Garden of Gethsemane

Garden of Gethsemane
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

Watercolor on Lama Li paper using Daniel Smith paints. Size is 8.5 x 11.
My, but it's been a long time since I painted anything. It sure felt GOOD to get the palette out and start mixing and splashing. The only painting I've done for the past couple of months has been sketch type paintings in a journal. I was feeling the "need" to really get down to business. I really need to carve out time designated for "art only!"

IL

IL
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

This barn reminded me of a little town my grandparents used to live in in OR. Not unusual to find a barn here and there in the midst of the town. Clearly showing that the "homesteads" were eventually encompassed with houses as the towns grew. Most people maintained the barns well enough to be used for storage or garages.
The sky, trees and foreground were done with watercolor and then the barn and shadows were done with Derwent's tinted charcoals, which are watersoluble. I drew and filled in the barn with the carcoals, gently blended with a Q-tip and then applied water for further blending. Colors of charcoal used were glowing embers, mountain blue, ocean deep, burnt earth, and dark.

Peggy's Pt in Nova Scotia--Oils on Canvas

Peggy's Pt in Nova Scotia--Oils on Canvas
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

This is for the Virtual Paintout challenge for the month of November. To see how this challenge works, and to view other entries, go to:
http://www.virtualpaintout.blogspot.com/
This is painted with Van Gogh H2oils on a 9 x 12 sheet of Canva-Paper. It's my first try at an ocean (haven't done oceans in watercolor yet either!).

Rabbitbrush on Yupo - Again

Rabbitbrush on Yupo - Again
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

Here's my second attempt at my idea for a collage style painting on Yupo. Wow - this one was a challenge! I decided to use Daniel Smith paints and found out real fast that when I put the masking tape on after letting the background dry (to get my square), it pulled quite a lot of the paint off. I tried scotch tape and it pulled off even more paint. I tried applying the masking tape and only pressing down a very slim edge of the paint, and it STILL pulled off the paint! So after washing this sheet of Yupo in the sink with soapy water THREE times, I free-handed with a brush each of the squares. This method did not give me a crisp line. Lesson learned: do not use DS paints for this technique!!
When Kevin Davidson critiqued my last painting, he pointed out two critical points. One is that I needed three squares, not two. I KNEW this, using odd numbers rather than even, just didn't think of it at the time. The second point was to completely (with Qtips) clean the background off in the areas where I was going to paint the subject so I would get the transparency that IS watercolor. Yupo is bright white, so that was a critical point, especially with the yellows. I'm not giving up on this technique, I just am not using DS paints for it again!!

Rubber Rabbitbrush on Yupo

Rubber Rabbitbrush on Yupo
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

I had an idea to do watercolor on Yupo in a collage style. After talking about this with Kevin Davidson, he suggested using masking tape. It was a terrific technique and one I'll do again. I'm not REAL happy with this because it's not like I had envisioned. But I WILL try again!!
I painted the bg green/yellow and let it dry completely, I masked off the the first square, wiped it clean with a sponge and then painted the bushes and sand. After that was dry, I masked and cleaned off the square for the close-up of the blossom. One major thing I should've done is to paint each of the two squares bg colors on BEFORE I removed the tape (it was a bit hard to keep the lines straight). I didn't want to leave the tape on too long because I was concerned it would remove some paint that I didn't want removed. I think a few more minutes would've been fine.
I'm very allergic to these bushes and they bloom in Sept - Oct where I live! They make the desert colorful, but NAIL my sinuses and my voice! They sometimes give me laryngitis!

Desert Sunset

Desert Sunset
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

This was done in a workshop taught by Claudette Garcia at the Pasadena Art Expo. This is the landscape as it was done in the workshop and I still need to add a bit of orange to the white light coming through the tree trunks and also add some very small bare branchlets to the tree. A terrific workshop!! This is 16 x 20 stretched canvas using Holbein Duos (Watersoluble Oils).

Fall Creek - WMO on Yupo

Fall Creek - WMO on Yupo
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

Another Fall painting using the water miscible oils on Yupo. I tried doing the "water" on this with the George James' Yupo watercolor technique of smoothing with a sponge roller. It took several tries and I'm still not 100% happy with it. Watering down the oils works very similar to watercolor, so I'm eager to try some other watercolor techniques with it, I just don't want to get too overboard or I might as well work with watercolors on the Yupo! A fun painting and probably the last I'll have time to work on for a couple of weeks.

Yea, it's FALL! - WMO on Yupo

Yea, it's FALL! - WMO on Yupo
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

Every Spring I think it's my favorite time of year, and then every Fall I think the same thing. I guess I like "seasons" and am so thankful I live where we have them. How boring it must be to live where there is no temperature or scenery changes. This is water miscible oils (I'm still using the Van Gogh H2Oils and LOVE them!) and it is painted on 9 x 12 sheet of Yupo. The reference photo is from WetCanvas - they have over 800 Fall Landscape photos in their library!
I fell off on my goal to art journalize every other day in September, but I'm not going to beat myself up for failing. I've decided I'm just not the type to consistently do art in a journal. Although, having said that, I'll be one of the first to sign up when Cathy (Kate) Johnson offers her online class on art journaling!! I've been working on this Fall scene for several days as some steps required the previous layers had dried.

