One Oldie and One Unfinished

 Direct Watercolor from a class set-up. So loose I can’t recognize what flowers were painted. 

Maybe because I’ve painted this scene before or know what I could do to it, not inspired to work on it. 

Paint and more paint…

 The top one was just a study in using complementary colors and brushstrokes to create drama.i think it worked! The second painting is another save. You might remember it had a bar down the middle that I managed to remove and paint over. 

Did it improve the painting ? I’m not sure, but I feel I don’t need the window frame anymore. Maybe those trees in the back should a different color….maybe I’ll do another version of this. #3 painting turned out ok, but I really need practice painting large washes of color if I’m going to paint landscapes like this. As landscapes go, it’s serene but kind of boring. 

Enjoy your feast on Thursday and say a word of thanks for our great little watercolor community!

Yupo!

 Four of them.  You saw three in class and here is one I did this morning.  Not quite done, but close.  The pull of the abstract is strong with the yupo.

November 23, 2024 — Elaine O.

I finished the floral from last week...I think I may have taken it one step too far by adding the shadow on the wall. But I do like the base of the vase.

12" x 9"

This sketch skips the flowers and is all about the foliage. Even though it's relatively subdued, I like that splash of color against the gray background.

8" x 6"

 Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Alan Fall 7

 Cleaned up the green cottage in Mississippi by smoothing out the dark green blotches in the trees. They were too harsh. 

Finished this little urban sketch taken from the top of the Illinois Masonic parking garage. Pen and ink followed by watercolor washes on cold press. I kinda liked it even though it turned out differently than I first thought.

Here is a quick sketch from my front porch at the height of autumn. On hot press 5 x 5. I’ll add more value to the colors.

I saw this view on the lakefront. Something about the starkness appealed to me. 5 x 10 on hot press. We’ll see what happens. 

A Bad Day For Bananas

 

Banana and cereal for breakfast before class on Saturday.  Then admiring Mira’s banana painting. And then leaving Truman about to reach the security desk, never imagining there would be three piles of over-ripe soupy banana in my path. 

 Fell forward going down hard on my right knee. Truman personnel reacted immediately. Officer Someone approached stating that I was not a student. When told I was, demanded my ID. Given it, she began a series of statements as if I were being disrespectful to her. I was so shocked as I sat on the floor I couldn’t understand why she was reacting to statements I wasn’t making. Alan later told me I had “the look” on my face. “The look” that got my mother called to school.  She gave me my ID back saying she refused to do a report. The desk guy wanted an ambulance, wanted me on my feet, wanted me out of there. I refused to stand up because I couldn’t and because of the banana on the floor and the bottom of my shoe.   She then accused me of wanting her to clean it up. I refused the ambulance because I was afraid they’d take me to Thorek. 

To the rescue came Officer Arthur Carter. Had Officer Something make copies of our IDs. Had her get a wheel chair. Told Alan where to bring the car. Helped Alan get me to the car and into the car.

IL Masonic ER. Fractured patella. Knee immobilizer. If I can heal properly no surgery. 🤦‍♀️6 weeks minimum in immobilizer…possibly 3 months.  Imagining who dropped that on the floor and did nothing was infuriating.  My daughter surmised possibly a toddler dropped it from a stroller. There’s a future for Officer Something with the Dept of Corrections.

Out the window…

 The top one is a study. It might do a bigger version. Not sure what bugs me about it but something does. Maybe too many tchotchkes…I’m thinking the second one is finished. I added that building trim because I had a paint blotch I couldn’t remove, but it might too dark….#3  looks like two different paintings to me, not sure how to unify it….fyi the painting is not crooked in the photo of 3, the window is crooked in the composition…on purpose…

Alan Fall 6

 Finished this Yupo painting after many corrections. Finally got it the way I envisioned it after a Yupo dance. The little shimmer is light dancing off the fixative.

Can’t think of anything more to do with this 12 X 14 on Arches Rough. Use of many watercolor painting techniques are visible in this work (wet on wet, dry on dry, and combination).  I might look to find some way to soften the dark edges of leaf groups in the top half.

This Yupo is a combination of a drab but compositionaly strong observational photo and the Monet library on the internet. Yet to spray on fixative which will add a little value to the colors.

Had a half hour before showtime so I started this little urban scene looking out at the city from a parking lot rooftop. 5 X 8 on coldpress. Just got the basic structure  in and did first wash. I used a Tombow pen and it really bled too much.  I’ll either fix that by scrubbing (hard to do with ink) or just use the effect to my own advantage.

November 16, 2024 — Elaine O.

Finished the marbles....

...and started this painting of my last roses of last summer.

I've also been doing some direct watercolor sketches of people. Again, finished one...

...and started another.

All are sketchbook sized (8"x6") except the flowers. They are 12" x 9".

five more

 1 is sunny and breezy, 2 needs more work, 3 has petals that are way too heavy, 4 is whimsical, 5 tickles me.

Alan Fall 5

Done with this.  Into the files it goes.

Also done with this Yupo painting. I smoothed out some of the really dark colors. I’ll spray some fixative on it to give it more pop. 

I think I’m done with my bookstore painting. It’s 12 X 14 on Rough. 

This is 12 X 14 on Arches Rough. It’s a little impressionistic painting of the cottage we usually rent in Mississippi. 

There is a lot more work to do but I like the start. It needs darker values. I’ve tried to paint this many times before but I never got one I liked. 

A lot of paint….

Joe’s Halloween portrait…would you take candy from this guy? I think I’ll make the background darker….

A vegetable portrait..still working on shadows and color mixing. My thought is how do you make a painting like this look interesting? It’s all in the way it’s painted, which is a more difficult challenge in watercolor than in oil or acrylic imo. Brushstrokes and paint consistency count for so much in those latter two mediums, not so much in watercolor…

#1

#2

#3.

Still working on #3

#4 A different window, a different view…not sure why I like window views so much, other than they do half the work by framing the composition and I am an inherently lazy painter….

Also I hope somebody notices how nicely these paintings are photographed…!

three postcards.

I thought this one turned out pretty well

These are cone flowers with petals.  Not too bad but maybe I got a bit sloppy at the end.

I had a plan here but it just did not work out.

 

A River Runs Through It

 Letting it rest on the piano. From a photo by Derek Poznanski.  Buildings in photo much darker and maybe I’ll do that.

November 9, 2024 — Elaine O.

It's been quite a week—so I opted for a quiet, calming still life. Besides being good for my blood pressure, I've felt a urge to work on soft, gentle, high-key studies. I like this—and I think I've managed to stop before I took things too far.

8" x 6"

And while my sketchbook was open, I started another marble painting. I've been intrigued by shiny objects of late. More to come!

8" x 6"