In this exercise, I chose to paint washes that were opposites on the color wheel. Then I decided what the resulting painting reminded me of. Next I “brought out” the image.
Red Giant with webbing, using red and green.
Sunset over Circle Mountain, with yellow and purple.
Detail drawn in with watercolor pencils and Micron pens. Cold press paper by Winsor and Newton, 4 x 6.
While tidying up my studio the other day, I came across several of my watercolor test swatches. I have three samples, each no bigger than 4 x 6 inches, that were made as I prepared to paint the geometric abstract of the Belize lagoon.
Looking at them with fresh eyes I got the idea of framing the paintings as a group. But first, I would want to work on them some more.
In the language of watercolor, a wash that is painted over existing washes is called a glaze. The term emphasizes the sheer characteristic of this medium. Today I got busy adding some glazes. When the paint had dried, I added a little line work.
Here is what I have so far.
I like the fresh and bright colors and the variety of shapes. But I am wondering if these tiny paintings are finished now. I’m toying with the idea of sewing on them with embroidery thread.
Rather than ending up Dazed and Confused, I believe that I will put this project aside and see how I feel about it tomorrow.
On Sunday I returned to work on the Agate still life watercolor begun in January. (I’ve developed a habit of setting aside partially finished paintings and I’m making a promise to myself to stop doing this.) Here is my last posting:
https://wordpress.com/post/dailyfiberfun.wordpress.com/4678
And here is the finished painting.
I found it very soothing to build up the various rings with glazes using matching and contrasting colors. To add more texture, I applied salt to the wet paint in places. After it had dried, I scribbled with a black Prismacolor pencil on the outer layer and darkened some of the rings. To finish, I flecked on spots of copper metallic paint using a toothbrush.
Paints included raw sienna, burnt sienna, quinacridone red, Payne’s gray, cerulean blue and Prussian blue.
The reference photo is found on Pixel and was sourced from the Natural History Museum of London.
https://pixels.com/art/natural+history+museum+london+agate
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.
Daily Fiber 