Butterfly in my journal

Butterfly in my journal
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

This is not really post-worthy, but I'm trying to get back on track of journaling every odd day in September. One of the ideas I had for journaling this month was to experiment with techniques and medias. This butterfly is done in my 7 x 9 Raffine ArtSketch book. I painted the entire sheet with a gradated wash of a cool green. Then I started with the background and did some negative painting -- a technique I'd really like to get better at. It's really hard for me to wrap my brain around the concept!! Then I combined watercolor and watercolor pencils on the butterfly. I used Faber-Castell's Albrecht Durer pencils. The white on the butterfly is white acrylic.

Desert Sunset 1

Desert Sunset 1
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

One of my "Aussie" friends, Wendy Shortland, and I have challenged each other to work in journals this month. We are planning on doing a journal page on every odd numbered day in Sept. This is my 9-1-09 work. I've decided to use a Lama Li book that is 7 x 9. For quick watercolors, I LOVE Lama Li paper -- pure 100% cotton rag, handmade, terrific rough texture and no sizing. It doesn't handle masking or very much scrubbing, so you get it down and leave it! I used American Journey paints on this one. It took about 10 min to get this one done. I was going for QUICK - LOL!!

Desert Sunset

Desert Sunset
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

WM Oils on Yupo. Inspiration photo from my friend, Dani John.

Beach Bike - WM Oils on Yupo

Beach Bike - WM Oils on Yupo
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

Water miscible oils on Yupo. One of the hardest steps for me in using oils is that I lose my sketch lines and have a hard time finding them and redrawing with paint! I'm SO used to drawing and the graphite staying on the paper while I watercolor. Drawing this bike was most DIFFICULT for me and I didn't get it right, but figured I'd post it anyway. I DO like the way my pot and plant came out :)

AV Annie Oakleys

AV Annie Oakleys
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

This is a commission piece done for a local women's shooting group. Done in watercolor on Acquarello Artistico paper with WN paints. This painting depicts subjects common to the Antelope Valley (AV) which are it's beautiful sunsets, a large desert valley surrounded by mountains, joshua trees, poppies and the California quail. The group will be formatting this for a logo -- possible shape suggestion is a hexagon.

Landscape 2 - Yupo

Landscape 2 - Yupo
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

Watersoluble oils on Yupo. (The light line through this is not on the painting, it is reflected light from the photo I took.) This ref photo is probably too complex for someone who has not painted in oils (that would be ME) -- but I did enjoy the challenge. I'm still finding that I really like watersoluble oils on Yupo!!

Landscape 2 - Canvas

Landscape 2 - Canvas
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

My second landscape for the oil class. Reference photo is from WetCanvas and is one of their August Challenges in their new forum, Water Solube Oils.

Landscape-Yupo

Landscape-Yupo
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

Yupo version of lesson 4 from Nel's Oil Painting Class. It was difficult to get the sky in and to soften the cloud edges on Yupo. I have some ideas to try to improve this on Yupo the next time around. Ain't it fun experimenting and learning?! Roadway is too purple and since I was painting this side-by-side with the canvas version, that's the biggest boo boo on both of these landscapes.

Landscape-Canvas

Landscape-Canvas
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

Nel's Oil Painting Class assignment for lesson 4. It's quite obvious that I got the road too purple : )
Otherwise. . . this was a fun assignment.

Virtual Paintout-Florence, Italy
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

This painting was coming along quite well until I added the shadow! The shadow is from buildings that are across the street from this one. Just goes to show that I really MUST evaluate a photo reference more thoroughly before painting!! The photo I printed from the google map is shown on the far right. Virtual Paintout Blog sets up monthly challenges where a city is listed, along with the google map (street view), and participants can choose any scene from that city. You can print the scene right there on google maps. The address for this one is 4 via dei Banchi in Firenze, Tuscany, Italy. Check out the blog here
The Virtual Paintout

Brick Cottage

Brick Cottage
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

I'm still toying with the brick house with ivy. This is done on Lama Li using WN paints. I used a gray crayon again for the random brick mortar and the leaded window. I REALLY like the effect it gives. As I was working on this it occurred to me that I'm working faster, but not really any looser. I need to re-read the lessonsand then re-do some of the exercises in the current course I'm taking, Watercolor-Fast and Loose!

090523EDiM

090523EDiM
Originally uploaded by BYarborough

Lesson 3 from Watercolor Fast and Loose. I honestly didn't realize that the ref photo from the last 2 door paintings was SO similar to this lesson. I had glanced briefly through the lesson and set it aside, the image must have been in my subconscious! I have to say that I am most definitely getting faster from taking this course. Sometimes I do feel like I'm getting looser, other times I seem to want to nit and tweak here and there. This is done in my 6 x 9 Lama Li pad and I used WN paints. The techniques for this lesson were wax resist, digging in, scraping, spatter and rigger. None were new to me, but I sure don't use several on a regular basis so it was fun to apply them here.