Tag: landscape painting

Posted in drawing, painting

Sketching Sunday and a Finish

Posted on by Laura Kate

My art association is planning to hold a second fundraiser by selling 6 x 6 inch artwork created by their members. To kick it off, there will be an open studio today. I want to support this worthy organization, so I will be participating again. Last year, I focused on small subjects for the small canvas. Going through my reference photos in search of suitable subjects, I came across this little sea turtle. It is something I dowloaded from Unsplash several years ago.

Cute and easy, I think. I like that the turtle has made it to the water’s edge. Just another little push and she will be launched.

To reframe it into a six by six size, I compressed the image and did this pencil sketch.

Today I will take this drawing to the art center and turn it into a watercolor painting.

On another subject, I managed to finish the landscape painting of a seaside cabin in Iceland. This painting was an exercise in water reflections.

Reference photo:

The weather is completely clouded over, so no shadows to paint. My painting:

It’s on a not-so-big piece of cheap watercolor paper (although it is 100% cotton.) So I didn’t fuss over the many windows in the cabin. I will need more practice on painting reflections, to get a more consistent effect over the entire water surface.

Posted in drawing, painting

Friday Finish: Tutorial with Shari Blaukopf

Posted on by Laura Kate

Earlier this year I shared some work made following a tutorial taught by Montreal artist Shari Blaukopf. She is an urban sketcher and watercolorist who offers a wide range of online lessons through Teachable. Today I finished painting A French Village Scene, which is the final lesson in her course by the same name.

https://learn.shariblaukopf.com/courses/

The challenges were multiple: perspective drawing, sketching in ink, and completing the scene with watercolor.

Here is Shari’s reference photo. She took it while teaching in France this year.

Photograph by Shari Blaukopf

I labored over the perspective drawing for 2 or more hours. Perspective drawing doesn’t come easily to me, and I wanted my work to be believable, if not 100% accurate. When satisfied, I inked the important lines and erased the pencil marks.

I was forced to take some liberties with the scene, because my paper was not proportional to the original. Mine is wider.

I did most of the painting before our Thanksgiving trip to Wisconsin. Returning home, I was keen to finish this and get it off my workspace. Other projects, both started and planned are stacking up awaiting my attention.

Here is my (almost) final painting.

It’s a truism, at least for painters, that they must take some time away from a work before deciding that it is finished. So that’s what I will do. Even looking at it now, I see a few areas that need more work.

Posted in drawing, painting

Sketching Sunday: Inflight Study

Posted on by Laura Kate

This week I practiced drawing and painting sandhill cranes in flight

This study will be part of a larger landscape that I am planning. I used cerulean and phthalo blues, raw sienna, burnt sienna, yellow ochre and a bit of Payne’s gray on Arches cold press paper. My reference photo appeared on the MPR website and was taken by Ben Hovland.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/11/13/record-flock-of-sandhill-cranes-at-sherburne-refuge

Posted in drawing

Sketching Sunday: Two drawings

Posted on by Laura Kate

I have been spending time with pencils this week. The first sketch is a study for a watercolor landscape that I am planning.

This next drawing, still unfinished, is based on a sketch I made of Henry last month.

FORTEEN CANDLES

I transferred lines from my preliminary sketch onto toned pastel paper, then built up layers of graphite. A little chalk pencils brightens up the flames.