Pike's Exercise #13 - Troubador's Rest Stop

This is the final exercise in "John Pike Paints Watercolors." I like this one and it was fun to work on! I like the simple subjects and the rustic feel of this still life and love the punch of color the bottle gives. Done on Arches Rough (my first experience with the rough) and I really can't tell much difference between it and the regular block. A very limited palette was used.
I'm in the midst of some home remodeling and didn't think I'd get time to work on art at all for a couple of weeks. The contractors seem to be doing just fine without me and so I jumped at the opportunity to paint today. Actually, I think they prefer it when I am out of the way - LOL.

Pike #12 - Colombia, Fisherman's Cove

Done on Arches block (10 x 7). Ever since my first watercolor class, I've loved painting trees. There's just something about the variety of trunks and branches that makes trees appealing to me. I don't particularly like the straight branch that runs off on the right side, but that's how John Pike's exercise was and I'm trying to stick with his exercises as they are shown in the book. The sky is Fr UM and Alizarin Crimson, the tree is a combination of Fr UM and Burnt Sienna and Fr UM and Burnt Umber. The leaves are Fr UM and Cad Yellow Pale and also a teeny bit of Fr UM. The sea is Fr UM and Pthalo Green. Mixing is so fascinating and interesting to me, especially when the ratios are changed just a bit.

Pike Exercise 11, Mykonos Church

Mykonos Church is in Greece. This one was more fun than I thought it was going to be. I was dreading trying to get an animal in this that looked remotely like a donkey, but it wasn't as difficult as I thought it'd be. Very limited palette was used again, I guess John Pike liked those limited pigments and mixing and mixing and more mixing! I did use mask to protect the upper areas of the building from the sky and was able to try out a "rubber cement pick-up" that I recently purchased from Dick Blick's. What a neat tool!! No more tender fingers from rubbing that stuff off.

Pike Exercise 10

John Pike called this "Venice, Mother and Chicks." This is one exercise that I almost gave up on several times. I'd wait a while, look at it and then add a few strokes here and there. It's not my favorite, however I did learn from it. The sketch is much looser than I usually do, which made it difficult for me. The steps and techniques for painting the building were new to me and I did enjoy them. I think I'm getting better at portraying water and the reflections and I'm not as fearful of loose sketches of figures. Several pigment mixes were used, primarily Pike's favorite French UM and Burnt Sienna and French UM and Burnt Umber - both in varying ratios to get the different values. I'm really getting comfortable with mixes! Also, I'm sticking with using flat brushes and am getting more confident with those.

Pike Exercise #9

This is called Dubrovnik, Old City and is of a coastal village in Yugoslavia. This was a bit time consuming, especially the architectural sketching. I DID cheat a little bit by drawing it on a grid, of course, I'm not sure that would technically be considered cheating. The past several Pike exercises have been rather gray and I didn't post #8 here or on my flickr as it was such a disaster. I tried it twice and decided I basically just didn't really like the scene. I love to learn and I love challenges, but when my art becomes too much like "work," I'd just as soon pass it up - ha ha. I have decided that I absolutely LOVE Arches blocks!! I do NOT like the hot press, though. I just got some Arches rough that I am anxious to try.

Pike 5

This exercise is called Irish Clouds and was the fastest Pike exercise I've done thus far. I didn't time it, but I think it took about 30 minutes. It is done with only two pigments, French UM and Burnt Sienna. I'm beginning to think these were John Pike's favorite pigments as all of the exercises I've done so far have used them. It was done on Arches cold press block, which I'm becoming VERY fond of! This was done without any sketching whatsoever - which was a first for me! Also, I'm using flat brushes and while I'm not as comfortable with them as I am with my beloved rounds, I feel I'm getting more confident with them.

Pike Exercise 4

Abandoned boat done on Arches Hot Press. This is the first time I've ever used hot press and I'm not sure if I like it or not. It's smooth like the bristol that I love, but the paint didn't go on as smoothly - not sure why. All in all, I'm not very happy with this for several reasons. First, I don't really like the scene that much and second, I don't particularly like the colors. I didn't get a good "roundness" to the hull of the boat and the broken parts were difficult for me to portray. From a positive standpoint, I like the distant shoreline and I like the looseness - something that is VERY difficult for me.

Pike Exercise 3

As I continue on through John Pike's book, this exercise was the most time consuming and difficult thus far. It is a night scene of Burano, a small island near Venice. Although it's not the type of scene I'm fond of, I did find the different elements to be interesting and challenging. John Pike explained that the moonlight is reflected and bouncing - the moon would actually be behind the viewer; and to complicate the light in the scene more, there is the light from the shop window and an unknown light source coming through the archway on the right. The sidewalk and cobbled street are supposed to be wet. Whew - I don't know if I got all these elements right, but it was definitely a learning experience.

