Arches paper – Page 2

Today I finished my first attempt to capture a feeling in watercolor.

On December 12th, I wrote this entry in my Belize journal, describing the boat trip back from the reef after snorkeling there:

“On either side of me the sea rolled by, with bright, transparent turquoise water punctuated by amorphous, dark green forms of sea grass and coral clumps below the surface. After the first several miles had passed, I began to detect bits and pieces of the shoreline. They came in the form of striated horizontal lines, looking like a slow fade from one color to the next. First sea green, then turquoise, followed by the strip of land separating the bay from the lagoon. The land was dark, with bumpy forms of vegetation. Beyond and above that was a cool blue strip of atmosphere. Was it mist, fog or ordinary clouds? I couldn’t tell. Eventually I detected the purplish forms of the mountains, overlapping each other and rising from the mist.”

I’m relatively happy with this painting. It captures the way I felt about what I saw that day. Working abstractly was an experiment. I might try to paint the scene again using a more organic style.

This is also my first painting on Arches hot press paper. It took a little getting used to. Pigments used were Winsor green, Thalo blue, Prussian blue, quinacridone gold, quinacridone red, carbazole violet and Payne’s gray.

This blog is about my first watercolor on-line tutorial from Shari Blaukopf. She is a Montreal-based artist who specializes in urban sketching. First let me say, I enjoyed it. The reference photo is of a barn wood clad schoolhouse relocated to an urban garden somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

My first challenge was to draw and ink the essential lines of the image. I took my time over this step, since it is critical in setting up the rest of the painting.

By the way, I’m working on Arches cold-press watercolor paper for the first time. This premier paper is much beloved by watercolorists.

Next I completed the preliminary washes for the sky, building and flowers.

After letting these dry thoroughly, I went to work on the shrubbery and trees. Shari gave instructions on how to mix eight different greens using various blue and yellow paint. This part was really hard for me, partly because I didn’t have all of the paints that she used in her mixes. I had to substitute.

To me, the various green areas look like they don’t belong together.

I let the paper dry for almost a week before I got around to adding the final details. First the lawn went in, then dark green for underpainting the brighter greens. The barn wood got more shading before all final details were added using a small round brush. After drying, I dabbed some white opaque paint onto the flowers to give a little sparkle to the scene. Here is my finished painting.

This is the first time I successfully painted a mass of foliage. I also learned how to paint a lawn and the order to use in painting flowering plants. I’m betting that I will use these techniques in many future paintings.

Shari Blaukopf’s blog is found here:

About Shari Blaukopf