painting – Page 23 – Daily Fiber

Back to my Routine

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Laura Kate

Hi friends!

I have returned from a long vacation in parts north of here. So many great moments and much material for fibery inspirations!

It’s been hard to get back into the routine of posting to my blog. Yesterday, just as a warm-up, I finished this little painting.

It started life as an exercise in painting a stormy sky. I had left enough white space below my sky to add some foreground. Mitch Zeissler’s wonderful photograph taken in the Florida keys provided my reference image. You can see his work here:

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/114841099/posts/3308979988

Thank you!

I will be back soon with posts about cool yarn I found, some fabric painting and a knitting lesson just for beginners.

See you then.

painting

Dreaming of Summer

Posted on July 20, 2021July 19, 2021 by Laura Kate

This scene is made up. Last Wednesday at open studio, our group was practicing different skies using watercolor paints. When I finished this “sky,” one of the artists said “Why that looks like a landscape.” Upon close examination, I realized she was right. So I converted three of the “clouds” into stands of trees. By painting yellow on top of sections of the sky I got the land masses between the trees. The white space at the bottom of the painting became a still pond with reflected sky.

I like the big sections of white paper.

Because it is imaginary, I called this a dream painting.

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F.O. Friday – Painting

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Laura Kate

This project has been sitting around since mid May.

Back then, I sketched a picture that was a composite of two photographs: A group of fuchsia blossoms and a hummingbird.

Eventually I used this image during a class I attended on collage technique.

It was more convenient to transfer the image in reverse.

But had always intended to paint it. Today I finally finished. Here is my process:

**Transfer of drawing and first wash of flowers**

**Bird body and wings painted, second wash on flowers**

To finish it, I worked in a pale background wash, added final details to flowers and deepened the darks on the hummingbird.

This was a very good learning experience. If I were to paint it again, I would choose more transparent pigments. The cobalt blue was more granulating than I liked, and the alizarin crimson did not give a clean delicate hue on the flower petals. Instead I would use a mixture of ultramarine blue and Thalo blue and use quinacridone magenta, very thin, for the petals. I would also apply the background wash first. It was very tricky to work it around the finished flowers.

The parts I do like: The composition, the texture of the feathers and bird wings, and the shading on the petals.

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Furry Animal Monday

Posted on July 12, 2021July 10, 2021 by Laura Kate

I’ve been practicing painting squirrels. Here is my reference photo of a cute one perched on a stump at the forest’s edge. It is found on Unsplash.com and was taken by Yannick Menard

He’s so little and fuzzy. Here is how I interpreted him with my watercolors.

Completing this painting in my sketchbook was a real confidence builder for me. I think now I may be ready to paint squirrels that were photographed in our backyard.