Pike 2

This is my second exercise from John Pike's book. It's supposed to be a snow scene (in case you can't tell - ha). John Pike's grays were actually darker than mine and yet his looked like snow. Maybe I need to have more variation in the gray and also more drift patterns. I like my foreground trees and was pretty happy with the people. I've always avoided putting figures in landscapes and found it not quite as daunting as I expected.

Pike 1

I've started working through "John Pike Paints Watercolors" and this is the first exercise. There's lots wrong with this. . . but there are a few things right - ha. I really like how the tree trunks turned out, particularly the one in the foreground. I recently purchased an Arches block and this was the first painting I've done on it. I really like how the paint flows on this paper, particularly wet-in-wet -- the tree trunk I like was done with a very watery wash of gray made from French UM and Burnt Sienna, then while it was still wet, cad yellow was dropped in on the sunlit sides and an itty bitty bit of cad red was dropped in along the center, then a heavier concentration of the gray dropped onto the shaded side. After it was dry, an even heavier concentration of the gray was dry brushed and then a very small amount of dark green was dry brushed. I have a tendency to grab my #6 round and really need to start grabbing a larger brush! I'm looking forward to the next lesson in this book!

Coastal Village

This was the workshop project on Art Academy Live last week. The scan on the bottom was my attempt during the workshop. The teacher, Sterling Edwards, has a much looser style and also his pigments weren't as saturated as mine. This was supposed to be impressionistic! My second attempt (the scan in the middle) was sketched with my new Pentel Brush Pen (NOT the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen) and the ink is brown and I found out REALLY fast that it is NOT waterproof! Wasn't happy with that one either, although it was fun to try the new drawing toy out. So I tried a third time and while it's not as "free and easy" as Sterling's, it is an improvement over the other two. I think I'm done with trying this scene. All three of these were quite a struggle for me, and while I like to see a bit of impressionistic work, I don't seem to be able to get the looseness required to pull it off. Ah, must be one of those "practice" things.

Sunlit Canyon

Yesterday, I took an online watercolor workshop through Art Academy Live. Basically, it's an interactive live streaming video class. A supplies list is provided to enable the student to prepare for the class. On the date and time of the class, the student logs in and is directed to the classroom. There is the artist/teacher/demonstrator and also a moderator. If students have questions during the workshop, they type the question on their keyboard, the moderator reads the question and the instructor answers the question. Very slick! The classes are from 75 to 90 minutes long and the time flew like it was only 20 mintues! I had my palette loaded, paper ready, brushes laid out and was still hustling to get my painting done. It didn't turn out very good, so I redid it today and the redo is the one I've posted. This was an excellent exercise for me on painting without sketching, using flat brushes (I'm REALLY partial to rounds!) and mixing colors on the paper rather than on my palette. I think I have a better grip on saving whites, having the lightest and darkest areas next to each other for the center of interest and creating the look of sunlight on rocks and vegetation. If anyone is interested in checking out these workshops, go to http://www.artacademylive.com/

Cat on Post

This was done on bristol with Derwent Graphitint used for the post and the fence and Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils for the rest. This was difficult and I'm not very happy with it. I decided to quit fussing with it and just post it! LOL! I think there are 4 layers on the cat's body, just couldn't get it to come out like I wanted. Onward I go with working through Kate's book.

Horse

This was done on bristol paper using the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils. I found the reference photo on WetCanvas. I'm in the chapter on painting animals in Kate's book, "Watercolor Pencil Magic." I chose a photo that was just a head shot rather than the full body of the animal because I'm not very confident that I could get the whole body drawn with correct proportions. I've never really been around horses during my life, but I've always thought they were such majestic animals. The few I have been around were very old and gentle. I think this horse has a very gentle look about him!

Watercolor Pencil Rose

I just got a set of the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils and a Richeson atomizer, so this is the first thing I've done using them both. The AD pencils are fabulously creamy, even on this Cotman paper - I'm rather anxious to try them out on bristol! The atomizer took a bit a manipulating, but I finally realized the tubes slide and they must be in just the right position for it to work. At first I tried to use the atomizer in one of my palette wells, THAT was awkward and messy!! After a bit of thought, I came up with a wonderfully simple solution. I used one of those little plastic water vials that cut flowers come in sometimes. I put the pigment in the vial, put the atomizer pipe in the vial and held it together with one hand while holding up the watercolor pad with my other hand. It gave me much better control and not nearly the mess. Another thing I tried on this, I painted the flower first, then I traced the flower onto a piece of tracing paper, cut out the paper and used small bits of double-sided scotch tape to fasten the tracing paper onto the watercolor paper. Then I sprayed with the atomizer and removed the tracing paper -- I guess this could be considered reverse stenciling. If anyone is interested in checking out an atomizer, here it is: http://www.dickblick.com/zz034/00/

