat.us/KenSchadt/trolleybus/index.htm Too early to say anything.

Washes

 I’ve tried to work on washes lately. It’s amazing what can happen. And, of course, it’s a thing that watercolor is best at.   Here’s my friend’s lily before and after a dark wash.  

I’m doing more drawing before I start painting. Here’s a value drawing of a forest in winter. 

A contour drawing

The actual painting on Yupo. Of course I can’t do a wash on Yupo unless it’s first. 

Another value drawing and quick sketch of another winter forest scene. 

I’m using a series of washes. We’ll see what happens when I try the actual painting. 

Elaine O. — February 19, 2022

Timmy is finished and ready for delivery! I used Aquabord (it's a masonite panel with an absorbent clay coating). The board takes paint slightly differently than paper. Glazing and layering yield strange results, so you have to get it quickly, with minimal fiddling. Then, it was sealed with a wax coating and buffed. I'm happy with it.

Timmy    6"x 6"

As you may know, I have a bit of a history with masking fluid. My first bottle dried solid for lack of use. Before I could even start my second bottle, it broke in my art bag, saturating paints and papers. Undeterred, I got another bottle. I used it a few times, but it just broke on me...of course!

I transferred some of it into a tiny squeeze bottle with a narrow point. I had a thought to use the bottle like a pencil to draw outlines and leave them white instead of black. Failure! The fluid clogged the tip and my efforts to unclog it with a pin only broke off the metal tip. So this is as far as I got. It has potential as a technique and might be fun to try again...if I ever buy more masking fluid. If I do, it's going  to have to be in a plastic container! Or maybe masking fluid and I are just not meant  to be.

Masking fluid experiment    5" sq.

Garden memory

 My shade garden gets one corner of sunlight so try to make the most of it. 

Then still thinking about flowers, an exercise to determine values. Beginning image not pictured was a photo of an oil painting.  First a contour drawing  no lifting the pencil  Then filling in values with #2 pencil.  Second, no drawing just painting values in Payne’s Grey.  Third, no drawing, painting shapes and values with paint.  This was fun  and gratifying  why don’t I do it more?

 Note:  My insane tablet has reversed #1 and 2.  And I don’t dare try to fix it.

More damn flowers

 I’m using this lily to experiment with a more formal planning of doing a watercolor painting.  You know, like the teacher tells us to do. 

So first I did a value painting. 

Then I did a contour drawing and dropped in paint. 

Then I drew a rough version on 140# cold press. Then I painted the background with various washes, started adding some detail and masqued and scratched in other detail. 

It looks like crap but hopefully I can turn it into a good painting. 

Moms and babies still…

 Hard to believe both paintings are based on the same photo - and still, neither resembles the actual people! Oh well, I kind of gave up on resemblance and just tried to make an interesting painting. FYI, babies are much harder to paint than adults, with their tiny squished features and pale unblemished skin….I like them both for different reasons, but for the time being, I’m going back to trees and houses….

sepia two two

 Retraced the eroded sepia husk lines since Saturday, also more burnt sienna in the kernels.  May add more to each, but will think about that overnight.

Elaine O. — February 12, 2022

Here's a photo of the sword and dagger brushes I've been playing with, per Ken's request. My hand is included for scale. Does anyone but me find it odd that the dagger is larger than the sword?

 

Except I haven't been playing with them. I've used them, but not in a concerted attempt to befriend them. Instead, I attended a robotics tournament. Very exciting! Here's the playing field...

 ...and one of the competitors with his robot. The teams build their own robots and take turns driving them to complete various tasks, for which they get points. To be clear, the field is about mid-calf high and they stand outside and remote control their bots. Also, no robots were killed. attacked or hurt in this tournament. Still, it was very thrilling!

Currently, I'm working on a "commission." This is Timmy. Timmy is a rat. I began by sketching to try to get a feel for the subject. I haven't met Timmy (and don't plan to), so I'm working from a single small photo.

They are starting to look less like otters with cat heads and more like rats, so I think I'm on the right track. I confess I also used photos of other rats to get a better sense of rat anatomy before returning to Timmy.

Here's a quick color test with my sword brush.

Getting closer. One more study and I think I'll be ready to paint. I'm still working on the background.

Silos and lilies

 I finished the simple farm painting on Yupo. I made the sky a bit more dramatic because, well, art. And I made some other changes because Greeta suggested them.

I’m doing some studies of a lily that I’m trying to paint.  The first one is  value painting done on photo paper.  The paper didn’t work in the printer so I thought I’d try to paint like Yupo on it.  The trouble is that once the paint hits the paper-that’s it.  I did like something about it though and, for a value drawing, it 

I used the same medium to do a color version.

Then I tried it in my sketchbook.

And now I’m doing an enlarged version on Yupo. It has a nice feel to it already. 

Process is progress…or is it?

 Here are two fairly quick studies I did last week. Not terrible, but they bear no resemblance to the actual people I’m trying to paint.

Here are the actual people.

I spent the entire class on Saturday working on this drawing, which comes a little closer to reality.

And Then today I painted this, which again bears little resemblance to the actual people, or even my drawing. I’m having a hard time translating values to skin colors and I’m having a hard time translating shapes into features. I guess the process (and progress) is one step forward, two steps back….