Waterscapes done with Watercolor Pencils

The rocks in the waterfall picture were done with Derwent Graphitint, the remaining objects (including the water) were done with Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils. The ocean scene was done with the Inktense only. I REALLY liked the graphitint for the rocks, I used 3 different pigments and colored them dry and added water with a brush. I think the graphitint really added a texture quality. I had some difficulty with the ocean scene - which is from a photo taken by Joe Philipson on the island of Oahu. You can see Joe's photo here: http://flickr.com/photos/jphilipson/307053727/in/set-72157594265577907/

First of all, I really messed up on the sky and on the rocks along the shoreline. I had recently read over at WetCanvas that Magic Eraser (the cleaning sponges made by Mr. Clean) worked well to lift watercolor. Watercolor pencils are actually more permanent than tube watercolors and I wasn't sure if the Magic Eraser would work or not, but decided to give it a try. It DID work, although I had to rub a little bit and did get some slight paper damage. I think a lighter touch would work fine with tube paint and will definitely keep a piece of this sponge in my paint kit!! I cut a small piece off of the Magic Eraser, dampened it with water and then rubbed the area I wanted to remove. I still had trouble with the rain clouds in the sky, even though I did the wet-in-wet technique by wetting the paper and then running a wet brush over the tip of the pencil and then dropping the pigment in. I think this particular seascape would be better if done with tube paint and may try that. I'm ready to continue on in Kate's book, Watercolor Pencil Magic!

Sandstone Rocks

These were both done with the same watercolor pencils but on different paper. What a difference! The one on the top is Bristol paper and the one on the bottom is Cotman watercolor paper. Both were sketched with Graphitint pencils; the darker lines are Inktense pencil. A wash was applied with DS watercolor (Sedona Genuine) using horizontal strokes to portray the sedimentary layers.

Watercolor Pencils

I'm continuing to work through Cathy (Kate) Johnson's book, "Watercolor Pencil Magic." This was done with Derwent Inktense Pencils on a 9 x 12 bristol sheet. The flowers were outlined with dry pencil and then a small, wet brush was used to blend the pigments. The vase was lightly colored and blended with a larger wet brush. I have a horrible time with shadows! Although the one on the right is from my scanner as the sheet was too large to fit flush on the flatbed. I'm thinking maybe I should hatch in shadows with a pencil, which I could erase if needed, before I add color. Duh!! Working with watercolor pencils reminds me of those coloring books I adored as a child, where the color was in the paper and it came to life as a wet brush was applied - gee, I wonder if they still make those.

Yesterday was my 33rd wedding anniversary - wow, time certainly does march right along. Our anniversary, except for the milestone ones ie. 25th, 30th, are usually pretty low key. We rather overdid Christmas this year, so a beautiful card, a lovely silver bookmark and a great dinner was the extent of our celebration. Since my dh is pursuing a second career and attending law school at present, we can't do much traveling unless he's on a semester break. I'm so thankful for the 33 wonderful years and look forward to many more!

Watercolor Pencils on Yupo

Well this was fun! I am so fascinated with yupo and I'm working through Cathy (Kate) Johnson's book, "Watercolor Pencil Magic," and thought hmmmm, wonder what would happen if I used yupo. So I decided on the simple little ref photo I recently used for one of the gesso experiments. I first sketched the horizon line, the flowers, and vaguely sketched the area of the sky where the light is. I used Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils and lightly colored the whole thing. Inktense is usually very bold - at least on paper! - so I didn't want to apply the color too heavy. Using brushes dipped in clear water, I started blending. I started with the sky and immediately found that I had not applied the pencil heavy enough. While the yupo was still wet, I scribbled in some more color and blended some more. I let the sky dry completely. The swirls appear all by themselves as the water dries. I added more pencil to the foreground (2 pigments were used) and then applied the clear water and blended using up and down "streaking" strokes. I let that dry completely and then I used a very small brush that was damp-wet and lightly stroked the flowers and stems. What I learned: yupo is FUN and watercolor pencils on yupo is even FUNNER!! I think it is the unexpected that appeals to me with yupo - you just never know how it's going to dry.

Gesso Experiments

I saw this technique on WetCanvas. The process is to sketch and then mask the sketch. Apply gesso and texturize it. On the Christmas Cactus, I sketched the blossom and leaves and then masked them. A light coat of gesso was applied to the background and using a 1" flat brush, I brushed in a cross-hatch pattern. The gesso was allowed to thoroughly dry. The background watercolors were applied and allowed to dry. The mask was removed and the blossom and leaves were painted. I didn't think the textured gesso was as prominent as I wanted so decided that two coats of gesso would work better. On the grass with yellow flowers I sketched the flowers and then masked them. I applied two coats of gesso, combing each coat with a plastic hair comb with the intent to have the texture look like grass. The sky was then painted (and here is where I goofed -- too dark on the blue and it wouldn't lift very well). I removed the masking and painted the flowers and leaves. I like the gesso on this one - it turned out just as I wanted. This is a fun technique!